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Background/Aim: To investigate gene expression in HCV‐associated human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) by identifying up‐ and down‐regulated genes.
Methods: Differential display RT‐PCR was used to ...compare levels of gene expression in tumorous and non‐tumorous tissues from the same livers. Differential expression was confirmed using a ribonuclease protection assay (RPA). The relative expression levels of one candidate gene were studied in various normal tissues and malignant cell lines using a multiple tissue expression (MTE) array. Further characterisation of this gene was carried out using nucleotide sequence analysis programmes and Northern hybridisation.
Results: Fifty‐two differentially expressed cDNA fragments were identified and 29 were cloned, sequenced and compared with the nucleotide sequence database. RPA confirmed reproducibly that one particular cDNA was upregulated in the tumour cells. Analysis using the MTE array revealed that this selected candidate gene is expressed at high levels in various human tumour cell lines. The expression levels in HCV‐associated HCC were higher than in other tumours. Investigation revealed that this novel gene lies on chromosome 17. The transcript is approximately 2.5 kb in size and encodes a protein similar to the ubiquitin‐conjugating enzyme.
Conclusions: The ubiquitin system may be involved in HCV‐related hepatocarcinogenesis and in the development of other cancers.
In addition to the series of stucco reliefs recently acquired on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, to three stuccoed panels from the Hartwig collection, and to a few miscellaneous pieces, the ...British Museum's Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities possesses nine large and eight smaller fragments of stucco-relief work about whose acquisition almost nothing is recorded. Till recently, they were not entered in the Department's Register, and had no accession numbers: the only distinguishing marks were blue diamond-shaped tabs stuck to five of them, and the numbers 63 and 99 scratched on the backs of two. Blue diamonds occur on several ancient objects which formed part of the collection of Sir William Hamilton, so it is possible that the stuccoes once belonged to the same illustrious antiquary. Indeed, a British Museum catalogue of 1817 definitely ascribes one of them to the Hamilton collection, and also reveals, in conjunction with a manuscript of 1824, that the remaining pieces were kept in the so-called ‘Hamilton Room’, most of whose contents had formerly been owned by Sir William.
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