Endoscopic stenting of the bile ducts is efficacious in treating biliary complications related to RL-LDLT with duct-to-duct biliary anastomosis and the stenting should be attempted before surgical revision of strictures and leakages.

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In Colletotrichum lagenarium, RPK1 encoding the regulatory subunit of PKA is required for pathogenicity. From the rpkl mutant that forms small colonies, we isolated three growth-suppressor mutants. All rpk1-suppressor mutants are nonpathogenic and contain amino acid changes in the PKA catalytic subunit Cpkl. To assess the roles of cyclic AMP (cAMP) signaling in detail, we generated knockout mutants of CPK1 and the adenylate cyclase gene CAC1. The cpk1 and cac1 mutants are nonpathogenic on cucumber. Interestingly, both of the mutants germinated poorly, suggesting involvement of cAMP signaling in germination. Germination defect in the cpk1 and cac1 mutants is partially rescued by incubation of the conidia at lower concentrations. Germinating conidia of the cpk1 and cac1 mutants can form appressoria, but the appressoria formed by them are nonfunctional, like those of the rpk1 mutant. Cytological analysis indicates that the appressoria of the cpk1 mutant contain larger numbers of lipid bodies compared with the wild type, whereas lipid levels in the rpk1 mutants are lower, suggesting cAMP-mediated regulation of lipid metabolism for appressorium functionality. Furthermore, the cpk1 and cacl mutants have a defect in infectious growth in plant. In C. lagenarium, Cmkl mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) regulates germination, appressorium formation, and infectious growth. These results suggest that cAMP signaling controls multiple steps of fungal infection in cooperative regulation with Cmkl MAPK in C. lagenarium.

We previously reported that (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in green tea alters plasma membrane organization and causes internalization of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), resulting in the suppression of colon cancer cell growth. In the present study, we investigated the detailed mechanism underlying EGCG-induced downregulation of EGFR in SW480 colon cancer cells. Prolonged exposure to EGCG caused EGFR degradation. However, EGCG required neither an ubiquitin ligase (c-Cbl) binding to EGFR nor a phosphorylation of EGFR at tyrosine residues, both of which are reportedly necessary for EGFR degradation induced by epidermal growth factor. In addition, EGCG induced phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), a stress-inducible kinase believed to negatively regulate tumorigenesis, and the inhibition of p38 MAPK by SB203580, a specific p38 MAPK inhibitor, or the gene silencing using p38 MAPK-small interfering RNA (siRNA) suppressed the internalization and subsequent degradation of EGFR induced by EGCG. EGFR underwent a gel mobility shift upon treatment with EGCG and this was canceled by SB203580, indicating that EGCG causes EGFR phosphorylation via p38 MAPK. Moreover, EGCG caused phosphorylation of EGFR at Ser1046/1047, a site that is critical for its downregulation and this was also suppressed by SB203580 or siRNA of p38 MAPK. Taken together, our results strongly suggest that phosphorylation of EGFR at serine 1046/1047 via activation of p38 MAPK plays a pivotal role in EGCG-induced downregulation of EGFR in colon cancer cells.