g., membrane permeabilization and DNA-fragmentation together with autophagy. Therefore, either excessive self-digestion or other caspase-independent death mechanisms may lead to cell death, which is inhibited by 5HT. Our data suggest that autophagy represents a survival mechanism where growth conditions are not favorable

and that autophagy becomes unnecessary in the presence of 5HT. Thus, 5HT may directly or indirectly inhibit autophagy by, e.g., facilitating glucose uptake25 or autocrine mechanisms.26 In terms of cancer biology, autophagy acts in tumor suppression as well as in cytoprotection of cancer cells.27, 28 The inhibition of mTOR is a potential target to treat HCC.29 In accordance with other groups, HCC cells did not or only weakly respond to mTOR-inhibition in the presence of FCS,30, 31 presumably due to mTOR-independent activation

of its classical buy BGB324 mTOR downstream targets as observed in our case by the Erlotinib solubility dmso action of 5HT. Therefore, inhibition of 5HT may be suppressive by preventing the phosphorylation of p70S6K and 4E-BP1 and by restoring autophagic mechanisms. The question whether autophagy enhances or suppresses tumor progression in patients with HCC remains open. However, the results of the animal experiments and the human biopsies indicate clearly a deleterious role of 5HT in HCC. In conclusion, the presence of HTR2B in HCC and the activation of autophagy-related mechanisms demonstrate 上海皓元 novel insights of 5HT in cancer biology and propose 5HT-mediated signaling as a therapeutic target. We thank Udo Ungethüm for technical assistance and Ursula Lüthi (Center for Microscopy and Image Analysis, University Zurich) for preparing and analyzing electron microscopy samples. Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article. “
“Endoscopic ultrasound

(EUS) and EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) play increasingly prominent roles in the diagnosis and management of pancreatic cysts. The Asian Consortium of Endoscopic Ultrasound was recently formed to conduct collaborative research in this area. This is a review of literature on true pancreatic cysts. Due to the lack of systematic studies, there are no robust data on the true incidence of pancreatic cystic lesions in Asia and any change in over the recent decades. Certain EUS morphological features have been used to predict particular types of pancreatic cysts. Pancreatic cyst fluid viscosity, cytology, pancreatic enzymes, and tumor markers, in particular carcinoembryonic antigen, can aid in the diagnosis of pancreatic cysts. Hemorrhage and infection are the most common complications of EUS-FNA of pancreatic cysts. Pancreatic cysts can either be observed or resected depending on the benign or malignant nature, or malignant potential of the lesions.