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Assessment of sequential enhancement patterns of focal nodular hyperplasia and hepatocellular carcinoma on mangafodipir trisodium enhanced MR imaging.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Sequential contrast changes of mangafodipir trisodium (Mn-DPDP)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were evaluated in the differentiation of focal nodular hyperplasias (FNH) and hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). METHODS: Patients with FNH (n = 16) or HCC (n = 12) underwent MRI: T2-weighted fast spin echo before and T1-weighted gradient echo before and 1, 4, 14, and 22 hours after 5 micromol/kg Mn-DPDP. Homogeneity of enhancement and delineation of fibrous scars of FNHs were assessed qualitatively. Lesion-to-liver contrast changes of FNHs and HCCs were compared quantitatively (Mann-Whitney U). RESULTS: Mn-DPDP improved detection of characteristic scars of FNHs from 50% before to 90% after contrast agent. Apart from fibrous tissue enhancement of FNHs was mostly homogeneous (90%). Time-dependent contrast changes were up to 20 times higher (after 4 hours) for FNHs than HCCs (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Mn-DPDP-enhanced MRI helps to delineate characteristic morphologic features of FNHs and can provide quantitative data differentiating FNH and HCC.

Adult↗

Location, degree, and direction of DNA bending associated with the Hin recombinational enhancer sequence and Fis-enhancer complex.

The Fis protein of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium stimulates several site-specific DNA recombination reactions, as well as transcription of a number of genes. Fis binds to a 15-bp core recognition sequence and induces DNA bending. Mutations in Fis which alter its ability to bend DNA have been shown to reduce the stimulatory activity of Fis in both site-specific recombination and transcription systems. To examine the role of DNA bending in the activity of the Fis-recombinational enhancer complex in Hin-mediated site-specific DNA inversion, we have determined the locations, degrees, and directions of DNA bends associated with the recombinational enhancer and the Fis-enhancer complex. Circular-permutation assays demonstrated that a sequence-directed DNA bend is associated with the Fis binding sites in the proximal and distal domains of the recombinational enhancer. Binding of Fis to its core recognition sequence significantly increases the degree of DNA bending associated with the proximal and distal domains. The degree of DNA bending induced by Fis binding depended on the DNA sequences flanking the core Fis binding site, with angles ranging from 42 to 69 degrees. Phasing analyses indicate that both the sequence-directed and the Fis-induced DNA bends associated with the proximal and distal domains face the minor groove of the DNA helix at the center of the Fis binding site. The positions and directions of DNA bends associated with the Fis-recombinational complex support a direct role for Fis-induced DNA bending in assembly of the active invertasome.

Binding Sites↗

Binding of SL3-3 enhancer factor 1 transcriptional activators to viral and chromosomal enhancer sequences.

Interactions between SL3-3 enhancer factor 1 (SEF1) proteins and the enhancer of the murine leukemia virus SL3-3 were analyzed. SEF1 proteins were found to interact with two different DNA sequences within the DNA repeat region of the enhancer; these two motifs cooperated in enhancing initiation of transcription in T lymphocytes. Using an electrophoretic mobility shift assay, we identified nucleotides that are important for the SEF1 binding, and we deduced a sequence, 5'-TTTGCGGTTA/T-3' with highly improved binding of SEF1 proteins. We show that many different SEF1 binding sequences exist in the transcription control regions of different viral and cellular genes. The results indicate a general role of SEF1 proteins in T-cell gene expression.

Animals↗

Identification of factor-binding sites in the duck hepatitis B virus enhancer and in vivo effects of enhancer mutations.

Hepatitis B viruses (hepadnaviruses) can cause chronic, productive infections of hepatocytes. Analyses of the enhancers and promoters of these viruses in cell lines have suggested a requirement of these elements for liver-enriched transcription factors. In this study, a minimum of seven factor-binding sites on the duck hepatitis B virus enhancer were detected by DNase I footprinting using duck liver nuclear extracts. Among the sites that were tentatively identified were one C/EBP-, one HNF1-, and two HNF3-binding sites. Mutations of the HNF1- and HNF3-like sites, which eliminated factor binding, as assessed by both DNase I footprinting and competitive gel shift assays, were evaluated for their effects on enhancer activity. Using a construct in which human growth hormone was expressed from the viral enhancer and core gene promoter, we found that all of the mutations, either alone or in combination, reduced expression two- to fourfold in LMH chicken hepatoma cells. The mutations in the HNF1 site and one of the HNF3 sites, when inserted into the intact viral genome, also suppressed virus RNA synthesis in primary hepatocyte cultures. Virus carrying the latter HNF3 mutation was also examined for its ability to infect and replicate in ducks. No significant inhibition of virus replication was observed in a short-term assay; however, virus with the HNF3 mutation was apparently unable to grow in the pancreas, a second site of duck hepatitis B virus replication in the duck.

Animals↗

The E47 transcription factor binds to the enhancer sequences of recombinant murine leukemia viruses and influences enhancer function.

The genomes of most recombinant murine leukemia viruses (MuLVs) inherit pathogenic U3 region sequences from the endogenous xenotropic provirus Bxv-1. However, the U3 regions of about one-third of recombinant MuLVs from CWD mice, such as CWM-T15, have nonecotropic substitutions that are probably derived from an endogenous polytropic provirus. The CWM-T15 U3 region sequences contain five nucleotide substitutions compared with the less pathogenic sequences of the endogenous ecotropic virus parent, Emv-1. Three of these substitutions are located immediately 3' of the enhancer core, and two form part of an E-box motif that is also found in the Bxv-1 sequence. A series of electromobility shift assays revealed that nuclear extracts from S194 cells and the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor E47 could distinguish between oligonucleotides that contained the core region sequences of CWM-T15 or Emv-1. The E47 homodimers appeared to bind to the CWM-T15 E-box motif and when expressed at high levels in cells transactivated the CWM-T15 but not the Emv-1 enhancer. Taken together, these results suggest that E47 or related basic helix-loop-helix proteins that are expressed in lymphoid cells bind to and transactivate the CWM-T15 enhancer in vivo. This transactivation may explain why the CWM-T15 and Bxv-1 U3 regions accelerate the onset of lymphoid neoplasms and why related enhancer core region sequences are preferentially incorporated into the genomes of recombinant MuLVs and are found in other leukemogenic mammalian retroviruses.

Base Sequence↗

Woodchuck hepatitis virus enhancer I and enhancer II are both involved in N-myc2 activation in woodchuck liver tumors.

Direct activation of the N-myc2 oncogene by insertion of woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) DNA is a major oncogenic step in woodchuck hepatocarcinogenesis. We previously reported that WHV enhancer II (We2), which controls expression of the core/pregenome RNA, can also activate the N-myc2 promoter in hepatoma cell lines. To better define the integrated WHV regulatory sequences responsible for N-myc2 promoter activation in woodchuck liver tumors, we analyzed the structure and enhancer activity of a single viral integrant found at the win locus in tumor 2260T1 and mapping approximately 175 kb 3' of N-myc2. This viral insert was made of 11 concatemerized WHV fragments, 5 of which overlapped with We2 sequences and 1 with WHV sequence homologous to that of hepatitis B virus enhancer I (We1). In transient transfection assays in hepatoma-derived cells, the We2 activator was found to be fully effective only when inserted in close proximity to the N-myc2 promoter whereas the We1 element by itself was apparently devoid of activity. In contrast, the 2260T1 viral insert exhibited a potent enhancer capacity that depended both on multimerized We2 and on We1 sequences. In a survey of different woodchuck hepatomas, both elements were commonly found within integrated viral sequences involved in long-range N-myc2 activation.

Animals↗

Mutation of all Runx (AML1/core) sites in the enhancer of T-lymphomagenic SL3-3 murine leukemia virus unmasks a significant potential for myeloid leukemia induction and favors enhancer evolution toward induction of other disease patterns.

SL3-3 murine leukemia virus is a potent inducer of T-lymphomas in mice. Using inbred NMRI mice, it was previously reported that a mutant of SL3-3 with all enhancer Runx (AML1/core) sites disrupted by 3-bp mutations (SL3-3dm) induces predominantly non-T-cell tumors with severely extended latency (S. Ethelberg, J. Lovmand, J. Schmidt, A. Luz, and F. S. Pedersen, J. Virol. 71:7273-7280, 1997). By use of three-color flow cytometry and molecular and histopathological analyses, we have now performed a detailed phenotypic characterization of SL3-3- and SL3-3dm-induced tumors in this mouse strain. All wild-type induced tumors had clonal T-cell receptor beta rearrangements, and the vast majority were CD3(+) CD4(+) CD8(-) T-lymphomas. Such a consistent phenotypic pattern is unusual for murine leukemia virus-induced T-lymphomas. The mutant virus induced malignancies of four distinct hematopoietic lineages: myeloid, T lymphoid, B lymphoid, and erythroid. The most common disease was myeloid leukemia with maturation. Thus, mutation of all Runx motifs in the enhancer of SL3-3 severely impedes viral T-lymphomagenicity and thereby discloses a considerable and formerly unappreciated potential of this virus for myeloid leukemia induction. Proviral enhancers with complex structural alterations (deletions, insertions, and/or duplications) were found in most SL3-3dm-induced T-lymphoid tumors and immature myeloid leukemias but not in any cases of myeloid leukemia with maturation, mature B-lymphoma, or erythroleukemia. Altogether, our results indicate that the SL3-3dm enhancer in itself promotes induction of myeloid leukemia with maturation but that structural changes may arise in vivo and redirect viral disease specificity to induction of T-lymphoid or immature myeloid leukemias, which typically develop with moderately shorter latencies.

Animals↗

Transcription of the human beta enolase gene (ENO-3) is regulated by an intronic muscle-specific enhancer that binds myocyte-specific enhancer factor 2 proteins and ubiquitous G-rich-box binding factors.

To provide evidence for the cis-regulatory DNA sequences and trans-acting factors involved in the complex pattern of tissue- and stage-specific expression of the beta enolase gene, constructs containing fragments of the gene fused to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene were used in transient-transfection assays of C2C12 myogenic cells. Deletion analysis revealed the presence of four major regions: two negative regions in the 5'-flanking sequence, a basal promoter region which directs expression at low levels in proliferating and differentiated muscle cells, and a positive region within the first intron that confers cell-type-specific and differentiation-induced expression. This positive regulatory element is located in the 3'-proximal portion of the first intron (nucleotides +504 to +637) and acts as an enhancer irrespective of orientation and position from the homologous beta enolase promoter or the heterologous thymidine kinase promoter, conferring in both cases muscle-specific expression to the linked reporter gene. Deletion of a putative myocyte-specific enhancer factor 1 (MEF-1) binding site, containing a canonical E-box motif, had no effects on muscle-specific transcription, indicating that this site is not required for the activity of the enhancer. Gel mobility shift assays, competition analysis, DNase I footprinting, and mutagenesis studies indicated that this element interacts through an A/T-rich box with a MEF-2 protein(s) and through a G-rich box with a novel ubiquitous factor(s). Mutation of either the G-rich box or the A/T-rich box resulted in a significantly reduced activity of the enhancer in transient-transfection assays. These data indicate that MEF-2 and G-rich-box binding factors are each necessary for tissue-specific expression of the beta enolase gene in skeletal muscle cells.

Animals↗

An extravascular component of contrast enhancement in cranial computed tomography. Part II. Contrast enhancement and the blood-tissue barrier.

The authors provide evidence of significant extravasation of contrast media responsible for the contrast enhancement of pathological tissue on computed tomography. The tissue-blood ratio of enhancement was calculated by the EMI scanner in 2 patients after injection of contrast material and prior to surgery; tumor-blood ratios for red blood cell and plasma tracers were calculated after surgery. The ratios of enhancement demonstrated the analogy between contrast enhancement and the leaking of radionuclide across the blood-brain barrier. This phenomenon may cause error if this technique is used for the measurement of cerebral blood volume. The area for complementary roles of CT and radionuclide brain imaging seems to be narrower than expected.

Animals↗

Focal liver disease: comparison of dynamic contrast-enhanced CT and T2-weighted fat-suppressed, FLASH, and dynamic gadolinium-enhanced MR imaging at 1.5 T.

Dynamic contrast medium-enhanced computed tomography (CT), T2-weighted fat-suppressed spin-echo (T2FS) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and breath-hold T1-weighted fast low-angle shot (FLASH) MR imaging before and after dynamic gadopentetate dimeglumine injection were compared in 73 patients with clinically suspected liver disease. Observer confidence for presence of focal lesions was determined by using receiver operating characteristic analysis. For all MR images, hepatic lesion-liver signal-to-noise ratios were evaluated qualitatively. and resolution and presence of artifacts were evaluated qualitatively. Lesion detection was greatest with T2FS (n = 272) and enhanced FLASH (n = 244) and was statistically greater with both of these than with CT (n = 220) and FLASH (n = 219) (P less than .03). Correct lesion characterization was greatest with enhanced FLASH (n = 236) (P less than .01), followed by CT (n = 199), FLASH (n = 164), and T2FS (n = 144). Enhanced FLASH was particularly successful in characterization of 5-mm- to 1.5-cm-diameter lesions as cystic or solid.

Adenoma↗

A simple processing method allowing comparison of renal enhancing volumes derived from standard portal venous phase contrast-enhanced multidetector CT images to derive a CT estimate of differential renal function with equivalent results to nuclear medicine quantification.

As iodinated contrast medium is cleared by glomerular filtration, it should be possible to apply the same principles utilized in radionuclide studies to derive differential renal function by comparison of enhancing renal volumes derived from contrast enhanced multidetector CT (CEMDCT). Having established a technique iteratively which appeared successful, a retrospective study was performed using 25 consecutive patients with a wide range of urological conditions who had undergone both CEMDCT, including the renal area in the portal venous phase, and nuclear medicine (NM) assessment of renal function with no urological intervention between the studies. Proprietary volume software was used to quantify the volume and attenuation of each kidney, the products of which (after subtraction of soft tissue attenuation derived from a region of interest over psoas) gave right and left enhancing renal volumes. The contribution by each kidney as a percentage of total renal enhancing tissue was derived. Comparison with NM studies resulted in excellent correlation of relative renal function by CEMDCT and NM assessments having a regression of near unity and a Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.96. Bland Altman and Passing Bablock tests confirmed good agreement between the two methods with no bias. This is a simple, practicable processing technique using standard portal venous phase CEMDCT images to quantify differential function. This technique may allow a one-stop CT assessment of both anatomy and function.

Adult↗

Original report. Late myocardial enhancement in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with contrast-enhanced MR imaging.

OBJECTIVE: Contrast-enhanced MR imaging has great clinical value as a means of characterizing myocardial tissue in patients with ischemic heart disease. The purpose of our study was to evaluate use of this technique in the assessment of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. CONCLUSION: On late-enhancement MR imaging, the various types or patterns of enhancement found in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are related to differences in morphology and regional function. Enhancement in hypertrophied areas likely reflects the presence of abundant connective tissue, foci of myocardial necrosis, or a combination of both.

Adolescent↗

Myocardial late enhancement in contrast-enhanced cardiac MRI: distinction between infarction scar and non-infarction-related disease.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to assess and compare the patterns of late enhancement (LE) in contrast-enhanced cardiac MRI caused by myocardial infarction and different myocardial diseases that are not related to ischemic infarction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 811 consecutive contrast-enhanced cardiac MRI studies performed for different indications were reviewed for left ventricular myocardial LE after gadopentetate dimeglumine administration. MRI studies were performed on a 1.5-T scanner using an inversion recovery turbo FLASH sequence (TR/TE, 8/4 msec; flip angle, 25 degrees). The LE pattern of ischemic infarction scar was compared with that in nonischemic myocardial disease. RESULTS: LE was found in 421 (52%) patients. In all patients with myocardial infarction, LE included the subendocardial layer. Nineteen patients without history of myocardial infarction and angiographically excluded coronary artery disease showed different patterns of LE caused by myocarditis, sarcoidosis, arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia, cardiomyopathy, endomyocardial fibrosis, and iatrogenic scars after biopsy, ablation of septal hypertrophy, and myocardial laser revascularization. CONCLUSION: LE in contrast-enhanced cardiac MRI is not specific for ischemic infarction. LE in ischemic infarction always involves the subendocardial layer, whereas it does not necessarily do so in other myocardial diseases. Therefore, if LE omit the subendocardial layer, different nonischemic myocardial diseases have to be considered. The pattern of LE might be helpful for the differential diagnosis of myocardial disease and in distinguishing it from ischemic disease.

Adult↗

Correlation between estimates of tumor perfusion from microbubble contrast-enhanced sonography and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging.

OBJECTIVE: We compared measurements of tumor perfusion from microbubble contrast-enhanced sonography (MCES) and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) in an animal tumor model. METHODS: Seven mice were implanted with Lewis lung carcinoma cells on their hind limbs and imaged 14 days later with a Philips 5- to 7-MHz sonography system (Philips Medical Systems, Andover, MA) and a Varian 7.0-T MRI system (Varian, Inc, Palo Alto, CA). For sonographic imaging 100 microL of a perfluoropropane microbubble contrast agent (Definity; Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging, Billerica, MA) was injected and allowed to reach a pseudo steady state, after which a high-mechanical index pulse was delivered to destroy the microbubbles within the field of view, and the replenishment of the microbubbles was imaged for 30 to 60 seconds. The MRI included acquisition of a T(10) map and 35 serial T(1)-weighted images (repetition time, 100 milliseconds; echo time, 3.1 milliseconds; alpha, 30 degrees ) after the injection of 100 microL of 0.2-mmol/kg gadopentetate dimeglumine (Magnevist; Berlex, Wayne, NJ). Region-of-interest and voxel-by-voxel analyses of both data sets were performed; microbubble contrast-enhanced sonography returned estimates of microvessel cross-sectional area, microbubble velocity, and mean blood flow, whereas DCE-MRI returned estimates of a perfusion-permeability index and the extravascular extracellular volume fraction. RESULTS: Comparing similar regions of tumor tissue seen on sonography and MRI, region-of-interest analyses revealed a strong (r(2) = 0.57) and significant relationship (P < .002) between the estimates of perfusion obtained by the two modalities. CONCLUSIONS: Microbubble contrast-enhanced sonography can effectively depict intratumoral heterogeneity in preclinical xenograft models when voxel-by-voxel analysis is performed, and this analysis correlates with similar DCE-MRI measurements.

Animals↗

Specific DNA binding to a major histocompatibility complex enhancer sequence by a synthetic 57-residue double zinc finger peptide from a human enhancer binding protein.

Two 57-residue peptides containing one pair of "zinc fingers" from a human enhancer binding protein were prepared by solid-phase peptide synthesis. One peptide (MBP-DF) contained the native sequence, while the second peptide ([Abu11]MBP-DF) has an alpha-aminobutyric acid residue substituted for a nonconserved cysteine residue at position 11. The peptides were characterized by several chemical and physical methods, and their DNA binding properties were evaluated using gel retardation experiments. Spectroscopic studies demonstrated that addition of metal ions such as zinc and cobalt resulted in specific conformational changes in both peptides, indicating that cysteine-11 does not appear to be involved in metal chelation. One-dimensional 1H NMR studies indicate that a stable folded structure is formed upon addition of zinc, and the chemical shift pattern is consistent with that previously observed for one constituent single finger (Omichinski, J., Clore, G. M., Appella, E., Sakaguchi, K., and Gronenborn, A. M. (1990) Biochemistry 29, 9324-9334). Gel retardation experiments demonstrate that the peptides are capable of interacting with a 15-mer oligonucleotide comprising a portion of the major histocompatibility complex enhancer sequence and that the interaction is zinc-dependent. The dissociation constant for the [Abu11]MBP-DF peptide is 1.4 x 10(-7) M with maximal binding occurring at a zinc-to-peptide ratio of 2 to 1. The binding specificity observed with respect to related enhancer sequences exhibits the same relative order as noted previously for the whole protein. Studies with point mutants of the major histocompatibility complex enhancer binding sequence indicate that the last GC base pair in a four-guanine stretch plays a pivotal role in the interaction between the peptide and DNA.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Optimization of xenon-enhanced CT studies: beam energy, enhancement, root mean square deviation, and repeatability.

The effects of varying beam energy on the computed tomographic (CT) enhancement-to-noise (S:N) ratio were studied experimentally with the DeltaScan 2020 and GE 8800 CT scanners and a 20-cm-diameter cyclindrical Plexiglas phantom containing 11 50 ml syringes filled with varying amounts of xenon and iodine. Enhancements of 54.2, 36.7, and 31.7 Hounsfield units (H)/mg l/ml were measured with the DeltaScan 2020 at 70, 100, and 120 kVp, respectively, with corresponding root mean square deviations (RMSDs) of 12, 7, and 5 H for 400 mAs scans. For the GE 8800, enhancements of 48.3, 37.6, and 32.7 H/mg l/ml were measured at 80, 100, and 120 kVp with RMSDs of 13, 8, and 7 H for 9.6 sec 320 mA scans (3.3 msec pulse). RMSD was independent of enhancement over the range of iodine concentrations studied (0-1.5 mg l/ml) and was only a weak function of region-of-interest (ROI) size. For repeated scans with the DeltaScan 2020, measurements in 17 X 17 pixel regions were reproducible to within 0.8 H for all techniques and a drift in calibration of less than 6% was observed after 8 months of clinical use. For both the DeltaScan 2020 and the GE 8800, at the milliamperage studied, lower-energy techniques offered no advantage over 120 kVp technique for xenon CT measurements of regional cerebral blood flow, which are feasible using either of these scanners.

Radiographic Image Enhancement↗

Mechanism(s) of in vitro percutaneous absorption enhancement of tamoxifen by enhancers.

The effects of enhancers (5% terpenes; i.e., eugenol, limonene, and menthone) in combination with 50% propylene glycol in water (50% PG) on the in vitro percutaneous absorption of tamoxifen through the porcine epidermis, on biophysical changes in the stratum corneum (SC) lipids, on macroscopic barrier properties, and on binding of the drug to the SC were investigated. These enhancers in combination with 50% PG significantly increased (p<0.05) the permeability coefficient of tamoxifen in comparison with that of the control (50% PG in water). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was employed to investigate the biophysical changes in the SC lipids. The FT-IR results showed that treatment of the SC with 5% terpenes/50% PG did not shift the asymmetric and symmetric C-H stretching absorbances peak positions to higher wavenumbers but resulted in a decrease in the peak heights and areas in comparison with the untreated SC. Treatment with menthone and limonene in combination with 50% PG significantly increased (p<0.05) the partition coefficient of tamoxifen in comparison with treatment with 50% PG alone. Also, exposure of the SC to 5% terpenes in combination with 50% PG significantly increased (p < 0.05) the in vitro transepidermal water loss (TEWL) in comparison with 50% PG alone. Thus, an enhancement by menthone, eugenol, and limonene in the permeability of the SC to tamoxifen is due to lipid extraction and macroscopic barrier perturbation. Moreover, the effective diffusion coefficient of tamoxifen through the epidermis was enhanced following the treatment with either 5% eugenol/50%PG or 5% limonene/50%PG compared with 50%PG alone.

Animals↗

Attenuation of 4-I-phenol-enhanced chemiluminescence by non-enhancer phenols.

The intensity of 4-I-phenol-enhanced chemiluminescence from the luminol-H2O2-horseradish peroxidase system is markedly attenuated in the presence of low concentrations of non-enhancer phenols. Under the conditions studied, the effect is not associated with competition between 4-I-phenol and non-enhancer phenol for the enzyme intermediates, Compounds I and II, but involves a competition between non-enhancer phenol and luminol most probably for the 4-I-phenoxy radical.

Cresols↗