细胞技术

There has never been a more exciting time than the present for discovering anti-cancer drugs. The past decade has witnessed the nearly complete sequencing of the human genome, major advances in the multidisciplinary application of new genomic technologies, and the integration of combin ...

The human body is composed of approximately 1014 cells, each of which is capable of committing suicide by apoptosis. Normally, the processes of cell division and cell death are tightly coupled, so that no net increase in cell numbers occurs. However, alterations in the expression or function of the g ...

Although chemotherapeutic agents are a cornerstone of therapy in medical oncology, hormonal and differentiating therapies play an increasingly important role. There is no clear-cut margin between chemotherapy, hormonal, and differentiating modalities. Although chemot ...

Tumor hypoxia originates from the inability of neovasculature to provide an adequate blood supply to accommodate the metabolic demands of the tissue. Hypoxia is operationally defined as a spectrum of reduced levels of oxygen that result in the impairment of tissue function. The upper end of t ...

It has long been appreciated that dysregulation of apoptosis, or programmed cell death, plays a critical role in the onset and progression of cancer (1). For the complexity of cell death pathways, this may result from deregulated overexpression of apoptosis inhibitors or loss/underrepre ...

The transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) has been demonstrated to control cellular proliferation and oncogenesis. Consistent with this, NF-κB activity is stimulated by various mitogenic stimuli and by the action of numerous oncoproteins. This role of NF-κB in controlling ...

A continuous supply of biochemical energy is required in order for cells to perform their physiologic functions as well as maintain their own homeostasis. Cellular energy is determined largely by the ratio of intracellular ATP to ADP. A high ratio of ATP/ADP is produced primarily by the oxidati ...

The development of anticancer drugs has relied primarily on two traditional approaches. Synthetic or natural compounds are routinely screened for anticancer activities using a cell-based assay. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has relied on a panel of human tumor cell lines to search ...

The preceding chapters in these two volumes on tumor suppressor genes (TSG) are a comprehensive compilation of what is currently known about the structure, function, activation, and regulation of TSGs, along with the roles they play in the myriad biochemical pathways that network to result in ...

p53 is a key mediator of cell response to a variety of stresses, inducing growth arrest or apoptosis, thereby eliminating damaged and potentially dangerous cells from the organism (1,2). Once p53-dependent mechanisms are broken, conditions for rapid accumulation of genetic changes are e ...

Angiogenesis, the growth of new capillary blood vessels from preexisting vessels, is a fundamental process that is required for a wide variety of physiologic and pathophysiologic processes (1,2). Examples of physiologic processes that require angiogenesis include wound healing, ...

The field of cytogenetics has had a great impact on many aspects of medical and basic sciences, including clinical genetics and, perhaps most notably, hematology and oncology. Tumor cytogenetics has for many years been dedicated almost exclusively to the study of hematological malignan ...

Solid tumors comprise approx 95% of all malignancies, but account for only a little over 25% of cases in published cytogenetic studies. The main reasons are:

Prior to the early 1970s, chromosome spreads were block stained with, for example, orcein or Fulgen’s stains, and only those with a distinctive outline could be recognized. Then it was discovered that chromosomes could be made to show a consistent pattern of lighter or darker stained segments (ba ...

The preceding chapters have described the processes involved in getting metaphase divisions from a sample onto a slide, ready for analysis. Time, skill, and experience generously spent on these techniques will do much to make the next stages easier: the analysis and interpretation of these m ...

The impression is sometimes given that fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) studies are simply a matter of buying a kit with the right DNA probe, following the supplier’s instructions, and reading a simple positive or negative result. In practice, getting a reliable result from a FISH study ...

Although classical cytogenetic analysis is a powerful tool for the assessment of acquired chromosomal changes in hematological malignancies, it can be performed only on dividing cells and cannot detect cryptic rearrangements. The introduction of molecular cytogenetic techn ...

Over the last 15 yr, advances in molecular biology have allowed improvements in the sensitivity and versatility of cytogenetic analysis. These advances have included developments in recombinant technology such as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), a means of detecting chr ...

There is an internationally agreed system for describing the banding pattern of chromosomes, such that if an abnormality is accurately described in one laboratory then it can be recognized in another. This is known as the ISCN, the International System for Human Cytogenetic Nomenclature. S ...

It is rare for a full-fledged malignancy cytogenetics service to be started as a result of a policy decision and business plan. More often it grows from a small beginning: perhaps just one or two research assistants working on the particular interest of an oncologist, or perhaps one or two people in a preex ...