Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by an abundant desmoplastic stroma. We examined the prognostic value of stroma density and activity in patients with resectable PDAC treated with surgery and adjuvant gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. FFPE-tissue from the pancreatectomy of 145 patients was immunohistochemically stained for haematoxylin-eosin and Masson's trichrome to assess...

PURPOSE Stroma cells play a relevant role in tumor development and progression. We investigated the activity of herceptin (HER), a humanized monoclonal antibody widely used for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing epithelial cancer, toward stroma cell lines L87/4 and L88/5. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We studied the antiproliferative potential of HER and role of human serum in HER activity. We also i...

hitact calf corneas and calf corneas with epithelium and endothelium removed were incubated in vitro with inorganic sulfate-S for 6 hours at 38° C. The incorporation of S into the nondialyzable substances (essentially mucopolysaccharides) was measured. No significant difference was found between the S incorporation of the denuded stroma and that of the intact cornea. Calf corneal stromas, swoll...

In our previous studies, we noted a non-uniform distribution of protein tracer preferentially entering the anterior stromal lamellae of the cornea from the limbus. Given other differences reported previously between the anterior and posterior lamellae of the cornea, and the number of corneal disorders in which abnormalities are preferentially confined to either the anterior or posterior lamella...

PURPOSE In addition to Langerhans cells (LCs), other dendritic cells (CD11c(+)) have recently been shown to express Langerin (c-type lectin). In skin, (non-LC) Langerin+ dendritic cells initiate adaptive immunity. However, whether such dendritic cells (DC) reside in the cornea, an immune-privileged tissue, is unknown. METHODS Normal C57BL/6 corneas were harvested for qRT-PCR analyses of Lange...

Abstract Background Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most recalcitrant forms with poor prognosis and limited treatment options. SDT is a novel, targeted approach to solid tumours. Based on generation cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) following exposure sonosensitiser ultrasound, designed extracorporeally target less accessible lesions. Here we describe production poly(lactic-co-glycol...

LTHOUGH THE PULMONARY REACTION to all dusts is characterized in the early phase by a stroma of reticulin fibers, and this stroma remains essentially unchanged in reactions to so-called “inert” dusts, in the case of quartz dust, the reticutin is replaced by collagen after a latent period. Many papers have been written attempting to explain why quartz dust is so different as to cause a collagenou...

Results. Abnormalities in collagen organization were seen in both the anterior and posterior stroma of the keratoconus cornea (Figure 2), with the most drastic disruption occurring within the region of greatest corneal steepening (Figure 1). In the posterior stroma, the normal orthogonal predominant orientation of collagen was absent; in the anterior stroma, the usual isotropic arrangement of c...