Fertility preservation for boys and adolescents facing sterilizing medical therapy

Improvements in childhood cancer survival have allowed boys and their families to increasingly focus on quality of life after therapy, particularly their future ability to father children. Treatments should maintain comprehensive cancer care goals and consider the long-term quality of life of these children. While semen cryopreservation is a well-established method of fertility preservation for post-pubertal children, the use of cryopreserved pre-treatment testicular tissue represents a promising, yet experimental method of fertility preservation for prepubertal males facing sterilizing therapy. Healthcare providers should counsel families about the fertility risks of therapy, discuss or refer patients for standard fertility preservation options, and consider experimental approaches to fertility preservation while being mindful of the ethical questions these treatments raise.     

Subclinical coronary atherosclerosis in young adults: prevalence,characteristics, predictors with coronary computed tomography angiography

The purpose of this study was to assess the characteristics and predictors of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis in young adults. The study also evaluated predictors of cardiac events. We retrospectively enrolled 914 self-referred asymptomatic subjects under the age of 45 (552 men, 362 women) who had undergone both coronary CT angiography (CCTA) and coronary artery calcium scoring. Two radiologists analyzed plaque composition and degree of stenosis. For all subjects, we evaluated clinical risk factors and investigated cardiac events. Subclinical coronary atherosclerosis was found in 86 subjects (9.4 %). Among them, 64 subjects (74.4 %) had a single coronary artery plaque. On analysis of individual segments, the most common type of plaque was non-calcified plaque (NCP) (58 %), which was found in 63 subjects (6.9 %). Significant coronary artery stenosis was found in 9 subjects (0.1 %). Predictors of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis were age, male gender, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. Male gender, diabetes mellitus, and amount of smoking were independent predictors of NCP. High low density lipoprotein cholesterol and calcium scores were also significant predictors of stenosis. Myocardial infarction developed in 1 subject, unstable angina in 2, stable angina in 1, and death in 1 (2.45 cardiac events per 1,000 person-years of follow-up). Multivariate analysis revealed hazard ratios of 2.2 for subclinical coronary atherosclerosis, 49.17 for NCP, and 105.58 for significant stenosis. The prevalence of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis in asymptomatic young adults is not negligible. CCTA has the potential to enhance risk stratification and prediction for coronary artery disease in asymptomatic young adults.     

Ameliorating effects of constituents from Cortex Acanthopanacis Radicis on memory impairment in mice induced by scopolamine

OBJECTIVE：To investigate the effects of active con- stituents extracted from Cortex Acanthopanacis Radicison improving the impaired memory in mice models. METHODS： The mice models of memory impair- ment were established using scopolamine. Amelio- rating effects of the fractions and constituents on scopolamine-induced memory impairment in vivo were investigated using passive avoidance and Morris water-maze task tests, and their anti-acetyl- cholinesterase（AChE） and antioxidant activities in vitro examined. The isolation of constituents was performed by chromatographic methods and their structures were identified on the basis of instru- mental analysis. RESULTS： Among the fractions tested, ethylacetate fraction exhibited the anti-AChE activity（25.83%± 0.23%） properly and excellent 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl- hydrazyl（DPPH） radical and superoxide anion scav- enging capacity（87.50% ± 0.83% and 60.22% ± 0.43%, respectively）. However, the methylene chlo- ride fraction was much more active than the ethyl- acetate fraction in the passive avoidance task test（167.5% increase of step-through latency time） and Morris water-maze task test（33.3% decrease of es-cape latency time）. Four constituents, β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, sesamin, and hyperin were isolated from the methylene chloride fraction, among them, hyperin showed anti-acetylcholinesterase and anti-oxidant activities remarkably. Moreover, hyperin exerted a potent effect（146±38） s on mem- ory improvement in terms of passive avoidance task test compared with the reference compound tacrine（162±43） s at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg. CONCLUSION： Hyperin, a flavonoid glucoside iso- lated from Cortex Acanthopanacis Radicis, inhibited AChE activity and potently ameliorated scopol- amine-induced memory impairment, and its action may be partially mediated by the acetylcholine-en- hancing cholinergic nervous system.