An ultrasonic microscope is a useful tool for observing living tissue without chemical fixation or histochemical processing. Two-dimensional (2D) acoustic impedance microscopy developed in our previous study for living cell observation was employed to visualize intracellular changes. We proposed a brain tumor model by cocultivating rat glial cells and C6 gliomas to quantitatively analyze the effects of two types of anticancer drugs, cytochalasin B (CyB) and temozolomide (TMZ), when they were applied. We reported that CyB treatment (25 µg/ml, T = 90 min) significantly reduced the acoustic impedance of gliomas and has little effect on glial cells. Meanwhile, TMZ treatment (2 mg/ml, T = 90 min) impacted both cells equally, in which both cells’ acoustic impedances were decreased. As CyB targets the actin filament polymerization of the cells, we have concluded that the decrease in acoustic impedance was in fact due to actin filament depolymerization and the data can be quantitatively assessed for future studies in novel drug development.
Diversity in cell differentiation, histology, phenotype and vasculature of mass-forming intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas Aims: Mass-forming intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (MF-iCCAs), involving small bile ducts, bile ductules or canals of Hering, remain treated as a single entity. We aimed to examine the diversity in histology, phenotype and tumour vasculature of MF-iCCAs. Methods and results: Based on morphology and immunophenotype, we classified MF-iCCAs into small bile duct (SBD), cholangiolocarcinoma (CLC), ductal plate malformation (DPM) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)-like subtypes. Genetic correlations among the histological subtypes were examined by multi-region tumour sequencing. Vasculatures and other clinicopathological features were compared among tumour groups with various proportions of the histological subtypes in 62 MF-iCCAs. Cases of pure SBD, CLC, DPM and HCC-like subtypes numbered 18 (29%), seven (11.3%), none (0%) and two (3%), respectively; the remaining 35 (56.4%) cases comprised several components. Genetic alterations, isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)1/2, KRAS, TP53, polybromo-1 (PBRM1) and BRCA1-associated protein 1 (BAP1), were shared among SBD, CLC, DPM and hepatoid components within a tumour. We uncovered distinct vascularisation mechanisms among SBD, CLC and DPM subtypes with a prominent vessel cooption in CLC tumours. iCCA with a DPM pattern had the highest vascular densities (mean microvascular density,140/mm 2 ; arterial vessel density, 18.3/ mm 2 ). Increased CLC component was correlated with longer overall survival time (r = 0.44, P = 0.006). Pure SBD tumours had a lower 5-year overall survival rate compared with MF-iCCA with CLC pattern (30.5 versus 72.4%, P = 0.011). Conclusions: MF-iCCAs comprise four histological subtypes. Given their sharing some driver gene alterations, indicating they can have a common cell origin, SBD, CLC and DPM subtypes, however, differ in cell differentiation, histology, phenotype or tumour vasculature.
Cholangiocarcinoma is an aggressive malignancy with high mortality, and effective therapeutic agents for this cancer are limited. Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) pathways are therapeutic targets for various types of cancers; however, their involvement in cholangiocarcinoma remains unclear. The present study examined the biological significance of CDK pathways in cholangiocarcinoma. An immunohistochemical analysis of cholangiocarcinoma tissue sections revealed the upregulated expression of phosphorylated cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (p-CDK1), p-CDK2, cyclin B1, and cyclin E1 in carcinoma cells. The nuclear expression of p-CDK1 and cyclin B1 was positively correlated with the presence of lymph node metastasis and the clinical stage, and p-CDK1 expression was also associated with poor patient survival. The treatment of human cholangiocarcinoma cell lines (CCKS-1, TFK-1 and HUCCT-1) with the multi-CDK inhibitor roscovitine decreased p-CDK1 expression, inhibited cell proliferation, arrested the cell cycle at the G1 or G2/M phase, and significantly inhibited carcinoma cell invasion. In vivo studies using a murine xenograft model revealed that an intraperitoneal injection of roscovitine significantly inhibited cholangiocarcinoma cell growth. Roscovitine induced apoptosis in cholangiocarcinoma cells in vitro and in vivo. These results demonstrated the potential of the CDK pathway involving CDK1 as a therapeutic target for cholangiocarcinoma. Furthermore, the immunohistochemical expression of p-CDK1 may be a useful prognostic marker of cholangiocarcinoma.
The Notch signaling pathway plays a key role in the morphogenesis of the biliary tree, but its involvement in cystic biliary diseases, such as Caroli disease (CD) and polycystic liver disease (PLD), has yet to be determined. Immunostaining was performed using liver sections of CD and PLD, and the results were compared with those of congenital hepatic fibrosis (CHF) and von Meyenburg complex (VMC). The expression of Notch receptor 1 (Notch1) was increased in the nuclei of biliary epithelial cells in all cases of CD and PLD, whereas it remained at a low level in CHF and VMC. In addition, Notch2 and Notch3 were preferably expressed in the nuclei of biliary epithelial cells of PLD. Accordingly, the Notch effector Hes1 was highly expressed in biliary epithelial cells of CD and PLD, and the cell proliferative activity was significantly higher in CD and PLD. The expression of the Notch ligand Delta‐like 1 was significantly increased in biliary epithelial cells of CD and PLD, which may be causally associated with the nuclear overexpression of Notch1 and Hes1. These results indicate that aberrant activation of the Notch‐Hes1 signaling pathway may be responsible for the progression of biliary cystogenesis in CD and PLD.
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