A cell line, established from a neuroblastoma patient, expresses NCAM and L1 cell adhesion molecules. Two chromosomal abnormalities were present in bone marrow (10%) and cell line (82%) metaphases: ...(i) a homogeneously staining region (HSR) at the distal part of chromosome 14, and (ii) an insertion of unidentified dark G-banding material in 1 p36. The identification in the patient of chr 14-HSR-positive tumour cells, before the in vitro adaptation, suggests a direct HSR formation without preceding double minutes (dms; or a very early in vivo dms---HSR transformation). N-myc was amplified in the HSR. Cells expressed proopiomelanocortin and corticotropin releasing factor mRNAs. Untreated cells were relatively differentiated; nevertheless they dramatically responded to retinoic acid, forming extensive neurites, growth-cones, cell-cell and cell-neurite junctions. Neurofilaments and synaptic figures containing many dense core granules were identified. This differentiation was irreversible. This cell line is therefore useful for the study of differentiation and in particular for the involvement of neurohormones in the differentiation process.
Next-generation experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay must be sensitive to a Majorana neutrino mass as low as 10 meV. CUORE, an array of 988 TeO\(_2\) bolometers being commissioned ...at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy, features an expected sensitivity of 50-130 meV at 90% C.L, that can be improved by removing the background from \(\alpha\) radioactivity. This is possible if, in coincidence with the heat release in a bolometer, the Cherenkov light emitted by the \(\beta\) signal is detected. The amount of light detected is so far limited to only 100 eV, requiring low-noise cryogenic light detectors. The CALDER project (Cryogenic wide-Area Light Detectors with Excellent Resolution) aims at developing a small prototype experiment consisting of TeO\(_2\) bolometers coupled to new light detectors based on kinetic inductance detectors. The R&D is focused on the light detectors that could be implemented in a next-generation neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment.
