Bioleaching of valuable and hazardous metals from dry discharged incineration slag. An approach for metal recycling and pollutant elimination.

Recycling of process wastes will be in future an essential step to meet the demands for valuable metals of a growing market. Depending on their particle sizes incineration slags are already used to recover metals but particle size fractions below 4 mm are still difficult to recycle. Therefore, different particle size fractions (mesh size 2 and 4 mm, high energy grinded) of dry discharged slags were used for bioleaching with and without the pure cultures Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans or Leptospirillum ferrooxidans or a mixture of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans in batch cultures. Regarding Al, Cr, Cu, Ni, Mn and the rare earth elements Ce, La and Er, bioleaching was significantly more successful with iron oxidizing bacteria compared to abiotic controls. Metal mobilization for Al, Cu, Mn, Cr and Er with bacteria was between 70 and 100% and for Ce, Ni and La around 50% almost after 7 days, making an industrial application for the high concentrated metals like Al and Cu feasible. In addition to the recovery of valuable metals, a reduction in cost of landfilling was identified. After treatment of the slag with the microorganisms, concentrations of harmful substances in the residues could be reduced and thus a classification in lower safety levels regarding the LAGA or EU regulations was calculated.

Differential expression of desmosomal plakophilins in various types of carcinomas: correlation with cell type and differentiation.

Plakophilins (PKPs) are a set of 3 constitutive armadillo repeat proteins of the desmosomal plaque, termed PKP 1, PKP 2, and PKP 3, which have been shown to be functionally relevant for desmosomal adhesion. We have performed a systematic immunohistochemical study of the 3 PKPs in oral and pharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (SqCCs; n = 40); colorectal, pancreatic, and prostate adenocarcinomas (n = 31), and hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs; n = 8). In SqCCs, PKP 1 and PKP 3 revealed common desmosome-type immunostaining, their expression level being inversely correlated with the degree of malignancy. Instead, staining for PKP 2 was limited. In contrast, all adenocarcinomas contained PKP 2 and-often abundantly-PKP 3 in desmosome-typical pattern, whereas PKP 1 was expressed only in prostate tumors. The presence of PKP 3 in adenocarcinomas was confirmed by immunoblotting. In HCCs, only PKP 2 was detected. Under certain staining conditions, focal nuclear immunoreactivity for PKP 1 was observed in some SqCCs and HCCs. Our results, which are inconsistent with previously published data to some extent, indicate a principal preservation of the cell type and differentiation-related expression patterns of PKPs in normal epithelia. For PKP 1, a suppressor function of malignant behavior seems conceivable, whereas the putative functional significance of its occurrence in tumor cell nuclei requires further studies.

The cardiac isoform of alpha-actin in regenerating and atrophic skeletal muscle, myopathies and rhabdomyomatous tumors: an immunohistochemical study using monoclonal antibodies.

The two sarcomeric isoforms of actins, cardiac and skeletal muscle alpha-actin, are highly homologous so that their immunohistochemical distinction is extremely difficult. Taking advantage of monoclonal antibodies distinguishing the two conservative amino acid exchanges near the aminoterminus, we have performed an extended immunohistochemical analysis of the cardiac alpha-actin (CAA) isoform in normal, regenerating, diseased and neoplastic human muscle tissues. Intense and uniform CAA staining is seen in fetal and adult myocardium and in fetal skeletal muscle while adult skeletal muscle is essentially negative, except for muscle spindle myocytes and a few scattered muscle fibres with overall reduced diameter. By contrast, CAA synthesis is markedly induced in regenerating skeletal muscle cells, in Duchenne muscular dystrophy and upon degenerative atrophy. CAA has also been detected in certain vascular and visceral smooth muscle cells. Among tumors, CAA has consistently been seen in rhabdomyosarcomas and rhabdomyomatous cells of nephroblastomas, whereas, smooth muscle tumors have shown only occasional staining. While the synthesis of this actin isoform is less restricted than previously thought, monoclonal antibodies against CAA provide a well-defined, reliable and sensitive diagnostic tool for the definition and detection of aberrant differentiation in diseased skeletal muscle and of striated muscle differentiation in rhabdomyosarcomas.

p16INK4a is a prognostic marker in resected ductal pancreatic cancer: an analysis of p16INK4a, p53, MDM2, an Rb.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the prognostic relevance of the G1/S cell cycle regulator genes p16INK4a, p53, MDM2, and Rb in patients with resected ductal pancreatic cancer (PC). SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: The tumor suppressor genes p16INK4a, p53, and Rb are altered in PC in 27% to 95%, 40% to 70%, and 5%, respectively. The role of MDM2 is not clearly defined in PC. The prognostic value of these cell cycle regulators has not been clarified. METHODS: Sixty-two patients with PC with complete follow-up who underwent potentially curative resections were included in the study. An extreme group analysis was performed including the 20 patients with the shortest survival and the 20 patients with the longest survival. Protein expression of p16, p53, MDM2, and Rb was investigated, and mutation analysis of p16INK4a and p53 was performed. p16INK4a promoter hypermethylation was examined by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Significantly more tumors in the shortest-surviving patients had p16INK4a alterations compared with tumors of the longest-surviving patients. In contrast, the frequency of p53 alterations was not significantly higher in the shortest-surviving versus the longest-surviving groups. Stabilization of MDM2 and loss of Rb expression were identified in a minority of tumors, independent of survival length. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of p16INK4a alterations in resected tumors of patients with PC is connected with a worse prognosis, indicating patients that might benefit from adjuvant therapy regimens. p53 alterations, MDM2 overexpression, and loss of Rb expression could not be identified as prognostic markers from this study, but a larger study with greater statistical power might show a different result with regard to p53.