Les urgences andrologiques en milieu urbain au Cameroun : aspects cliniques et thérapeutiques

Goal

Describe clinical and therapeutic aspects of andrologic emergencies in an urban area, received in a university teaching hospital in Cameroon.

Methodology

We prospectively studied during 36 months all andrologic emergencies received at Laquintinie Hospital of Douala.

Results

We had a total of 291 patients. The mean age was 42.50 years. Most of our patients?? age was between 0 and 45 years. The most frequent lesion was genito-urinary trauma (51.50%) and uro-genital infections (23.71%). Priapism and torsion of the spermatic cord were also frequent. We carried out 185 emergency surgical interventions. Exploration and suture of wounds of the external genitalia (38.91%) and the exploratory scrototomy (21.62%) were the main emergency procedures.

Conclusion

Genito-urinary trauma are the most encountered andrologic emergencies in an urban area of Cameroon. Priapism and torsion of the spermatic cord were not rare.     

Le metabolisme du soufre dans la rhumerie

Résumé Le rhum, comparativement aux autres eaux-de-vie, se singularise par la variété et les teneurs relativement élevées de composés organo-soufrés qu'il contient. La composition de la canne à sucre ainsi que les apports de sulfate et d'acide sulfurique tout au long de la filière industrielle font que les milieux de fermentations sont riches en dérivés soufrés. En aval de la distillerie, la méthanisation des effluents pose le problème d'un équilibre précaire entre les flores méthanigène et sulfato-réductrice. La fraction organo-soufrée mérite une étude approfondie et systématique, car elle présente un intérêt analytique et organoleptique pour la caractérisation des rhums.

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The metabolism of sulphur during the manufacture of rum

Summary Rum distinguishes itself from other brandies by the variety and the relatively high content of organic sulphur compounds. Composition of sugar-cane as well as additions of sulphate and sulphuric acid along the industrial process gives fermentation media that are rich in sulphur-compounds. Downstream from the distillery, biomethanation of effluents is difficult because of a precarious equilibrium between the methanogenic and the sulphate-reducing bacterial floras. The organic sulphur-fraction requires a systematic study because the latter are involved in the organoleptic properties of rums.

     

Intracellular Ca2+ regulation in CD3 stimulated Jurkat T cells involves H+ fluxes.

Triggering the CD3/TCR complex of T lymphocytes induces a rapid rise in cytosolic free calcium followed by a slowly declining plateau. The level of this plateau depends on external pH, the more alkalinized media leading to higher values. Neither a pH-dependent binding of mAb, nor a perturbation of internal pH can account for this effect. In a sodium-free medium, or in the presence of dimethylamiloride Ca2+, elevation is accompanied by an acidification of the cells; both of them depend, to the same extent, on external calcium concentration. TPA inhibits CD3-, but not ionomycin-induced Ca2+ and H+ raises, indicating that it acts more probably on Ca2+ influx, rather than on its efflux. These results suggest that intracellular calcium could be regulated by a Ca2+/H+ ATPase which drives H+ in and Ca2+ out. In the presence of external Na+, H+ should return to the medium by the Na+/H+ exchanger.     

Muricauda ruestringensis Has an Asymmetric Cell Cycle

Muricauda ruestringensis B1 is a Gram ‐negative, marine bacterium and a member of the Flavobacteriaceae family. It is characterized by long appendages, which appear at different stages of growth. At the outer end of these appendages there is a bulbous structure. Investigating the cell morphology of strain B1 during batch growth revealed a high diversity of cell types and sizes. Apart from small rod‐shaped cells and rods with appendages, there were large rods and spherical cells of different sizes as well as spherical cells which had fimbriae. To be able to study the cell cycle events, it was essential to monitor the population dynamics of the involved individuals. For this purpose, fluorochromising techniques, multi‐parametric flow cytometry, image analysis and fluorescence microscopy were used. It was demonstrated that all cell types displayed a broad variation in DNA content; the precise number of chromosomes varied depending on the growth phase. The assortment was testified to hold 16S rDNA sequence identity. The cultures consisted of subpopulations whose density within a Percoll gradient varied considerably, ranging from 1.028 to 1.070. Consolidating the results of the morphological data, the chromosome content and the density of the subpopulations at different growth stages enabled us to construct an asymmetric cell cycle for the growth of strain B1 under the specific culture conditions of our experiments.     

Monocyte Scintigraphy in Rheumatoid Arthritis: The Dynamics of Monocyte Migration in Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease

Background

Macrophages are principal drivers of synovial inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a prototype immune-mediated inflammatory disease. Conceivably, synovial macrophages are continuously replaced by circulating monocytes in RA. Animal studies from the 1960s suggested that macrophage replacement by monocytes is a slow process in chronic inflammatory lesions. Translation of these data into the human condition has been hampered by the lack of available techniques to analyze monocyte migration in man.

Methods/Principal Findings

We developed a technique that enabled us to analyze the migration of labelled autologous monocytes in RA patients using single photon emission computer tomography (SPECT). We isolated CD14+ monocytes by CliniMACS in 8 patients and labeled these with technetium-99m (^99mTc-HMPAO). Monocytes were re-infused into the same patient. Using SPECT we calculated that a very small but specific fraction of 3.4×10⁻³ (0.95−5.1×10⁻³) % of re-infused monocytes migrated to the inflamed joints, being detectable within one hour after re-infusion.

Conclusions/Significance

The results indicate monocytes migrate continuously into the inflamed synovial tissue of RA patients, but at a slow macrophage-replacement rate. This suggests that the rapid decrease in synovial macrophages that occurs after antirheumatic treatment might rather be explained by an alteration in macrophage retention than in monocyte influx and that RA might be particularly sensitive to treatments targeting inflammatory cell retention.     

First report on histology and ultrastructure of an intrahemocytic paramyxean parasite (IPP) from tunicate Halocynthia roretzi in Korea

In 2004, epizootiological studies were conducted on mass mortalities of tunicates Halocynthia roretzi in Goje, Korea. The clinical characteristics of infected H. roretzi were weakness of the tunic, loss of elasticity, and finally death involving a rupture of the tunic. Histological studies revealed severe hemocyte infiltration in the connective tissue surrounding the intestine and mantle of infected H. roretzi. Hypertrophied eosinophilic hemocytes containing several cytoplasmic vacuoles were observed in the connective tissue surrounding the intestine, gill and mantle. Ultrastructural examination revealed the presence of a parasite in the cytoplasm of hemocytes. Secondary cells were observed in the primary cell of the parasite. Spore formation within primary cells suggests that the parasite may be an intrahemocytic paramyxean parasite (IPP) and may cause mass mortality of H. roretzi.     

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma regulates E-cadherin expression and inhibits growth and invasion of prostate cancer

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) might not be permissive to ligand activation in prostate cancer cells. Association of PPARgamma with repressing factors or posttranslational modifications in PPARgamma protein could explain the lack of effect of PPARgamma ligands in a recent randomized clinical trial. Using cells and prostate cancer xenograft mouse models, we demonstrate in this study that a combination treatment using the PPARgamma agonist pioglitazone and the histone deacetylase inhibitor valproic acid is more efficient at inhibiting prostate tumor growth than each individual therapy. We show that the combination treatment impairs the bone-invasive potential of prostate cancer cells in mice. In addition, we demonstrate that expression of E-cadherin, a protein involved in the control of cell migration and invasion, is highly up-regulated in the presence of valproic acid and pioglitazone. We show that E-cadherin expression responds only to the combination treatment and not to single PPARgamma agonists, defining a new class of PPARgamma target genes. These results open up new therapeutic perspectives in the treatment of prostate cancer.     

Regulation of the biochemical function of motif VI of HCV NTPase/helicase by the conserved Phe-loop

In previous works, we demonstrated a potent inhibition of diverse protein kinase C (PKC) functions by a fragment of nonstructural protein 3 (NS3) of hepatitis C virus (HCV), mainly mediated by the Arg-rich amino acid motif HCV(1487-1500). This sequence is localized on the surface of Domain 2 of the NS3 NTPase/helicase in direct vicinity to a flexible loop that is localized between Val1458 and Thr1476. Here, we assessed the regulation of the accessibility of the Arg-rich amino acid motif for PKC by this loop, using two variants of domain 2. The first construct, termed NS3d2Delta, comprises the complete domain, HCV(1361-1503), devoid the loop. The second variant, NS3d2wt corresponds to wild type domain 2. The results indicated an enhanced inhibitory potential of NS3d2Delta towards rat brain PKC and towards the majority of PKC isoforms. This effect and the accompanying change of the mode of inhibition from a mixed mode, exerted by NS3d2wt to a competitive mode, exerted by NS3d2Delta are caused by the deletion of the loop. Accordingly, the presence of the intact loop abolished the binding of domain 2 to the tailed duplex RNA used as helicase substrate, without affecting the binding of dsDNA. Furthermore, a direct competition of dsRNA and PKC for the same binding site HCV(1487-1500), could be documented. The binding of dsRNA to NS3d2Delta previously overlaid with PPKCalpha was reduced to 30% and completely abolished in case of NS3d2Delta overlaid with cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA).