Hemangiopericytoma/solitary fibrous tumor of pectoralis major muscle mimicking a breast mass

INTRODUCTIONHemangiopericytoma (HPC)/solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) is a very uncommon tumor of uncertain malignant behavior. In 1942, Stout and Murray first characterized these neoplasms as “vascular tumors arising from Zimmerman's pericytes” and till now hemangiopericytomas and solitary fibrous tumors of the soft tissues are regarded as features of the same entity in the soft tissue fascicle.PRESENTATION OF CASEWe present a case of hemangiopericytoma/solitary fibrous tumor of the pectoralis major muscle in a 33-year-old female. She first noticed a painless mass in her right breast. Ultrasound of the breast revealed a large heterogeneously hypoechoic lesion within the pectoralis major muscle. Fine needle aspiration of the tumor did not produce any meaningful result. The lesion was completely removed by surgical resection. Histologically, the tumor had staghorn-like vasculature and immunohistochemistry for CD34 was positive, whereas desmin, smooth-muscle actin, S-100 protein, cytokeratins (AE1/AE3) and epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) were all negative. A diagnosis of hemangiopericytoma/solitary fibrous tumor was rendered.DISCUSSIONTumors comprising the HPC/SFT spectrum represent a small subset of soft tissue sarcomas and are found virtually at any site in the body. Wide surgical resection can achieve favorable long-term survival.CONCLUSIONDue to the rarity and unpredictable biological potential of these tumors, long-term follow-up is mandatory even after radical resection, because recurrence or development of metastasis may be delayed many years.     

Radiographic appearance of alveolar osseous defects in relation to their anatomic location

Radiographs are of limited value in the diagnosis of osseous defects. Anatomic and technical factors affect the radiographic appearance of bone lesions. This study was undertaken in order to determine whether the radiographic appearance of alveolar osseous defects depends on their location, and particularly whether there are any differences in radiographic detection between bone defects located in the maxilla or the mandible, and on the buccal or lingual aspects of the alveolar crest. Experimental bone lesions were created in the alveolar crest of a skull. Standardized periapical radiographs were obtained before and after the defects were made. After processing, pairs of radiographs were randomly mounted. Five dentists acted as observers in order to determine whether or not a change in alveolar bone was detectable at each of the five possible locations. The unpaired t test was applied for the assessment of statistically significant differences with respect to sensitivity, specificity, and positive diagnostic value in the diagnosis of bone lesions depending on their location. The results showed that the anatomic location of a lesion in the alveolar bone affected its radiographic appearance. Moreover, experimental defects were detected more often in the mandible and on the lingual surfaces of the alveolar crest.     

Recombinant human butyrylcholinesterase from milk of transgenic animals to protect against organophosphate poisoning

Dangerous organophosphorus (OP) compounds have been used as insecticides in agriculture and in chemical warfare. Because exposure to OP could create a danger for humans in the future, butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) has been developed for prophylaxis to these chemicals. Because it is impractical to obtain sufficient quantities of plasma BChE to treat humans exposed to OP agents, the production of recombinant BChE (rBChE) in milk of transgenic animals was investigated. Transgenic mice and goats were generated with human BChE cDNA under control of the goat beta-casein promoter. Milk from transgenic animals contained 0.1-5 g/liter of active rBChE. The plasma half-life of PEGylated, goat-derived, purified rBChE in guinea pigs was 7-fold longer than non-PEGylated dimers. The rBChE from transgenic mice was inhibited by nerve agents at a 1:1 molar ratio. Transgenic goats produced active rBChE in milk sufficient for prophylaxis of humans at risk for exposure to OP agents.     

Cellular Function and Adhesion Mechanisms of Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are considered to be excellent reinforcements for biorelated applications, but, before being incorporated into biomedical devices, their biocompatibility need to be investigated thoroughly. We investigated the ability of films of pristine MWCNTs to influence human mesenchymal stem cells’ proliferation, morphology, and differentiation into osteoblasts. Moreover, the selective integrin subunit expression and the adhesion mechanism to the substrate were evaluated on the basis of adherent cell number and adhesion strength, following the treatment of cells with blocking antibodies to a series of integrin subunits. Results indicated that MWCNTs accelerated cell differentiation to a higher extent than tissue culture plastic, even in the absence of additional biochemical inducing agents. The pre-treatment with anti-integrin antibodies decreased number of adherent cells and adhesion strength at 4–60%, depending on integrin subunit. These findings suggest that pristine MWCNTs represent a suitable reinforcement for bone tissue engineering scaffolds.     

Meta-analysis of archived DNA microarrays identifies genes regulated by hypoxia and involved in a metastatic phenotype in cancer cells

Background  

Metastasis is a major cancer-related cause of death. Recent studies have described metastasis pathways. However, the exact contribution of each pathway remains unclear. Another key feature of a tumor is the presence of hypoxic areas caused by a lack of oxygen at the center of the tumor. Hypoxia leads to the expression of pro-metastatic genes as well as the repression of anti-metastatic genes. As many Affymetrix datasets about metastasis and hypoxia are publicly available and not fully exploited, this study proposes to re-analyze these datasets to extract new information about the metastatic phenotype induced by hypoxia in different cancer cell lines.