Although some kinds of bile acids have been implicated in colorectal cancer development, the mechanism of cancer progression remains unexplored in hepatobiliary cancer. From our personal results using complementary DNA microarray, we found that chenodeoxycholic acid (

This study demonstrated that the transcription of the LST-2 gene is regulated by three transcription factors, FXR, HNF1alpha, and HNF3beta. HNF1alpha and HNF3beta might contribute to its liver-specific expression, and FXR might play a role in its transcriptional activation by bile acids.

The electronic structures of a cyanide bridged Fe-Co molecular square, [Co 2 Fe 2 (CN) 6 (tp*) 2 (dtbbpy) 4 ]-(PF 6 ) 2 ·2MeOH (1) (tp* = hydrotris (3,5-dimethylpyrazol-1-yl) borate, dtbbpy = 4,4'-di-tert-butyl-2,2'bipyridine), which exhibits thermal and photo-induced two-step charge-transfer induced spin transitions (CTIST), are investigated in detail by density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent (TD) DFT calculations. For the three phases observed in the experiment, three different model structures are constructed based on the geometries of X-ray crystallography analysis measured at low (100 K), middle (298 K) and high (330 K) temperatures. The calculated results elucidate that the ground states at the low and the high temperatures are diamagnetic [(Fe II LS ) 2 (Co III LS ) 2 ] and ferromagnetic [(Fe III LS ) 2 (Co II HS ) 2 ], respectively. On the other hand, the one-electron transferred [Fe II LS Fe III LS Co II HS Co III LS ] state becomes the ground state at the intermediate temperature phase. A magnetic interaction between Fe III and Co II in the [(Fe III LS ) 2 (Co II HS ) 2 ] state is ferromagnetic and the most stable spin-coupling state is the all-ferromagnetic state.The TD-DFT calculation shows the two significant peaks of Fe II t 2g → Co III e g around 800 nm. The results support that the experimental broad absorption peak at 770 nm is an inter-valence charge transfer (IVCT) band. † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See

We aimed to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of initial robotic surgery for rectal cancer in the introduction phase. This study retrospectively evaluated patients who underwent initial robotic surgery (n = 36) vs. patients who underwent conventional laparoscopic surgery (n = 95) for rectal cancer. We compared the clinical and pathological characteristics of patients using a propensity score analysis and clarified short-term outcomes, urinary function, and sexual function at the time of robotic surgery introduction. The mean surgical duration was longer in the robot-assisted laparoscopy group compared with the conventional laparoscopy group (288.4 vs. 245.2 min, respectively; p = 0.051). With lateral pelvic lymph node dissection, no significant difference was observed in surgical duration (508.0 min for robot-assisted laparoscopy vs. 480.4 min for conventional laparoscopy; p = 0.595). The length of postoperative hospital stay was significantly shorter in the robot-assisted laparoscopy group compared with the conventional laparoscopy group (15 days vs. 13.0 days, respectively; p = 0.026). Conversion to open surgery was not necessary in either group. The International Prostate Symptom Score was significantly lower in the robot-assisted laparoscopy group compared with the conventional laparoscopy group. Moderate-to-severe symptoms were more frequently observed in the conventional laparoscopy group compared with the robot-assisted laparoscopy group (p = 0.051). Robotic surgery is safe and could improve functional disorder after rectal cancer surgery in the introduction phase. This may depend on the surgeon’s experience in performing robotic surgery and strictly confined criteria in Japan.