A Patient Friendly Corifollitropin Alfa Protocol without Routine Pituitary Suppression in Normal Responders.

The release of corifollitropin alfa simplifies daily injections of short-acting recombinant follicular stimulating hormone (rFSH), and its widely-used protocol involves short-acting gonadotropins supplements and a fixed GnRH antagonist regimen, largely based on follicle size. In this study, the feasibility of corifollitropin alfa without routine pituitary suppression was evaluated. A total of 288 patients were stimulated by corifollitropin alfa on cycle day 3 following with routine serum hormone monitoring and follicle scanning every other day after 5 days of initial stimulation, and a GnRH antagonist (0.25 mg) was only used prophylactically when the luteinizing hormone (LH) was ≧ 6 IU/L (over half of the definitive LH surge). The incidence of premature LH surge (≧ 10 IU/L) was 2.4% (7/288) before the timely injection of a single GnRH antagonist, and the elevated LH level was dropped down from 11.9 IU/L to 2.2 IU/L after the suppression. Two hundred fifty-one patients did not need any antagonist (87.2% [251/288]) throughout the whole stimulation. No adverse effects were observed regarding oocyte competency (fertilization rate: 78%; blastocyst formation rate: 64%). The live birth rate per OPU cycle after the first cryotransfer was 56.3% (161/286), and the cumulative live birth rate per OPU cycle after cyrotransfers was 69.6% (199/286). Of patients who did and did not receive GnRH antagonist during stimulation, no significant difference existed in the cumulative live birth rates (78.4% vs. 68.3%, p = 0.25). The results demonstrated that the routine GnRH antagonist administration is not required in the corifollitropin-alfa cycles using a flexible and hormone-depended antagonist regimen, while the clinical outcome is not compromised. This finding reveals that the use of a GnRH antagonist only occasionally may be needed.

Pyromellitic dithioimides: thionation improves air-stability and electron mobility of N-type organic field-effect transistors.

Thionation and fluorination of pyromellitic diimides (PyDIs) increased the electron mobility and on/off ratio of the original diimides by two orders of magnitude and improved the threshold voltage and air-stability of diimide compounds.

Fucoidan inhibition of lung cancer in vivo and in vitro : role of the Smurf2-dependent ubiquitin proteasome pathway in TGFß receptor degradation.

Fucoidan, a polysaccharide extracted from brown seaweeds, reduces tumor cell proliferation. In this study, we demonstrate that fucoidan reduces tumor size in LLC1-xenograft male C57BL/6 mice. Moreover, we found that LLC1-bearing mice continuously fed fucoidan showed greater antitumor activity than mice with discontinuous feeding. Fucoidan inhibited the in vitro growth of lung cancer cells. Transforming growth factor ß (TGFß) receptors (TGFRs) play important roles in the regulation of proliferation and progression, and high TGFRI expression in lung cancer specimens is associated with a worse prognosis. Herein, using lung cancer cells, we found that fucoidan effectively reduces TGFRI and TGFRII protein levels in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, fucoidan reduces TGFR downstream signaling events, including those in Smad2/3 and non-Smad pathways: Akt, Erk1/2, and FAK phosphorylation. Furthermore, fucoidan suppresses lung cancer cell mobility upon TGFß stimulation. To elucidate how fucoidan decreases TGFR proteins in lung cancer cells, we found that fucoidan enhances the ubiquitination proteasome pathway (UPP)-mediated degradation of TGFRs in A549 and CL1-5 cells. Mechanistically, fucoidan promotes Smurf2 and Smad7 to conjugate TGFRs, resulting in TGF degradation; however, Smurf2-shRNA abolishes fucoidan-enhanced UPP-mediated TGFR degradation. Our study is the first to identify a novel mechanism for the antitumor activity of fucoidan, namely decreasing tumor growth by modulating the TGFR/Smad7/Smurf2-dependent axis, leading to TGFR protein degradation and inhibition of lung cancer cell progression in vitro and in vivo. Our current findings indicate that fucoidan is a potential therapeutic agent or dietary supplementation for lung cancer, acting via the Smurf2-dependent ubiquitin degradation of TGFß receptors.