Role of endogenous prostaglandins in regulating the tone of opossum lower esophageal sphincter in vivo

The role of prostaglandins in maintenance of basal myogenic tone of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) of opossum has been studied $\text{in vivo}$. Intra-arterial infusion of arachidonic acid decreased LES tone, and this was inhibited by intravenous indomethacin (IDM) or intra-arterial 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraynoic acid (ETA). Alone these drugs did not reduce LES tone except transiently. In addition they did not affect relaxation of the LES to distention of a balloon located proximal to it or inhibit the “off” contractions of esophageal body and LES pressure which followed balloon deflation. Spontaneous oscillations of LES pressure were increased with IDM. Thus prostaglandin synthesis plays no essential role in maintenance of resting LES tone or in functioning of non-adrenergic inhibitory nerves in the esophagus $\text{in vivo}$. Endogenous inhibitory prostaglandins might reduce LES tone if synthesized in increased amounts.     

Accuracy of blood cytological screening techniques for the diagnosis of a possible hematopoietic neoplasm in the bivalve mollusc,Mya arenaria

The two in vivo bleeding techniques currently in use in our laboratory to diagnose a hematopoietic neoplasm in Mya arenaria are: (1) phase-contrast microscopy with fresh unstained hemocytes, and (2) bright-field microscopy with Giemsa-stained hemocytes. All in vivo diagnoses were checked by histopathological studies on tissues of the same mollusc. For both methods the correct diagnosis (true + or true ?) was made in 94 out of 100 clams examined. A gradation of tissue involvement was observed in the diseased clams and the accuracy of the in vivo diagnosis is related to the disease severity. There is a positive correlation between the degree of tissue involvement and the number of circulating neoplastic cells. For this reason the more extensive the neoplasm the better is the ability to diagnose the neoplasm by the in vivo bleeding techniques. Depending on the percentage of neoplastic cells present in the hemolymph, the neoplasm was graded from level 1 to 5, with 5 being the most severe. In general, at level 1, the accuracy of a single in vivo diagnosis varied from 66 to 71% and at level 2, the accuracy of diagnosis varied from 76 to 93%, while at all other levels the accuracy was 100%. The percentage of diseased clams detected by the in vivo bleeding technique was 89–91% and the percentage of nondiseased clams detected was 95%. These values can be further improved by combining the two tests and/or through multiple bleedings. Between the two types of in vivo tests, the Giemsa-stained hemocytes provided better precision of diagnosis than the fresh unstained cells, although the differences were slight.     

Focus: Rare Disease: Sinonasal Glomangiopericytoma: Review of Imaging Appearance and Clinical Management Update for a Rare Sinonasal Neoplasm

Introduction: Glomangiopericytoma (GPC) is a rare tumor in the nasal cavity or paranasal sinuses with low malignant potential. Initially deemed a hemangiopericytoma, in 2005 it was classified as a distinct entity by the World Health Organization (WHO). Case Presentation: A male patient in his early 60s presented with new-onset right arm and leg weakness/numbness, who was incidentally found to have a left ethmoid sinus mass with extension in the olfactory fossa. On CT and MRI, the mass enhanced with well-defined borders and eroded the bone, but without dural enhancement. The mass was surgically excised, and pathology confirmed the diagnosis of glomangiopericytoma by microscopic appearance and staining. Discussion: Glomangiopericytoma has less than 0.5% incidence of all neoplasms of the sinonasal cavity, making it rare. Most diagnosed patients are in their 6th or 7th decade of age, with a slight female predominance. Treatment is complete surgical excision, with excellent prognosis, although there is up to 17% local recurrence. Despite the non-specific appearance on CT and MRI, imaging can help provide differential diagnosis, tumor extent, size, and reassuring non-aggressive characteristics of the tumor prior to surgery. GPC tumors are relatively resistant to radiation and chemotherapy. Conclusion: It is important to recognize glomangiopericytoma in the differential of masses of the nasal cavities or paranasal sinuses, as they rarely warrant aggressive treatment beyond local excision. Each reported case of glomangiopericytoma helps to build guidance for imaging and treatment since GPC is rare and not well-represented in the medical literature.     

Preliminary report on treatment of bone tumors with microwave-induced hyperthermia

Between July, 1992, and February, 1995, 62 patients with various bone tumors were treated with microwave-induced hyperthermia. The series had 47 cases of malignant tumors and 15 cases with benign tumors; most of the tumors occurred at or near knee joints (53/62 = 85.4%). The surgical procedure consisted of separating the tumorous segment from surrounding normal tissues with a safe margin, cooling the normal tissues (including the vital neurovascular bundle and the intrajoint structures) with a water circulation system while heating the tumor simultaneously with the microwave antenna array, and providing an adequate soft-tissue cover for the dead bone. The tumor core temperature and the surface temperature reached 108 and 65 °C, respectively. The duration of microwave irradiation was usually 40–50 minutes. Meanwhile, the temperature of the normal tissues was kept under 39 °C. The minimal and maximal periods of clinical observation were 3 months and 36 months, respectively, and the mean follow-up period was 17 months. The 62 cases were evaluated from both oncological and orthopedic points of view. Five cases had local recurrence and required amputation. The 57 other cases had excellent local control. Six malignancy cases died of lung metastasis during a period of 1–2 years. Pathological fracture occurred at devitalized bone in five cases. In most of the cases, the knee joints functioned well, were stable and painless, and had almost full range of motion. Single-photon emission-computed tomography study in 16 cases revealed that revascularization of the devitalized tumorous bone segment could be accomplished in 1 year or more. These results show that the use of microwave hyperthermia for the treatment of bone tumors can be considered to be a definitive operation procedure that is safe and is well tolerated by patients. The oncological and orthopedic results are very encouraging. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Protein expression pattern distinguishes different lymphoid neoplasms

To identify proteins associated with the histological subtypes of lymphoid neoplasms, we studied the proteomes of 42 cell lines from human lymphoid neoplasms including Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL; four cell lines), B cell malignancies (19 cell lines), T cell malignancies (16 cell lines), and natural killer (NK) cell lymphoma (three cell lines). The protein spots were sequentially selected by (i) Wilcoxon or Kruskal-Wallis tests to find the spots whose intensity was significantly (p <0.05) different among the cell line groups, (ii) by statistical-learning methods to prioritize the spots according to their contribution to the classification, and (iii) by unsupervised classification methods to validate the classification robustness by the selected spots. The selected spots discriminated (i) between HL cells and other cells, (ii) between the cells from B cell malignancies, T cell malignancies, and NK cell lymphoma cells, and (iii) between HL cells and anaplastic large cell lymphoma cells. Among the 31 informative protein spots, MS identified 24 proteins corresponding to 23 spots. Previous reports did not correlate these proteins to lymphocyte differentiation, suggesting that a proteomic study would identify the novel mechanisms responsible for the histogenesis of lymphoid neoplasms. These proteins may have potential as differential diagnostic markers for lymphoid neoplasms.     

Esophageal Candidiasis in non-immune suppressed patients in a semi-urban town,southern India

Objectives. Prevalence of Esophageal Candidiasis in non-immune compromised patients in a semi-urban town, was investigated. Further, various investigation procedures to detect the candidal pathogen were compared. Methods. A total of 933 patients with odynophagia and dysphagia were included in this study. Upper GI endoscopy was performed in all these patients and biopsy specimens were taken from the site of lesions. Oral swabs were also taken. Both these specimens were analyzed for the presence of fungal pathogen through, direct microscopic examination and culture method. Results. Among the diagnostic techniques, culture of biopsy in Sabouraud's media was found to be the most reliable method. Of the 933 trialists, 61 were found to have lesions of varied degree of severity. Among these, 56 were positive for fungal pathogen, which was confirmed by germ tube test, cultural characteristics, auxanogram, etc., Candida albicans (87.5%) was the most predominant pathogen followed by C. tropicalis (8.9%). Men in the age group of 40 years and above were observed to have higher frequency of candidal infections compared to other groups of trialists. Conclusion. This investigation strongly suggests the possibilities of candidal infections in patient seven in the absence of predisposing factors such as HIV infection or immune compromised conditions. Hence, patients with symptoms of odynophagia and dysphagia shall be considered for possible esophageal candidiasis.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

When plant teratomas turn into cancers in the absence of pathogens

Habituated calli have long been classified as neoplasms together with tumors from different origins. The general opinion is that habituation is a reversible process with an epigenetic basis. This is probably true in most cases examined. However, we show here that there might be several degrees of habituation, which can be considered as steps of a neoplastic progression leading to cancerisation in the absence of an introduced oncogenic pathogen. Cell rejuvenation, loss of the capacity to organize meristematic centers, and loss of totipotency are proposed to define plant cancer through this neoplastic progression of a callus.
Habituated tissues share many morphological and biochemical similarities with so-called vitreous shoots from micropropagation. Vitrification and hyperhydric malformations of shoots raised in vitro may be considered as steps of another neoplastic progression, which leads to cancerisation also in the absence of introduced oncogenic pathogens. In this case death of the whole organism occurs either through direct apex necrosis or indirectly, from the loss of the capacity for the primary meristems to function normally, which gives rise to completely anarchic structures. As in the animal kingdom, carcinogenesis in plants is the final result of a multistep process involving the irreversible conversion of a stem cell to a terminal-differentiation-resistant cell.     

Relationship between levels of Skp2 and P27 in breast carcinomas and possible role of Skp2 as targeted therapy

Estrogen receptor-negative breast carcinomas are more aggressive and are unresponsive to anti-estrogens. Thus, they clearly require new therapies targeted against specific genes and proteins actively engaged in the pathophysiology of cancer. The S-phase kinase-associated protein Skp2 is required for the ubiquitin-mediated degradation of the cdk-inhibitor p27 and is a bona fide proto-oncoprotein. We attempted to explore whether Skp2 may be a potential specific therapeutic target in the subset of aggressive breast carcinomas by investigating the possible relationship between expression of Skp2 and p27 proteins and estrogen receptor (ER). Immunohistochemical analysis of tumor tissues was employed to determine the expression of Skp2, p27, and ER proteins in 82 cases of primary breast carcinoma. Higher levels of Skp2 were detected more frequently in ER-negative tumors and tumors metastatic to the axillary lymph nodes. The expression of p27 was inverse with the histologic grade. Statistical analysis showed that the percentage of high Skp2 expressors was significantly greater in the group with low p27 expression than in the group with high p27 expression. The current study, together with the results from a previous study, demonstrated the existence of a subtype of high-grade, negative ER breast carcinomas with high Skp2 and low p27 levels. This implies that Skp2 may be a potential specific therapeutic target in a subset of aggressive breast carcinomas. Thus far, there is no specific therapy for the ER-negative and HER-2/neu resistant groups, which are among the subset of aggressive tumors.     

Combined use of hyperthermia and irradiation cause antiproliferative activity and cell death to human esophageal cell carcinoma cells--mainly cell cycle examination

In clinically hyperthermia and irradiation therapy for malignant neoplasms are known that they have antiproliferative activity and cell death (including apoptosis) inducing activity. However not only mechanisms of cell death induction but treatment effects of them still have been unclear. In this time we showed that cell cycles from G0/G1 phase to S-G2/M phase were delayed by hyperthermia and G2/M phase accumulation were caused immediately by irradiation. And we also demonstrated that the combination treatments of hyperthermia and irradiation induced synergistic antiproliferative effects and strong effects of cell death to human esophageal carcinoma cell lines. Although treatments of hyperthermia and irradiation were mild individually, combination treatment of hyperthermia and irradiation were useful for esophageal carcinoma treatment.     

Effects of Temperature on Rate of Feeding of the Plant Parasitic Nematodes Rotylenchus robustus,Xiphinema diversicaudatum,and Hemicycliophora conida

Rotylenchus robustus, Xiphinema diversicaudatum, and Hemicycgiophora conida were observed feeding over a range of temperatures on perennial rye-grass (Lolium perenne) seedlings grown on agar plates. R. robustus fed between 0.5 and 42.5 C, X. diversicaudatum between 5.0 and 37.0 C and H. conida between 5.0 and 34.0 C. Between 10 and 25 C there was a direct relationship between temperature and rate of esophageal bulb contractions. Above 25 C the number of esophageal contractions/min did not increase at the same rate and eventually decreased. At the extremes of temperature range, abnormal feeding behaviour was observed. Rates of esophageal bulb contraction did not differ in the different nematode life stages and sexes, or at different feeding sites on the roots.