Increased Blood Levels of Human S100 in Melanoma Chick Embryo Xenografts’ Circulation

The chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) of the fertilized egg allows grafting of human melanomas for short‐term investigations and offers the opportunity to investigate the behavior of metastasizing cells and the release of S100β into peripheral blood. Tissue from one primary melanoma as well as cutaneous and subcutaneous metastases of 10 melanoma patients with elevated levels of S100 in the peripheral blood before surgery were transplanted onto the CAM of chick embryos at day 5/6 of development. Grafts were nourished by the host blood supply 2 days after transplantation. Histologically, 3 days after grafting, metastasizing melanoma cells could be found near the vessels of the host membrane, penetrating the endothelial layer and entering the blood system. Growth conditions remained stable for 6 days after transplantation. Blood samples were taken from a larger CAM vessel before collecting the xenografts 5 days after grafting. Measurement of human S100 in peripheral blood was performed in a blinded manner. No negative control showed elevated levels of human S100 protein. Samples deriving from melanoma xenografts contained highly elevated levels of S100 protein in 80% of cases. The data strongly support the concept of graft–host interaction concerning adherence of tumors and extravasation of human melanoma cells.     

Neuropeptide F signaling regulates parasitoid-specific germline development and egg-laying in Drosophila

Drosophila larvae and pupae are at high risk of parasitoid infection in nature. To circumvent parasitic stress, fruit flies have developed various survival strategies, including cellular and behavioral defenses. We show that adult Drosophila females exposed to the parasitic wasps, Leptopilina boulardi, decrease their total egg-lay by deploying at least two strategies: Retention of fully developed follicles reduces the number of eggs laid, while induction of caspase-mediated apoptosis eliminates the vitellogenic follicles. These reproductive defense strategies require both visual and olfactory cues, but not the MB247-positive mushroom body neuronal function, suggesting a novel mode of sensory integration mediates reduced egg-laying in the presence of a parasitoid. We further show that neuropeptide F (NPF) signaling is necessary for both retaining matured follicles and activating apoptosis in vitellogenic follicles. Whereas previous studies have found that gut-derived NPF controls germ stem cell proliferation, we show that sensory-induced changes in germ cell development specifically require brain-derived NPF signaling, which recruits a subset of NPFR-expressing cell-types that control follicle development and retention. Importantly, we found that reduced egg-lay behavior is specific to parasitic wasps that infect the developing Drosophila larvae, but not the pupae. Our findings demonstrate that female fruit flies use multimodal sensory integration and neuroendocrine signaling via NPF to engage in parasite-specific cellular and behavioral survival strategies.     

Dermatoscopy and High Frequency Sonography: Two Useful Non-Invasive Methods to Increase Preoperative Diagnostic Accuracy in Pigmented Skin Lesions

Dermatoscopy and high frequency sonography have recently been combined to increase diagnostic preoperative accuracy in the treatment of pigmented skin lesions. In this monocentric study 80 patients with pigmented skin lesions were evaluated clinically, by dermatoscopy, and 20 MHz-sonography followed by dermatohistopathological evaluation; 39 malignant melanomas, 37 common nevi, 3 dysplastic nevi, and 1 nevus Spitz were diagnosed histologically. In 72 of the 80 cases (91.3%) dermatoscopical diagnoses were confirmed by histopathology, compared to only 79% correct clinical diagnoses. For the mere clinical diagnosis of melanoma sensitivity was 79%, specificity was 78% and diagnostic accuracy was 65%. All diagnostic values increased by dermatoscopy: sensitivity reached 90%, specificity was 93%, and diagnostic accuracy was 83%. In order to determine tumor thickness preoperatively tumor thickness was measured by 20 MHz sonography. The correlation of tumor thickness between histometric and sonographic results was determined for nevi (r = 0.93) and melanoma (r = 0.95); 74.3% of melanomas were diagnosed correctly within an 0.2 mm range. Regarding the clinical important limit of 1 mm tumor thickness, 87.2% were diagnosed in accordance with histometric evaluation. An increase of 18% in diagnostic accuracy by dermatoscopy and 87.2% of correctly diagnosed cases of tumor thickness of malignant melanoma by high frequency sonography clearly demonstrate that these methods should be considered standard procedures in the diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions and will facilitate the decision on necessary surgical treatment.