Effects of pomegranate juice consumption on oxidative stress in patients with type 2 diabetes: a single-blind,randomized clinical trial

Increased free radicals production due to hyperglycemia produces oxidative stress in patients with diabetes. Pomegranate juice (PJ) has antioxidant properties. This study was conducted to determine the effects of PJ consumption in oxidative stress in type 2 diabetic patients.

This study was a randomized clinical trial performed on 60, 40–65 years old diabetic patients.

The patients were randomly allocated either to PJ consumption group or control. Patients in PJ group consumed 200?ml of PJ daily for six weeks. Sex distribution and the mean age were not different between two groups. After six weeks intervention, oxidized LDL and anti-oxidized LDL antibodies decreased and total serum antioxidant capacity and arylesterase activity of paraoxonase increased significantly in the PJ-treated group compared to the control group. Our data have shown that six weeks supplementation of PJ could have favorable effects on oxidative stress in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D).     

What is the Rate of Revision Discectomies After Primary Discectomy on a National Scale?

Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® - Lumbar discectomy has been shown to be clinically beneficial in numerous studies for appropriately selected patients. Some patients, however,...     

Computed tomography-guided stereotactic biopsy of intracranial lesions in pediatric patients

Purpose  

The primary objective of this study was to report the results of author’s 18-year experience of diagnostic stereotactic biopsy procedures in children with intracranial lesions.     

Systemic juvenile xanthogranuloma with multiple central nervous system lesions

Juvenile xanthogranulomatosis (JXG) is an uncommon histiocytic disorder that is usually benign and limited to the skin. The systemic form of JXG is rare and may be associated with severe morbidity and mortality especially in central nervous system (CNS) involvement. Here, we describe a six-year-old boy with disseminated skin lesions and neurological signs and symptoms. Diagnostic work up revealed multiple brain lesions. A skin biopsy and a stereotactic brain biopsy considered suggestive of systemic JXG. Treatment with prednisolone, vinblastine and methotrexate was successful with regression of skin and CNS lesions. The patient has been in remission for almost three years.     

Genetically Engineered Cancer Models,But Not Xenografts,Faithfully Predict Anticancer Drug Exposure in Melanoma Tumors

Background.

Rodent studies are a vital step in the development of novel anticancer therapeutics and are used in pharmacokinetic (PK), toxicology, and efficacy studies. Traditionally, anticancer drug development has relied on xenograft implantation of human cancer cell lines in immunocompromised mice for efficacy screening of a candidate compound. The usefulness of xenograft models for efficacy testing, however, has been questioned, whereas genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) and orthotopic syngeneic transplants (OSTs) may offer some advantages for efficacy assessment. A critical factor influencing the predictability of rodent tumor models is drug PKs, but a comprehensive comparison of plasma and tumor PK parameters among xenograft models, OSTs, GEMMs, and human patients has not been performed.

Methods.

In this work, we evaluated the plasma and tumor dispositions of an antimelanoma agent, carboplatin, in patients with cutaneous melanoma compared with four different murine melanoma models (one GEMM, one human cell line xenograft, and two OSTs).

Results.

Using microdialysis to sample carboplatin tumor disposition, we found that OSTs and xenografts were poor predictors of drug exposure in human tumors, whereas the GEMM model exhibited PK parameters similar to those seen in human tumors.

Conclusions.

The tumor PKs of carboplatin in a GEMM of melanoma more closely resembles the tumor disposition in patients with melanoma than transplanted tumor models. GEMMs show promise in becoming an improved prediction model for intratumoral PKs and response in patients with solid tumors.     

Acquired TNFRSF14 mutations in follicular lymphoma are associated with worse prognosis

Clinical correlative studies have linked 1p36 deletions with worse prognosis in follicular lymphoma (FL). In this study, we sought to identify the critical gene(s) in this region that is responsible for conferring inferior prognosis. BAC array technology applied to 141 FL specimens detected a minimum region of deletion (MRD) of ～97 kb within 1p36.32 in 20% of these cases. Frequent single-nucleotide polymorphism-detected copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity was also found in this region. Analysis of promoter CpGs in the MRD did not reveal differential patterns of DNA methylation in samples that differed in 1p36 status. Exon sequencing of MRD genes identified somatic alterations in the TNFRSF14 gene in 3 of 11 selected cases with matching normal DNA. An expanded cohort consisting of 251 specimens identified 46 cases (18.3%) with nonsynonymous mutations affecting TNFRSF14. Overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) were associated with the presence of TNFRSF14 mutation in patients whose overall treatment included rituximab. We further showed that inferior OS and DSS were most pronounced in patients whose lymphomas contained both TNFRSF14 mutations and 1p36 deletions after adjustment for the International Prognostic Index [hazard ratios of 3.65 (95% confidence interval, 1.35-9.878, P=0.011) and 3.19 (95% confidence interval, 1.06-9.57, P=0.039), respectively]. Our findings identify TNFRSF14 as a candidate gene associated with a subset of FL, based on frequent occurrence of acquired mutations and their correlation with inferior clinical outcomes.