This study was aimed to evaluate some biochemical, hormonal, hematological, and histopathological changes in Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, after acute exposure to nonylphenol (NP). In addition to detection of NP residues in the fish, muscle tissues for human health concern. A total of 90 apparently healthy Nile tilapia, O. niloticus, were randomly divided into three equal groups; each containing 30 fish (three replicates). Groups 1 and 2 kept as a control and solvent control (acetone), respectively, and Group 3 exposed to NP at a dose level of 500 µg/L water for 7 successive days. Blood and tissue samples were collected 2 times randomly from each group after 7 days from fish exposure to NP and 10 days from exposure stopping. Fish exposed to NP Group 3 showed anorexia, sluggish movement, erythema of the skin, areas of scales loss, and hemorrhagic ulcers in some areas of body region leading to exposing the viscera. Biochemical results revealed a significant increase in serum total proteins and globulins levels, a highly significant increase in serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase activities, triglycerides, cholesterol, and creatinine levels, insignificant increase in serum uric acid level, and a highly significant decrease in serum testosterone and estradiol-β17 levels in Group 3 in compare with the control group. Histopathological finding confirms these results. While hematological results of the same group revealed a significant increase in red blood cells count and packed cell volume value, insignificant increase in hemoglobin concentration, leukopenia, lymphopenia, and monocytopenia in compared with the control group. All of these changes appeared after 7 days from fish exposure to NP. Most of these alterations returned toward the normal level after 10 days from stopping exposure to NP. NP residues detected in fish muscle tissues of Group 3 during exposure and after stopping exposure to it. It is concluded that NP is a toxic pollutant and has an adverse effect on fish health and reproduction as well as accumulates in fish muscle tissues which may cause human health hazard.

The significance of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in initiation and progression of colon cancer (CC) has been established. In this study, we investigated the utility of measuring mRNA expression levels of CSC markers EpCAM, LGR5 and LGR4 for predicting survival outcome in surgically treated CC patients. Expression levels were determined in 5 CC cell lines, 66 primary CC tumors and 382 regional lymph nodes of 121 CC patients. Prognostic relevance was determined using Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analyses. CC patients with lymph nodes expressing high levels of EpCAM, LGR5 or LGR4 (higher than a clinical cutoff of 0.07, 0.06 and 2.558 mRNA copies/18S rRNA unit, respectively) had a decreased mean survival time of 32 months for EpCAM and 42 months for both LGR5 and LGR4 at a 12-year follow-up (p = 0.022, p = 0.005 and p = 0.011, respectively). Additional patients at risk for recurrence were detected when LGR5 was combined with the biomarkers CXCL17 or CEA plus CXCL16. In conclusion, the study underscores LGR5 as a particularly useful prognostic biomarker and illustrates the strength of combining biomarkers detecting different subpopulations of cancer cells and/or cells in the tumor microenvironment for predicting recurrence.

The current study purposed to investigate the 3-indoleacetic acid (IAA) possible adverse impacts on hematological parameters, hepatorenal function, cardiac, and skeletal muscles as well as testes of rats and histopathological alterations of respective organs and to determine the extent of reversing any adverse impacts occurred in animals after IAA withdrawal. Rats were exposed orally to 500 mg/kg BW by gastric intubation once daily for 14 days, after which one-half was sacrificed and the remaining half left for a further 14 days without IAA exposure. The exposure of rats to IAA produced anemia, leukopenia, neutrophilia, lymphopenia, and a significant increase in activities of serum transaminase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, creatine kinase-myocardial band, creatine kinase-muscle type, and levels of serum creatinine, sodium, chloride, and potassium. Furthermore, serum levels of testosterone, gonadotropins, and leptin significantly declined. The changes in most of measured parameters continued after IAA withdrawal. Histopathological alterations in different tissues supported these changes. In conclusion, subacute exposure to IAA at a high concentration could exert hematotoxicity and toxic effects on many soft organs and its withdrawal led to incomplete recovery of animals. Thus, IAA should be used cautiously as extensive use of it at high concentrations can cause harmful effects on the environment, animals and human beings.

G protein-coupled receptor 55 (GPR55) probably plays a role in innate immunity and tumor immunosurveillance through its effect on immune cells, such as T cells and NK cells. In this study, the prognostic value of GPR55 in colon cancer (CC) was investigated. mRNA expression levels of GPR55 were determined in 382 regional lymph nodes of 121 CC patients with 12 years observation time after curative surgery. The same clinical material had previously been analyzed for expression levels of CEA, CXCL16, CXCL17, GPR35 V2/3 and LGR5 mRNAs. Clinical cutoffs of 0.1365 copies/18S rRNA unit for GPR55 and 0.1481 for the GPR55/CEA ratio were applied to differentiate between the high- and low-GPR55 expression groups. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and Cox regression risk analysis were used to determine prognostic value. Improved discrimination between the two groups was achieved by combining GPR55 with CEA, CXCL16 or CXCL17 compared with GPR55 alone. The best result was obtained using the GPR55/CEA ratio, with an increased mean survival time of 14 and 33 months at 5 and 12 years observation time, respectively (p = 0.0003 and p = 0.003) for the high-GPR55/CEA group. The explanation for the observed improvement is most likely that GPR55 is a marker for T cells and B cells in lymph nodes, whereas CEA, CXCL16 and CXCL17, are markers for tumor cells of epithelial origin.