One advantage of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism is its suitability for in vivo optical microscopy. Imaging C. elegans often requires animals to be immobilized to avoid movement-related artifacts. Immobilization has been performed by application of anesthetics or by introducing physical constraints using glue or specialized microfluidic devices. Here we present a method for immobilizing C. elegans using polystyrene nanoparticles and agarose pads. Our technique is technically simple, does not expose the worm to toxic substances, and allows recovery of animals. We evaluate the method and show that the polystyrene beads increase friction between the worm and agarose pad. We use our method to quantify calcium transients and long-term regrowth in single neurons following axotomy by a femtosecond laser.

Background: Structural elements in pectin that inhibit galectin-3, a ␤-galactoside-binding protein associated with cancer progression, are poorly defined. Results: Both backbone and side chains of pectin RG-I-4 were important for its anti-galectin-3 activity. Conclusion: High activity of RG-I-4 was due to cooperation between short ␤1,4-galactan side chains. Significance: The results are valuable for producing highly active pectin-based galectin-3 inhibitors.

Laser severing of individual axons in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans revealed that the apoptotic executioner caspase CED-3 and its regulator CED-4/Apaf-1 play an unexpected beneficial role in promoting axonal regeneration.

Inflammation is a component of tumour progression mechanisms. Neutrophils are a common inflammatory infiltrate in many tumours, but their regulation and functions in neoplasia are not understood. We recently demonstrated that pro-inflammatory IL-17-producing cells recruited blood neutrophils into the peritumoural stroma of hepatocellular carcinoma by epithelium-derived CXC chemokines. Here we show that a substantial population of neutrophils accumulates in the peritumoural stroma of hepatocellular, cervical, colorectal, and gastric carcinomas, and that this correlates with metastases in hepatocellular and gastric carcinomas. Exposure of neutrophils to culture supernatants from several types of solid tumour cells (TSN) resulted in sustained survival and pro-tumourigenic effects of cells. Kinetic experiments reveal that, shortly after exposure to TSN, neutrophils began to provoke activation and then produced significant inflammatory cytokines and expressed more anti-apoptotic Mcl-1 but less pro-apoptotic Bax. These long-lived neutrophils effectively enhanced the cancer cell motility via a contact-dependent mechanism; this effect, together with early activation and subsequent longevity of TSN-exposed neutrophils, could be reversed by blocking the activation of PI3K/Akt signalling in neutrophils. Moreover, we found that hyaluronan (HA) fragments constitute a common factor produced by various tumours that mimics the effect of TSN to induce long-lived neutrophils and subsequent malignant cell migration. The effects of TSN were inhibited by function blocking interactions between HA and its receptor TLR4 on neutrophils, suggesting that this is a key signalling pathway involved. These results indicate that HA derived from malignant cells educates neutrophils to adopt an activated phenotype, and in that way stimulates the metastasis of malignant cells, which represents a positive regulatory loop between tumours and their stroma during neoplastic progression.

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