BACKGROUND Adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) is a rare disease involving various organs, yet there are no large-scale population-based comparative studies on ASC among different organs. METHODS The incidence and overall survival of ASC among various organs in cases diagnosed in Taiwan from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2010 were calculated and compared using data from the Taiwan Cancer Registry...

A nonimmunoglobulin protein with the molecular weight of 9,145 (protein AS) has been shown to be a principal component of the amyloid fibrils in different clinical types of amyloidosis. A protein component, antigenically closely related to protein AS, was detected in human sera. The protein AS-related component (protein ASC) was found in the sera of many groups of patients, including 48 out of ...

The ASC (apoptosis speck-like protein) is a key component of multimeric protein complexes that mediate inflammation and host defence. Comprising a PYD (Pyrin) domain and a CARD (caspase activation and recruitment domain), ASC functions downstream of NLRs (nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich repeat-containing receptors) and AIM2 (absent in melanoma 2) through the formation of supramolecular ...

Disorders of cytoskeletal remodeling and signal transduction are frequently involved in cancer progression. In particular, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase-recruitment domain (ASC) has been reported a proapoptotic molecule that is epigenetically silenced in several human cancers. ASC is a well-characterized adaptor protein involved in the formation of multiprotein ol...

1. In the present study we have examined the sensitivity of A and ASC amino-acid-carrier activities in rat liver plasmamembrane vesicles to the thiol-group modifying reagents N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) and iodoacetamide (IA). To this end, the different Na+-dependent entities involved in alanine transport were assessed. 2. NEM inactivated Na+-dependent alanine transport as a result of the inhibition...

Ascorbate (Asc) plays a key role in reductive activation of carcinogenic chromium(VI) in vivo. In addition to much higher rates (t(1/2) = 1 min for 1 mM Asc), its reactions at physiological conditions differ from other reducers by low yields of Cr(V) intermediates. Human cells in culture are severely Asc deficient, which results in distorted metabolism and potentially abnormal responses to Cr(V...

Empathy is the lens through which we view others' emotion expressions, and respond to them. In this study, empathy and facial emotion recognition were investigated in adults with autism spectrum conditions (ASC; N=314), parents of a child with ASC (N=297) and IQ-matched controls (N=184). Participants completed a self-report measure of empathy (the Empathy Quotient [EQ]) and a modified version o...

Adipose-derived stromal/mesenchymal stem cells (ASC) have gained interest as promising tools for delivering cancer therapy. Adipose tissue can be obtained readily in amounts sufficient for ASC isolation, which can be expanded rapidly, allowing its use at low passage numbers, and can be transduced by viral and nonviral means. Our goal was to examine the potential of ASC to deliver cytokine gene ...

In this issue of the Journal, Lee and colleagues 1 from Hong Kong describe their assessment of the impact of the 2001 Bethesda System (TBS) revisions on their cytology practice. The primary focus of the study was to assess the impact of the conversion from TBS 1991 to the 2001 version on the frequency of atypical squamous cells (ASC) diagnoses. As noted in prior commentaries, ASC is not a diagn...

BACKGROUND Fat grafting is used to restore breast defects after surgical resection of breast tumors. Supplementing fat grafts with adipose tissue-derived stromal/stem cells (ASCs) is proposed to improve the regenerative/restorative ability of the graft and retention. However, long term safety for ASC grafting in proximity of residual breast cancer cells is unknown. The objective of this study w...