Pathology of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Facts,challenges and future developments

Despite major improvements concerning its diagnosis and treatment, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains an aggressive disease with an extremely poor prognosis. Pathology, as interface discipline between basic and clinical medicine, has substantially contributed to the recent developments and has laid the basis for further progress. The definition and classification of precursor lesions of PDAC and their molecular characterization is a fundamental step for the potential identification of biomarkers and the development of imaging methods for early detection. In addition, by integrating findings in humans with the knowledge acquired through the investigation of transgenic mouse models for PDAC, a new model for pancreatic carcinogenesis has been proposed and partially validated in individuals with genetic predisposition for PDAC. The introduction and validation of a standardized system for pathology reporting based on the axial slicing technique has shown that most pancreatic cancer resections are R1 resections and that this is due to inherent anatomical and biological properties of PDAC. This standardized assessment of prognostic relevant parameters represents the basis for the successful conduction of multicentric studies and for the interpretation of their results. Finally, recent studies have shown that distinct molecular subtypes of PDAC exist and are associated with different prognosis and therapy response. The prospective validation of these results and the integration of molecular analyses in a comprehensive pathology report in the context of individualised cancer therapy represent a major challenge for the future.     

人结直肠锯齿状腺癌的研究现状

结直肠锯齿状腺癌（serrated adenocarcinoma，SAC）作为大肠癌的一种特殊临床类型，因其癌变途径的特殊性，检测以及较差的治疗反应和预后逐渐引起众多研究者的兴趣。其产生的途径主要为“锯齿状通路”途径，锯齿状通路途径以BRAF突变、微卫星体不稳定（microsatellite instability，MSI））和CpG岛的甲基化（CpG island methylator phenotype，CIMP）为特征。由于特殊的形态和内镜特征及特殊的发生部位，在结肠镜检查时很容易漏诊，甚至病理评估时也极易被忽视，临床确诊时往往已处于进展期，患者预后差，生存率低。本文针对锯齿状结直肠腺癌流行病学、危险因素、临床特征、病理学特征、分子特征等作一综述。     

Thrombotic microangiopathic hemolytic anemia in systemic lupus erythematosus associated with antiphospholipid antibodies: usefulness of monitoring coagulation–fibrinolysis markers

Abstract

We report on a 24-year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus and lupus anticoagulant who developed chronic thrombotic microangiopathic hemolytic anemia. The patient responded well to a combination of plasma exchange and anticoagulant therapy. Changes in the molecular markers for coagulation and fibrinolysis corresponded with the disease activity. We suggest that thrombotic microangiopathic hemolytic anemia should be suspected when anemia and thrombocytopenia of unknown etiologies occur in systemic lupus erythematosus. In such cases, the evaluation of molecular markers for coagulation and fibrinolysis might be helpful both for diagnosis and for assessing the response to therapy.     

Comparison of morphological and molecular genetic sex-typing on mediaeval human skeletal remains

Archaeological excavations conducted at an early mediaeval cemetery in Volders (Tyrol, Austria) produced 141 complete skeletal remains dated between the 5th/6th and 12th/13th centuries. These skeletons represent one of the largest historical series of human remains ever discovered in the East Alpine region. Little historical information is available for this region and time period. The good state of preservation of these bioarchaeological finds offered the opportunity of performing molecular genetic investigations. Adequate DNA extraction methods were tested in the attempt to obtain as high DNA yields as possible for further analyses. Molecular genetic sex-typing using a dedicated PCR multiplex (“Genderplex”) gave interpretable results in 88 remains, 78 of which had previously been sexed based on morphological features. We observed a discrepancy in sex determination between the two methods in 21 cases. An unbiased follow-up morphological examination of these finds showed congruence with the DNA results in all but five samples.     

Synthesis and properties of biodegradable poly(ester-urethane)s based on poly(ε-caprolactone) and aliphatic diurethane diisocyanate for long-term implant application: effect of uniform-size hard segment content

Abstract

In this article, a series of medical poly(ester-urethane)s (PEUs) with varying uniform-size hard segment content were prepared via one-step chain extension of poly(ε-caprolactone)s with aliphatic urethane diisocyanate, and the corresponding films were obtained by solvent evaporation technique. The chemical structures of polymers were confirmed by ¹H NMR, FT-IR and GPC. The effect of uniform-size hard segment content on the physicochemical properties of PEU films, including thermal properties, mechanical properties, crystallization behavior, water-swelling behavior and in vitro degradability, was extensively researched. The PEU films exhibiting similar thermal transition and thermal stability indicated that the uniform-size hard segment content had little effect on the thermal properties. Two obvious glass transition temperatures observed in DSC curves manifested a microphase separation structure, which endowed the PEU films excellent mechanical properties with ultimate stress of 34.6–51.2?MPa and strain at break of 898–1485%. And with the increase of uniform-size hard segment content, the initial modulus and ultimate stress increased, while the strain at break decreased. Due to the compact physical-linking network structure formed by the denser hydrogen bonds, the PEU films exhibited low water-swellability of less than 1.5?wt% and low degradation rate in vitro. The weight loss of the PEU films in degradation test was less than 1?wt% at the first four months and the time of films becoming fragments was more than 15?months. Cytotoxicity test of film extracts was conducted with L929 mouse fibroblasts, and the relative growth rate approached or exceeded 75%, indicating an acceptable cytocompatibility. For the excellent mechanical properties, slow biodegradability, non-toxic degradation products and adequate cytocompatibility, the PEUs containing uniform-size hard segments possess a high potential to be applied as long-term implant biomaterials.     

Interfacial Properties as Stability Predictors of Lecithin-Stabilized Perfluorocarbon Emulsions

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the addition of small quantities of minor lecithin components (phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidic acid, lysophosphatidylethanolamine, and cholesterol) and Pluronic F68 to lecithin could improve the stability of lecithin-stabilized perfluorocarbon emulsions. Attempts were made to correlate emulsion stability with interfacial properties (tension and charge). Dynamic interfacial tension was determined using a Teflon Wilhelmy plate method [reported previously (1)]. Emulsions were prepared by microfluidization. Microelectrophoresis was used to measure emulsion droplet charge, and photon correlation spectroscopy and Coulter analysis were used to determine emulsion stability as a function of droplet size. Thermal kinetic accelerated stability testing was conducted. Various droplet size parameters were used to compare emulsion stabilities, and an overall stability ranking, based on these parameters, was obtained for each emulsion. Small quantities of additives altered emulsion stability and these data were correlated with interfacial properties and initial droplet diameters. The addition of cholesterol to lecithin resulted in the most stable perfluorocarbon emulsion.     

Characterization and expression of the CXCR1 and CXCR4 in miiuy croaker and evolutionary analysis shows the strong positive selection pressures imposed in mammal CXCR1

The innate immune system can recognize non-self, danger signals, and pathogen associated molecular patterns and provides a first line of antimicrobial host defense. Therefore, it plays an instructive role and is pretty important in vertebrates. In innate immune responses, CXCRs act as the main receptors of CXC chemokines and play a vital role in host defense and inflammation. In present study, we cloned two cDNA molecules of CXCR1 and CXCR4 in Miichthys miiuy (miiuy croaker). In these two genes, we found the most highly conserved DRY motif in the second intracellular loop adjacent to the third transmembrane domain. The expressions of CXCR1 and CXCR4 showed that they were ubiquitously expressed in ten normal tissues. After infection with Vibrio anguillarum and Vibrio harveyi, the expressions of CXCRs in the immune tissues were significantly regulated in most of tissues except that of CXCR1 in the kidney after V. harveyi injection. Evolutionary analysis showed that only the ancestral lineages of CXCR4 in amphibians underwent positive selection, indicating that the ancestors of amphibians boarded the land and had to further evolve to adapt to terrestrial environments. Multiple ML methods were implemented to detect the robust positively selected candidates for sites. In total, we detected 12 and 3 positively selected sites in the subsets of current mammal and fish CXCR1 genes, and only one site under positive selection was found in mammalian CXCR4 subsets. These positively selected sites were mainly located in the extracellular domains of CXCRs. The sliding window analysis and evolution test tended to favor positive selection acting on the N-terminal domain of CXCR1, which was the critical region for ligand/receptor signaling for neutrophils and receptor–ligand interaction, indicating that the N-terminal of CXCR1 in mammals underwent more positive selection than that of fish.     

Introducing a combinatorial DNA-toolbox platform constituting defined protein-based biohybrid-materials

The access to defined protein-based material systems is a major challenge in bionanotechnology and regenerative medicine. Exact control over sequence composition and modification is an important requirement for the intentional design of structure and function. Herein structural- and matrix proteins provide a great potential, but their large repetitive sequences pose a major challenge in their assembly. Here we introduce an integrative “one-vector-toolbox-platform” (OVTP) approach which is fast, efficient and reliable. The OVTP allows for the assembly, multimerization, intentional arrangement and direct translation of defined molecular DNA-tecton libraries, in combination with the selective functionalization of the yielded protein-tecton libraries. The diversity of the generated tectons ranges from elastine-, resilin, silk- to epitope sequence elements. OVTP comprises the expandability of modular biohybrid-materials via the assembly of defined multi-block domain genes and genetically encoded unnatural amino acids (UAA) for site-selective chemical modification. Thus, allowing for the modular combination of the protein-tecton library components and their functional expansion with chemical libraries via UAA functional groups with bioorthogonal reactivity. OVTP enables access to multitudes of defined protein-based biohybrid-materials for self-assembled superstructures such as nanoreactors and nanobiomaterials, e.g. for approaches in biotechnology and individualized regenerative medicine.