BACKGROUND Thoracic pathologists are frequently faced with tissue specimens from intrathoracic/mediastinal tumors. Specifically the differentiation between thymic and pulmonary squamous cell carcinomas (SqCC) can be challenging. In order to clarify the differential diagnostic value of CD5 and CD117 in this setting, we performed a large scale expression study of both markers in 1465 non-small ce...

BACKGROUND Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are believed to be 'seed cell' in cancer recurrence and metastasis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can play an important role in the progression of primary tumor towards metastasis by regulating the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of miRNA-200c overexpression on the EMT, tumorigenicity and metastasis of epithe...

CD117 is a cytokine receptor expressed on the surface of hematopoietic stem cells with a likely role in cell survival, proliferation and differentiation. In order to study the differentiation activity of porcine CD117 hematopoietic cells in vitro and in vivo we prepared an anti-swine CD117 Mab (2A1) with high specificity for flow-cytometrical analysis. The 2A1 Mab did not recognize mouse or hum...

The aim: to find the optimal combination of immunohistochemical markers for differential diagnosis and prognosis small cell lung cancer in biopsy samples.
 Materials methods. tumor specimens were divided into 3 groups: 1) 25 samples before treatment; 2) procured from autopsies patients, who underwent chemotherapy; 3) 15 other tumors histologically similar SCLC. All formalin fixed paraffin ...

A cytokine-screening assay of cultured peripheral blood cells obtained using immune rosetting and separation of progenitors was developed to identify determinants of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) modulation during adult erythropoiesis. Among the 12 erythroid growth-promoting cytokines tested, stem cell factor (SCF) at a concentration of 50 ng/mL resulted in the most significant increase in cell prolif...

Stromal cell-derived factor-1alpha (SDF-1alpha) mediated mobilization and homing of stem cells showed promising potential in stem cell based tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However local and sustained release of SDF-1alpha is indispensable for stem cell mediated regenerative process due to its short half-life under inflammatory conditions. In this study, a gene activated collagen ...

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are rare mesenchymal tumors arising from the wall of the gastrointestinal tract with immunohistochemical reactivity for CD117 antibody, and usually prevalent in the fifth to seventh decade of life. The specific practical diagnostic criteria for GIST are c-kit expression (CD117), mitotic score, and the tumour size. The stomach is the most common site of lo...

Activating FLT3 mutations are the most common genetic aberrations in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), resulting in the constitutive activation of this receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK), but such mutations are rarely found in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Here we describe a unique subset of de novo adult T-cell ALL (T-ALL) cases that coexpress CD117/KIT and cytoplasmic CD3 (CD117/KIT(+) ALL). Ac...

A high level of serum IgE is generally associated with human resistance to schistosomes, though the protective mechanisms of IgE remain undefined. We recently reported that whereas some individuals who are occupationally hyperexposed to Schistosoma mansoni display resistance to reinfection, others remain highly susceptible, in some cases due to HIV-1 co-infection. As IgE functions, in part, thr...