Abstract. Tumor protein p53 (TP53) is the best-known tumor suppressor gene and plays a crucial role in carcinogenesis. The TP53 arg 72 Pro polymorphism has been reported to be a risk factor for several types of cancer, but its association with pancreatic cancer has not been fully evaluated. Therefore, we investigated the effects of this polymorphism on pancreatic cancer in relation to smoking and drinking habits by examining the distribution of the SnP genotypes in 226 pancreatic cancer patients and 448 healthy controls. The frequencies of arg/arg, arg/Pro and Pro/Pro were found to be 37, 49 and 15% in the pancreatic cancer cases and 44, 46 and 10% in the controls, respectively. compared to the controls with the arg/arg genotype, cases with Pro/Pro homozygosity exhibited a significantly increased risk [adjusted odds ratio (OR)=1.70; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-2.88]. In stratified studies, the association was particularly strong in males (or=2.62; 95% ci 1.32-5.23), particularly in those smoking in excess of 20 pack-years and drinking in excess of 23 g ethanol/day (or=5.02; 95% ci 1.12-22.51). We found that the TP53 Pro/Pro genotype compared to the arg/arg genotype had a profound effect on pancreatic cancer risk among males, particularly among heavy smokers and excessive alcohol drinkers.
Of the ca. 500 known hermaphroditic fish species, bidirectional sex change and simultaneous hermaphroditism are currently known in 69 and 57 species, respectively. Both bidirectional sex change and simultaneous hermaphroditism are predicted to evolve when mating opportunities are limited, such as in cases of low-density distribution and low mobility of individuals. However, the plasticity of sex is adaptive in obtaining mating opportunities, especially when there is mate loss. Pair-rearing experiments and histological observations of gonads of the goby Lubricogobius exiguus, which has lowdensity distributions and low mobility, showed bidirectional sex change. The male-role individuals in pairs had gonads in which only the testis was functional (male-phase), whereas the female-role individuals had two types of gonads: only the ovary was functional (female-phase) or both testis and ovary were functional (simultaneously hermaphroditic phase, SH-phase). In addition, single-rearing experiments showed SH-phase gonads in all individuals, and some cyclic spawning but no self-fertilization occurred. These results revealed that L. exiguus has an unusual sexual pattern among hermaphroditic fishes because they undergo bidirectional sex change and some maintain SH-phase gonads. These findings indicate that the low-density distribution and low mobility of L. exiguus in their natural habitat may have influenced the evolution of this unique sexual pattern.
The feasibility and safety of endoscopic deployment of multiple metallic stents in malignant hilar biliary strictures have been addressed in several articles [1 -5]. However, once metallic stents are occluded, multiple deployment of plastic stents through the previously deployed metallic stents is sometimes difficult. We have designed a new plastic stent for dealing with multiple metallic stent occlusion, and report a successful case using this new stent. A 64-year-old man with obstructive jaundice was referred to our hospital. He had malignant hilar biliary strictures caused by pancreatic cancer (• " Fig. 1). We used a Zeostent (Zeon Medical, Tokyo, Japan) and deployed three-branched me-
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