Targeted chemotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is impaired by intrinsic and/or acquired drug resistance. Since drugs used in HCC therapy (e.g. anthracyclines or the tyrosine kinase inhibitor sorafenib) are substrates of uptake and/or efflux transporters, variable expression of these transporters at the plasma membrane of tumor cells may contribute to drug resistance and subsequent cli...

The plasma membrane monoamine transporter (PMAT) and organic cation transporter 3 (OCT3) are the two most prominent low-affinity, high-capacity (i.e., uptake(2)) transporters for endogenous biogenic amines. Using the Flp-in system, we expressed human PMAT (hPMAT) and human OCT3 (hOCT3) at similar levels in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Parallel and detailed kinetics analysis revealed distin...

Polyspecific organic cation (OC) transporters play important roles in the disposition of clinically used drugs, including drugs used during pregnancy. Pregnancy is known to alter the expression of drugmetabolizing enzymes and transporters, but its specific effect on OC transporters has not been well defined. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and liquid chromatography coupled with tan...

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be generated from somatic cells by the forced expression of four factors, Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. While a great variety of colonies grow during induction, only a few of them develop into iPS cells. Researchers currently use visual observation to identify iPS cells and select colonies resembling embryonic stem (ES) cells, and there are no establish...

Activating c-KIT mutations (exons 11 and 17) are found in 10-40% of testicular seminomas, the majority being missense point mutations (codon 816). Malignant ovarian dysgerminomas represent ~3% of all ovarian cancers in Western countries, resembling testicular seminomas, regarding chromosomal aberrations and c-KIT mutations. DSD patients with specific Y-sequences have an increased risk for Type ...

BACKGROUND Rho kinases (ROCKs) mediate cell contraction, local adhesion, and cell motility, which are considered to be important in cell differentiation. We postulated that ROCKs are involved in controlling embryonic stem (ES) cell renewal and differentiation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS CCE, a murine ES cell, was treated with Y-27632 for 48 to 96 hours and colony formation was evaluated. ...

Generation of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) in large domestic animals has achieved only limited success; most of the PSCs obtained to date have been classified as primed PSCs, which possess very little capacity to produce chimeric offspring. By contrast, mouse PSCs have been classified as naïve PSCs that can contribute to most of the tissues of chimeras, including germ cells. Here, we describe ...

PURPOSE Retinoblastoma (RB), an intraocular tumor of childhood, is commonly associated with mutations in the RB1 gene. RB116 is a novel, early passage RB cell line that has not been previously characterized. In this study, we examined RB116 for the expression of RB1 and tested the hypothesis that RB116 cells would express stem cell markers as well as retinal progenitor cell markers. We compared...

There have been few testicular histology reports of adult patients with congenital adrenal hypoplasia/hypogonadal hypogonadism (AHC/HH), but Leydig cell hyperplasia has been observed, an indicator of the possibility of malignant transformation. We aimed to define the basis of AHC/HH in 4 pedigrees of different ethnic backgrounds. One patient was elected to have testicular biopsy which was exami...

Polyspecific organic cation (OC) transporters play important roles in the disposition of clinically used drugs, including drugs used during pregnancy. Pregnancy is known to alter the expression of drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters, but its specific effect on OC transporters has not been well defined. Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and liquid chromatography coupled with ta...