Clinical significance of preoperative and postoperative cytokeratin 19 messenger RNA level in peripheral blood of esophageal cancer patients.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the correlation between preoperative/postoperative Cytokeratin 19 (CK19) messenger RNA (mRNA) level in peripheral blood (PB) and the clinical significance in esophageal cancer patients with different clinicopathological factors. We detected the preoperative and postoperative CK19 mRNA level in the PB of 139 esophageal cancer patients who underwent complete resection and evaluated its clinical significance. We found that both the preoperative and postoperative CK19 mRNA level increased in the esophageal cancer patients with lymph node metastasis, relapse or distant metastasis compared with that in cancers without lymph node metastasis, relapse or distant metastasis. High postoperative CK19 mRNA levels indicate a short disease-free survival (DFS) for the whole cohort esophageal cancer patients, whereas the high preoperative CK19 mRNA levels only indicate a short DFS for the esophageal cancer patients with squamous cell carcinoma, TNM III stage, and lymph node metastasis. The dynamic change of CK19 mRNA levels could indicate the prognosis of esophageal cancer patients. The patients with decreasing CK19 mRNA level after surgery had good prognosis, and the patients with changeless CK19 mRNA level had poor prognosis. Taken together, CK19 mRNA levels could be a promising marker in assessing prognosis or assigning treatment for the esophageal cancer patients according to different clinicopathological factors.

Isolation and characterization of a new pyrano[4',3':6,7]naphtho[1,2-b]xanthene antibiotic FD-594.

During our screening of microbial metabolites for effective drugs against tumor cell lines, we discovered a new pyrano[4',3':6,7]naphtho[1,2-b]xanthene derivative, FD-594 from the fermentation broth of Streptomyces sp. TA-0256. FD-594 shows moderate activity against tumor cell lines, comparative to that of adriamycin, as well as antibacterial activity against some Gram-positive bacteria.

Structure and biosynthesis of FD-594; a new antitumor antibiotic.

The structure of a novel antitumor antibiotics FD-594 (1), produced by Streptomyces sp. TA-0256, was determined to have a glycosylated pyrano[4',3':6,7]naphtho[1,2-b]-xanthene skeleton by means of spectral data. The biosynthetic studies of the chromophore of 1 was also carried out by feeding experiments with [1-13C]-, [2-13C]-, and [1,2-13C2]sodium acetate. The labeling pattern was determined by 13C NMR including 2D INADEQUATE experiments, which allowed us to elucidate that the chromophore of 1 is derived from 14 acetate, followed by the loss of one carbon atom.

Anthraquinones, naphthohydroquinones and naphthohydroquinone dimers from Rubia cordifolia and their cytotoxic activity.

Further investigation of the roots of Rubia cordifolia resulted in the isolation of four new naphthohydroquinones and two naphthohydroquinone dimers, and one known naphthohydroquinone, one naphthoquinone, two anthraquinones and one naphthohydroquinone dimer. The structures of these compounds were established by various chemical and spectroscopic methods including two dimensional NMR techniques. Also, the isolated compounds were submitted to a bio-assay for cytotoxic and antitumor activity.

[Measurement of the single muscle fiber action potentials and jitter value in tibialis anterior muscles of rabbits in situ].

With a home-made jitter data processing board and microcomputer for recording extracellular single fiber action potential (SF-AP), variations of the time intervals of the SF-AP pairs, or the jitters, from two adjacent muscle fibers in the unique motor unit in tibialis' anterior in response to repeated stimuli were measured. The jitter distribution of 936 recorded from 7 rabbits was positively showed with a percentile value of P75-P25 of 54.99-14.61 microseconds. The data suggested that the lower limit was smaller than that of skeletal muscles in normal human and that there exists also some differences in the jitter values of SFEMG between human and rabbit muscles.

[Studies on antibacterial constituents from the roots of Rubia cordifolia L].

Twelve compounds were isolated from the roots of Rubia cordifolia L.. Nine of them were established by chemical and spectroscopic methods to be alizarin (I),1-hydroxy-2-methyl-9,10-anthraquinone(II),1,3,6-trihydroxy-2-methyl- 9,10-anthra-quinone-3-O-(6'-O-acetyl)-alpha-L-rhamnosyl(1--- -2)-beta-D- glucoside(III),1,3,6-trihydroxy-2-methyl-9,10-anthraqueinone-3-O-a lpha- L-rhamnosyl(1----2)-beta-D-glucoside(IV),1,3,6-trihydrozy-2- methyl-9,10- anthraquinone-3-O-(6'-O-acetyl)-beta-D-glucoside(V),2-carbomethyoxy++ +-3-prenyl- 1,4-naphthohydroquinone di-beta-D-glucoside(VI),rubimallin(VII),beta- sitosterol(VIII) and daucosterol(IX), among them, V is a nwe compound and IX was obtained from this genus for the first time, III, VI and VII showed certain antibacterial activities.