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.     

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.     

An improved molecular phylogeny of the Nematoda with special emphasis on marine taxa

Phylogenetic reconstructions of relations within the phylum Nematoda are inherently difficult but have been advanced with the introduction of large-scale molecular-based techniques. However, the most recent revisions were heavily biased towards terrestrial and parasitic species and greater representation of clades containing marine species (e.g. Araeolaimida, Chromadorida, Desmodorida, Desmoscolecida, Enoplida, and Monhysterida) is needed for accurate coverage of known taxonomic diversity. We now add small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) sequences for 100 previously un-sequenced species of nematodes, including 46 marine taxa. SSU rDNA sequences for >200 taxa have been analysed based on Bayesian inference and LogDet-transformed distances. The resulting phylogenies provide support for (i) the re-classification of the Secernentea as the order Rhabditida that derived from a common ancestor of chromadorean orders Araeolaimida, Chromadorida, Desmodorida, Desmoscolecida, and Monhysterida and (ii) the position of Bunonema close to the Diplogasteroidea in the Rhabditina. Other, previously controversial relationships can now be resolved more clearly: (a) Alaimus, Campydora, and Trischistoma belong in the Enoplida, (b) Isolaimium is placed basally to a big clade containing the Axonolaimidae, Plectidae, and Rhabditida, (c) Xyzzors belongs in the Desmodoridae, (d) Comesomatidae and Cyartonema belongs in the Monhysterida, (e) Globodera belongs in the Hoplolaimidae and (f) Paratylenchus dianeae belongs in the Criconematoidea. However, the SSU gene did not provide significant support for the class Chromadoria or clear evidence for the relationship between the three classes, Enoplia, Dorylaimia, and Chromadoria. Furthermore, across the whole phylum, the phylogenetically informative characters of the SSU gene are not informative in a parsimony analysis, highlighting the short-comings of the parsimony method for large-scale phylogenetic modelling.