Cell Lines of Circulating Tumor Cells: What Is Known and What Needs to Be Resolved.

The importance of circulating tumor cells (CTC) is well recognized. However, the biological characteristics of CTC in the bloodstream have not yet been examined in detail, due to the limited number of CTC cell lines currently available. Thirty-nine CTC cell lines were reported by 2021. For successful cell culturing, these CTC cell lines were reviewed. Previous studies on short-term cultures of CTC also analyzed approaches for establishing the long-term culture of CTC. Negative selection, hypoxic conditions, three-dimensional conditions, and careful management are preferable for the long-term culture of CTC. However, the establishment of CTC cell lines is dependent on the specific characteristics of each cell type. Therefore, a method to establish CTC cell lines has not yet been developed. Further efforts are needed to resolve this issue.

MicroRNA profile predicts recurrence after resection in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma within the Milan Criteria.

OBJECTIVE: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is difficult to manage due to the high frequency of post-surgical recurrence. Early detection of the HCC recurrence after liver resection is important in making further therapeutic options, such as salvage liver transplantation. In this study, we utilized microRNA expression profiling to assess the risk of HCC recurrence after liver resection. METHODS: We examined microRNA expression profiling in paired tumor and non-tumor liver tissues from 73 HCC patients who satisfied the Milan Criteria. We constructed prediction models of recurrence-free survival using the Cox proportional hazard model and principal component analysis. The prediction efficiency was assessed by the leave-one-out cross-validation method, and the time-averaged area under the ROC curve (ta-AUROC). RESULTS: The univariate Cox analysis identified 13 and 56 recurrence-related microRNAs in the tumor and non-tumor tissues, such as miR-96. The number of recurrence-related microRNAs was significantly larger in the non-tumor-derived microRNAs (N-miRs) than in the tumor-derived microRNAs (T-miRs, P<0.0001). The best ta-AUROC using the whole dataset, T-miRs, N-miRs, and clinicopathological dataset were 0.8281, 0.7530, 0.7152, and 0.6835, respectively. The recurrence-free survival curve of the low-risk group stratified by the best model was significantly better than that of the high-risk group (Log-rank: P = 0.00029). The T-miRs tend to predict early recurrence better than late recurrence, whereas N-miRs tend to predict late recurrence better (P<0.0001). This finding supports the concept of early recurrence by the dissemination of primary tumor cells and multicentric late recurrence by the 'field effect'. CONCLUSION: MicroRNA profiling can predict HCC recurrence in Milan criteria cases.

Localization of tissue transglutaminase (tTG) in kidney of ICR-derived glomerulonephritis (ICGN) mice.

ICR-derived glomerulonephritis (ICGN) mice are a known inbred strain with hereditary nephrotic syndrome and are considered a good animal model of human idiopathic nephrotic syndrome. ICGN mice show proteinuria at a young age, and hypoalbuminemia, hyperlipidemia, anemia and edema accompanies their symptoms with aging. In addition, ICGN mice develop severe anemia with the progression of renal fibrosis similar to human chronic kidney disease (CKD). Recently, tissue transglutaminase (tTG) has been shown to be related to the renal fibrosis in several animal models and CKD patients. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between the progression of renal fibrosis and the localization of tTG in the kidneys using histochemistry and image analysis. Male ICGN mice aged 26-43 weeks were used. They were divided into two groups of early and terminal stages of renal fibrosis, based on plasma levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN). Normal ICR males aged 11 weeks were used as a control group. tTG was localized to the interstitium in the normal ICR mice. In the early stage of renal fibrosis, the localization of tTG increased in renal tubules showing luminal dilation, as well as in the interstitium; however, the amount of tubular and interstitial tTG decreased in the late stage. In the glomeruli, tTG-immunoreactivity decreased in the late stage of renal fibrosis, despite the progression of glomerular sclerosis. The results suggest that epsilon(gamma-glutamyl) lysine cross-linking is not directly related to the progression of renal fibrosis in ICGN mice.

Abnormal features in mutant cerebellar Purkinje cells lacking junctophilins.

Junctional membrane complexes (JMCs) generated by junctophilins are required for Ca(2+)-mediated communication between cell-surface and intracellular channels in excitable cells. Knockout mice lacking neural junctophilins (JP-DKO) show severe motor defects and irregular cerebellar plasticity due to abolished channel crosstalk in Purkinje cells (PCs). To precisely understand aberrations in JP-DKO mice, we further analyzed the mutant PCs. During the induction of cerebellar plasticity via electrical stimuli, JP-DKO PCs showed insufficient depolarizing responses. Immunochemistry detected mild impairment in synaptic maturation and hyperphosphorylation of protein kinase Cgamma in JP-DKO PCs. Moreover, gene expression was slightly altered in the JP-DKO cerebellum. Therefore, the mutant PCs bear marginal but widespread abnormalities, all of which likely cause cerebellar motor defects in JP-DKO mice.

Ultrasensitive DNA chip: gene expression profile analysis without RNA amplification.

We have developed a new DNA chip whose substrate has a unique minute columnar array structure made of plastic. The DNA chip exhibits ultrahigh sensitivity, up to 100-fold higher than that of reference DNA chips, which makes it possible to monitor gene expression profiles even with very small amounts of RNA (0.1-0.01 microg of total RNA) without amplification. Differential expression ratios obtained with the new DNA chip were validated against those obtained with quantitative real-time PCR assays. This novel microarray technology would be a powerful tool for monitoring gene expression profiles, especially for clinical diagnosis.