Primary orbital neuroblastoma in a 1‐month‐old boy

Neuroblastoma is a malignant tumor predominantly occurring in children and usually arising from the adrenal gland or sympathetic ganglia. We describe a neuroblastoma in a 1‐month‐old boy arising from his left orbital cavity. This tumor was refractory to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, requiring enucleation of the left eye for complete removal of the intraorbital tumor. Thereafter, he received high‐dose chemotherapy followed by autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, and has been in complete remission for 3 years. Unlike neuroblastomas arising from the adrenal gland or sympathetic ganglia, primary orbital neuroblastoma may be refractory even in early infancy.     

LOX-1, the receptor for oxidized low-density lipoprotein identified from endothelial cells: implications in endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis

Lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor-1 (LOX-1) was initially identified as the major receptor for oxidized LDL (OxLDL) in endothelial cells. Its inducible expression in macrophages and smooth muscle cell was also observed. LOX-1 is a Type II membrane protein with a typical C-type lectin structure at the extracellular C-terminus. It can be cleaved by an unknown protease at the extracellular juxtamembrane region to release the soluble form of LOX-1. The extracellular domains of LOX-1 are post-translationally modified by N-linked glycosylation. Mutagenesis studies revealed that the lectin domain of LOX-1 is the functional domain that recognizes the LOX-1 ligand. The C-terminal end residues and several conserved positively charged residues spanning the lectin domain are essential for OxLDL binding. LOX-1 activation by OxLDL causes endothelial changes that are characterized by activation of nuclear factor-kappaB through an increased reactive oxygen species, subsequent induction of adhesion molecules, and endothelial apoptosis. In vitro, expression of LOX-1 is induced by many inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress, hemodynamic stimuli, and OxLDL. In vivo, the expression is enhanced in pro-atherogenic settings including, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes, and, indeed, is accumulated in the atherosclerotic and glomerulosclerotic lesions. LOX-1 binds multiple classes of ligands that are implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Besides OxLDL, LOX-1 can recognize apoptotic/aged cells, activated platelets, and bacteria, implying versatile physiological functions. Taken together, all these findings support the possible contribution of LOX-1 to the pathogenesis of vascular disorders, particularly atherosclerosis. Development of antagonists for LOX-1 might be a good therapeutic approach to vascular diseases.     

Doxycycline attenuated pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin in mice

The administration of doxycycline prior to bleomycin in mice attenuated pulmonary fibrosis. Bronchoalveolar neutrophil influx and gelatinase activity, but not caseinolytic activity, were attenuated by doxycycline. Established fibrosis was not affected by doxycycline. Thus, doxycycline might be useful for slowing down pulmonary fibrosis by biological activity other than antibacterial activity.     

CT-based automated planning of acetabular cup for total hip arthroplasty (THA) based on hybrid use of two statistical atlases

Purpose

This study describes the use of CT images in atlas-based automated planning methods for acetabular cup implants in total hip arthroplasty (THA). The objective of this study is to develop an automated cup planning method considering the statistical distribution of the residual thickness.

Methods

From a number of past THA planning datasets, we construct two statistical atlases that represent the surgeon’s expertise. The first atlas is a pelvis-cup merged statistical shape model (PC-SSM), which encodes global spatial relationships between the patient anatomy and implant. The other is a statistical residual thickness map (SRTM) of the implant surface, which encodes local spatial constraints of the anatomy and implant. In addition to PC-SSM and SRTM, we utilized the minimum thickness as a threshold constraint to prevent penetration.

Results

The proposed method was applied to the pelvis shapes segmented from CT images of 37 datasets of osteoarthritis patients. Automated planning results with manual segmentation were compared to the plans prepared by an experienced surgeon. There was no significant difference in the average cup size error between the two methods (1.1 and 1.2 mm, respectively). The average positional error obtained by the proposed method, which integrates the two atlases, was significantly smaller (3.2 mm) than the previous method, which uses single atlas (3.9 mm). In the proposed method with automated segmentation, the size error of the proposed method for automated segmentation was comparable (1.1 mm) to that for manual segmentation (1.1 mm). The average positional error was significantly worse (4.2 mm) than that using manual segmentation (3.2 mm). If we only consider mildly diseased cases, however, there was no significance between them (3.2 mm in automated and 2.6 mm in manual segmentation).

Conclusion

We infer that integrating PC-SSM and SRTM is a useful approach for modeling experienced surgeon’s preference during cup planning.

     

Expression of Recombination Activating Genes in Germinal Center B Cells: Involvement of Interleukin 7 (IL-7) and the IL-7 Receptor

Mouse germinal center (GC) B cells have been shown to undergo secondary V(D)J (V, variable; D, diversity; J, joining) recombination (receptor editing) mediated by the reexpressed products of recombination activating gene (RAG)-1 and RAG-2. We show here that interleukin (IL)-7 as well as IL-4 was effective in inducing functional RAG products in mouse IgD⁺ B cells activated via CD40 in vitro. Blocking of the IL-7 receptor (IL-7R) by injecting an anti– IL-7R monoclonal antibody resulted in a marked suppression of the reexpression of RAG-2 and subsequent V(D)J recombination in the draining lymph node of immunized mice, whereas RAG-2 expression was not impaired in immunized IL-4–deficient mice. Further, these peripheral B cells activated in vitro or in vivo were found to express IL-7R. These findings indicate a novel role for IL-7 and IL-7R in inducing receptor editing in GC B cells.     

Suppression of endothelin-1-induced mitogenic responses of human aortic smooth muscle cells by interleukin-1 beta.

When applied to quiescent human aortic smooth muscle cells (AOSMC), endothelin-1 (ET-1) caused significant increases in mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activity, [3H]thymidine incorporation, and cell proliferation, confirming an activity of ET-1 as a potent mitogen on AOSMC. As an in vitro model to evaluate the significance of the mitogenic activity of ET-1 on smooth muscle cells during atherogenesis, we studied possible modulations of the responsiveness of the cells by treatment with various cytokines (IL-1 beta, IL-8, TNF alpha, and TGF beta). Of the four cytokines tested, we found that the treatment of the cells with IL-1 beta dramatically reduced the responsiveness of the cells to ET-1; IL-1 beta treatment at the concentration of 0.2 ng/ml for 8 h completely abolished the activity of ET-1 to induce the mitogenic responses. IL-1 beta treatment caused no changes in the responses induced by EGF, basic fibroblast growth factor, or PDGF. Studies on ET-1-induced intracellular signaling events in IL-1 beta-treated cells revealed that the failure of ET-1 to induce mitogenic responses was due to an increase in cAMP formation secondary to ET-1-induced activation of prostanoid metabolism. These findings on AOSMC in vitro raise the possibility that, under some inflammatory conditions in vivo, ETs may work as a negative modulator of smooth muscle cell proliferation.