Unusual presentation of choriocarcinoma

Background  

Choriocarcinoma is an aggressive neoplasm arising in the body of the uterus. The disease normally spreads to lung and brain.     

Differential expression level of cytokeratin 8 in cells of the bovine nucleus pulposus complicates the search for specific intervertebral disc cell markers

Introduction  

Development of cell therapies for repairing the intervertebral disc is limited by the lack of a source of healthy human disc cells. Stem cells, particularly mesenchymal stem cells, are seen as a potential source but differentiation strategies are limited by the lack of specific markers that can distinguish disc cells from articular chondrocytes.     

Functional polymorphisms in the TERT promoter are associated with risk of serous epithelial ovarian and breast cancers

Genetic variation at the TERT-CLPTM1L locus at 5p15.33 is associated with susceptibility to several cancers, including epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). We have carried out fine-mapping of this region in EOC which implicates an association with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) within the TERT promoter. We demonstrate that the minor alleles at rs2736109, and at an additional TERT promoter SNP, rs2736108, are associated with decreased breast cancer risk, and that the combination of both SNPs substantially reduces TERT promoter activity.     

Frequent Seizures Are Associated with a Network of Gray Matter Atrophy in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy with or without Hippocampal Sclerosis

Objective

Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with hippocampal sclerosis (HS) have diffuse subtle gray matter (GM) atrophy detectable by MRI quantification analyses. However, it is not clear whether the etiology and seizure frequency are associated with this atrophy. We aimed to evaluate the occurrence of GM atrophy and the influence of seizure frequency in patients with TLE and either normal MRI (TLE-NL) or MRI signs of HS (TLE-HS).

Methods

We evaluated a group of 172 consecutive patients with unilateral TLE-HS or TLE-NL as defined by hippocampal volumetry and signal quantification (122 TLE-HS and 50 TLE-NL) plus a group of 82 healthy individuals. Voxel-based morphometry was performed with VBM8/SPM8 in 3T MRIs. Patients with up to three complex partial seizures and no generalized tonic-clonic seizures in the previous year were considered to have infrequent seizures. Those who did not fulfill these criteria were considered to have frequent seizures.

Results

Patients with TLE-HS had more pronounced GM atrophy, including the ipsilateral mesial temporal structures, temporal lobe, bilateral thalami and pre/post-central gyri. Patients with TLE-NL had more subtle GM atrophy, including the ipsilateral orbitofrontal cortex, bilateral thalami and pre/post-central gyri. Both TLE-HS and TLE-NL showed increased GM volume in the contralateral pons. TLE-HS patients with frequent seizures had more pronounced GM atrophy in extra-temporal regions than TLE-HS with infrequent seizures. Patients with TLE-NL and infrequent seizures had no detectable GM atrophy. In both TLE-HS and TLE-NL, the duration of epilepsy correlated with GM atrophy in extra-hippocampal regions.

Conclusion

Although a diffuse network GM atrophy occurs in both TLE-HS and TLE-NL, this is strikingly more evident in TLE-HS and in patients with frequent seizures. These findings suggest that neocortical atrophy in TLE is related to the ongoing seizures and epilepsy duration, while thalamic atrophy is more probably related to the original epileptogenic process.     

Differential abnormalities in plasma 5-HIAA and platelet serotonin concentrations in violent suicide attempters: relationships with impulsivity and depression

Brain serotonergic systems may participate in the regulation of mood, impulsivity and aggressive behavior. Because some monoaminergic mechanisms seem to be similar in the central nervous system and peripheral tissues, we tested whether serotonergic or dopaminergic biochemical parameters in peripheral venous blood are related or not to violent suicide behavior.We simultaneously studied plasma serotonin (5-HT), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), homovanillic acid (HVA) and platelet 5-HT content in patients within 3 days following a violent suicide attempt and in matched healthy controls. We examined their relationship with depression and impulsivity. Twenty seven drug-free suicide attempters and controls were included. Plasma 5-HIAA and platelet 5-HT concentrations were lower in suicide attempters than in controls. Fifteen patients were classified as impulsive (I), including all patients suffering from personality disorder and alcohol abuse, and 12 as non impulsive (NI), mostly melancholics. MADRS scores were similar in both I and NI suicide attempters.When controlling for age, plasma 5-HIAA was lower in I than in NI suicide attempters or controls; these findings are similar to those we observed recently with CSF 5-HIAA in I and NI violent suicide attempters. Contrarily, platelet 5-HT levels were lower in NI than in I patients or controls. Plasma HVA was not associated with suicide behavior. Plasma 5-HIAA concentration was inversely associated with the degree of impulsivity and platelet 5-HT with the intensity of depression. This study indicates that each peripheral serotonergic index is specifically related to a distinct clinical feature and shows differential alteration according to the impulsivity group. In I and NI drug-free violent suicide attempters an inverse figure between plasma 5-HIAA and platelet 5-HT data was observed indicating a non parallelism between these two peripheral variables. Further prospective studies are needed to investigate whether these peripheral serotonergic parameters may be used as helpful early predictors of violent suicide behavior.     

Polymorphisms in stromal genes and susceptibility to serous epithelial ovarian cancer: a report from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium

Alterations in stromal tissue components can inhibit or promote epithelial tumorigenesis. Decorin (DCN) and lumican (LUM) show reduced stromal expression in serous epithelial ovarian cancer (sEOC). We hypothesized that common variants in these genes associate with risk. Associations with sEOC among Caucasians were estimated with odds ratios (OR) among 397 cases and 920 controls in two U.S.-based studies (discovery set), 436 cases and 1,098 controls in Australia (replication set 1) and a consortium of 15 studies comprising 1,668 cases and 4,249 controls (replication set 2). The discovery set and replication set 1 (833 cases and 2,013 controls) showed statistically homogeneous (P_{heterogeneity}≥0.48) decreased risks of sEOC at four variants: DCN rs3138165, rs13312816 and rs516115, and LUM rs17018765 (OR = 0.6 to 0.9; P_trend = 0.001 to 0.03). Results from replication set 2 were statistically homogeneous (P_{heterogeneity}≥0.13) and associated with increased risks at DCN rs3138165 and rs13312816, and LUM rs17018765: all ORs = 1.2; P_trend≤0.02. The ORs at the four variants were statistically heterogeneous across all 18 studies (P_{heterogeneity}≤0.03), which precluded combining. In post-hoc analyses, interactions were observed between each variant and recruitment period (P_interaction≤0.003), age at diagnosis (P_interaction = 0.04), and year of diagnosis (P_interaction = 0.05) in the five studies with available information (1,044 cases, 2,469 controls). We conclude that variants in DCN and LUM are not directly associated with sEOC, and that confirmation of possible effect modification of the variants by non-genetic factors is required.