CD97, but not its closely related EGF-TM7 family member EMR2, is expressed on gastric,pancreatic, and esophageal carcinomas

CD97 expression is related closely to the dedifferentiation and tumor stage in thyroid carcinomas. We systematically examined the role of CD97 and its closest relative, EMR2, in normal and malignant gastric, esophageal, and pancreatic tissue. The normal tissues were EMR2-, whereas CD97 was expressed slightly in the parietal cells of gastric mucosa and in exocrine pancreatic cells. Interestingly, intralobular and interlobular pancreatic ducts were CD97+. All tumors were EMR2-. CD97 was expressed by 44 of 50 gastric, 14 of 18 pancreatic, and 10 of 13 esophageal carcinomas. Of the 44 gastric cancers, 27 showed disseminated or scattered tumor cells at the invasion front with stronger CD97 expression than tumor cells located in solid tumor formations. There was no correlation between CD97 levels in the tumors or soluble CD97 in the serum samples and the clinicopathologic features of the patients. Taken together, significant numbers of gastric, esophageal, and pancreatic carcinomas are CD97+, whereas its homolog, EMR2, does not have any role in such tumors.     

Role of the Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 effector proteins SipA, SopB, SopE, and SopE2 in Salmonella enterica subspecies 1 serovar Typhimurium colitis in streptomycin-pretreated mice

Salmonella enterica subspecies 1 serovar Typhimurium (serovar Typhimurium) induces enterocolitis in humans and cattle. The mechanisms of enteric salmonellosis have been studied most extensively in calf infection models. The previous studies established that effector protein translocation into host cells via the Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 (SPI-1) type III secretion system (TTSS) is of central importance in serovar Typhimurium enterocolitis. We recently found that orally streptomycin-pretreated mice provide an alternative model for serovar Typhimurium colitis. In this model the SPI-1 TTSS also plays a key role in the elicitation of intestinal inflammation. However, whether intestinal inflammation in calves and intestinal inflammation in streptomycin-pretreated mice are induced by the same SPI-1 effector proteins is still unclear. Therefore, we analyzed the role of the SPI-1 effector proteins SopB/SigD, SopE, SopE2, and SipA/SspA in elicitation of intestinal inflammation in the murine model. We found that sipA, sopE, and, to a lesser degree, sopE2 contribute to murine colitis, but we could not assign an inflammation phenotype to sopB. These findings are in line with previous studies performed with orally infected calves. Extending these observations, we demonstrated that in addition to SipA, SopE and SopE2 can induce intestinal inflammation independent of each other and in the absence of SopB. In conclusion, our data corroborate the finding that streptomycin-pretreated mice provide a useful model for studying the molecular mechanisms of serovar Typhimurium colitis and are an important starting point for analysis of the molecular events triggered by SopE, SopE2, and SipA in vivo.     

Possibilities of sterility therapy in a patient with a premature menopause due to an X-chromosomal anomaly - a case report

Our report concerns a patient with a climacterium praecox and an X-chromosomal anomaly (86% 46, XX; 7% 47, XXX; 7% 45, X0) desiring to give birth. She conceived once after down-regulation of the gonadotrophins by means of a cyclical hormone replacement therapy followed by gonadotrophin stimulation, as well as a second time under down-regulation with a GnRH-analogue and gonadotrophin stimulation. On the basis of the case report and of the literature, a possible interval therapy in such a patient, especially one even with increasing ovarian insufficiency, will be portrayed and discussed.     

Is There a FADS2-Modulated Link between Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Plasma Phospholipids and Polyphenol Intake in Adult Subjects Who Are Overweight?

Dietary polyphenols promote cardiometabolic health and are linked with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in plasma phospholipids (LC-PUFA). The FADS2 polymorphisms are associated with LC-PUFA metabolism and overweight/obesity. This 4-week study examined the link between polyphenol intake, FADS2 variants (rs174593, rs174616, rs174576) and obesity in 62 overweight adults (BMI ≥ 25), allocated to consume 100 mL daily of either: Aronia juice, a rich source of polyphenols, with 1177.11 mg polyphenols (expressed as gallic acid equivalents)/100 mL (AJ, n = 22), Aronia juice with 294.28 mg polyphenols/100 mL (MJ, n = 20), or nutritionally matched polyphenol-lacking placebo as a control (PLB, n = 20). We analyzed LC-PUFA (% of total pool) by gas chromatography and FADS2 variants by real-time PCR. Four-week changes in LC-PUFA, BMI, and body weight were included in statistical models, controlling for gender and PUFA intake. Only upon AJ and MJ, the presence of FADS2 variant alleles affected changes in linoleic, arachidonic, and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Upon MJ treatment, changes in EPA were inversely linked with changes in BMI (β= −0.73, p = 0.029) and weight gain (β= −2.17, p = 0.024). Only in subjects drinking AJ, the link between changes in EPA and anthropometric indices was modified by the rs174576 variant allele. Our results indicate the interaction between FADS2, fatty acid metabolism, and polyphenol intake in overweight subjects.     

Understanding ‘caring’ through biopolitics: the case of nurses under the Nazi regime

These days, discussions of what might be the ‘essence’ or the ‘core’ of nursing and nursing practice sooner or later end in a discussion about the concept of care. Most of the ‘newer’ nursing theories use this concept as a theoretical core concept. Even though these theoretical approaches use the concept of care with very different philosophical foundations and theoretical consistency, they concur in defining care as the essence of nursing and thereby glorify goodness as the decisive characteristic of nursing. These theoretical approaches neglect the fact that nursing is above all a profession with a societal task and is characterized by an asymmetrical power relation between nurses and their patients. Based on the results of a research project that analysed the role nurses played in the killing of psychiatric patients in Germany during the Nazi regime, I demonstrate that an approach based on the concept of care is not able to explain how nurses were able to commit crimes of such atrocity. These crimes were bound to an emotional investment that sustained the production of ‘life unworthy of living’. In the case of nurses under the Nazi regime, certainly a kind of sadism was at issue that can only be explained if we recognize that the social bond is characterized by a certain tension; ‘goodness’ that caring theories assign to the social bond always coexists with the capacity for destruction. Using the Foucauldian theoretical framework of biopower and biopolitics enables one to analyse violence and power as integral parts of nurses' practice. Seen from this perspective, the killing of patients was part of a biopolitical programme and not a relapse into barbarism. The concept of care obscures the political agenda of nursing and does not provide a critical and political framework to analysing nursing practice.     

Photoablation of meningiomas and neurinomas by Holmium Yag laser radiation

Abstract

Cranial rat bone was irradiated by 2.1 pm Holmium Yag laser radiation. Quantitative edge rates were calculated. Histologic sections were investigated by light and electron microscopy. Eighteen cases of hard fibrous or calcified spinal and cranial meningiomas and neurinomas were operated upon using pulsed laser beam, in rat cranial bone ablation rate ranged between 0.3-0.5 mm per pulse. Perifocal thermal damage was observed in a zone of20-90 pm around the lesion. In all human cases tumors could be removed totally without additional neurological deficit. In vivo heat development was measured by an i.r.-camera. [Neurol Res 1999; 21: 96–98]     

Cervical artery dissection goes frequently undiagnosed

Cervical artery dissection (CeAD) is a frequent cause of stroke among young patients. It is unclear how many CeADs occur asymptomatically or cause subtle and unspecific clinical symptoms. We hypothesize that CeAD remains often unrecognized. Accordingly, the incidence of CeAD might be higher and the stroke risk lower than generally assumed. Lack of CeAD-indicating clinical symptoms is regarded as the main cause of missed diagnoses. We further hypothesize that underrepresentation of asymptomatic and oligosymptomatic patients in CeAD studies may have biased the association between ischemia and local symptoms in CeAD patients as well as the associations of CeAD with risk factors or co-morbidities. We finally hypothesize that symptomatic CeAD may be preceded by an initial asymptomatic phase. According to this final hypothesis, the time of onset of CeAD should be considered uncertain. The issue of unrecognized CeAD is relevant, as it may affect the associations between CeAD and putative risk factors. Furthermore, the existence of clinically silent CeADs may explain why recurrent and familial CeAD have been rarely observed.