It is known that RhoC protein plays an important role in controlling stress fiber and focal

adhesion contact formation.4 In another article from the same group, Yang et al. also observed that inhibition of RhoC in HCCLM3 (hepatocellular carcinoma lung metastasis 3rd selection) cells blocked autotoxin-induced stress fiber formation.2 MK-2206 supplier So, is RhoC involved in the cytoskeletal change induced by Egfl7 protein? The authors interpreted this change due to FAK phosphorylation stimulated by Egfl7 protein, but we found some reports demonstrating that RhoC can activate FAK.5, 6 One group indicated that RhoC promotes tumor metastasis in prostate cancer by sequential activation of Pyk2 (Proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2), FAK, MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase), and Akt followed by the up-regulation of matrix metalloproteinase 2(MMP2) and MMP9, which results in the stimulation of invasiveness of tumor cells.5 So, can we hypothesize that Egfl7 activates FAK through RhoC protein in HCC cells? We also noticed one article from the same

group showing that overexpression of RhoC in HCC tissues was highly correlated with tumor invasion and poor prognosis,3 which is similar with the results of Egfl7.4 The HCC specimens used in the article regarding Egfl7 were from 112 patients with HCC in Xiangya Hospital of Central South University between 1998 and 2005,1 and specimens used in the RhoC article were collected from the same hospital between 1994 and 2002,3 so the period from 1998 to 2002 was overlapped. If the expression pattern of RhoC in these specimens is strongly correlated with that of Egfl7, Nivolumab in vitro it will further confirm our hypothesis. Na Chlormezanone Liu*, Hongbo Zhang*, Kaichun

Wu*, Daiming Fan*, * State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Xijing Hospital of Digestive Diseases, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China. “
“See article in J. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 2012; 27: 626–641. Functional dyspepsia is one of the commonest digestive disorders, which affects 10–20% of the adult population worldwide. Although it is not associated with excessive mortality, patients with functional dyspepsia often suffer from significant morbidity with functional impairment, loss of working days, and workload burden on the healthcare system. Despite the high prevalence and major impact in the community, the importance of functional dyspepsia has been relatively ignored in Asia. In the past two decades, there have been major breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection, peptic ulcer, gastric cancer and non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding. On the other hand, there remain a lot of mysteries for functional dyspepsia. The etiology and mechanism of functional dyspepsia are heterogeneous and poorly understood. None of the reported pathophysiologic features are consistently observed in all patients and therefore there is no diagnostic biomarker.