Proteomic analysis of colorectal cancer metastasis:stathmin-1 revealed as a player in cancer cell migration and prognostic marker

Metastasis accounts largely for the high mortality rate of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. In this study, we performed comparative proteome analysis of primary CRC cell lines HCT-116 and its metastatic derivative E1 using 2-D DIGE. We identified 74 differentially expressed proteins, many of which function in transcription, translation, angiogenesis signal transduction, or cytoskeletal remodeling pathways, which are indispensable cellular processes involved in the metastatic cascade. Among these proteins, stathmin-1 (STMN1) was found to be highly up-regulated in E1 as compared to HCT-116 and was thus selected for further functional studies. Our results showed that perturbations in STMN1 levels resulted in significant changes in cell migration, invasion, adhesion, and colony formation. We further showed that the differential expression of STMN1 correlated with the cells' metastatic potential in other paradigms of CRC models. Using immunohistochemistry, we also showed that STMN1 was highly expressed in colorectal primary tumors and metastatic tissues as compared to the adjacent normal colorectal tissues. Furthermore, we also showed via tissue microarray analyses of 324 CRC tissues and Kaplan-Meier survival plot that CRC patients with higher expression of STMN1 have poorer prognosis.

Sirolimus Stimulates Vascular Stem/Progenitor Cell Migration and Differentiation Into Smooth Muscle Cells via Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor/Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase/β-Catenin Signaling Pathway

Sirolimus-eluting stent therapy has achieved considerable success in overcoming coronary artery restenosis. However, there remain a large number of patients presenting with restenosis after the treatment, and the source of its persistence remains unclarified. Although recent evidence supports the contribution of vascular stem/progenitor cells in restenosis formation, their functional and molecular responses to sirolimus are largely unknown.

Observation of Ultrafast Charge Migration in an Amino Acid

We present the first direct measurement of ultrafast charge migration in a biomolecular building block the amino acid phenylalanine. Using an extreme ultraviolet pulse of 1.5 fs duration to ionize molecules isolated in the gas phase, the location of the resulting hole was probed by a 6 fs visible/near-infrared pulse. By measuring the yield of a doubly charged ion as a function of the delay between the two pulses, the positive hole was observed to migrate to one end of the cation within 30 fs. This process is likely to originate from even faster coherent charge oscillations in the molecule being dephased by bond stretching which eventually localizes the final position of the charge. This demonstration offers a clear template for observing and controlling this phenomenon in the future.

Migration to Northern Ireland

For a long time the society in Northern Ireland has been considered in binary terms of Protestantism or Catholicism, reflecting the two majority communities. Tradition and culture have long played an important role for these communities and the latest arrival of migrants has complicated this already complex picture. Problems have arisen with respect to social attitudes with incidences of discrimination being experienced by particular groups. Clearly cohesion and positive integration is not necessarily something that flows from an appropriate legislative framework. But equally, and perhaps more optimistically, early indications are that civil society and locality are important for building positive inter-group relations. This article presents a brief overview of recent patterns and processes of migration to Northern Ireland. It is based on ongoing research into this subject that has been conducted by the author since 2005. It presents the key features of recent migration before identifying some challenges arising for our society.

Alkyloxycarbonyl group migration in furanosides

A migration of methyloxycarbonyl group from secondary to primary hydroxyl was observed in furanosides (ribosides and xylosides) under usual desilylation conditions using tetrabutylammonium fluoride. The migration was studied further on several alkyloxycarbonyl furanosides under either basic or acidic conditions. As follows from C labelling experiments and product distribution, the migration in xylosides, proceeds intramolecularly via six-membered cyclic carbonate, whereas in ribosides, the migration is intermolecular. Acidic conditions prevented the migration in ribosides whereas the migration in xylosides was circumvented under neutral conditions. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Flexibility of Continental Navigation and Migration in European Mallards

The ontogeny of continent-wide navigation mechanisms of the individual organism, despite being crucial for the understanding of animal movement and migration, is still poorly understood. Several previous studies, mainly conducted on passerines, indicate that inexperienced, juvenile birds may not generally correct for displacement during fall migration. Waterbirds such as the mallard (Anas platyrhynchos, Linnaeus 1758) are more flexible in their migration behavior than most migratory songbirds, but previous experiments with waterbirds have not yet allowed clear conclusions about their navigation abilities. Here we tested whether immature mallard ducks correct for latitudinal displacement during fall migration within Europe. During two consecutive fall migration periods, we caught immature females on a stopover site in southeast Sweden, and translocated a group of them ca. 1,000 km to southern Germany. We followed the movements of the ducks via satellite GPS-tracking and observed their migration decisions during the fall and consecutive spring migration. The control animals released in Ottenby behaved as expected from banding recoveries: they continued migration during the winter and in spring returned to the population's breeding grounds in the Baltics and Northwest Russia. Contrary to the control animals, the translocated mallards did not continue migration and stayed at Lake Constance. In spring, three types of movement tactics could be observed: 61.5% of the ducks (16 of 26) stayed around Lake Constance, 27% (7 of 26) migrated in a northerly direction towards Sweden and 11.5% of the individuals (3 of 26) headed east for ca. 1,000 km and then north. We suggest that young female mallards flexibly adjust their migration tactics and develop a navigational map that allows them to return to their natal breeding area.

From North Africa to France:Family Migration in Text and Film

Over the past four decades immigration to France from the Francophone countries of North Africa has changed in character. For much of the twentieth century, migrants who crossed the Mediterranean to France were men seeking work, who frequently undertook manual labour, working long hours in difficult conditions. Recent decades have seen an increase in family reunification - the arrival of women and children from North Africa, either accompanying their husbands or joining them in France. Contemporary creative representations of migration are shaped by this shift in gender and generation from a solitary, mostly male experience to one that included women and children. Just as the shift made new demands of the 'host' society, it made new demands of authors and filmmakers as they seek to represent migration. This study reveals how text and film present new ways of thinking about migration, moving away from the configuration of the migrant as man and worker, to take women, children and the ties between them into account.

True navigation in birds: from quantum physics to global migration

Birds are capable of true navigation, the ability to return to a known goal from a place they have never visited before. This is demonstrated most spectacularly during the vast migratory journeys made by these animals year after year, often between continents and occasionally global in nature. However, it remains one of the great unanswered questions in science, despite more than 50 years of research in this field. Nevertheless, the study of true navigation in birds has made significant advances in the previous 20 years, in part thanks to the integration of many disciplines outside its root in behavioural biology, to address questions of neurobiology, molecular aspects, and the physics of sensory systems and environmental cues involved in bird navigation, often involving quantum physics. However, true navigation remains a controversial field, with many conflicting and confusing results making interpretation difficult, particularly for those outside or new to the field. Unlike many general texts on migration, which avoid discussion of these issues, this review will present these conflicting findings and assess the state of the field of true navigation during bird migration.

Unravelling the migration decision-making process: English early retirees moving to rural mid-Wales

There are established migrant reasons to explain rural in-migration. These include quality of life, rural idyll and lifestyle motivations. However, such one-dimensional sound bites portray rural in-migration in overly simplistic and stereotypical terms. In contrast, this paper distinguishes the decision to move from the reason for moving and in doing so sheds new light on the interconnections between different domains (family, work, finance, health) of the migrant's life which contribute to migration behaviour. Focussing on early retirees to mid-Wales and adopting a life course perspective the overall decision to move is disaggregated into a series of decisions. Giving voices to the migrants themselves demonstrates the combination of life events necessary to lead to migration behaviour, the variable factors (and often economic dominance) considered in the choice of destination (including that many are reluctant migrants to Wales), and the perceived 'accidental' choice of location and/or property. It is argued that quality of life, rural idyll and lifestyle sound bites offer an inadequate understanding of rural in-migration and associated decision-making processes. Moreover, they disguise the true nature of migrant decision making.

An anthropometric history of the World, 1810-1980: did migration and globalization influence country trends?

We find that regional height levels around the world were fairly uniform throughout most of the 19th century, with two exceptions: above-average levels in Anglo-Saxon settlement regions and below-average levels in Southeast Asia. After 1880, substantial diver- gences began to differentiate other regions -- making the world population taller, but more unequal. During the late 19th century and 20th century, heights between world regions devi- ated significantly, when incomes also became very unequal. Interestingly, during the “breaking point period” between the two regimes, heights declined significantly in the cattle-rich New World countries, whereas they started to increase in Old Europe. We discuss in this study whether immigration was a core factor to influence the height decline in the “Anthropometric Decline of the Cowboy and Gaucho Empires”.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) expression in human malignant gliomas contributes to immune escape and tumour progression

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), which inhibits apoptosis and promotes angiogenesis, is expressed in cancers suppressing immune surveillance. Its biological role in human glioblastoma is, however, only poorly understood. We examined in-vivo expression of MIF in 166 gliomas and 23 normal control brains by immunohistochemistry. MIF immunoreactivity was enhanced in neoplastic astrocytes in WHO grade II glioma and increased significantly in higher tumour grades (III-IV). MIF expression was further assessed in 12 glioma cell lines in vitro. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that MIF mRNA expression was elevated up to 800-fold in malignant glioma cells compared with normal brain. This translated into high protein levels as assessed by immunoblotting of total cell lysates and by ELISA-based measurement of secreted MIF. Wild-type p53-retaining glioma cell lines expressed higher levels of MIF, which may be connected with the previously described role of MIF as a negative regulator of wild-type p53 signalling in tumour cells. Stable knockdown of MIF by shRNA in glioma cells significantly increased tumour cell susceptibility towards NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Furthermore, supernatant from mock-transfected cells, but not from MIF knockdown cells, induced downregulation of the activating immune receptor NKG2D on NK and CD8+ T cells. We thus propose that human glioma cell-derived MIF contributes to the immune escape of malignant gliomas by counteracting NK and cytotoxic T-cell-mediated tumour immune surveillance. Considering its further cell-intrinsic and extrinsic tumour-promoting effects and the availability of small molecule inhibitors, MIF seems to be a promising candidate for future glioma therapy.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor contributes to the immune escape of ovarian cancer by down-regulating NKG2D

The proinflammatory cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) stimulates tumor cell proliferation, migration, and metastasis; promotes tumor angiogenesis; suppresses p53-mediated apoptosis; and inhibits antitumor immunity by largely unknown mechanisms. We here describe an overexpression of MIF in ovarian cancer that correlates with malignancy and the presence of ascites. Functionally, we find that MIF may contribute to the immune escape of ovarian carcinoma by transcriptionally down-regulating NKG2D in vitro and in vivo which impairs NK cell cytotoxicity toward tumor cells. Together with the additional tumorigenic properties of MIF, this finding provides a rationale for novel small-molecule inhibitors of MIF to be used for the treatment of MIF-secreting cancers.