• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1037-1047
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• 2016

HOX transcription factors are evolutionarily conserved in many different species and are involved in important cellular processes such as morphogenesis, differentiation, and proliferation. They have also recently been implicated in carcinogenesis, but their precise role in cancer, especially in cervical cancer (CC), remains unclear. In this work, using microarray assays followed by the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), we found that the expression of 25 HOX genes was downregulated in CC derived cell lines compared with non-tumorigenic keratinocytes. In particular, the expression of HOXA9 was observed as down-modulated in CC-derived cell lines. The expression of HOXA9 has not been previously reported in CC, or in normal keratinocytes of the cervix. We found that normal CC from women without cervical lesions express HOXA9; in contrast, CC cell lines and samples of biopsies from women with CC showed significantly diminished HOXA9 expression. Furthermore, we found that methylation at the first exon of HOXA9 could play an important role in modulating the expression of this gene. Exogenous restoration of HOXA9 expression in CC cell lines decreased cell proliferation and migration, and induced an epithelial-like phenotype. Interestingly, the silencing of human papilloma virus (HPV) E6 and E7 oncogenes induced expression of HOXA9. In conclusion, controlling HOXA9 expression appears to be a necessary step during CC development. Further studies are needed to delineate the role of HOXA9 during malignant progression and to afford more insights into the relationship between downmodulation of HOXA9 and viral HPV oncoprotein expression during cercical cancer development.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2002

Effect of scatter media materials and thickness, located between radioactivity and small gamma camera, on imaging characteristics was evaluated. The small gamma camera developed for breast imaging was consisted of collimator, NaI(T1) crystal(60$\times$60$\times$6 ㎣), PSPMT(position sensitive photomultimplier tube), NIMs and personal computer. Monte Carlo simulation was performed to evaluate the system sensitivity with different scatter media thickness(0~8 cm) and materials(air and acrylic) with parallel hole collimator and diverging collimator. The sensitivity and spatial resolution was measured using the small gamma camera with the same condition applied to the simulation. Counts was decreased by 10%(air) and 54%(acryl) with the parallel hole collimator and by 35%(air) and 63%(acryl) with the diverging collimator. Spatial resolution was decreased as increasing the thickness of scatter media. This study substantiate the importance of a gamma camera positioning and the minimization of the distance between detector and target lesion in the clinical application of a gamma camera.