Portrait of Cancer Stem Cells on Colorectal Cancer: Molecular Biomarkers,Signaling Pathways and miRNAome

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer death worldwide, and about 20% is metastatic at diagnosis and untreatable. Increasing evidence suggests that the heterogeneous nature of CRC is related to colorectal cancer stem cells (CCSCs), a small cells population with stemness behaviors and responsible for tumor progression, recurrence, and therapy resistance. Growing knowledge of stem cells (SCs) biology has rapidly improved uncovering the molecular mechanisms and possible crosstalk/feedback loops between signaling pathways that directly influence intestinal homeostasis and tumorigenesis. The generation of CCSCs is probably connected to genetic changes in members of signaling pathways, which control self-renewal and pluripotency in SCs and then establish function and phenotype of CCSCs. Particularly, various deregulated CCSC-related miRNAs have been reported to modulate stemness features, controlling CCSCs functions such as regulation of cell cycle genes expression, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metastasization, and drug-resistance mechanisms. Primarily, CCSC-related miRNAs work by regulating mainly signal pathways known to be involved in CCSCs biology. This review intends to summarize the epigenetic findings linked to miRNAome in the maintenance and regulation of CCSCs, including their relationships with different signaling pathways, which should help to identify specific diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers for CRC, but also develop innovative CCSCs-targeted therapies.     

A dynamic reanalysis technique for general structural modifications under deterministic or stochastic input

A procedure for the dynamic reanalysis of linear systems subjected to deterministic or stochastic loads is presented. The procedure allows to evaluate the dynamic response of the modified structural system starting from the knowledge of the transition matrix and the eigenvectors of the original system. The case in which topological modifications are introduced can be successfully treated. The method relays on an unconditionally stable step-by-step procedure based on the “dynamic modification method”. As shown in the numerical applications, the technique is computationally effective and leads to accurate results for a broad class of structural modifications.     

Random amplified polymorphic DNA and amplified ribosomal DNA spacer polymorphism: powerful methods to differentiate Streptococcus thermophilus strains

66 inpatients who met the DSM-III-R and ICD-10 criteria for paranoid schizophrenia-active phase were assessed using the SAPS and CDS in order to establish interrelations between depressive and positive symptomatology. The results were then analyzed in reference do particular items of the scale CDS and the three stages of examinations. Numerous positive correlations were found between depressive symptoms and the symptoms from the subscale of Delusions and Hallucinations SAPS (Delusions of Sin or Guilt, of Mind Reading, of Being Controlled, of Reference, Somatic Delusions and Hallucinations) and negative correlations with the symptoms from the subscale of Positive Formal Thought Disorder.     

Distinct Expression Patterns of Cxcl12 in Mesenchymal Stem Cell Niches of Intact and Injured Rodent Teeth

Specific stem cell populations within dental mesenchymal tissues guarantee tooth homeostasis and regeneration throughout life. The decision between renewal and differentiation of stem cells is greatly influenced by interactions with stromal cells and extracellular matrix molecules that form the tissue specific stem cell niches. The Cxcl12 chemokine is a general marker of stromal cells and plays fundamental roles in the maintenance, mobilization and migration of stem cells. The aim of this study was to exploit Cxcl12-GFP transgenic mice to study the expression patterns of Cxcl12 in putative dental niches of intact and injured teeth. We showed that endothelial and stromal cells expressed Cxcl12 in the dental pulp tissue of both intact molars and incisors. Isolated non-endothelial Cxcl12⁺ dental pulp cells cultured in different conditions in vitro exhibited expression of both adipogenic and osteogenic markers, thus suggesting that these cells possess multipotent fates. Taken together, our results show that Cxcl12 is widely expressed in intact and injured teeth and highlight its importance as a key component of the various dental mesenchymal stem cell niches.     

Performance calculations of residential cooling systems for simplified energy analysis

The seasonal performance of space cooling systems generally depends on indoor and outdoor temperatures and humidities and on the ratio between actual cooling loads and cooling equipment size. In principle, any given weather condition and desired indoor dry-bulb temperature calls for an interactive application of psychrometrics and equipment performance curves until satisfactory indoor conditions are derived for which both sensible and latent cooling loads equal sensible and latent heat removal rates. This paper presents a simplified approach that derives the indoor wet-bulb temperature in close form for both cases when the cooling system condenses water from the space and when it does not. This approach relies on a local linearization of the psychrometric chart in the region of interest for indoor comfort conditions. Performance curves for total and sensible capacity and for the electric power input were derived for several different residential air-to-air reciprocating compressive cooling systems. The performance curves are empirical fits to manufacturer's data or to laboratory results. The predictions of the simplified method were compared with DOE-2 when calculating space cooling consumption for a residence in both a hot arid and in a hot humid climate. The comparison showed excellent agreement both for hour-by-hour calculations and for monthly calculation of this method are sufficiently simple to be applicable to micro-computers and pocket calculators.     

Monitoring the oxidative modification of lipoprotein(a) by capillary zone electrophoresis

Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is a recognized risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. It is made of a lipoprotein particle containing apoB100 linked by a single disulfide bridge to apolipoprotein(a), a glycosylated protein with a variable mass. Some authors suggest that oxidative modification could explain the contribution of Lp(a) in the development of atheromatous lesions in a comparable way to low‐density lipoproteins (LDL). Recently, the use of capillary electrophoresis to measure the variations in the relative electrophoretic mobility (REM) of LDL subjected to copper oxidation has been proposed. The aim of this work is to employ this method also to monitor the copper‐induced oxidative modification of Lp(a). Migration of Lp(a) was monitored by absorption at 200 nm in a 50 mmol/L tricine, 100 mmol/L methylglucamine, pH 9.7 run buffer. Contrary to the conventional slab gel methods, our procedure provides a rapid and reproducible means to measure the electrophoretic mobility of Lp(a) (migration time <10 min with a CV% <0.5).     

A probabilistic model for interactive decision-making

A probabilistic reasoning model is defined where the decision maker (d.m.) is engaged in a sequential information-gathering process facing the trade-off between the reliability of the achieved solution and the associated observation cost. The d.m. is directly involved in the proposed flexible control strategy, which is based on information-theoretic principles. The devised strategy works on a Bayesian belief network that allows the efficient representation and manipulation of the knowledge base relevant to the problem domain. It is shown that this strategy guarantees a constant factor approximate solution with respect to the optimum of the decision problem. Some application examples are also discussed.