We describe a method to induce hyperthermia in cells, in-vitro, by remotely heating Ni nanowires (NWs) with radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields. Ni NWs were internalized by human embryonic kidney cells (HEK-293). Only cells proximal to NWs or with internalized NWs changed shape on exposure to RF fields indicative of cell death. The cell death occurs as a result of hyperthermia, since the RF field remotely heats the NWs as a result of magnetic hysteresis. This is the first demonstration of hyperthermia induced by NWs; since the NWs have anisotropic and strong magnetic moments, our experiments suggest the possibility of performing hyperthermia at lower field strengths in order to minimize damage to untargeted cells in applications such as the treatment of cancer.

We measured the histologic stromal and epithelial tissue components of the benign (normal) and malignant tissue compartments of Japanese-Americans (J-A) and native Japanese (NJ) men living in Japan. The patient cohort included 25 NJ men undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP) in Nagoya, Japan and 25 J-A (second or third generation US born). We conducted tissue image quantitation (in-house image software) of the stromal and epithelial compartments in malignant and adjacent normal tissue areas from a tissue microarray (TMA) selected from radical prostatectomy (RP) blocks. Stromal-epithelial (S-E) areas were determined using immunohistochemical stains for CAM-5.2 epithelial cytokeratin marker and the Masson trichrome stain to measure the stroma component. We observed differences in the volumes of normal and cancer epithelium and stroma within both the J-A and NJ study populations (Po0.01). Only the individual average cancer epithelium (CE) volume (JA ¼ 24.1 vs NJ ¼ 29.9) differed significantly between the NJ and J-A study populations (P ¼ 0.03). Consequently, the S-E ratio in NJ group was significantly different from that of J-A population (P ¼ 0.05). The decrease in S-E ratio noted in the malignant tissues of NJ prostate tissue may provide a biological marker for differentiation of the two groups and suggests a need for further investigations into the molecular basis for these histologic differences.