ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the role of N-cadherin and β-catenin in the formation of spinal commissural axon projection during chicken embryonic development.Methods:Fertilized eggs were cultured for three days(stage22),N-cadherin orβ-catenin inter-ference plasmid was injected into the neural tube and in vivo electroporation was performed.Three days after the electroporation, embryos were collected,fixed with 4%PFA,embeded with OCT,and cut into frozen sections.Four groups ( knockdown of N-cadherin orβ-catenin or both of them,and control) were included in this study.Immunohistochemistry method was used to analyze the protein expression result of N-cadherin or β-catenin.The changes of spinal commissural projections were observed with GFP fluorescence.Results:During chicken embryonic development,knockdown of N-cadherin inhibited the expression of β-catenin in the spinal cord.The commissural nerve fibers projecting to the contralateral side of the spinal cord was impaired after knockdown of N-cadherin or β-catenin;this phenotype was similar after knocking down both of them.Conclusion: N-cadherin is implicated in the formation of spinal commissural projection in the developing spinal cord,possibly viaβ-catenin.
ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the expression and the clinical significance of neural cadherin (N-cadherin) in perihilar cholangiocarcinoma. Methods The expression of N-cadherin was detected by immunohistochemical method in 26 patients with perihilar cholangiocarcinoma and 5 samples of normal bile duct tissues. The expression of N-cadherin was also compared by Western blotting assay between perihilar cholangiocarcinoma and paraneoplastic tissues. Results The im-munohistochemical results showed that positive expression of N-cadherin was observed in 14 of 26 patients with perihilar cholangiocarcinoma and in 6 of 26 paraneoplastic samples (53.84%vs 23.08%, P<0.05). There was 0 N-cadherin expres-sion in normal bile duct tissues. The positive rate of N-cadherin expression was higher in low differentiated group than that in middle and well differentiated groups. The result of Western blotting assay showed that N-cadherin expression was signifi-cantly higher in perihilar cholangiocarcinoma than that in the paraneoplastic tissues (0.88 ± 0.12 vs 0.43 ± 0.09, P < 0.05). Conclusion N-cadherin may be involved in the occurrence and development of perihilar cholangiocarcinoma.