Ten-year-old boy with post-traumatic priapism

Summary The case of a 10-year-old boy with post-traumatic priapism after perineal trauma is presented. Interdisciplinary treatment using angiography and selective catheter embolization for juvenile high-flow priapism is demonstrated. The literature and the diagnostic possibilities resulting from color duplex sonography are discussed.      

Chorioallantoic membrane angiogenesis model for tissue engineering: a new twist on a classic model

Tissue-engineering (TE) applications include the isolation, culture, and seeding of cells into a suitable matrix or scaffold before in vivo transplantation. After transplantation, vascularization of the scaffold is a principal limiting factor for cell viability for the first 6-8 days posttransplantation. A model for systematic analysis of this process has been developed. Fertilized White Leghorn eggs were incubated (at 37.8 degrees C in 60% relative humidity) and opened on day 3 of incubation. Preadipocyte-seeded fibrin constructs were implanted in a specially designed plastic cylinder and placed through the opening on the surface of the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) on day 8 of incubation. Vascularization of the constructs by chorioallantoic blood vessels was assessed for up to 8 days posttransplantation. The survival rate for embryos receiving transplanted constructs was about 90%. Histology confirmed transplant cell viability at day 4 posttransplantation and vascularization of the constructs by avian endothelial cells began at this time. A new in vivo model to study the effect of angiogenesis in TE constructs, including assessments of viability, proliferation, and differentiation of transplanted cells and biomaterial properties, is presented. Advantages include easy access to the vascular network of the CAM, lack of immunocompetence, low costs, and avoidance of animal experiments.     

Dokumentation der Dachverbands Prostatazentren (DVPZ)

For certification of a prostate center according to the guidelines of the Governing Body of Prostate Centers (DVPZ) an amalgamation of at least five practicing urologists with a main urology department of a hospital and further cooperation partners for the interdisciplinary approach to prostate cancer is necessary. The DVPZ certificate incorporates benign prostatic syndrome and prostatitis in addition to prostate cancer and is therefore a real organ certificate in the urological sense. The aim of the DVPZ certificate is the integrated, interdisciplinary and interinstitutional treatment of patients with diseases of the prostate.     

Fas expression by tumor stroma is required for cancer eradication

The contribution of molecules such as perforin, IFN-γ (IFNγ), and particularly Fas ligand (FasL) by transferred CD8⁺ effector T (T_E) cells to rejection of large, established tumors is incompletely understood. Efficient attack against large tumors carrying a surrogate tumor antigen (mimicking a “passenger” mutation) by T_E cells requires action of IFNγ on tumor stroma cells to avoid selection of antigen-loss variants. Because “cancer-driving” antigens (CDAs) are rarely counterselected, IFNγ may be expected to be dispensable in elimination of cancers by targeting a CDA. Here, initial regression of large, established tumors required neither IFNγ, FasL, nor perforin by transferred CD8⁺ T_E cells targeting Simian Virus (SV) 40 large T as CDA. However, cytotoxic T_E cells lacking IFNγ or FasL could not prevent relapse despite retention of the rejection antigen by the cancer cells. Complete tumor rejection required IFNγ-regulated Fas by the tumor stroma. Therefore, T_E cells lacking IFNγ or FasL cannot prevent progression of antigenic cancer because the tumor stroma escapes destruction if its Fas expression is down-regulated.