Neighboring macrophage-induced alteration in the phenotype of colorectal cancer cells in the tumor budding area.

BACKGROUND: A higher number of tumor buds in the invasive front of colorectal cancer (CRC) specimens has been shown to contribute to a poor prognosis in CRC patients. Because macrophages (Mφs) have been demonstrated to alter the phenotype of cancer cells, we hypothesized that the phenotype of CRC cells in the tumor budding (TB) area might be changed by the interaction between CRC cells and Mφs. METHODS: We assessed the expression of topoisomerase 1 in CRC cells to estimate the acquisition of chemoresistance in CRC. To demonstrate the tumor-stromal interaction between CRC cells and Mφs, we assessed two histological findings, the number of Mφs per single CRC cell and the proximity between CRC cells and Mφs by histological spatial analysis using HALO software. RESULTS: The expression levels of topoisomerase 1 in CRC cells were decreased in deeper areas, especially in the TB area, compared to the surface area. Our histological spatial analysis revealed that 2.6 Mφs located within 60 µm of a single CRC cell were required to alter the phenotype of the CRC cell. Double-immunofluorescence staining revealed that higher Mφs were positive for interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the TB area and that AE1/AE3-positive CRC cells were also positive for phospho-STAT3 (pSTAT3) in the TB area; thus, the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R)/STAT3 signaling pathway in CRC cells was upregulated by IL-6 derived from neighboring Mφs. CONCLUSION: IL-6 secreted from the neighboring Mφs would alter the phenotype of CRC cells via IL-6R/STAT3 signaling pathway.

Author Correction: Onion-like networks are both robust and resilient.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

Onion-like networks are both robust and resilient.

Tolerant connectivity and flow transmission within capacity are crucial functions as network. However, the threats to malicious attacks based on intelligent node selections and rapid breakdown by cascading overload failures increase more and more with large blackout or congestion in our contemporary networking systems and societies. It has been recently suggested that interwoven loops protect the network functions from such damages, but it is a computationally intractable combinatorial problem to maximize a set of necessary nodes for loops in order to improve the robustness. We propose a new method by enhancing loops in the incremental growth for constructing onion-like networks with positive degree-degree correlations, whose topological structure has the optimal tolerance of connectivity against attacks in the state-of-the-art. Moreover, we find out that onion-like networks acquire adaptive capacity in resilience by a change of routing policy for flow control to absorb cascading overload failures triggered by a single attack and simultaneous multi-attacks. The inhibitory effect is stronger than that in scale-free networks found in many real systems.

Organic transistors with high thermal stability for medical applications.

The excellent mechanical flexibility of organic electronic devices is expected to open up a range of new application opportunities in electronics, such as flexible displays, robotic sensors, and biological and medical electronic applications. However, one of the major remaining issues for organic devices is their instability, especially their thermal instability, because low melting temperatures and large thermal expansion coefficients of organic materials cause thermal degradation. Here we demonstrate the fabrication of flexible thin-film transistors with excellent thermal stability and their viability for biomedical sterilization processes. The organic thin-film transistors comprise a high-mobility organic semiconductor, dinaphtho[2,3-b:2',3'-f]thieno[3,2-b]thiophene, and thin gate dielectrics comprising a 2-nm-thick self-assembled monolayer and a 4-nm-thick aluminium oxide layer. The transistors exhibit a mobility of 1.2 cm(2) V(-1)s(-1) within a 2 V operation and are stable even after exposure to conditions typically used for medical sterilization.

Removal of HCl, SO2, and NO by treatment of acid gas with Mg-Al oxide slurry.

Although effective treatment of acid gases such as HCl, SO(x), and NO(x) is essential for preventing air pollution, current methods pose other environmental problems such as CaCl2 leaching, reduced landfill lifetimes, and solid waste production. Here we show that acid gases can be treated simply with a Mg-Al oxide slurry. The contribution of Mg-Al oxide to HCl and SO2 removal increased as a function of the quantity and temperature of Mg-Al oxide. HCl was removed by the reconstruction of Mg-Al layered double hydroxide (Mg-Al LDH) intercalated with Cl⁻ dissociated from HCl in the slurry. SO2 was oxidized into SO3 by oxygen in the air flow, dissolved in an aqueous solution, and removed by the reconstruction of Mg-Al LDH intercalated with dissociated SO4²â». Although less pronounced because of surface adsorption, NO was nonetheless removed by Mg-Al oxide. Our results suggest that simultaneous removal of HCl, SO2, and NO using a Mg-Al oxide slurry may be possible without the concomitant problems of conventional treatment methods.

Treatment of gaseous hydrogen chloride using Mg-Al layered double hydroxide intercalated with carbonate ion.

It is important to treat gaseous HCl from incineration streams efficiently to avoid adverse environmental consequences. In this paper, a new treatment method for gaseous HCl is presented-the application of Mg-Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) intercalated with CO(3)(2-) (CO(3)·Mg-Al LDH) to treat gaseous HCl continuously. The degree of HCl removal without water vapor is higher than that with water vapor; further, this reaction does not require H(2)O. In addition, the degree of HCl removal increases with increasing temperature, CO(3)·Mg-Al LDH quantity, HCl concentration, and improved contact between CO(3)·Mg-Al LDH and HCl gas. The treatment of HCl gas by CO(3)·Mg-Al LDH leads to the production of Mg-Al LDH intercalated with Cl(-). Further, HCl is also absorbed on the surface of CO(3)·Mg-Al LDH. Our proposed treatment method works effectively for the treatment of gaseous HCl from incinerator streams.

Removal of hydrogen chloride from gaseous streams using magnesium-aluminum oxide.

Magnesium-aluminum oxide (Mg-Al oxide) obtained by thermal decomposition of Mg-Al layered double hydroxide (Mg-Al LDH) effectively removed HCl from gaseous streams. HCl removal was greater in the presence of added water vapor at all temperatures examined and increased with decreasing temperature in both the presence and absence of added water vapor. Wet and dry removal of gaseous HCl were attributed to the production of MgCl2 . 6H2O and MgCl2 . 4H2O, respectively. For the wet scrubbing process, the reconstruction reaction of Mg-Al LDH from Mg-Al oxide was the primary mechanism for increased HCl removal.