Two types of auditory glutamatergic synapses and their implications for repairing damaged central auditory pathways

<正>For the mammalian brain to process and decipher the rich panoply of sounds that abound in the world,nature has evolved an elegant collection of neural circuits dedicated to this task.Indeed,the complexity,variety and number of neural pathways devoted to computing auditory information is unique among sensory modalities(Kaas,2008).After     

Development of anonymous nuclear markers from Illumina paired-end data for Seychelles caecilian amphibians (Gymnophiona: Indotyphlidae)

Anonymous nuclear markers were developed for Seychelles caecilian amphibians. Using a previously published bioinformatics pipeline (developed for Roche 454 data), 36 candidate anonymous nuclear loci (ANL) of at least 180 bp length were identified from Illumina MiSeq next generation sequencing data for five Seychelles species. We designed primer pairs for the 36 candidate ANL and tested these by PCR and Sanger sequencing. Seven ANL amplified and sequenced well for at least five of the six nominal Seychelles caecilian species (in three genera), and represent potentially useful markers for systematics and conservation.     

Urine kidney injury molecule-1: a potential non-invasive biomarker for patients with renal cell carcinoma

Background

KIM-1 staining is upregulated in proximal tubule-derived renal cell carcinoma (RCC) including clear renal cell carcinoma and papillary renal cell carcinoma, but not in chromophobe RCC (distal tubular tumor). This study was designed to prospectively examine urine KIM-1 level before and 1 month after removal of renal tumors.

Patients and design

A total of 19 patients were eventually enrolled in the study based on pre-operative imaging studies. Pre-operative and follow-up (1 month) urine KIM-1 levels were measured. The urine KIM-1 levels (uKIM-1) were then normalized to urine creatinine levels (uCr). Renal tumors were also stained for KIM-1 using immunohistochemical techniques.

Results

The KIM-1-negative staining group included 7 cases, and the KIM-1-positive group consisted of 12 cases. The percentage of KIM-1-positive staining RCC cells ranged from 10 to 100 %, and the staining intensity ranged from 1+ to 3+. In both groups, serum creatinine levels were both significantly elevated after nephrectomy. In the KIM-1-negative group, uKIM-1/uCr remained at a similar level before (0.37 ± 0.1 ng/mg Cr) and after nephrectomy (0.32 ± 0.01 ng/mg Cr). However, in the KIM-1-positive group, elevated uKIM-1/uCr at 1.20 ± 0.31 ng/mg Cr was significantly reduced to 0.36 ± 0.1 ng/mg Cr, which was similar to the pre-operative uKIM-1/uCr (0.37 ± 0.1 ng/mg Cr) in the KIM-1-negative group.

Conclusion

Our small but prospective study showed significant reduction in uKIM-1/uCr after nephrectomy in the KIM-1 positive group, suggesting that urine KIM-1 may serve as a surrogate biomarker for kidney cancer and a non-invasive pre-operative measure to evaluate the malignant potential of renal masses.     

Foveal vasculature changes and nonperfusion in patients with diabetes types I and II with no evidence of diabetic retinopathy

Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology - To analyze the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) in patients with diabetes and no retinopathy vs. controls using OCT angiography...