Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis-related pulmonary restriction: An under-appreciated manifestation potentially reversible with imatinib therapy

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis typically occurs in patients with renal failure and is strongly associated with gadolinium exposure through stimulation of macrophage-activated fibrosis. Patients present with prominent fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. Quality of life is significantly diminished due to impairment from restrictive mobility of large and small joint contractures, pain, and ensuing psychological stress. Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis can be severe and life-threatening. Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis patients reliant on hemodialysis with cutaneous symptoms, defined as hyperpigmentation, hardening, and tethering of skin on the extremities, experience rates of mortality as high as 48%. Physician awareness and preventive strategies coincided with a reduction in the incidence of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. Several treatments, of which physical therapy may be a key adjuvant, have been used to treat nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, with variable and inconsistent results, lacking wide consensus. Improvement of renal function may improve nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, with some patients demonstrating stabilization or improvement after renal transplantation or resolution of acute renal failure. Imatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, demonstrates antifibrotic effects in the skin and recently was used to successfully treat nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. We report a case of severe nephrogenic systemic fibrosis with extensive skin fibrosis causing extrapulmonary restriction who demonstrated improved lung function following treatment with imatinib.

Classifying the Linkage between Adipose Tissue Inflammation and Tumor Growth through Cancer-Associated Adipocytes

Recently, tumor microenvironment (TME) and its stromal constituents have provided profound insights into understanding alterations in tumor behavior. After each identification regarding the unique roles of TME compartments, non-malignant stromal cells are found to provide a sufficient tumorigenic niche for cancer cells. Of these TME constituents, adipocytes represent a dynamic population mediating endocrine effects to facilitate the crosstalk between cancer cells and distant organs, as well as the interplay with nearby tumor cells. To date, the prevalence of obesity has emphasized the significance of metabolic homeostasis along with adipose tissue (AT) inflammation, cancer incidence, and multiple pathological disorders. In this review, we summarized distinct characteristics of hypertrophic adipocytes and cancer to highlight the importance of an individual's metabolic health during cancer therapy. As AT undergoes inflammatory alterations inducing tissue remodeling, immune cell infiltration, and vascularization, these features directly influence the TME by favoring tumor progression. A comparison between inflammatory AT and progressing cancer could potentially provide crucial insights into delineating the complex communication network between uncontrolled hyperplastic tumors and their microenvironmental components. In turn, the comparison will unravel the underlying properties of dynamic tumor behavior, advocating possible therapeutic targets within TME constituents.

Cutaneous Manifestations of Scleroderma and Scleroderma-Like Disorders: a Comprehensive Review

Scleroderma refers to an autoimmune connective tissue fibrosing disease, including three different subsets: localized scleroderma, limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis, and diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis with divergent patterns of organ involvement, autoantibody profiles, management, and prognostic implications. Although systemic sclerosis is considered the disease prototype that causes cutaneous sclerosis, there are many other conditions that can mimic and be confused with SSc. They can be classified into immune-mediated/inflammatory, immune-mediated/inflammatory with abnormal deposit (mucinoses), genetic, drug-induced and toxic, metabolic, panniculitis/vascular, and (para)neoplastic disorders according to clinico-pathological and pathogenetic correlations. This article reviews the clinical presentation with emphasis on cutaneous disease, etiopathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment options available for the different forms of scleroderma firstly and for scleroderma-like disorders, including scleromyxedema, scleredema, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, eosinophilic fasciitis, chronic graft-versus-host disease, porphyria cutanea tarda, diabetic stiff-hand syndrome (diabetic cheiroartropathy), and other minor forms. This latter group of conditions, termed also scleroderma mimics, sclerodermiform diseases, or pseudosclerodermas, shares the common thread of skin thickening but presents with distinct cutaneous manifestations, skin histology, and systemic implications or disease associations, differentiating each entity from the others and from scleroderma. The lack of Raynaud's phenomenon, capillaroscopic abnormalities, or scleroderma-specific autoantibodies is also important diagnostic clues. As cutaneous involvement is the earliest, most frequent and characteristic manifestation of scleroderma and sclerodermoid disorders, dermatologists are often the first-line doctors who must be able to promptly recognize skin symptoms to provide the affected patient a correct diagnosis and appropriate management.