Co-expression of CD173 (H2) and CD174 (Lewis Y) with CD44 suggests that fucosylated histo-blood group antigens are markers of breast cancer-initiating cells

Histo-blood group antigens CD173 (H2) and CD174 (Lewis Y) are known to be developmentally regulated carbohydrate antigens which are expressed to a varying degree on many human carcinomas. We hypothesized that they might represent markers of cancer-initiating cells (or cancer stem cells, CSC). In order to test this hypothesis, we examined the co-expression of CD173 and CD174 with stem cell markers CD44 and CD133 by flow cytometry analysis, immunocytochemistry, and immunohistochemistry on cell lines and tissue sections from breast cancer. In three breast cancer cell lines, the percentage of CD173(+)/CD44(+) cells ranged from 17% to > 60% and of CD174(+)/CD44(+) from 21% to 57%. In breast cancer tissue sections from 15 patients, up to 50% of tumor cells simultaneously expressed CD173, CD174, and CD44 antigens. Co-expression of CD173 and CD174 with CD133 was also observed, but to a lesser percentage. Co-immunoprecipitation and sandwich ELISA experiments on breast cancer cell lines suggested that CD173 and CD174 are carried on the CD44 molecule. The results show that in these tissues CD173 (H2) and CD174 (LeY) are associated with CD44 expression, suggesting that these carbohydrate antigens are markers of cancer-initiating cells or of early progenitors of breast carcinomas.

Effects of Lewis number on scalar variance transport in premixed flames

The influences of differential diffusion rates of heat and mass on the transport of the variances of Favre fluctuations of reaction progress variable and non-dimensional temperature have been studied using three-dimensional simplified chemistry based Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) data of statistically planar turbulent premixed flames with global Lewis number ranging from Le = 0.34 to 1.2. The Lewis number effects on the statistical behaviours of the various terms of the transport equations of variances of Favre fluctuations of reaction progress variable and non-dimensional temperature have been analysed in the context of Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) simulations. It has been found that the turbulent fluxes of the progress variable and temperature variances exhibit counter-gradient transport for the flames with Lewis number significantly smaller than unity whereas the extent of this counter-gradient transport is found to decrease with increasing Lewis number. The Lewis number is also shown to have significant influences on the magnitudes of the chemical reaction and scalar dissipation rate contributions to the scalar variance transport. The modelling of the unclosed terms in the scalar variance equations for the non-unity Lewis number flames have been discussed in detail. The performances of the existing models for the unclosed terms are assessed based on a-priori analysis of DNS data. Based on the present analysis, new models for the unclosed terms of the active scalar variance transport equations are proposed, whenever necessary, which are shown to satisfactorily capture the behaviours of unclosed terms for all the flames considered in this study. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

DIFFERENT RATES OF MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA SEQUENCE EVOLUTION IN KIRK DIK-DIK (MADOQUA-KIRKII) POPULATIONS

We have investigated evolutionary rates of the mitochondrial genome among individuals of Madoqua kirkii using the relative rate test. Our results demonstrate that individuals of two chromosome races, East African cytotype A and Southwest African cytotype D, evolve about 2.3 times faster than East African cytotype B. Cytogenetic changes, DNA repair efficiency, mutagens, and more likely, hitherto unrecognized factors will account for the rate difference we have observed. Our results suggest additional caution when using molecular clocks in the estimation of divergence time, even within lineages of closely related taxa. Rate heterogeneity in microevolutionary timescales represents a potentially important aspect of basic evolutionary processes and may provide additional insights into factors which affect genome evolution. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.

A priori assessment of algebraic flame surface density models in the context of large eddy simulation for nonunity lewis number flames in the thin reaction zones regime

The performance of algebraic flame surface density (FSD) models has been assessed for flames with nonunity Lewis number (Le) in the thin reaction zones regime, using a direct numerical simulation (DNS) database of freely propagating turbulent premixed flames with Le ranging from 0.34 to 1.2. The focus is on algebraic FSD models based on a power-law approach, and the effects of Lewis number on the fractal dimension D and inner cut-off scale η i have been studied in detail. It has been found that D is strongly affected by Lewis number and increases significantly with decreasing Le. By contrast, η i remains close to the laminar flame thermal thickness for all values of Le considered here. A parameterisation of D is proposed such that the effects of Lewis number are explicitly accounted for. The new parameterisation is used to propose a new algebraic model for FSD. The performance of the new model is assessed with respect to results for the generalised FSD obtained from explicitly LES-filtered DNS data. It has been found that the performance of the most existing models deteriorates with decreasing Lewis number, while the newly proposed model is found to perform as well or better than the most existing algebraic models for FSD. © 2012 Mohit Katragadda et al.

The effects of non-unity lewis numbers on turbulent premixed flame interactions in a twin V-flame configuration

The influence of Lewis number on turbulent premixed flame interactions is investigated using automatic feature extraction (AFE) applied to high-resolution flame simulation data. Premixed turbulent twin V-flames under identical turbulence conditions are simulated at global Lewis numbers of 0.4, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2. Information on the position, frequency, and magnitude of the interactions is compared, and the sensitivity of the results to sample interval is discussed. It is found that both the frequency and magnitude of normal type interactions increases with decreasing Lewis number. Counternormal type interactions become more likely as the Lewis number increases. The variation in both the frequency and the magnitude of the interactions is found to be caused by large-scale changes in flame wrinkling resulting from differences in the thermo-diffusive stability of the flames. During flame interactions, thermo-diffusive effects are found to be insignificant due to the separation of time scales. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Lewis酸引发的LLDPE/PS共混体系的原位反应增容及其结构与性能研究

本文以单组分和双组分Lewis酸为催化剂，采用反应加工的方法，制备了原位反应增容的线性低密度聚乙烯/聚苯乙烯共混物（LLDPE/PS），并对原位反应增容的机理、增容体系的结构性能以及Lewis酸对共混组分的降解作用进行了系统研究。 以FTIR和NMR为手段、二甲苯为模拟化合物，确认LLDPE/PS共混体系在Lewis酸为催化剂作用下发生了LLDPE与PS的接枝反应，LLDPE接枝在PS苯环的对位上。形成的原位接枝共聚物对体系起增容作用。 使用溶剂抽提、SEM、DMA、流变和DSC等手段对以单组分Lewis酸AlCl3 为催化剂的LLDPE/PS共混物的结构性能进行了研究。从溶剂抽提前后的重量比计算了接枝物的含量。催化剂用量较低时体系中的接枝物含量随AlCl3的增加而提高，随着AlCl3进一步增加，接枝物含量不会增加反而下降，发现AlCl3导致均聚物的降解。研究结果表明，共混体系中加入适量的AlCl3催化剂后，分散相尺寸减小，分布均匀，储能模量增加，低频区的复数黏度升高。但AlCl3用量过高时使共混物的分散相尺寸增加，分布均匀度下降，储能模量和复数黏度降低。以GPC为手段研究了单组分 Lewis酸AlCl3对共混组分的降解作用，发现对PS的降解作用显著。 由于单组分Lewis酸催化剂会导致共混组分降解，使共混体系的物理机械性能变劣，为此，我们在LLDPE/PS共混物中引入了双组分Lewis酸催化剂（Me3SiCl、InCl3•4H2O）。结果表明双组分Lewis酸催化剂不但能够催化LLDPE和PS的原位接枝反应，获得高性能的LLDPE/PS合金材料，而且不会引发共混组分PS的降解。在催化剂用量固定时，采用双组分催化剂时共混物的拉伸强度随着LLDPE含量的增加几乎保持不变，但冲击强度有十分明显的提高。对比了加入催化剂前后共混物形貌的变化，增容后的共混物中分散相粒子尺寸显著降低，证明了双Lewis酸良好的催化性能。 对以双Lewis酸为催化剂的共混物的流变行为和结晶行为进行了研究。随着催化剂的加入，两相之间的相互作用增强，因此共混物的复数黏度，储能模量和损耗模量都有不同程度的提高。增容后的LLDPE相区变小，因而在冷却过程中出现不同程度的分步结晶现象。 对单组分和双组分Lewis酸催化剂原位反应增容LLDPE/PS共混体系的机理进行了探讨。机理为Friedel-Crafts烷基化反应。在采用单组分Lewis酸催化剂时， AlCl3与体系中含有的微量水等杂质发生反应，形成一个复合物，然后进一步与聚乙烯中的不饱和的双键发生反应形成碳正离子，并攻击LLDPE分子链从而形成大分子的碳正离子LLDPE+，而这些LLDPE+则通过电子的重排而发生剪切断裂。在催化剂的存在下，这些断裂的LLDPE片断取代PS中的苯环上的质子而发生接枝反应，从而形成LLDPE-g-PS共聚物。采用双组分Lewis酸催化剂时，首先发生双Lewis酸的耦合；耦合后的Lewis酸与水等杂质反应生成复合物，然后与非饱和的LLDPE分子反应生成初级碳正离子；初级碳正离子进攻LLDPE主链，生成较大的碳正离子；LLDPE+碳正离子取代PS苯环对位的质子而生成接枝共聚物。

单细胞凝胶电泳技术检测碳离子束和X射线照射对Lewis肺癌细胞的DNA损伤

比较研究了89.63MeV/u的碳离子束和6MeV的X射线照射Lewis肺癌细胞所致的细胞克隆存活和DNA损伤效应,以探讨单细胞凝胶电泳检测细胞辐射敏感性及重离子束治疗肿瘤的优势。结果表明,在10%细胞存活水平上碳离子束的相对生物学效应(Relative biological effectiveness,RBE)值达到1.77。单细胞凝胶电泳检测损伤DNA尾部百分含量(Tail DNA,TD)和Olive尾矩(Olive tail moment,OTM)的剂量效应曲线表明,X射线的剂量效应曲线为线性,而碳离子束诱导出一个包含线性和指数项的双阶段效应曲线。碳离子束辐照剂量大于8Gy后TD和OTM都存在饱和效应。在2Gy的剂量点,高传能线密度(LET)碳离子束比X射线产生更低的存活分数和更高的初始OTM。本研究提示:在Lewis肺癌细胞中,碳离子束照射比X射线产生更为强烈的细胞致死和DNA损伤效应,可使肿瘤治疗具有更高效率。

重离子对小鼠移植性Lewis肺癌分次照射的生物效应

目的　研究重离子不同分次照射的生物效应。方法　除对照组外 ,选择了 2个剂量点 :低剂量为 12Gy,高剂量为 2 4Gy。每个剂量分单次、2和 3次照射组 ,观察Lewis肺癌的肿瘤体积变化、肿瘤生长延迟时间和荷瘤小鼠生存时间。结果　无论高剂量还是低剂量 ,分 3次照射的肿瘤生长延迟和生存时间都显著大于单次和分 2次照射。结论　采用分 3次照射的肿瘤生物效应优于单次和分 2次照射 ,低剂量又优于高剂量。此研究结果为我国重离子束治疗肿瘤的临床试验提供了实验依据。