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“Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) has roles in antiangiogenesis and antitumourigenesis that are intimately entwined and is showing promise as a potential anticancer agent. However, the function of PEDF in the deregulated

apoptotic pathways of malignant cells must first be fully characterized. Here, we review the currently known apoptotic pathways that are relevant to PEDF and cancer. Recently, a pathway that includes the PEDF receptor, PPAR gamma and p53 has emerged. It is hoped that further characterization of this and other pathways involved in cancer will bring to light potential new therapeutic targets and approaches, which due to their specificity might be free of the Flavopiridol molecular weight morbidity associated with conventional chemotherapy.”
“We develop a model to describe the effect of cell wall ageing on the local expansion

rate of tip-growing cells. Starting from an exact equation for the stationary age-distribution of the wall material, we propose find more a generic measure for the local expansion propensity of the wall if the ageing process is described by a constant rate Poissonian decay process. This ageing process may be either interpreted as biochemical in nature describing the finite lifetime of regulatory proteins, or as mechanical in nature describing the gradual “”hardening”" of the wall through cross-linking or gelation of the wall polymers. In this way we can construct models for tip-growth in which material deposition, evolving wall properties and surface expansion are self-consistently intertwined. As a proof of principle, we implement our ageing approach in two different idealised models

of tip-growth, obtaining the stationary tip shapes as a function of the ageing parameter. In the first, the spatial distribution of delivery of growth material is determined by the local curvature of the cell and the growth mode is orthogonal. In the second, the growth material originates from a Vesicle Supply Center, a point-like representation of the Spitzenkorper as found in fungal selleck hyphae, and the growth mode is isometric. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“We developed a novel thermoelectric cooling device using Peltier modules for the treatment of spinal cord injury in rats. The extracorporeal electrically cooling component was attached to the aluminum arched plate which was placed on the surface of the spinal cord after the contusion injury in the 11th thoracic spinal cord. During the hypothermic treatment, rats were awake and could move in the cage. Hind limb motor function, evaluated using a BBB scale, in the hypothermic animals (33 degrees C for 48 h) was significantly higher than that in the normothermic animals from 2 weeks to 8 weeks after the injury. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.