Mucocele of the sphenoid sinus with the apex orbitae syndrome

A mucocele of the sphenoid sinus with visual impairment and headache is presented. Mucocele of the sphenoid sinus is relatively rare. The preoperative diagnosis was uncertain in this case but sphenoid sinus mucocele was considered. The transnasal surgical approach is considered to be best for treatment.     

Striatal homogenates from animals chronically treated with haloperidol stimulate dopamine and GABA uptake in cultures of rostral mesencephalic tegmentum

The effect of pharmacologic denervation of striatal tissue on the production of growth promoting factors was examined in a cell culture system. Relative to saline-treated controls, rats were rendered behaviorally hypersensitive to a subsequent apomorphine challenge by 2 months of chronic treatment with haloperidol. Four days following chronic treatment, the animals were killed and the striata and cerebella were homogenized in Hank's Balanced Salt solution. The supernatants of these crude homogenates were then added to E-13 rostral mesencephalic tegmentum cultures for 6 days. Within 24 h, the haloperidol-treated striatal supernatants induced an overt increase in culture growth relative to all other supernatants. After 6 days, cultures incubated with haloperidol-treated striatal supernatants exhibited a significant increase in dopamine and GABA uptake relative to cultures incubated with all other supernatants. This effect was observed in the presence and absence of glia. The relative degree of this increased uptake was dependent upon the amount of haloperidol-treated striatal supernatant added. Boiling the supernatant removed the growth promoting effect. These results suggest that pharmacologic denervation of striatal tissue leads to a "target-specific" increase in growth promoting activity that may play a role in the pharmacologic and behavioral effects of haloperidol.     

Lung surfactant gelation induced by epithelial cells exposed to air pollution or oxidative stress

Lung surfactant lowers surface tension and adjusts interfacial rheology to facilitate breathing. A novel instrument, the interfacial stress rheometer (ISR), uses an oscillating magnetic needle to measure the shear viscosity and elasticity of a surfactant monolayer at the air-water interface. The ISR reveals that calf lung surfactant, Infasurf, exhibits remarkable fluidity, even when exposed to air pollution residual oil fly ash (ROFA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), or conditioned media from resting A549 alveolar epithelial cells (AEC). However, when Infasurf is exposed to a subphase of the soluble fraction of ROFA- or H2O2-treated AEC conditioned media, there is a prominent increase in surfactant elasticity and viscosity, representing two-dimensional gelation. Surfactant gelation is decreased when ROFA-AEC are pretreated with inhibitors of cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), or with a mitochondrial anion channel inhibitor, as well as when A549-rho0 cells that lack mitochondrial DNA and functional electron transport are investigated. These results implicate both mitochondrial and nonmitochondrial ROS generation in ROFA-AEC-induced surfactant gelation. A549 cells treated with H2O2 demonstrate a dose-dependent increase in lung surfactant gelation. The ISR is a unique and sensitive instrument to characterize surfactant gelation induced by oxidatively stressed AEC.     

Role of new population of peripheral CD11c(+)CD8(+) T cells and CD4(+)CD25(+) regulatory T cells during acute and remission stages in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a CD4(+)-dependent chronic systemic inflammatory disease with autoimmune features. Autoreactive CD4(+) T-cell activation can result in autoimmune diseases. One of the key regulators is the CD4(+)CD25(high) regulatory T (Treg) cell. In an animal arthritis model, CD11c(+)CD8(+) T cells were found to be elevated, and could suppress pathogenic CD4(+) T cells after cross-linking with CD137. The purpose of this study was to compare the expression of CD137, CD4(+)CD25(high) Treg cells, and CD11c(+)CD8(+) in the peripheral blood T lymphocytes of RA patients during active and remissive states, and evaluate the correlation with disease activity. METHODS: Thirty nine RA patients treated at the rheumatology outpatient clinic at the Changhua Christian Hospital were assessed clinically for disease activity and classified as either highly active or remissive by the Disease Activity Score 28. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from these patients and compared against normal controls. RESULTS: The presence of CD11c(+)CD8(+) T cells or the expression of CD137 molecules in peripheral blood cells was not related to disease activity. In contrast, CD4(+)CD25(high) Treg cell levels were increased significantly in patients with active RA compared with patients with remissive RA or controls (p<0.05). These lymphocytes were intact, without evidence of apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that CD4(+)CD25(high) Treg cells play an important role in modulating RA disease activity and can serve as a parameter of disease activity.     

Increased expression of osteopontin gene in atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor of the central nervous system.

The atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor, primary to the central nervous system, is a highly malignant and aggressive neoplasm of infancy and childhood. Although having distinct biological features and clinical outcomes, it is frequently misdiagnosed as primitive neuroectodermal tumor/medulloblastoma. To further distinguish the underlying pathogenesis and to identify biological markers for clinical use, an atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor-derived cell line was established and its gene expression pattern analyzed in comparison to the human astrocyte SVG12 cell line and the human DAOY medulloblastoma cell line using a complementary DNA microarray method. The osteopontin gene was found specifically upregulated in atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor cells. This specificity was confirmed by immunohistochemistry in pathological sections of tissues from atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor patients. Even though the role of osteopontin in the cytopathogenesis of atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor still needs to be determined, our data support that overexpressed osteopontin is a potential diagnostic marker for atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor.     

Associations between total serum IgE levels and the 6 potentially functional variants within the genes IL4, IL13, and IL4RA in German children: the German Multicenter Atopy Study

BACKGROUND: Increased total serum IgE levels are a common characteristic of atopic disorders. Six potentially functional variants, including C-590T in the IL4 gene, C-1055T and Arg130Gln in the IL13 gene, and Ile50Val, Ser478Pro, and Gln551Arg in the IL4RA gene, have been evaluated for their involvement in the control of total serum IgE levels and related atopic disorders, but the results of these studies have been inconsistent. OBJECTIVE: We examined whether these 6 variants had genotypic effects on total serum IgE levels in 823 unrelated German children from a large infant cohort, the German Multicenter Atopy Study. METHODS: Marginal effect models were used for the analyses of the repeated IgE measurements. Weighted linear regression and family-based tests of association were performed to minimize the possibility of spurious effects caused by selection bias or confounding on the basis of ethnic background. RESULTS: There are significant associations between increased total serum IgE levels and 2 variants in the IL13 gene (P <.005 and.0002 for Arg130Gln and C-1055T, respectively). These genetic effects are unlikely to be due to solely linkage disequilibrium between 2 polymorphisms, population stratification, or nonrepresentative samples. In addition, exposure to maternal smoking appears to modify the above effects on total serum IgE levels. However, no statistical association was observed between this quantitative phenotype and the other 4 variants examined. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that variants C-1055T and Arg130Gln of the IL13 gene might play an important role on total serum IgE production in this study population.     

Laboratory-based surveillance and molecular epidemiology of influenza virus in Taiwan

A laboratory-based surveillance network of 11 clinical virological laboratories for influenza viruses was established in Taiwan under the coordination of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Taiwan. From October 2000 to March 2004, 3,244 influenza viruses were isolated, including 1,969 influenza A and 1,275 influenza B viruses. The influenza infections usually occurred frequently in winter in the northern hemisphere. However, the influenza seasonality in Taiwan was not clear during the four seasons under investigation. For example, the influenza A viruses peaked during the winters of 2001, 2002, and 2003. However, some isolated peaks were also found in the summer and fall (June to November) of 2001 and 2002. An unusual peak of influenza B also occurred in the summer of 2002 (June to August). Phylogenetic analysis shows that influenza A isolates from the same year were often grouped together. However, influenza B isolates from the year 2002 clustered into different groups, and the data indicate that both B/Victoria/2/87-like and B/Yamagata/16/88-like lineages of influenza B viruses were cocirculating. Sequence comparison of epidemic strains versus vaccine strains shows that many vaccine-like Taiwanese strains were circulating at least 2 years before the vaccine strains were introduced. No clear seasonality of influenza reports in Taiwan occurred in contrast to other more continental regions.     

Therapeutic effect of topical administration of SN50, an inhibitor of nuclear factor-kappaB, in treatment of corneal alkali burns in mice

We evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of topical administration of SN50, an inhibitor of nuclear factor-kappaB, in a corneal alkali burn model in mice. An alkali burn was produced with 1 N NaOH in the cornea of C57BL/6 mice under general anesthesia. SN50 (10 microg/microl) or vehicle was topically administered daily for up to 12 days. The eyes were processed for histological or immunohistochemical examination after bromodeoxyuridine labeling or for semi-quantification of cytokine mRNA. Topical SN50 suppressed nuclear factor-kappaB activation in local cells and reduced the incidence of epithelial defects/ulceration in healing corneas. Myofibroblast generation, macrophage invasion, activity of matrix metalloproteinases, basement membrane destruction, and expression of cytokines were all decreased in treated corneas compared with controls. To elucidate the role of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha in epithelial cell proliferation, we performed organ culture of mouse eyes with TNF-alpha, SN50, or an inhibitor of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and examined cell proliferation in healing corneal epithelium in TNF-alpha-/- mice treated with SN50. An acceleration of epithelial cell proliferation by SN50 treatment was found to depend on TNF-alpha/JNK signaling. In conclusion, topical application of SN50 is effective in treating corneal alkali burns in mice.     

Occult hepatitis B virus infection and clinical outcomes of patients with chronic hepatitis C

Although occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections in individuals without detectable hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) may occur and have been reported to be common in patients with chronic hepatitis C, the clinical relevance remains controversial. We searched for serum HBV DNA in 210 HBsAg-negative patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related liver disease (110 patients with chronic hepatitis, 50 patients with cirrhosis, and 50 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma) by PCR. Most of the patients had detectable antibodies to HBsAg or HBV core antigen. All of the 110 chronic hepatitis C patients were treated with a combination therapy consisting of interferon plus ribavirin. In addition, 100 HBsAg-negative healthy adults served as controls. Thirty-one of the 210 patients (14.8%) had HBV DNA in their sera, as did 15 of the 100 healthy controls (15%). HBV DNA was not detected in the sera of those negative for serological markers of HBV infection. In patients with chronic HCV infection, the prevalence of occult HBV infection did not parallel the severity of liver disease (14.5% in patients with chronic hepatitis, 8% in patients with liver cirrhosis, and 22% in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma). In addition, the sustained response to combination therapy against hepatitis C was comparable between patients with and without occult HBV infection (38 versus 39%). In conclusion, these data suggest that occult HBV infection does not have clinical significance in chronic hepatitis C patients residing in areas where HBV infection is endemic.