Acute sun damage and photoprotective responses in whales

Rising levels of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) secondary to ozone depletion are an issue of concern for public health. Skin cancers and intraepidermal dysplasia are increasingly observed in individuals that undergo chronic or excessive sun exposure. Such alterations of skin integrity and function are well established for humans and laboratory animals, but remain unexplored for mammalian wildlife. However, effects are unlikely to be negligible, particularly for species such as whales, whose anatomical or life-history traits force them to experience continuous sun exposure. We conducted photographic and histological surveys of three seasonally sympatric whale species to investigate sunburn and photoprotection. We find that lesions commonly associated with acute severe sun damage in humans are widespread and that individuals with fewer melanocytes have more lesions and less apoptotic cells. This suggests that the pathways used to limit and resolve UVR-induced damage in humans are shared by whales and that darker pigmentation is advantageous to them. Furthermore, lesions increased significantly in time, as would be expected under increasing UV irradiance. Apoptosis and melanocyte proliferation mirror this trend, suggesting that whales are capable of quick photoprotective responses. We conclude that the thinning ozone layer may pose a risk to the health of whales and other vulnerable wildlife.     

Teleost intestinal immunology

Teleosts clearly have a more diffuse gut associated lymphoid system, which is morphological and functional clearly different from the mammalian GALT. All immune cells necessary for a local immune response are abundantly present in the gut mucosa of the species studied and local immune responses can be monitored after intestinal immunization. Fish do not produce IgA, but a special mucosal IgM isotype seems to be secreted and may (partly) be the recently described IgZ/IgT. Fish produce a pIgR in their mucosal tissues but it is smaller (2 ILD) than the 4–5 ILD pIgR of higher vertebrates. Whether teleost pIgR is transcytosed and cleaved off in the same way needs further investigation, especially because a secretory component (SC) is only reported in one species. Teleosts also have high numbers of IEL, most of them are CD3-?⁺/CD8-α⁺ and have cytotoxic and/or regulatory function. Possibly many of these cells are TCRγδ cells and they may be involved in the oral tolerance induction observed in fish. Innate immune cells can be observed in the teleost gut from first feeding onwards, but B cells appear much later in mucosal compartments compared to systemic sites. Conspicuous is the very early presence of putative T cells or their precursors in the fish gut, which together with the rag-1 expression of intestinal lymphoid cells may be an indication for an extra-thymic development of certain T cells. Teleosts can develop enteritis in their antigen transporting second gut segment and epithelial cells, IEL and eosinophils/basophils seem to play a crucial role in this intestinal inflammation model. Teleost intestine can be exploited for oral vaccination strategies and probiotic immune stimulation. A variety of encapsulation methods, to protect vaccines against degradation in the foregut, are reported with promising results but in most cases they appear not to be cost effective yet. Microbiota in fish are clearly different from terrestrial animals. In the past decade a fast increasing number of papers is dedicated to the oral administration of a variety of probiotics that can have a strong health beneficial effect, but much more attention has to be paid to the immune mechanisms behind these effects. The recent development of gnotobiotic fish models may be very helpful to study the immune effects of microbiota and probiotics in teleosts.     

The role of liquid-based cytology associated with curettage in the investigation of endometrial lesions from postmenopausal women

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the role of liquid-based cytology with ThinPrep technique, in the detection of endometrial lesions, using direct endometrial sampling from postmenopausal women with the Endogyn endometrial device. METHODS: It was performed on 491 postmenopausal women referred to our clinic for abnormal bleeding or other symptoms and/or a thickness of endometrium >5 mm on ultrasound. Endometrial sampling, dilatation and curettage (D&C) and hysterectomy were performed on all patients. For the diagnosis, the WHO classification scheme was used. RESULTS: According to our findings a sensitivity of 98.08%, specificity of 100%, positive predictive value of 100%, negative predictive value of 100% and overall accuracy of 98.98% were observed in both endometrial sampling and in D&C. CONCLUSIONS: Endometrial sampling is complementary to D&C for the diagnosis of endometrial lesions and it is necessary for it to be performed before D&C and/or hysterectomy.     

Gastroduodenal lesions and Helicobacter pylori infection in dyspeptic patients with and without chronic renal failure

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) often have dyspeptic symptoms and may develop peptic disease or digestive disorders leading to severe gastrointestinal complications. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of peptic lesions and Helicobacter pylori infection, and the severity of dyspeptic symptoms, in dyspeptic patients with and without CRF. Our secondary aim was to investigate whether uremic status may affect the diagnostic efficiency of the [13]C-urea breath test ([13]C-UBT). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We consecutively enrolled in the study 50 dyspeptic patients with chronic kidney failure (mean age 52 +/- 5 years), of whom 11 were on hemodialysis treatment (HD), and 93 subjects (mean age 54 +/- 7 years) with chronic dyspepsia and normal renal function (NRF). All patients completed an oriented and validated questionnaire scoring the severity of nine dyspeptic symptoms (i.e. epigastric pain, epigastric burning, postprandial fullness, early satiety, bloating, belching, nausea and vomiting) and underwent upper endoscopy with multiple bioptic sampling for rapid urease test and histological examination, [13]C-UBT and HpSA test. RESULTS: The prevalences of peptic lesions and H. pylori infection and mean symptom score were 74%, 52% and 3.5 +/- 3, respectively, in dyspeptic patients with CRF and 18%, 36% and 8 +/- 5, respectively, in dyspeptic patients with NRF. The diagnostic accuracy of [13]C-UBT with respect to histological diagnosis was 94% and 97% for dyspeptic patients with and without renal failure, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: 1, A high frequency of peptic lesions and low symptom scores were observed in uremic patients in spite of H. pylori infection; 2, uremic status did not affect the diagnostic accuracy of [13]C-UBT.     

Testing conditional independence in diagnostic palaeoepidemiology

Leprosy was a well-known and dreaded disease in the Middle Ages. A substantial fraction of the adult population carried leprosy-related lesions. Previous research analyzed the occurrence and implications of seven such lesions in samples of medieval skeletons. These analyses were carried out under the assumption of conditional independence among lesion scores. The present paper examines this assumption by developing a test based on the odds ratios and applying the test to three rural medieval samples from Europe: Tirup from the 12th-14th century AD in Jutland, Denmark; Refshale from the 12th-14th century AD on the island of Lolland, Denmark; and Lauchheim from AD 460-680 in southern Germany. Signs of nonzero prevalence of leprosy at death were found in all three samples: Tirup, 25.5% (95% CI, 17.2-34.6%); Refshale, 39.1% (95% CI, 25.5-54.7%); and Lauchheim, 16.2% (95% CI, 10.0-22.9%). It is shown that when leprosy is the prime factor creating variation in the lesion scores in and between samples, the assumption of conditional independence cannot be rejected.     

金葡菌L型感染致小鼠肿瘤中Survivin、Ki-67的表达及意义

目的探讨金黄色葡萄球菌(金葡菌)L型感染C57小鼠致瘤后,凋亡蛋白抑制因子(Survivin)和增殖细胞核相关抗原(Ki-67)在小鼠肿瘤及癌前病变中的表达及相关性研究。方法动物实验观察金葡菌L型感染90只C57小鼠后11.1%(10/90)小鼠发生肿瘤,14.4%(13/90)小鼠引起癌前病变。革兰染色、免疫组化及原位杂交检测小鼠肿瘤和癌前病变中金葡菌L型检出率和Survivin、Ki-67蛋白及cDNA的表达。结果10只小鼠肿瘤及13只小鼠癌前病变中金葡菌L型检出率及其cDNA阳性表达与正常对照组差异有非常显著性(P0.005~0.01);Survivin、Ki-67蛋白和cDNA的阳性表达与正常对照组差异有显著性(P0.01~0.05),呈正相关。结论金葡菌L型感染可能与Survivin、Ki-67基因协同在小鼠肿瘤发生和发展中起重要作用。     

Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum/chagasi: Histopathological aspects of the skin in naturally infected dogs in two endemic areas

In the New World, visceral leishmaniasis (VL), which is a progressive disease and frequently fatal, is caused by Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum/chagasi. It is endemic in many regions of Brazil and occasionally occurs in non-endemic regions when dogs from an endemic area are introduced. The aim of the present study is to compare different skin infection patterns of dogs from two leishmaniasis endemic areas. A histological analysis of dogs from Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul state, a region where epidemic episodes are currently taking place, showed dermic inflammatory infiltrates, composed of numerous vacuolated parasitized macrophages, few lymphocytes, plasma cells and many degranulated mast cells. In the other region of the study, São Luís, Maranhão state, the skin of dogs presented a remarkable inflammatory reaction composed mainly of plasma cells, lymphocytes and very few parasites. We concluded that there is a difference in the skin lesion patterns of dogs with leishmaniasis that is directly related to the endemic area where the animals live.