Mitotically active cellular fibroma of the ovary: a case report and a review of the literature

Mitotically active cellular fibroma (MACF) is characterized by increased cellularity, mitotic activity, and less frequently, nuclear atypia, which comprises 10% of ovarian fibromatous tumors. The authors report the case of a 76-year-old woman who presented at the present hospital with a two-month pelvic mass. B ultrasound disclosed a 75 x 52 x 41 mm mass in the right accessories. A hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed. Histologically, the tumor was composed of a densely cellular proliferation of fibrolastic-like cells with bland nuclear features and arranged in a fascicular pattern. There were more than four mitotic figures per ten high-power fields (HPFs). The histological diagnosis for the mass of the right ovary was MACF. MACF should be distinguished from ovarian fibrosarcoma. MACF is a recent histopathologic entity. Despite the high count of mitotic figures, the clinical course of the tumor is typically uneventful. Long-term clinical follow-up is recommended.

Vitamin D receptor gene and risk of fracture in postmenopausal women: a meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

Fracture is the major clinical outcome of osteoporosis. The vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene is thought to be a candidate gene for osteoporosis. Many genetic studies have suggested an association of VDR polymorphisms and fracture risk, but evidence remains conflicting. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic effect of the BsmI, TaqI, ApaI and FokI polymorphisms in the VDR gene on fracture risk in postmenopausal women.

METHODS

Relevant studies were identified from the following electronic databases: PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science before September 2013. Statistical analysis was performed by using the software STATA 12.0. A total 1975 fracture cases and 4565 controls in 14 studies with a total of 16 eligible comparisons were identified for data analysis.

RESULTS

No evidence of relationship between the VDR BsmI, TaqI, ApaI or FokI polymorphisms and fracture risk was observed with any genetic model in postmenopausal women (BsmI: b vs. B: odds ratio (OR) 1.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.90-1.29; TaqI: T vs. t: OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.68-1.15; ApaI: A vs. a: OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.76-1.08; FokI: F vs. f: OR 1.20, 95% CI 0.76-1.90).

CONCLUSION

This meta-analysis suggests that ApaI, BsmI, TaqI and FokI polymorphisms may be not associated with the risk of fracture in postmenopausal women. Further studies in a larger sample population are required to confirm this finding.

Prevalence of Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes among overweight or obese children in Tianjin, China

AIMS

To determine the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes and their risk factors among overweight or obese school children aged 7-18 years in Tianjin, China.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey in a representative sample of overweight/obese children or adolescents in Tianjin was conducted from May to August 2010 using a stratified cluster sampling method. A two-step screening, which was conducted to identify Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes in these children, consisted of a fasting capillary glucose test and a standard 2-h oral glucose tolerance test. Subjects who had fasting capillary glucose ≥ 5.6 mmol/l were invited for an oral glucose tolerance test. The study used Chinese criteria for classification of obesity/overweight and World Health Organization criteria for diabetes/pre-diabetes.

RESULTS

A total of 3173 children participated in the survey, with a response rate of 99.0%. Of the children, 13.0% (n = 413) were overweight and 15.4% (n = 490) were obese. Among these 903 children, 727 (80.5%) agreed to and underwent the diabetes screening and two (0.28%) were diagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes, six (0.83%) to have impaired fasting glucose, 16 (2.20%) to have impaired glucose tolerance and two (0.28%) to have both. The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes was 0.28% (95% CI 0.08-1.00%) and 3.30% (95% CI 2.23-4.87%), respectively. Abdominal obesity and motorized commuting were associated with Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes among overweight or obese boys, while high birthweight was associated with Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes among girls.

CONCLUSIONS

Type 2 diabetes among school-aged children was still low in Tianjin, China. However, Type 2 diabetes-related factors were very common, especially overweight and obesity.

Male killing Spiroplasma protects Drosophila melanogaster against two parasitoid wasps

Maternally transmitted associations between endosymbiotic bacteria and insects are diverse and widespread in nature. Owing to imperfect vertical transmission, many heritable microbes have evolved compensational mechanisms to enhance their persistence in host lineages, such as manipulating host reproduction and conferring fitness benefits to host. Symbiont-mediated defense against natural enemies of hosts is increasingly recognized as an important mechanism by which endosymbionts enhance host fitness. Members of the genus Spiroplasma associated with distantly related Drosophila hosts are known to engage in either reproductive parasitism (i.e., male killing) or defense against natural enemies (the parasitic wasp Leptopilina heterotoma and a nematode). A male-killing strain of Spiroplasma (strain Melanogaster Sex Ratio Organism (MSRO)) co-occurs with Wolbachia (strain wMel) in certain wild populations of the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. We examined the effects of Spiroplasma MSRO and Wolbachia wMel on Drosophila survival against parasitism by two common wasps, Leptopilina heterotoma and Leptopilina boulardi, that differ in their host ranges and host evasion strategies. The results indicate that Spiroplasma MSRO prevents successful development of both wasps, and confers a small, albeit significant, increase in larva-to-adult survival of flies subjected to wasp attacks. We modeled the conditions under which defense can contribute to Spiroplasma persistence. Wolbachia also confers a weak, but significant, survival advantage to flies attacked by L. heterotoma. The host protective effects exhibited by Spiroplasma and Wolbachia are additive and may provide the conditions for such cotransmitted symbionts to become mutualists. Occurrence of Spiroplasma-mediated protection against distinct parasitoids in divergent Drosophila hosts suggests a general protection mechanism.

Improving methyl parathion hydrolase to enhance its chlorpyrifos-hydrolysing efficiency

Methyl parathion hydrolase (MPH) can degrade a wide range of organophosphorus compounds, but its efficiency in hydrolysing chlorpyrifos, one of the most popular pesticides applied for crop protection, is much lower than that in hydrolysing the preferred substrate methyl parathion. In this study, random mutagenesis was adopted to improve MPH to enhance its efficiency in hydrolysing the poorly hydrolysed substrate chlorpyrifos. Rapid screening of the improved MPH variants was carried out using Bacillus subtilis WB800 secretory expression system to investigate the distribution of improved MPH variants based on the size of clear haloes as a result of chlorpyrifos hydrolysis. Four improved MPH variants were isolated, and one variant K3, in particular, showed a 5-fold increase in kcat value for chlorpyrifos hydrolysis. Furthermore, most of the MPH variants obtained in this study possessed enhanced thermostability and pH stability. The approaches adopted in this study could be extended to create other MPH variants with increased activity for hydrolysing other poorly hydrolysed substrates.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

Chlorpyrifos is one of the toxic organophosphorus compounds (OP compounds) widely used for insecticides control. Water, soil and foodstuff have been contaminated seriously by chlorpyrifos in some areas. It is urgent to find effective methods to remove its contamination. This work contributes to improve methyl parathion hydrolase (MPH) to enhance its efficiency in hydrolysing the poorly hydrolysed substrate chlorpyrifos. Our study brings new insights for enzymatic strategy for the decontamination of toxic OP compounds.

CMTM3 is frequently reduced in clear cell renal cell carcinoma and exhibits tumor suppressor activities

PURPOSE

CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain containing member 3 (CMTM3) is silenced in many kinds of cancers and inhibits tumor cells growth. We investigated the expression and role of CMTM3 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).

METHODS

The expression of CMTM3 was detected in ccRCC tissue microarray, specimens, and cell lines by immunohistochemistry, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot, respectively. After transfected with CMTM3 plasmid or vector, the proliferation and migration of ccRCC 786-0 cells were determined by MTT assay and transwell assay, respectively. Furthermore, the anchorage-independent growth of transfected cells was assessed using soft agar colony formation assay.

RESULTS

CMTM3 was down-regulated in 84 % (63/75) of ccRCC tissues and its expression had no correlation with the gender, age, clinical staging and histologic grade. CMTM3 protein was undetectable by western blot in most detected ccRCC specimens and two RCC cell lines (786-0 and ACHN). qRT-PCR analysis showed that CMTM3 mRNA was dramatically down-regulated in 40 ccRCC cancer tissues as compared with the paired adjacent normal ones. Restoration of CMTM3 significantly suppressed the anchorage-independent growth, proliferation and migration of 786-0 cells.

CONCLUSION

These results indicate that CMTM3 is significantly down-regulated in ccRCC and exerts remarkable tumor-suppressive functions in 786-0 cells. Reduction of CMTM3 expression may contribute to the pathogenesis of ccRCC and CMTM3 may be a potentially target for therapeutic strategy.

Proficiency test for human papillomavirus genotyping in china

BACKGROUND

In China, various assays for human papillomavirus (HPV) genotyping are currently used for cervical cancer screening. However, a proficiency test system is not available for standardizing and evaluating assay performance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of clinical laboratories for their ability to discriminate 9 HPV types with the proficiency panel.

METHODS

The panel of 24 samples included cloned genomic DNAs for HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 39, 51 and 52 at different concentrations, which were distributed to 76 clinical laboratories. Results reported by participants were compared with the reference results.

RESULTS

The samples containing 10(6) IU HPV-16/ml and 10(6) IU HPV-18/ml were (98.7 and 96.0%, respectively) identified correctly most often. For other high-risk HPV types, about 90% of data sets correctly identified samples containing 10(6) GE/ml of HPV-6, HPV-31, HPV-33 and HPV-52, while HPV-51, HPV-11 and HPV-39 in 10(6) GE/ml were correctly identified by only 42.7, 55.6 and 21.3% of laboratories, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Our proficiency test system provided a traceable panel and showed that the differences in performance between laboratories were high, indicating that it is necessary for the laboratories to improve their operation and standardization of HPV genotyping.

Growth factor receptor-bound protein 10-mediated negative regulation of the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor-activated signalling pathway results in cognitive disorder in diabetic rats

Growth factor receptor-bound protein 10 (Grb10) is a Src homology 2 domain-containing protein and one of the binding partners for several transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptors, including insulin receptor (IR) and insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF1-R). The hippocampus, which is critical for cognitive functions, is one of the main distribution areas of Grb10 in the central nervous system. In recent years, diabetic encephalopathy has been defined as a third type of diabetes and the IGF1-IR pathway was shown to be critical for the neuropathogenic process of cognitive disorder in diabetes. However, the role of endogenous Grb10 in regulating the IGF1-IR pathway and neurobehavioural changes is not explicit. The present study aimed to determine the in vivo function of endogenous Grb10 in diabetic encephalopathy and the underlying mechanisms. Using stereotaxic surgical techniques and lentiviral vectors expressing specific short hairpin RNA, we could steadily knockdown Grb10 expression in the hippocampus. More importantly, we demonstrated that hippocampus-specific modulation of Grb10 protein levels led to a prominent remission of cognitive disorder, including improvements in both ultrastructural pathology and abnormal neurobehavioural changes. Our findings indicate that endogenous overexpression of Grb10 functions as a suppressor of the IGF1-IR pathway, which may represent an important mechanism for regulating cognitive disorder in diabetes.

Controlled delivery of mesenchymal stem cells and growth factors using a nanofiber scaffold for tendon repair

Outcomes after tendon repair are often unsatisfactory, despite improvements in surgical techniques and rehabilitation methods. Recent studies aimed at enhancing repair have targeted the paucicellular nature of tendon for enhancing repair; however, most approaches for delivering growth factors and cells have not been designed for dense connective tissues such as tendon. Therefore, we developed a scaffold capable of delivering growth factors and cells in a surgically manageable form for tendon repair. Platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB), along with adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs), were incorporated into a heparin/fibrin-based delivery system (HBDS). This hydrogel was then layered with an electrospun nanofiber poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) backbone. The HBDS allowed for the concurrent delivery of PDGF-BB and ASCs in a controlled manner, while the PLGA backbone provided structural integrity for surgical handling and tendon implantation. In vitro studies verified that the cells remained viable, and that sustained growth factor release was achieved. In vivo studies in a large animal tendon model verified that the approach was clinically relevant, and that the cells remained viable in the tendon repair environment. Only a mild immunoresponse was seen at dissection, histologically, and at the mRNA level; fluorescently labeled ASCs and the scaffold were found at the repair site 9days post-operatively; and increased total DNA was observed in ASC-treated tendons. The novel layered scaffold has the potential for improving tendon healing due to its ability to deliver both cells and growth factors simultaneously in a surgically convenient manner.

Blood screening for human immunodeficiency virus: a new algorithm to reduce the false-positive results

OBJECTIVES

The objectives to this study were to evaluate the performance of an anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) blood screening test and propose a new screening algorithm for blood banks routinely using nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) to reduce false-positive results.

BACKGROUND

Most anti-HIV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) results are false-positive because of the low prevalence of HIV infection and high sensitivity of the ELISAs.

METHODS/MATERIALS

A total of 281 588 voluntary donations were collected and sera reactive on one or both anti-HIV ELISAs were confirmed by Western blot (WB) testing. All samples with nonreactive results for the two ELISAs underwent NAT. A confirmed HIV-1-positive result was defined by a reactive result on NAT or WB testing. Correlations between signal-to-cutoff ratios and the confirmed HIV-1 infection rate were analysed for each enzyme immunoassay and two-enzyme immunoassay combination. The positive predictive values (PPVs) of the current and proposed algorithms were calculated.

RESULTS

Seventy-nine donations (13·9%) were positive on WB analysis and one donation negative for anti-HIV antibody was reactive on NAT and confirmed to be a window period donation on additional follow-up testing. The PPV of the 567 donations reactive on one or two ELISAs was 13·9%. However, using the new screening algorithm, 457 donations underwent NAT immediately instead of WB testing. Only 110 donations were tested with WB and the PPV was 71·8%.

CONCLUSION

Screening for HIV is sensitive, specific and time saving for donors with this algorithm, which is suitable for HIV screening in low prevalence settings.

Effect of temperature and pH on postmortem color development of porcine M. longissimus dorsi and M. semimembranosus

BACKGROUND

Purchasing pork that is boned within 1 h postmortem and not aged is customary in China, and final pork color would not be fully realized. The relationship between early postmortem, pre-rigor meat color and 24 h postmortem, post-rigor pork color was investigated and related to the rate of pH and temperature decline within the longissimus dorsi (LD) and the semimembranosus (SM) muscles of pork carcasses. Muscle color, pH and temperature were measured at 45 min and at 3, 9, 15 and 24 h postmortem in carcasses of F₂ White Duroc and Chinese Erhualian pigs.

RESULTS

Pork color at 45 min postmortem was not indicative of that at 24 h postmortem in LD and SM, although muscle pH values and temperature at 45 min postmortem were significantly correlated with the LD and SM ultimate color. High muscle pH was associated with decreased L*, whereas high muscle temperature increased L*. Muscle pH and temperature had little effect on a* and b* in LD and color evolution in SM.

CONCLUSIONS

Results indicated that meat color inspected shortly after slaughter does not reflect post-rigor meat quality.

Physisorption of functionalized gold nanoparticles on AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors for sensing applications

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were used to measure electrical characteristics of physisorbed gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) functionalized with alkanethiols with a terminal methyl, amine, or carboxyl functional group. Additional alkanethiol was physisorbed onto the NP treated devices to distinguish between the effects of the Au NPs and alkanethiols on HEMT operation. Scanning Kelvin probe microscopy and electrical measurements were used to characterize the treatment effects. The HEMTs were operated near threshold voltage due to the greatest sensitivity in this region. The Au NP/HEMT system electrically detected functional group differences on adsorbed NPs which is pertinent to biosensor applications.