Assessment of the Concentration of 51 Elements in the Liver and in Various Parts of the Human Brain-Profiling of the Mineral Status.

The anthropogenic environment and diet introduce many metals into the human body, both essential and toxic. Absorption leads to systemic exposure and accumulation in body fluids and tissues. Both excess and deficiency of trace elements are health hazards. The primary aim of the present study was to evaluate the concentration of 51 elements in liver samples and 11 selected brain regions obtained at post-mortem examination from a population of adults living in south-eastern Poland (n = 15). A total of 180 analyses were performed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in two independent replicates. The collected data show very high individual variability in the content of the investigated elements. Macroelements such as sodium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, and zinc occurred in the highest concentrations and with the greatest statistically significant variations. Although the elemental content of the brain and liver differed significantly, the strongest positive correlation between liver and polus frontalis was observed for the essential element selenium (0.9338) and the strongest negative one for manganese (-0.4316) and lanthanum (-0.5110). The brain areas studied have different requirements for phosphorus, manganese, iron, and molybdenum. In addition, males had a significantly (p < 0.05) higher brain content of lanthanides and actinides than females. The results of this study show that the inhabitants of south-eastern Poland are exposed to a fairly uniform accumulation of aluminum and vanadium in the brain, which have the highest affinity to the thalamus dorsalis. This result proves that there is environmental exposure to these elements.

Inhibition or Reversal of the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Gastric Cancer: Pharmacological Approaches.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) constitutes one of the hallmarks of carcinogenesis consisting in the re-differentiation of the epithelial cells into mesenchymal ones changing the cellular phenotype into a malignant one. EMT has been shown to play a role in the malignant transformation and while occurring in the tumor microenvironment, it significantly affects the aggressiveness of gastric cancer, among others. Importantly, after EMT occurs, gastric cancer patients are more susceptible to the induction of resistance to various therapeutic agents, worsening the clinical outcome of patients. Therefore, there is an urgent need to search for the newest pharmacological agents targeting EMT to prevent further progression of gastric carcinogenesis and potential metastases. Therapies targeted at EMT might be combined with other currently available treatment modalities, which seems to be an effective strategy to treat gastric cancer patients. In this review, we have summarized recent advances in gastric cancer treatment in terms of targeting EMT specifically, such as the administration of polyphenols, resveratrol, tangeretin, luteolin, genistein, proton pump inhibitors, terpenes, other plant extracts, or inorganic compounds.