Sural Nerve Interposition Grafting during Radical Prostatectomy

In 1997, autologous sural nerve grafting to reconstruct bilaterally resected cavernosal nerves was successfully performed in patients undergoing radical retropubic prostatectomy. After 12 months, one third of these patients had erections sufficient for intercourse. Since that time, patients who have had neurovascular bundle resection and sural nerve grafting have continued to show promising results. For example, within one large cohort of men who had unilateral, nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy, significantly more men who had sural nerve grafting regained potency, and did so in less time, than men who did not have grafting. More importantly, however, with better predictions of the presence of extracapsular disease, nerve-sparing surgery can be performed more selectively, reserving wide resection and sural nerve grafting for patients likely to have extracapsular extension. A multicenter, randomized clinical trial is needed to substantiate the positive outcomes observed with sural nerve grafting.     

Metastatic transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder to the shoulder girdle

Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder typically metastasizes to the pelvic lymph nodes and to visceral sites including the lungs, liver, and bones. Other sites include the brain, especially after systemic chemotherapy. To our knowledge, we report the first case of TCC metastatic to the soft tissue of the shoulder girdle and discuss common and unusual sites of metastasis in TCC.     

A Statistical Mechanical Deconvolution of the Differential Scanning Calorimetric Profiles of the Thermal Denaturation of Cyanomethemoglobin

A differential scanning calorimetric study of the thermal unfolding of horse cyanomethemoglobin (as an irreversible protein system) was carried out in phosphate-EDTA buffer (20 mM phosphate, 1 mM EDTA) pH 7.2. The calorimetric rescanning of the protein solution was found to be irreversible and the process unfolded state → final state appears to follow first order kinetic. Assuming the system to be comprised of n reversible states and one irreversible final state, the number of particles participating in the reversible states changes with time because they ultimately transit to the final irreversible denatured state. Hence, we carried out the deconvolution analysis using the grand canonical ensembles instead of just the canonical ensembles. This change was effected by introducing a correction term into the related equations which determines the outlet share of those particles exiting from the reversible states and converting into the final irreversible state. This approach provided an improved interpretation of the experimental data, which supports the following two-step process for the thermal denaturation of cyanomethemoglobin: α₂β₂ → (α + αβ + β)^excited → α^melt + (αβ)^melt + (β^melt.     

Engineered endophytic bacteria improve phytoremediation of water-soluble, volatile, organic pollutants

Phytoremediation of highly water soluble and volatile organic xenobiotics is often inefficient because plants do not completely degrade these compounds through their rhizospheres. This results in phytotoxicity and/or volatilization of chemicals through the leaves, which can cause additional environmental problems. We demonstrate that endophytic bacteria equipped with the appropriate degradation pathway improve the in planta degradation of toluene. We introduced the pTOM toluene-degradation plasmid of Burkholderia cepacia G4 into B. cepacia L.S.2.4, a natural endophyte of yellow lupine. After surface-sterilized lupine seeds were successfully inoculated with the recombinant strain, the engineered endophytic bacteria strongly degraded toluene, resulting in a marked decrease in its phytotoxicity, and a 50-70% reduction of its evapotranspiration through the leaves. This strategy promises to improve the efficiency of phytoremediating volatile organic contaminants.     

Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 barcode data of fish of the Nayband National Park in the Persian Gulf and analysis using meta-data flag several cryptic species

We provide cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) barcode sequences of fishes of the Nayband National Park, Persian Gulf, Iran. Industrial activities, ecological considerations and goals of The Fish Barcode of Life campaign make it crucial that fish species residing in the park be identified. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of barcoding data on fishes of the Persian Gulf. We examined 187 individuals representing 76 species, 56 genera and 32 families. The data flagged potentially cryptic species of Gerres filamentosus and Plectorhinchus schotaf. 16S rDNA data on these species are provided. Exclusion of these two potential cryptic species resulted in a mean COI intraspecific distance of 0.18%, and a mean inter- to intraspecific divergence ratio of 66.7. There was no overlap between maximum Kimura 2-parameter distances among conspecifics (1.66%) and minimum distance among congeneric species (6.19%). Barcodes shared among species were not observed. Neighbour-joining analysis showed that most species formed cohesive sequence units with little variation. Finally, the comparison of 16 selected species from this study with meta-data of conspecifics from Australia, India, China and South Africa revealed high interregion divergences and potential existence of six cryptic species. Pairwise interregional comparisons were more informative than global divergence assessments with regard to detection of cryptic variation. Our analysis exemplifies optimal use of the expanding barcode data now becoming available.     

Regulation of superoxide dismutase isoforms in resistant and susceptible strawberry cultivars subjected to leaf spot disease

Abstract

Macroscopic symptoms were observed in two strawberry cultivars, with the degree of symptom intensity varying depending on the susceptibility of the cultivars, i.e. resistant or susceptible. The symptoms presented as red spots and were observed 30 d following leaf tissue inoculation with the Mycosphaerella fragariae pathogen. A comparison of the superoxide dismutase isoform profiles obtained by gel electrophoresis in all samples extracted from both resistant and susceptible cultivars indicated one constant sharp band, identified as Mn[sbnd]SOD with a molecular mass of 19 kDa. The intensity of this band was higher in all samples derived from the resistant cultivar than in those from the susceptible cultivar. Another superoxide dismutase (SOD) isoform, identified as CuZn[sbnd]SOD with a molecular mass of 16 kDa, was detected in all soluble proteins derived from the resistant cultivar. This isoform was not observed in the susceptible cultivar; however, following an incremental increase in the amount of loaded protein, it was illuminated as a faint band in a sample collected 3 d after inoculation, indicating insufficient production of the CuZn[sbnd]SOD isoform in the susceptible cultivar during an oxidative burst induced by the M. fragaria pathogen. Several bands were also characterized in both cultivars containing Fe and Mn as their co-factors (Fe, Mn[sbnd]SOD). Unlike in the resistant cultivar, where the activity of Fe, Mn[sbnd]SOD isoforms gradually and regularly increased and reached its highest level on the third day after inoculation, the activity of the isoforms changed irregularly over 20 days of study in the susceptible cultivar.     

Occurrence of crown gall disease on Ficus benjamina in Fars and Isfahan provinces of Iran

Ficus benjamina, commonly known as weeping fig, Benjamin’s fig or Ficus tree is a species of flowering plant in the family of Moraceae. It is native to south and south-east Asia and Australia. Crown gall tumours were collected from branches of one-year-old weeping fig (F. benjamina L.) trees. A total of 50 strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens were isolated from diseased Ficus plants and their morphological, molecular and biochemical characteristics were studied; pathogenicity tests on tomato, F. benjamina and Bryophyllum daigremontianum were also conducted. Based on the biochemical characteristics, pathogenicity test and PCR amplification of 730?bp fragment using VCR\VCF primers, the tested bacterial strains were identified as A. tumefaciens. This is the first report of crown gall on F. benjamina in Isfahan and Fars provinces of Iran.     

Production and introduction of a novel immunotoxin based on engineered RNase A for inducing death to Her1-positive cell lines

The present study was performed to design an immunotoxin consisting of engineered RNase A and scFv of Cetuximab. To accomplish this study goal, at first to evade RNase A from its inhibitors in the cytoplasm, six amino acids of RNase A were substituted, then the physicochemical features of engineered RNase A were assessed. To investigate the interaction between the engineered RNase A and the ribonuclease inhibitor, protein–protein docking was performed. After engineering the RNase A, it was theoretically conjugated with scFv of Cetuximab using a cleavable linker to produce scFv-engineered RNase A. Then, wild-RNase A (14 kD), engineered RNase A (14 kD) and scFv-engineered RNase A (42 kDa) were expressed in the BL21 (DE3) strain of Escherichia coli and purified by Ni-NTA columns. To confirm the expressed proteins, western blot analysis was performed. The functioning of wild-RNase A and engineered RNase A were investigated by RNA fragmentation assay. Finally, to evaluate the cytotoxicity of scFv-engineered RNase A, a dose–response cytotoxicity assay was performed on Her1-positive and Her1-negative cell lines. The results showed that engineered RNase A could maintain its structure and disulfide bonds and evade its inhibitor. Expression and purification were successfully conducted and both enzymes could degrade yeast RNA. The result of cytotoxicity showed that the engineered immunotoxin could induce cell death to Her1-positive cell lines with an IC₅₀ of 50 nM. It appears that scFv-engineered RNase A can be a promising molecule for use.     

The Combination of TGF-β3 and BMP-6 Synergistically Promotes the Chondrogenic Differentiation of Equine Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells

International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics - Stem cell therapy is a new approach in veterinary medicine for the treatment of complicated disorders such as articular...