Correlations between CD34 Immunolabelled Blood Vessels and CD34 mRNA Expression in Colorectal Cancer

Utility of CD34 in Assessing Microvessel Density and Its Correlation With Clinicopathological Parameters in Colorectal Carcinoma Patients

Currently, the most commonly practiced method of reporting cases of colorectal carcinoma is done according to guidelines provided by the College of American Pathologists (8th edition) and the Royal College of Pathologists (UK). These guidelines include various histopathological parameters like tumor site, extent, histologic type, grade, margins, tumor budding, lymphovascular invasion, and perineural invasion. However, in the present guidelines, the immunohistochemistry-based marker of mean vessel density (MVD) has not been addressed as an important parameter. The present study gives an overview of the importance of MVD. MVD was statistically significant when correlated with tumor size, lymph node metastasis, grade, and vascular invasion. However, no statistical significance was observed when compared with age, perineural invasion, and stage of the tumor.

NO donor inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis by targeting PI3K/AKT/mTOR and MEK/ERK pathways in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

BACKGROUND

PABA/NO, O2-{2,4-dinitro-5-[4-(N-methylamino) benzoyloxy] phenyl} 1-(N, N-dimethylamino) diazen-1-ium-1,2-diolate, is a diazeniumdiolate-based NO-donor prodrug that releases exogenous nitric oxide at high concentrations to induce apoptosis in many tumor cell lines.

PURPOSE

This study aimed to determine the effects of PABA/NO on hepatocellular carcinoma proliferation and apoptosis induction both in vitro and in vivo experiments.

RESULTS

PABA/NO dramatically inhibited the growth of Bel-7402 hepatocellular carcinoma cells and significantly induced apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner, accompanied by down-regulation of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, up-regulation of Bax and Bad, release of Cyt c and activation of cleaved-caspase-9/3 and cleaved-PARP, which were related to suppressing PI3K/AKT/mTOR and MEK/ERK signaling pathways. LY294002 (a PI3K inhibitor) and U0126 (an ERK inhibitor) prior to PABA/NO were found to synergistically enhance PABA/NO-induced apoptosis. Carboxy-PTIO as a NO scavenger obviously attenuated PABA/NO-induced apoptosis. Additionally, H22 tumor-bearing mice experiments demonstrated that PABA/NO exerted good anti-tumor effects via reducing tumor volume, tumor weight and decreasing the expression of CD34. Furthermore, PABA/NO treatment strongly inhibited the phosphorylation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR and MEK/ERK signaling pathways in H22 hepatocellular carcinoma tissues.

CONCLUSIONS

PABA/NO induced apoptosis through inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR and MEK/ERK pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.