The purpose of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms associated with the specific effects of AKT1 and AKT2 isoforms in breast cancer progression. We modulated the abundance of specific AKT isoforms in IBH-6 and T47D human breast cancer cell lines and showed that AKT1 promoted cell proliferation, through S6 and cyclin D1 upregulation, but it inhibited cell migration and invasion through β1-integrin and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) downregulation. In contrast, AKT2 promoted cell migration and invasion through F-actin and vimentin induction. Thus, while overexpression of AKT1 promoted local tumor growth, downregulation of AKT1 or overexpression of AKT2 promoted peritumoral invasion and lung metastasis. Furthermore, we evaluated The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset for invasive breast carcinomas and found that increased AKT2 but not AKT1 mRNA levels correlated with a worse clinical outcome. We conclude that AKT isoforms play specific roles in different steps of breast cancer progression, with AKT1 involved in the local tumor growth and AKT2 involved in the distant tumor dissemination, having AKT2 a poorer prognostic value and consequently being a worthwhile target for therapy.

Objective Abdominal obesity has been associated with increased risk of Barrett’s oesophagus (BE) but the underlying mechanism is unclear. We examined the association between visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and the risk of BE. Design A case-control study among eligible patients scheduled for elective oesophagastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and in a sample of patients eligible for screening colonoscopy recruited at the primary care clinic. All cases with definitive BE and a random sample of controls without BE were invited to undergo standardised mid-abdomen non-contrast computerised axial tomography images, which were analysed by semiautomated image segmentation software. The effect of VAT and SAT surface areas and their ratio (VAT to SAT) on BE were analysed in logistic regression models. Results A total of 173 BE cases, 343 colonoscopy controls and 172 endoscopy controls underwent study EGD and CT scan. Participants with BE were more than twice as likely to be in the highest tertile of VAT to SAT ratio (OR: 2.42 (1.51 to 3.88) and adjusted OR 1.47 (0.88 to 2.45)) than colonoscopy controls, especially for those long (≥3 cm) segment BE (3.42 (1.67 to 7.01) and adjusted OR 1.93 (0.92 to 4.09)) and for white men (adjusted OR 2.12 (1.15 to 3.90)). Adjustment for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms and proton pump inhibitors (PPI) use attenuated this association, but there was a significant increase in BE risk even in the absence of GERD or PPI use. Conclusions Large amount of visceral abdominal fat relative to subcutaneous fat is associated with a significant increase in the risk of BE. GERD may mediate some but not all of this association.

To further investigate the possible role of apolipoprotein A-IV (apo A-IV) in the short-term control of food intake, we examined the kinetics of intestinal apo A-IV synthesis and release into lymph and plasma after intragastric delivery of physiological amounts of lipid. Within 30 min of intragastric administration of 0.1 g of triglyceride, plasma and lymph levels of apo A-IV were similar to those produced by exogenous apo A-IV that inhibit food intake. Within 15 min, 5% of gastrically delivered radioactive lipid reached the distal small bowel and cecum; by 30 min radioactivity was evenly distributed throughout the small intestine, with 10-15% of the load in the distal gut. By 30 min, synthesis of apo A-IV was significantly stimulated in proximal and distal jejunum and distal ileum and remained elevated up to 4 h after the delivery of lipid. Our results indicate that the delivery of physiological amounts of lipid into the stomach produces a significant and rapid stimulation of apo A-IV secretion into lymph and plasma, together with a rapid delivery of lipid and increases in mucosal synthesis of apo A-IV along the entire length of the small intestine. The results support a possible role for apo A-IV in the short-term control of food intake and suggest a role for the entire gut in the integrative response of apo A-IV to a fat meal.