Improvement in blastocyst hatching of mouse embryos cocultured with human placental cells

Purpose Although the hatching of embryos is an important phenomenon, the mechanism of hatching remains controversial. Therefore, we attempted to develop a new coculture system with human placental cells to investigate the hatching of mouse embryos.Results In our new system there was no difference in development from the two-cell stage to blastocysts between embryos cultured with a T6 medium and embryos cocultured with human placental cells at 1 × 10⁵, 5 × 10⁵, and 1 × 10⁶ cells/ml. However, the hatching-rate cell number increased significantly in embryos cocultured with placental cells compared to embryos cultured without placental cells. [³H]Thymidine uptake did not show any significant difference from the beginning of in vitro culture to the hatching stage between the coculture group and the control group. Nevertheless, the [³H]uridine uptake was significantly different in the two groups, measuring 2167 ± 532 cpm/10 embryos in the coculture group and 804 ± 86 cpm/10 embryos in the control group at 114 hr after human chorionic gonadotropin injection (P < 0.01).Conclusion These results therefore seem to indicate that the hatching of blastocysts depends on the protein synthesis of the embryos and not on DNA duplications.     

Endodermal Sinus Tumor of the Vagina in an Infant: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evaluation

Endodermal sinus tumor is a rare and highly malignant lesion. This report documents the clinical findings and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of an uncommon case of the endodermal sinus tumor arising in the vagina of a 6-month-old infant. MRI was extremely accurate in delineating the possible extent and location of the vaginal lesion. This is the first report to demonstrate MRI of vaginal endodermal sinus tumor.     

Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension Due to Disseminated Fibromuscular Dysplasia

We present two patients with thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension associated with unusual complications probably caused by disseminated fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) or FMD-like vascular lesions. Intimal fibroplasia, which is typical of the vascular lesions associated with FMD, was observed in both patients. The presence of such intimal lesions suggests that there was a systemic factor that caused the formation of recurrent thrombi in the systemic vessels in these patients. These cases are the first ones reported in which an association between FMD and pulmonary hypertension has been observed. The pathogenesis of the thrombi in our patients was thought to be recurrent pulmonary thromboembolisms resulting from FMD.     

Alveolar echinococcosis of the liver in children

Alveolar echinococcosis of the liver is uncommon in childhood. We have treated 124 patients with this disease in our hospital over the past 50 years; 7 of them were less than 15 years old (4.7%). Five were females and 2 were males. In adults, it takes more than 10 years after infestation for clinical symptoms to develop. Alveolar echinococcosis in children seems to progress more rapidly than in adults. Among the first 3 pediatric patients, 2 had hepatomegaly and the 3rd was detected due to liver dysfunction. The last 4 were detected by serologic tests and ultrasonographic examination in connection with mass screening, as the lesions were too small to produce symptoms except in 1 case. The 1st patient had an unresectable lesion and died after 3 years. Hepatectomy was performed in 6 cases: 1 lateral segmentectomy, 4 lobectomies, and 1 partial hepatectomy. The patients are all alive and doing well at 1, 5, 8, 10, 18, and 19 years, respectively, after operation. Early diagnosis and complete removal of the lesion are indispensable to a good prognosis. Alveolar echinococcosis occurs in limited areas, so that mass screening can be effectively performed.     

Telomerase activity as a marker of breast carcinoma in fine-needle aspirated samples

BACKGROUND: Telomerase activity in breast fine-needle aspiration (FNA) samples may have diagnostic utility. The purpose of this study was to compare in FNA samples of breast tumor the diagnostic accuracy as correlated with histologic final diagnosis. METHODS: Fine-needle aspiration samples were obtained from 617 patients with palpable breast tumors. Slide preparation and cytology were performed according to a uniform approach. Extracts derived from 10(3) cells from the residual cells in the syringe were used for the telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay. Of the original 617 patients, 220 underwent open biopsy or surgery, and 93 cancers and 127 patients' benign diseases were diagnosed by histologic examination. RESULTS: All 62 tumors that were diagnosed as "malignant" or "probably malignant" by FNA cytology were cancerous, and 50 cases (81%) showed detectable telomerase activity. Among 17 "atypical" or "indeterminate" cases, all 10 tumors with detectable telomerase activity subsequently were diagnosed as breast carcinoma whereas 6 of 7 tumors without telomerase activity were diagnosed as benign. Among the 141 "benign" or "unsatisfactory" samples, 12 of 21 cases with detectable telomerase activity subsequently were diagnosed as cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The diagnostic accuracy of telomerase activity in FNA samples is considered to be equivalent or slightly higher to that of cytology (86% vs. 70%). Detection of telomerase activity should be considered an alert for false-negative results of FNA cytology and may be useful as a diagnostic marker for breast malignancy, especially in samples cytologically undetermined to be malignant. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) Copyright 2000 American Cancer Society.     

Current status and future directions of gemcitabine in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer

New agents with high anti-tumor effects have been developed since 1990. Monotherapy with one of these agents, gemcitabine, was confirmed to be as effective as the standard chemotherapy regimen against NSCLC, and to have a lower toxicity profile. In addition, the combination of gemcitabine plus cisplatin can be expected to show a survival advantage. The combination therapy consisting of these two new anti-cancer agents is expected to show effectiveness equal to that of platinum-based combination chemotherapy. Gemcitabine is well tolerated, so that it can be a useful treatment for maintaining QOL among the elderly or in poor performance status patients with NSCLC. Considering that this agent is also effective against pancreatic cancer, further investigation for efficacy against other cancers is warranted.     

Combination chemotherapy with irinotecan hydrochloride plus carboplatin for patients with advanced or recurrent colorectal cancer--a pilot study

A pilot study was performed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of irinotecan hydrochloride (CPT-11) plus carboplatin (CBDCA) for treatment of advanced or recurrent colorectal cancer. Fifteen patients with colorectal cancer (nonresectable, 1; noncurative resection, 5; recurrent disease, 9) were treated with CPT-11 (40-50 mg/m2) plus CBDCA (70-100 mg/m2) once a week for 2-3 weeks followed by a one-week rest. This treatment was repeated until disease progression or severe toxic effects were found. The total dose of CPT-11 ranged from 135 to 1,214 (median, 467) mg/m2 and that of CBDCA ranged from 267 to 2,022 (median, 933) mg/m2. Adverse effects included nausea (grade 2) in 2 (13.3%) diarrhea (grade 2) in 2 (13.3%), leukopenia (grade 3) in 2 (13.3%), thrombocytopenia (grade 1) in one (6.7%), and hair falling (grade 3) in one (6.7%). The response rate of 14 evaluable patients was 14.3% (CR, 1; PR,1; NC,7; PD,5). The median survival time of all patients was 405 days from the start of chemotherapy. The survival time of patients with CR, PR, and NC (n = 9) tended to be longer than that of those with PD (n = 5) (p = 0.06). The median time to disease progression was 105 days. These results suggest that this combination chemotherapy is feasible and effective in the treatment of advanced or recurrent colorectal cancer.