[en] In order to investigate the fracture behaviors(penetration modes) and resistance to penetration during ballistic impact of titanium alloy laminates and nitrified titanium alloy laminates which were treated by PVD(Physical Vapor Deposition) method, ballistic tests were conducted. Evaporation, sputtering, and ion plating are three kinds of PVD method. In this research, ion plating was used to achieve higher surface hardness and surface hardness test were conducted using a micro Vicker's hardness tester. Resistance to penetration is determined by the protection ballistic limit(V₅₀), a statistical velocity with 50% probability for complete penetration. Fracture behaviors and ballistic tolerance, described by penetration modes, are respectfully observed at and above ballistic limit velocities, as a result of V₅₀ test and Projectile Through Plates(PTP) test methods. PTP tests were conducted with 0 .deg. obliquity at room temperature using 5.56mm ball projectile. V₅₀ tests with 0 .deg. obliquity at room temperature were conducted with projectiles that were able to achieve near or complete penetration during PTP tests. Surface hardness, resistance to penetration, and penetration modes of titanium alloy laminates are compared to those of nitrified titanium alloy laminates

[en] Radiotherapy is important in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, but very few malignancies have been cured using single modalities of radiotherapy. Therefore, molecules that can target specific pathophysiological or molecular pathways have been investigated for use as radiation sensitizers. Cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitors have been shown to enhance the radioresponse of cultured human cancer cell lines and immunodeficient mice. However, little is known about the molecular and biochemical mechanisms by which COX-2-selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) enhance the radioresponse of tumor cells. In some types of cancer, radiation is thought to work by inducing apoptosis, and effective anticancer radiotherapy is frequently associated with increased levels of apoptosis markers in vitro and in vivo

[en] Cyclooxygenases (COX) are key enzymes in the prostaglandin synthesis. There are two isoforms of the COX enzyme, COX-1 and COX-2. COX-2 expression is associated with carcinogenesis in variety of cancers and to render cells resistant to apoptotic stimuli. Increased expression of COX-2 is shown in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), specifically in adenocarcinomas. Radiotherapy has been the important treatment for NSCLC. In recent studies, newer molecules that target specific pathophysiology or molecular pathways have been tested for the radiation sensitizers. COX-2 inhibitors are shown to enhanced radioresponse of cultured human cancer cell lines and immunodeficient mice. However, little is known about the molecular and biochemical mechanisms how NSAIDs enhance radioresponse of tumor cells. Nimesulide (methanesulfonamide, N-(4-nitro-2- phenoxyphenyl)), selective COX-2 inhibitors, is a drug with anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic and analgesic properties. Nimesulide has the specific affinity to inhibit the inducible form of cyclooxygenase (COX-2) rather than the constitutive form (COX-1), and is well tolerated by adult, elderly and pediatric patients. Nimesulide was found also to have a chemopreventive activity against colon, urinary bladder, breast, tongue, and liver carcinogenesis. In this study, we examined whether nimesulide can increase radiation induced cell death and its mechanism in NSCLC cells A549

[en] Radiation is one of the most effective DNA damaging reagents. Radiation-induced DNA damage results in the activation of caspase leading to cleavage of cellular protein, leading to cell death. Radio-resistance is known to be associated with anti-apoptotic proteins. Bcl-xl is a well known anti-apoptotic protein and blocks the effects of DNA damaging agents

[en] PTEN (Phosphatase and Tensin homolog deleted on chromosome Ten) negatively regulates PI3K/Akt signaling, which is one of the most important pathways for cell survival and inhibition of apoptosis. PTEN tumor suppressor gene is dual phosphates with lipid and protein phosphates activities and antagonizes phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) by dephosphorylating phos-phatidylinositol-3, 4, 5-triphosphate (PIP3). The inactivation of PTEN function results in increased Akt activity and development of various cancers including breast, endometrial, prostate, giloblastoma and lung cancer. In this study, we have exploited novel mechanism of PTEN that inhibit the PI3K/Akt pathway as molecular targets of radiation sensitization for cancer treatment. Our data suggested that combined treatment of PTEN and radiation enhanced G2/M phase accumulation of cell cycle through Akt inactivation and regulation of p21 and activity of CDK1

[en] Cellular and tissue sensitivity against ionizing radiation depends on many endogenous gene expression patterns. It is well known that various stimuli such as ionizing radiation produce genetic alteration and an important factor seems to be whether the cell dies, repair all the damage, undergoes defective repair or responds in a way which leads to transformation. Variations in the radiation response in healthy people and human tissue and cells have also been described and are important in determining the potentially harmful effects of environmental, accidental, or therapeutic radiation exposure. The nature of these modifiers of the response to ionizing radiation is largely unknown. In vitro studies can not reveal the complexity of tissue response, where different cell types at different stages of differentiation/activation show markedly different responses to radiation damage .In this study, we analyzed the genes which have previously been reported to be overexpressed in human peripheral blood lymphocytes, in brain, heart, spleen, intestine, and lung which have been shown to have different intrinsic radiosensitivity, especially after low dose radiation exposure (0.2Gy), and examined the correlation between gene expression patterns and organ sensitivity and attempted to identify genes which are possibly responsible for radiation sensitivity

[en] Cancer cell is characterized by various distinctive functions difference from normal cell. The one of specific properties of cancer is invasion and metastasis. Invasion and metastasis is a multi-step process involving over-expression of proteolytic enzymes such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and critically dependent on the ability of cells to move away from the primary tumor to gain access to the vascular or lymphatic systems which disperses cells to distant sites, where they can grow in a permissive microenvironment at a secondary location. All of these processes are critically dependent upon the ability of cancer cells to breach the basement membrane and to migrate through neighboring tissues. Cancer cell invasion is an important, tightly regulated process that is related with development, immune response and wound healing. This invasive response is dependent on activation of signaling pathways that result in both short-term and long-term cellular responses. The gene expressions of the cancer cell invasion related-proteolytic enzymes are regulated at the transcriptional level (through AP-1 and NF-kB via mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and PI3K-Akt pathways) and post-transcriptional levels, and the protein level via their activators or inhibitors, and their cell surface localization. Therefore, the related proteins such as MMPs, MAPK, PI3K, Akt and their regulatory pathway have been considered as promising targets for anti-cancer drugs. In previous reports, Intercellular adherin molecule-3 (ICAM-3) showed increase of radio-resistance and proliferation. We have made ICAM-3 overexpressed cancer cells which shows elevated level of invasion compared with normal cancer cells and its invasion capacity was down regulated with treatment of specific inhibitor for PI3K. These results suggest that ICAM-3 related invasion is associated with PI3K signaling pathway

[en] Purpose: To identify the role of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) during γ-ionizing radiation (γ-IR) treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer cells. Methods and Materials: Wild-type PTEN or mutant forms of PTEN plasmids were transfected to construct stable transfectants of the NCI-H1299 non-small-cell lung cancer cell line. Combined effects of PTEN expression and IR treatment were tested using immunoblot, clonogenic, and cell-counting assays. Related signaling pathways were studied with immunoblot and kinase assays. Results: At steady state, stable transfectants showed almost the same proliferation rate but had different AKT phosphorylation patterns. When treated with γ-IR, wild-type PTEN transfectants showed higher levels of cell death compared with mock vector or mutant transfectants, and showed increased G₂/M cell-cycle arrest accompanied by p21 induction and CDK1 inactivation. NCI-H1299 cells were treated with phosphosinositide-3 kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway inhibitor (LY29002), resulting in reduced AKT phosphorylation levels. Treatment of NCI-H1299 cells with LY29002 and γ-IR resulted in increased cell-cycle arrest and p21 induction. Endogenous wild-type PTEN-containing NCI-H460 cells were treated with PTEN-specific siRNA and then irradiated with γ-IR: however reduced PTEN levels did not induce cell-cycle arrest or p21 expression. Conclusions: Taken together, these findings indicate that PTEN may modulate cell death or the cell cycle via AKT inactivation by PTEN and γ-IR treatment. We also propose that a PTEN-PI3K/AKT-p21-CDK1 pathway could regulate cell death and the cell cycle by γ-IR treatment

[en] Purpose: To investigate possible radiosensitizing activities of the well-known peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)γ ligand ciglitazone and novel PPARγ ligands CAY10415 and CAY10506 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. Methods and Materials: Radiosensitivity was assessed using a clonogenic cell survival assay. To investigate the mechanism underlying PPARγ ligand-induced radiosensitization, the subdiploid cellular DNA fraction was analyzed by flow cytometry. Activation of the caspase pathway by combined PPARγ ligands and γ-radiation treatment was detected by immunoblot analysis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) were measured using 2,7-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate and flow cytometry. Results: The 3 PPARγ ligands induced cell death and ROS generation in a PPARγ-independent manner, enhanced γ-radiation–induced apoptosis and caspase-3–mediated poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage in vitro. The combined PPARγ ligand/γ-radiation treatment triggered caspase-8 activation, and this initiator caspase played an important role in the combination-induced apoptosis. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ ligands may enhance the γ-radiation-induced DNA damage response, possibly by increasing γ-H2AX expression. Moreover, the combination treatment significantly increased ROS generation, and the ROS scavenger N-acetylcysteine inhibited the combined treatment-induced ROS generation and apoptotic cell death. Conclusions: Taken together, these results indicated that the combined treatment of PPARγ ligands and γ-radiation synergistically induced DNA damage and apoptosis, which was regulated by ROS

[en] N,N-dimethyl phytosphingosine (DMPS) blocks the conversion of sphingosine to sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) by the enzyme sphingosine kinase (SK). In this study, we elucidated the apoptotic mechanisms of DMPS action on a human leukemia cell line using functional pharmacologic and genetic approaches. First, we demonstrated that DMPS-induced apoptosis is evidenced by nuclear morphological change, distinct internucleosomal DNA fragmentation, and an increased sub-G1 cell population. DMPS treatment led to the activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3, accompanied by the cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and led to cytochrome c release, depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane potential, and downregulation of the anti-apoptotic members of the bcl-2 family. Ectopic expression of bcl-2 and bcl-xL conferred resistance of HL-60 cells to DMPS-induced cell death, suggesting that DMPS-induced apoptosis occurs predominantly through the activation of the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway. We also observed that DMPS activated the caspase-8-Bid-Bax pathway and that the inhibition of caspase-8 by z-IETD-fmk or small interfering RNA suppressed the cleavage of Bid, cytochrome c release, caspase-3 activation, and apoptotic cell death. In addition, cells subjected to DMPS exhibited significantly increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and ROS scavengers, such as quercetin and Tiron, but not N-acetylcysteine (NAC), inhibited DMPS-induced activations of caspase-8, -3 and subsequent apoptotic cell death, indicating the role of ROS in caspase-8-mediated apoptosis. Taken together, these results indicate that caspase-8 acts upstream of caspase-3, and that the caspase-8-mediated mitochondrial pathway is important in DMPS-induced apoptosis. Our results also suggest that ROS are critical regulators of caspase-8-mediated apoptosis in DMPS-treated leukemia cells.