More than 70 cell lines were established from esophageal cancer, including 15 TE-series cell lines established by the authors. This article reviews molecular and cellular features of esophageal cancer cells from studies using these cell lines as well as primary tumors. The subjects reviewed include primary cultures of normal epithelium of the esophagus and of esophageal tumors, their growth and differentiation properties, chromosomal aberrations, protein kinase C, growth factors and their receptors, oncogenes, and tumor-suppressor genes. Lesions of genetic loci in esophageal cancer include the absence of mutations in ras genes in primary tumors, amplification and overexpression of the c-erbB gene, co-amplification of hst-1 and int-2 genes, mutations, and allelic loss of tumor suppressor genes, p53, Rb, APC, and MCC. Future clinical improvement will be achieved on the basis of the understanding of molecular and cellular features of esophageal cancer cells.

2D-DIGE and LC/MS/MS techniques identified nine proteins that increased significantly more in SW620 than in SW480. The finding of our in vivo metastatic experiment suggests that alpha-enolase and triosephosphate isomerase, at least in part, may be associated with the metastatic process of these two cell lines.

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In pig production, dietary additive antibiotics are usually used for growth stimulation and disease prevention, although there is public concern about the increased incidence of resistant antibiotics and food safety. It is possible that such antibiotics might be replaced by naturally derived products such as seaweed and licorice. In this study, we evaluated the effect of dietary addition of seaweed and licorice on enhancing the immune function in swine. The animals of each group (eight animals per group) were sensitized at day 42 and 49, and the immunoglobulin production and the expression of cytokines were detected by the ELISA and real-time PCR. As the results, saliva IgA production of the seaweed-treated group increased around five times compared to that of control (day 56). Delayed hypersensitivity reaction and IgG production of the seaweed-treated group increased around 1.8-2.0 times. In addition, enhanced saliva IgA production was detected at day 50 (around two times) and day 51 (around five times) by the licorice treatment, and lower expression level of tumor necrosis factor-α messenger RNA at day 51 (around 1/25) was observed in the licorice treatment. We conclude that the replacement of antibiotics by naturally derived dietary additives might be feasible for immune system enhancement.

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology lead terminally differentiated cells into the pluripotent stem cells through the expression of defined reprogramming factors. Although, iPS cells have been established in a number of mammalian species, including mouse, human, and monkey, studies on iPS cells in avian species are still very limited. To establish chick iPS cells, six factors were used within the poly-cistronic reprogramming vector (PB-R6F), containing M3O (MyoD derived transactivation domain fused with Oct3/4), Sox2, Klf4, c-Myc, Lin28, and Nanog. The PB-R6F derived iPS cells were alkaline-phosphatase and SSEA-1 positive, which are markers of pluripotency. Elevated levels of endogenous Oct3/4 and Nanog genes were detected in the established iPS cells, suggesting the activation of the FGF signaling pathway is critical for the pluripotent status. Histological analysis of teratoma revealed that the established chick iPS cells have differentiation ability into three-germ-layer derived tissues. This is the first report of establishment of avian derived iPS cells with a single poly-cistronic transposon based expression system. The establishment of avian derived iPS cells could contribute to the genetic conservation and modification of avian species.