Core level excitations--a fingerprint of structural and electronic properties of epitaxial silicene.

From the analysis of high-resolution Si 2p photoelectron and near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectra, we show that core level excitations of epitaxial silicene on ZrB2(0001) thin films are characteristically different from those of sp(3)-hybridized silicon. In particular, it is revealed that the lower Si 2p binding energies and the low onset in the NEXAFS spectra as well as the occurrence of satellite features in the core level spectra are attributed to the screening by low-energy valence electrons and interband transitions between π bands, respectively. The analysis of observed Si 2p intensities related to chemically distinct Si atoms indicates the presence of at least one previously unidentified component. The presence of this component suggests that the observation of stress-related stripe domains in scanning tunnelling microscopy images is intrinsically linked to the relaxation of Si atoms away from energetically unfavourable positions.

Overexpression of tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) in metastatic MDCK cells transformed by v-src.

This article discusses the transformation of epithelial Madin-Durby canine kidney (MDCK) cells with v-src induced expression of membrane-type 1-matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) and metastatic growth in nude mice (Kadono Y et al., Cancer Res 1998; 58: 2240-44). To analyze genes associated with invasive phenotype of v-src MDCK cells, mRNA differential display was performed between control and the transformed cells. A clone 12', the expression of which was clearly up-regulated in the transformed cells, encoded a protein 81% homologous to human tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1). Northern hybridization showed that only MT1-MMP expression was enhanced and other matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) were undetectable or rather repressed in the transformed cells. Proteolytic activity against type I gelatin was observed in v-src MDCK cells, which was inhibited only by TIMP-2 but not by TIMP-1. MDCK cells stably transfected with the MT1-MMP gene also degraded gelatin, which was selectively inhibited by TIMP-2. These results suggest that MT1-MMP, the expression of which is induced in v-src MDCK cells, degrades extracellullar matrix by itself rather than through the activation of progelatinase A, which in turn contributes to the metastasis of the transformed cells.