The pancreatic beta- and alpha-cells are developmentally related to each other but reveal diverse gene expression patterns. Among the two important transcription factors for insulin gene expression, IEF1 is present both in alpha- and beta-cells, but PDX-1/IPF1/STF-1/IDX-1, a homeodomain-containing transcription factor, is present in beta-cells but not in alpha-cells. To elucidate the function o...

Purpose. To evaluate the effect of polydextrose (PDX) on Ca bioavailability and prevention of loss of bone mass. Methods. Twenty-four two-month-old ovariectomized rats were fed three isocaloric diets only varied in fiber source and content up to 60 days (FOS group, a commercial mixture of short- and long-chain fructooligosaccharide, OVX group fed AIN 93 diet, and PDX group). A SHAM group was in...

N-of-1 trials target actionable mutations, yet such approaches do not test genomically-informed therapies in patient tumor models prior to patient treatment. To address this, we developed patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models from fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsies (FNA-PDX) obtained from primary pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) at the time of diagnosis. Here, we characterize PDX mod...

We have investigated the osmotic pressure dependence of the association between ferric cytochrome P450cam and putidaredoxin (Pdx) to gain an insight into the role of water molecules in the P450cam-reduced Pdx complexation amenable to physiological electron transfer. The association constant was evaluated from the electron transfer rates from reduced Pdx to P450cam. The natural logarithm of the ...

The ability of the adult pancreas to generate new insulin (beta) cells has been controversial because of difficulties in unequivocally identifying the precursor population. We recently determined that beta cells were generated during development from precursors that expressed the homeodomain-containing transcription factor pancreas duodenum homeobox gene-1 (PDX-1). To investigate whether PDX-1+...

Pancreatic and duodenal homeobox gene-1 (PDX-1) regulates pancreas development during embryogenesis, whereas in the adult it controls beta-cell function. Here we analyze whether PDX-1 functions as a pancreatic differentiation factor and a bona fide master regulator when ectopically expressed in mature fully differentiated liver in vivo. By ectopic and transient PDX-1 expression in liver in vivo...

The receptor tyrosine kinase RET is implicated in the progression of luminal breast cancers (BC) but its role in estrogen receptor (ER) negative tumors is unknown. Here we investigated the expression of RET in breast cancer patients tumors and patient-derived xenografts (PDX) and evaluated the therapeutic potential of Vandetanib, a tyrosin kinase inhibitor with strong activity against RET, EGFR...

Viable and stable human cancer cell lines and animal models combined with adequate clinical information are essential for future advances in cancer research and patient care. Conventional in vitro cancer cell lines are commonly available; however, they lack detailed information on the patient from which they originate, including disease phenotype and drug sensitivity. Patient-derived xenografts...

UNLABELLED Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the development and characterization of patient-derived tumor xenograft (PDX) models for cancer research. PDX models mostly retain the principal histologic and genetic characteristics of their donor tumor and remain stable across passages. These models have been shown to be predictive of clinical outcomes and are being used for precl...