Does maternal nicotine exposure during gestation increase the injury severity of small intestine in the newborn rats subjected to experimental necrotizing enterocolitis

Background/Purpose

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of maternal nicotine exposure during gestation on injury severity of small intestine in the newborn rats subjected to hypoxia-reoxygenation and cold stress.

Methods

A total of 21 Sprague-Dawley pregnant rats were divided into 3 equal groups. The groups were labeled as group 1, control group; group 2, hypoxia-reoxygenation group; and group 3, nicotine-hypoxia-reoxygenation group. The rats of group 3 were exposed to nicotine via subcuticular injection for the last week of gestation (2 mg/kg/d). Newborn rats were collected immediately after birth to prevent suckling of maternal milk (40 rat pups in group 1, 43 rat pups in group 2, and 41 rat pups in group 3). Litters in groups 2 and 3 were stressed twice daily with asphyxia followed by cold (4°C for 10 minutes) stress to induce hypoxic intestinal injury which is relevant to human necrotizing enterocolitis. Breathing 100% CO₂ for 10 minutes in a chamber followed by 10-minute 100% O₂ breathing was the asphyxia model repeated twice daily. After hypoxia-reoxygenation and cold stress, newborn rats were returned to their mother's cages. This protocol was repeated for the following 2 days, and the rat pups were decapitated on the third day. Using this protocol of asphyxia and cold stress, all of neonatal rats developed clinical and pathological signs of hypoxia-induced intestinal injury. The entire gastrointestinal tract was removed and examined macroscopically. A 2-cm section of distal ileum from each animal was taken for histopathological and biochemical examinations. Histological changes in ileal architecture were scored and graded from 1 to 5. The remaining intestinal tissues of the animals were used for lipid peroxidation analysis.

Results

Typical signs of hypoxia-induced intestinal injury were observed in the 2 experimental groups (groups 2 and 3) macroscopically. There were more grades 3 and 4 injuries in group 3 (P < .05). The malondialdehyde levels were elevated in groups 2 and 3 (P < .001). The malondialdehyde levels of the group 3 were also significantly higher than group 2 (P < .01).

Conclusions

Maternal nicotine exposure during gestation results in higher grade histological injury in newborn rats subjected to hypoxia-reoxygenation and cold stress.     

Revision of the Sheehan total knee arthroplasty

The use of the Sheehan knee prosthesis extended from 1971 to 2002. It incorporated a semi-constrained hinge with intra-medullary stems cemented into the femur and tibia. While some authors have reported excellent short-term results, others have reported revision rates of up to 31% at 5–10 years. The aim of this study was to review the senior authors experience in revising these arthroplasties. We review 54 Sheehan total knee replacements and discuss the difficulties encountered during first and subsequent revisions and the often-complex reconstruction techniques used to overcome these.

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Résumé Lutilisation de la prothèse de genou de type Sheehan sest étendue de 1971 à 2002. Elle comportait une charnière semi-contrainte avec des tiges intra-médullaires cimentées dans le fémur et le tibia. Tandis que dexcellents résultats à court terme ont été rapportés par quelques auteurs, un taux de révision jusquà 31% à 5–10 ans a été rapporté par dautres. Le but de cette étude était examiner lexpérience de lauteur senior dans la révision des prothèses de Sheehan. Nous avons examiné 54 prothèses et discutons les difficultés rencontrées pendant larthroplastie initiale et les révisions ultérieures ainsi que les techniques souvent complexes de reconstruction utilisées pour les mener à bien.

     

Lipoid proteinosis: an unusual presentation with verruca vulgaris

Lipoid proteinosis (LP) is a very rare, autosomally recessive, inherited disease. It is also known as Urbach Wiethe disease or Hyalinosis cutis et mucosa. LP usually runs a benign, stable, and slowly progressing course. We present one LP case with additional unusual dermatologic involvement; verruca vulgaris was superimposed on papular lesions of LP. To our knowledge, this case is the first and only one described in the literature. In this presentation, we discuss the possibility of predisposition to Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infections in LP.     

Tuberculosis of the knee in a child

The diagnosis for skeletal tuberculosis is often overlooked. We report a 9-year-old patient with a history of 2 years of swollen joint, with a diagnosis of tuberculosis of the knee with involvement of the proximal tibial epiphysis, and treated surgically and with anti-tuberculosis drug therapy.     

Hypoglycemia after albuterol overdose in a pediatric patient

Albuterol overdose can lead to tachycardia, hypotension, tremor, hypokalemia, and hyperglycemia in children. Hypoglycemia had been previously reported in only one child. We describe a 3-year-old boy who ingested high-dose albuterol in this report. On arrival to the emergency department, the child was agitated and had noticeable restlessness, sinus tachycardia, mild hypokalemia (3.2 mEq/L), and hyperglycemia (187 mg/dL). Activated charcoal and intravenous hydration were given, and electrocardiogram monitoring was performed. Sinus tachycardia resolved within 4 to 6 hours. Hypoglycemia (45 mg/dL) was identified 4 hours after admission. The child recovered uneventfully within 24 hours with glucose replacement. This case suggests that hypoglycemia could be a late complication of acute albuterol overdose; thus, the period of observation should be extended in these cases.     

Solitary eosinophilic granuloma of sternum

Primary bone tumors of the chest wall are uncommon, although a wide variety of both benign and malignant tumors arise within the chest wall. Among those tumors, sternal tumors are rare and usually malignant. We report an extremely rare case of eosinophilic granuloma developed in the sternum in a 30-year-old woman. She presented anterior chest pain and somewhat tender mass over the sternum. Chest roentgenogram, computed tomography scanning of the thorax, and total body bone scintigraphy revealed an isolated lytic lesion in the corpus sterni. A tru-cut biopsy of the mass exhibited the typical histologic appearance of eosinophilic granuloma. The solitary lesion was removed completely surgically. This rare condition should be kept in mind in differential diagnosis of sternal lesions.     

The importance of genomic copy number changes in the prognosis of glioblastoma multiforme

Glial tumors are the most common tumors of the nervous system, affecting individuals at any age. Since understanding of the molecular pathologies underlying human gliomas is still very poor, the treatment and therefore prognosis of this malignancy could not yet be improved. In order to determine whether different glioblastoma-associated genomic aberrations may serve as prognostic markers in combination with histopathological findings, 20 primary glioblastoma multiforme tumors were screened by comparative genomic hybridization, and the results were compared with histopathological and clinical features. All tumors showed genomic copy aberrations detected by comparative genomic hybridization. Regional and numerical increases in chromosome 7 copy number were the most frequently seen abnormality (10/20 tumors), followed by loss of chromosome 10 (8/20). Both of these aberrations were associated with shorter surveillance time. Chromosome 12q amplification was detected in seven tumors. Loss of 17p, 1p, and 19q in combination was seen in three cases. One of them was a giant cell GBM, whereas the remaining two cases were still alive. Combination of chromosome 1p and 19q deletions was also seen in a case with long surveillance. According to the preliminary findings of this study, in addition to the EGFR gene, amplification of other genes on chromosome 7 and the deletion of PTEN gene and other cancer-related genes on chromosome 10 appeared important to the development of glioblastoma multiforme and were associated with poor prognosis, whereas the combination of chromosome 1p and 19q deletions seems to be an informative molecular marker for better prognosis. The clinical features and genetic alterations of primary and secondary glioblastoma multiforme should be compared in large series to clarify the effective prognostic markers; and further molecular analyses focused on chromosomes 7 and 10 will be very helpful for understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the progression of glioblastoma.     

Letrozole-induced polycystic ovaries in the rat: a new model for cystic ovarian disease

BACKGROUND: Our objective was to develop a new animal model for the study of polycystic ovaries by using the non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor, letrozole. METHODS: Thirty four rats were divided into four groups, including a control group of 10 rats that received vehicle only (1% aqueous solution of carboxmethlycellulose [CMC]) once daily orally (p.o.) and three treatment groups of eight rats each that were administered letrozole at concentrations of 0.1 or 0.5 or 1 mg/kg p.o. dissolved in 1% CMC (2 mL/kg) once daily. The treatment period was 21 days. During this period, vaginal smears were collected daily for estrus cycle determination. On the day subsequent to last letrozole dose administration, rats were killed; uteri and ovaries were then excised and weighed. Serum hormone levels and histologic changes in ovaries were examined. RESULTS: When compared to control group, ovaries from study groups showed high incidence of subcapsular ovarian cyst and capsular thickening together with incomplete luteinization and decreased number of corpora lutea. Letrozole treatment brought about dose-dependent suppression of uterine weight despite having no significant effect on ovarian weight. Although serum estradiol and progesterone levels were reduced in a dose-dependent manner, testosterone levels were elevated as were levels of luteinizing hormone (LH). Serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels were markedly increased at higher doses of letrozole (0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg), contrary to low dose of letrozole (0.1 mg/kg) at which slight decrease was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the fact that this is not a fully convincing model for the study of polycystic ovaries or of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) as a whole, this animal model in several ways is similar to the human polycystic ovary syndrome.