Background: Existing breast cancer risk models inadequately identify individuals at latent risk, particularly among women without known genetic mutations or family history. Risk is often underestimated or overestimated due to reliance on population-level data and neglect of cellular aging and mechanobiological alterations.
Methods: We profiled primary human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) from women of varying ages and risk backgrounds using mechano-node-pore sensing (mechano-NPS), a high-throughput microfluidic platform that captures single-cell mechanical properties.
Hybrid strategies involving the use of both single-use flexible ureteroscopes (sufURS) and reusable flexible ureteroscopes (rfURS) are being implemented worldwide to extend the longevity of rfURS. We present a retrospective comparison of the clinical performance, ergonomics, and financial aspects between sufURS and rfURS.Challenging cases were preoperatively selected based on the presence of nephrolithiasis requiring laser lithotripsy and a steep preoperative infundibulopelvic angle (IPA) < 50°.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe receptor tyrosine kinase AXL promotes tumor progression, metastasis, and therapy resistance through the induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Here, we found that activation of AXL resulted in the phosphorylation of TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) and the downstream activation of AKT3 and Snail, a transcription factor critical for EMT. Mechanistically, we showed that TBK1 directly bound to and phosphorylated AKT3 in a manner dependent on the multiprotein complex mTORC1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study introduces multi-zone visco-Node-Pore Sensing (mz-visco-NPS), an electronic-based microfluidic platform for single-cell viscoelastic phenotyping. mz-visco-NPS implements a series of sinusoidal-shaped contraction zones that periodically deform a cell at specific strain frequencies, leading to changes in resistance across the zones that correspond to the cell's frequency-dependent elastic G' and viscous G″ moduli. mz-visco-NPS is validated by measuring the viscoelastic changes of MCF-7 cells when their cytoskeleton is disrupted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Accurate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reporting is essential for transperineal prostate biopsy (TPB) planning. Although approved computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) tools may assist urologists in this task, evidence of improved clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) detection is lacking. Therefore, we aimed to document the diagnostic utility of using Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) and CAD for biopsy planning compared with PI-RADS alone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA possible negative consequence of cancer treatment is the fertility impairment of young cancer survivors. However, most former patients express the wish to have biological children. Fertility-preserving measures are available and are - under certain circumstances - financed by health insurance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: A challenge in human mammary epithelial cell (HMEC) culture is sustaining the representation of competing luminal, myoepithelial, and progenitor lineages over time. As cells replicate in culture, myoepithelial cells come to dominate the composition of the culture with serial passaging. This drift in composition presents a challenge for studying luminal and progenitor cells, which are prospective cells of origin for most breast cancer subtypes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To evaluate the additional value of systematic biopsies (SB) when performing transperineal MRI/TRUS fusion biopsies (MRI/TRUS TPBx) with needle tracking.
Methods: From January 2019 to March 2021 969 Patients after a MRI/TRUS TPBx were evaluated separately for target biopsies (TB) and systematic biopsies regarding PCa detection and PCa risk evaluation. Needle tracking in the axial sequences of multiparametric MRI was used to assess the localisation of the detected PCa in the biopsy cores related to the reported PI-RADS lesions.
Background: The benefit of antibiotic prophylaxis is uncertain when performing transperineal prostate biopsies. Judicious use of antibiotics is required as antimicrobial resistance increases worldwide. We aimed to assess whether antibiotic prophylaxis can be omitted when performing transperineal prostate biopsies under local anaesthesia as an outpatient procedure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDysregulation of the transcriptional or translational machinery can alter the stoichiometry of multiprotein complexes and occurs in natural processes such as aging. Loss of stoichiometry has been shown to alter protein complex functions. We provide a protocol and associated code that use omics data to quantify these stoichiometric changes via statistical dispersion utilizing the interquartile range of expression values per grouping variable.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWNT signaling promotes pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) through diverse effects on proliferation, differentiation, survival, and stemness. A subset of PDAC with inactivating mutations in ring finger protein 43 (RNF43) show growth dependency on autocrine WNT ligand signaling and are susceptible to agents that block WNT ligand acylation by Porcupine O-acyltransferase, which is required for proper WNT ligand processing and secretion. For this study, global transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic analyses were performed to explore the therapeutic response of RNF43-mutant PDAC to the Porcupine inhibitor (PORCNi) LGK974.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring aging in the human mammary gland, luminal epithelial cells lose lineage fidelity by expressing markers normally expressed in myoepithelial cells. We hypothesize that loss of lineage fidelity is a general manifestation of epithelia that are susceptible to cancer initiation. In the present study, we show that histologically normal breast tissue from younger women who are susceptible to breast cancer, as a result of harboring a germline mutation in , or genes, exhibits hallmarks of accelerated aging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCellular mechanical properties can reveal physiologically relevant characteristics in many cell types, and several groups have developed microfluidics-based platforms to perform high-throughput single-cell mechanical testing. However, prior work has performed only limited characterization of these platforms' technical variability and reproducibility. Here, we evaluate the repeatability performance of mechano-node-pore sensing, a single-cell mechanical phenotyping platform developed by our research group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStyle transfer methods are an important task for domain adaptation of optical imagery to improve the performance of deep learning models when using different sensor systems. For the transformation between datasets, cycle-consistent adversarial networks achieve good results. However, during the style transfer process, characteristic spectral information that is essential for the analysis of vegetation could get lost.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAge is the major risk factor in most carcinomas, yet little is known about how proteomes change with age in any human epithelium. We present comprehensive proteomes comprised of >9,000 total proteins and >15,000 phosphopeptides from normal primary human mammary epithelia at lineage resolution from ten women ranging in age from 19 to 68 years. Data were quality controlled and results were biologically validated with cell-based assays.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensors (Basel)
June 2021
With the emergence of low-cost robotic systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicle, the importance of embedded high-performance image processing has increased. For a long time, FPGAs were the only processing hardware that were capable of high-performance computing, while at the same time preserving a low power consumption, essential for embedded systems. However, the recently increasing availability of embedded GPU-based systems, such as the NVIDIA Jetson series, comprised of an ARM CPU and a NVIDIA Tegra GPU, allows for massively parallel embedded computing on graphics hardware.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA robust breast cancer prevention strategy requires risk assessment biomarkers for early detection. We show that expression of , a transcription factor critical for normal mammary development, is downregulated in mammary luminal epithelia with age. DNA methylation of the promoter is negatively correlated with expression in an age-dependent manner.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Transperineal Prostate biopsies (TPBx) are usually performed under general anesthesia without image fusion. This study aimed to evaluate prostate cancer (Pca) detection rates (CDR), pain, and adverse events using a novel, free-hand TPBx technique, based on elastic fusion of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) under local anesthesia.
Materials And Methods: This multicenter retrospective study included all consecutive patients scheduled for a TPBx.
Background: Patients with localized prostate cancer (PCa) experience biochemical recurrence (BCR) despite a curatively intended radical prostatectomy (RP). The aim of this study was to describe the quality of life (QoL) of patients with a BCR while identifying predictors of early (ER) and late recurrence (LR).
Methods: For this purpose, a total of 330 PCa patients with a BCR following RP at Charité University Hospital in Berlin were analyzed.
Background: The Onkonet database has been developed and coordinated by the Berliner Tumorzentrum e. V. (http://www.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPotential for cancers to form metastases requires cell dissemination utilizing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program. In this issue of Cancer Cell, Ishay-Ronen et al. show that plasticity intrinsic to the EMT program can be exploited to divert cancer cells into becoming post-mitotic adipocytes, thus preventing formation of metastases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the number of radical prostatectomies per hospital per year is associated with stage distribution, surgical techniques or quality related outcome in Germany.
Materials And Methods: A German Internet-based database was analyzed. Hospitals were categorized according to their yearly radical prostatectomy (RP) volume.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
August 2018
Inland waters are of great importance for scientists as well as authorities since they are essential ecosystems and well known for their biodiversity. When monitoring their respective water quality, in situ measurements of water quality parameters are spatially limited, costly and time-consuming. In this paper, we propose a combination of hyperspectral data and machine learning methods to estimate and therefore to monitor different parameters for water quality.
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