Focal liver masses: differential diagnosis with pulsed Doppler US

Duplex Doppler ultrasound (US) was used in 68 consecutive patients with focal liver lesions, including 12 hepatocellular carcinomas, one cholangiocarcinoma, 37 metastases, 15 hemangiomas, one hemangioendothelioma, and two focal nodular hyperplasias. Of the hepatocellular carcinomas, six were diffusely hyperechoic, two were hypoechoic, two were single hyperechoic lesions, and two were multifocal and hyperechoic. All ten tumors with Doppler shifts of 5 kHz or above proved to be hepatocellular carcinomas. The other two hepatocellular carcinomas showed Doppler shifts of 3 kHz. In contrast, no hemangioma showed shifts above 0.7 kHz, and ten of the 15 gave no detectable signal. Of the metastases, 20 gave no signal and 17 had signals of up to 4 kHz. Three-kilohertz signals were also obtained from a cholangiocarcinoma, a hemangioendothelioma, and focal nodular hyperplasia. Correlation with angiographic findings suggested that the high-velocity Doppler signals were associated with large pressure gradients due to arteriovenous shunting. Duplex Doppler US can therefore aid in the differential diagnosis of diffuse and focal liver lesions.     

Neonatal treatment with 192 IgG-saporin produces long-term forebrain cholinergic deficits and reduces dendritic branching and spine density of neocortical pyramidal neurons

The role of basal forebrain-derived cholinergic afferents in the development of neocortex was studied in postnatal rats. Newborn rat pups received intraventricular injections of 192 IgG-saporin. Following survival periods ranging from 2 days to 6 months, the brains were processed to document the cholinergic lesion and to examine morphological consequences. Immunocytochemistry for choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and in situ hybridization for ChAT mRNA demonstrate a loss of approximately 75% of the cholinergic neurons in the medial septum and nucleus of the diagonal band of Broca in the basal forebrain. In situ hybridization for glutamic acid decarboxylase mRNA reveals no loss of basal forebrain GABAergic neurons. Acetylcholinesterase histochemistry demonstrates a marked reduction of the cholinergic axons in neocortex. Cholinergic axons are reduced throughout the cortical layers; this reduction is more marked in medial than in lateral cortical areas. The thickness of neocortex is reduced by approximately 10%. Retrograde labeling of layer V cortico-collicular pyramidal cells reveals a reduction in cell body size and also a reduction in numbers of branches of apical dendrites. Spine densities on apical dendrites are reduced by approximately 20-25% in 192 IgG- saporin-treated cases; no change was detected in number of spines on basal dendrites. These results indicate a developmental or maintenance role for cholinergic afferents to cerebral cortical neurons.      

Characterization of basophil-like cells derived from nonhuman primate bone marrow

In order to determine whether mast cells or basophils could be derived from nonhuman primate bone marrow, cells from bone marrow aspirates were cultured in the presence of concanavalin A-stimulated nonhuman primate spleen cell supernatants (CAS). Culture conditions were identical to those used for culturing mucosal-like mast cells from mouse bone marrow. In this situation, basophil-like cells (BLC) could be identified in liquid cultures and averaged 14-19 microM in size, were round or oval in appearance, had lobulated nuclei, and contained less than 100 metachromatically staining granules per cell. By electron microscopy, granules had dense oval or semilunar cores with surrounding fibrous whorls. BLC were peroxidase positive, chloroacetate esterase negative, stained positively with acid toluidine blue, and contained 0.1-0.3 pg histamine per cell. BLC expressed IgE receptors and were Leu 5b and Leu 16 negative. IgE-sensitized BLC released histamine after stimulation with antihuman IgE or the calcium ionophore A23187. [35S]-labeled proteoglycans were degraded with chondroitinase ABC but not with heparinase, indicating the absence of heparin in BLC. Thus, culture conditions that include the use of CAS and lead to the growth of mast cells from rodent bone marrow result in the growth of BLC from nonhuman primate bone marrow. These observations suggest that fundamental differences exist in the type of histamine containing cells that arise from rodent and primate bone marrow when such bone marrow cells are cultured under identical conditions.