Previous successful transplantation of human primary prostatic carcinomas into nude mice has been described as "close to zero." When injected in Matrigel instead of culture medium, 25,000-fold fewer cells of the PC-3 human prostatic carcinoma cell line were required for the growth of tumors in nude mice during a 3-month period of observation; similar enhancement was observed with two other huma...

Normal mammary epithelial cells express the cell surface protein biliary glycoprotein (BGP or CD66a) in a polarized manner, suggesting that this protein may play a role in the formation of mammary acini. In order to test this hypothesis, we interrupted the expression of BGP in the mammary epithelial line MCF10F when cultured in or on Matrigel, a source of extracellular matrix (ECM). When analyz...

BACKGROUND Platelets contribute to vascular homeostasis and angiogenesis through the release of multiple growth factors, cytokines and nucleotides, such as ATP and ADP. Recent reports have demonstrated a marked growth-promoting effect of total platelet extracts and selected platelet growth factors on therapeutic angiogenesis. However, since endogenous adenine nucleotides are rapidly degraded du...

In vitro growth of follicles is a promising technology to generate large quantities of competent oocytes from immature follicles and could expand the potential of assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Isolated follicle culture is currently the primary method used to develop and mature follicles in vitro. However, this procedure typically requires complicated, time-consuming procedures, as w...

BACKGROUND Autologous fat is an excellent soft tissue filler with cosmetic and reconstructive utility. However, graft longevity is unpredictable. OBJECTIVE This study sought to evaluate the effect on in vivo fat graft performance of contemporary adipocyte tissue engineering techniques that have not previously been applied to mature fat cells due to the difficulty of their purification and the...

We show that BJcuL, a lectin purified from Bothrops jararacussu venom, exerts cytotoxic effects to gastric carcinoma cells MKN45 and AGS. This effect was due to the direct interaction with specific glycans on the cells surface and was observed by cell viability decrease, disorganization of actin filaments and apoptosis. In addition, BJcuL was able to reduce tumor cell adhesion to matrigel, what...