Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prey; 21(5); 843-50. (C)2012 AACR.”
“Objective: To identify colon cancer patients with occult lymph node metastases.\n\nSummary of Background Data: The prognostic value of regional lymph node (LN) metastases in colorectal cancer patients is well established. The disease recurrences nevertheless experienced by 20% check details to 30% of

the LN negative patients suggest a potential for improvement in current LN diagnostics. We suspect that a subgroup of the patients that are LN negative by routine examination has occult LN metastases that are prognostically relevant.\n\nMethods: To identify these patients we applied ex vivo sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping to colon cancer patients and analyzed find more the SLNs by a sensitive peptide nucleic acid clamp PCR (polymerase chain reaction) assay for K-ras mutations, using these mutations as a surrogate marker for tumor cells.\n\nResults: SLNs were identified in 158 (96%) of 164 prospectively recruited patients with localized colon cancer. Of the 158 patients with successful SLN mapping, 67 (42%) had K-ras mutations detected in their primary tumors. We analyzed the SLNs from these patients

by peptide nucleic acid clamp PCR for K-ras mutations and found mutations in SLNs from 35 (52%) patients. At least one SLN from 14 (70%) of 20 patients with histologically proven regional LN metastases was positive for the K-ras mutation test. Interestingly, 21 (45%) of the 47 patients without known LN metastases had K-ras mutations detected in their SLNs.\n\nConclusions: LDK378 concentration Sensitive detection of K-ras mutations in SLNs from colon cancer patients indicates the presence of occult metastases with potential prognostic implications.”
“Calcineurin B-like (CBL) proteins contribute to decoding calcium signals by interacting with

CBL-interacting protein kinases (CIPKs). Currently, there is still very little information about the function and specific targeting mechanisms of CBL proteins that are localized at the vacuolar membrane. In this study, we focus on CBL2, an abundant vacuolar membrane-localized calcium sensor of unknown function from Arabidopsis thaliana. We show that vacuolar targeting of CBL2 is specifically brought about by S-acylation of three cysteine residues in its N-terminus and that CBL2 S-acylation and targeting occur by a Brefeldin A-insensitive pathway. Loss of CBL2 function renders plants hypersensitive to the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) during seed germination and only fully S-acylated and properly vacuolar-targeted CBL2 proteins can complement this mutant phenotype. These findings define an S-acylation-dependent vacuolar membrane targeting pathway for proteins and uncover a crucial role of vacuolar calcium sensors in ABA responses.”
“Steel factor is an essential survival and proliferation factor for primordial germ cells (PGCs) during their migration in the early mouse embryo.