This Week in Experimental and Molecular Pathology

Alejandro Curina from the Institute of Biochemical Research in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, report in Experimental and Molecular Pathology that heme oxygenase-1, or HO-1, is upregulated in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and that its localization to the nucleus is associated with malignancy. In their study, the researchers found that HO-1 mRNA and protein expression levels are higher in HNSCC tumors as compared to adjacent non-malignant tissue and normal tissue controls. In HNSCC tumors and cell lines, they also found that atypical nuclear localization of HO-1 increases with tumor progression.

Also in Experimental and Molecular Pathology, Fudan University's Decheng Wang and colleagues discuss the role of the macrophage migration inhibitory factor in granuloma formation in tuberculosis. They examined MIF expression in mouse and zebrafish models of disease as well as in human tissue, and they found that MIF expression increases in tissues that have been infected with Myycobacterium tuberculosis. "Our results revealed that MIF is necessary in granuloma formation of mouse and zebrafish as well as tuberculosis patient tissues," Wang et al. write.