p53 and p73 expression in esophageal carcinoma correlate with clinicopathology of tumors.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Inactivation of tumor suppressors like p53 and p73 plays an important role in cancer initiation. We explored the clinical significance of p53 and p73 expression in esophageal carcinoma, along with their correlation with clinicopathological parameters of tumors for potential use in clinical evaluation of this disease. METHODOLOGY: In the present study, tumor samples and adjacent normal tissue samples were collected from 37 patients with esophageal cancer and the expression of p53 and p73 was detected by immunohistochemistry and correlated with clinicopathological parameters of tumors. RESULTS: p53 and p73 were more frequently expressed in esophageal cancer than in adjacent normal tissue. Indeed, there was a positive correlation between p53 and p73 expression and esophageal cancer (p<0.05). Analysis of clinicopathological features revealed that p53 expression was correlated with differentiation, distant metastases, and TNM stage (p<0.05) of tumors, but not with gender; age, infiltration depth, tumor size, or lymph node metastasis. In contrast, p73 expression was correlated only with distant metastases (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Increased expression of p53 and p73 in esophageal carcinoma may serve as an indicator of tumor severity. Detection of these proteins in future studies may help understand the mechanisms of development, invasion and metastasis in esophageal cancer.

Vitamin E reduces hepatic fibrosis in mice with Schistosoma japonicum infection.

To investigate whether vitamin E protects against hepatic fibrosis in mice with Schistosoma japonicum infection, 24 pathogen-free Kunming mice were selected and randomly divided into four groups: control (uninfected, untreated), model (infected, untreated), low-dose intervention (infected, vitamin E-treated, 30 mg/g bodyweight/day) and high-dose intervention (infected, vitamin E-treated, 60 mg/g bodyweight/day). Mice were infected with Schistosoma japonicum by inoculating abdominal skin with snail hosts. The activities of malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) were detected in hepatic tissue by colorimetry. The expression levels of laminin (LN), hyaluronic acid (HA), procollagen type Ⅲ (PC-III) and type Ⅳ collagen (IV-C) were detected in the serum by radioimmunoassay. Finally, areas and numbers of granulomas were assessed through histopathology 42 days following treatment. The results revealed that mean areas of granulomas were smaller in the low- and high-dose intervention groups compared to those in the model group. Furthermore, the higher dose of vitamin E resulted in smaller granulomas than the low dose. The levels of LN, HA, PC-III and IV-C in the serum were lower following vitamin E treatment than in the model group. By contrast, activity of SOD, GPx and CAT in hepatic tissue was higher following vitamin E treatment compared to the model group. The activity of MDA was lower in hepatic tissue following vitamin E treatment compared to the model group, but was higher compared to controls. In general, the higher dose of vitamin E affected measurements to a greater extent than the lower dose. In conclusion, vitamin E treatment may reduce the growth of granulomas, slowing the process of hepatic fibrosis, and this effect may be the result of the altered activity of the oxidation-reduction enzyme system.

[Effect of epitope-based peptide-DNA dual vaccines against Schistosoma japonicum in mice].

A C-T-B PDDV mixture of the three constructed epitope-based peptide-DNA dual vaccines (PDDV) containing the CTL (C), Th (T) and B-cell (B) epitopes from Sj22.6 tegument (C-PDDV, T-PDDV and B-PDDV) with a 1:1:1 ratio was prepared. Thirty-six mice were randomly divided into six groups averagely named as 18K group, PBS group, C-PDDV group, T-PDDV group, B-PDDV group, and C-T-B PDDV group. All the mice received three immunizations at 2-week intervals with the same dose of antigen (10 microg DNA+28 microg peptide). One week after the last immunization, the mice were sacrificed, the spleens were removed and splenocytes were collected. Splenocyte proliferation was assayed by[3H] TdR incorporation after stimulation with soluble worm antigen (SWA). Levels of IFN-gamma and IL-4 in the splenocyte culture supernatants were determined by ELISA. The results showed that IFN-gamma content in T-PDDV group [(76.0 +/- 11.2) pg/ml] was higher than that of PBS [(13.0 +/- 2.1) pg/ml] and 18K control groups [(14.0 +/- 3.2) pg/ml] (P<0.01). IL-4 level in T-PDDV [(152.0 +/- 21.1) pg/ml] and C-T-B mixture groups [(86.0 +/- 12.2) pg/ml] was higher than others (P<0.01 and P<0.05). The splenocytes from T-PDDV group showed a significant increase in proliferation compared with PBS and 18K control groups after stimulation by SWA (P<0.01). However, there was no significant difference in splenocyte proliferation among C-T-B, PBS and 18K control groups (P>0.05). These findings indicate that T-PDDV and C-T-B PDDV mixture induces stronger immune response than that of C-PDDV or B-PDDV.