Neuromodulation of Vegetative State through Spinal Cord Stimulation: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?

Background: Vegetative state (VS) is a complex condition that represents a challenging frontier for medicine and neuroscience research. Nowadays there is no scientifically validated treatment for VS patients, and their chronic long-term assistance is very demanding for healthcare systems worldwide. Objectives: The present paper is a systematic review of the role of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) as a treatment of patients with VS. Methods: Published literature on this topic was analyzed systematically. Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of VS, present therapeutic options and social costs of VS were also evaluated. Results: Only 10 papers have been published since 1988, and overall 308 VS patients have been treated with SCS worldwide; 51.6% displayed a clinical improvement and an amelioration of the environmental interaction. These effects are probably mediated by the stimulation of the reticular formation-thalamus-cortex pathway and by cerebral blood flow augmentation induced by SCS. Conclusions: The experience on this topic is still very limited, and on this basis it is still hard to make any rigorous assessment. However, the most recent experiments represent significant progress in the research on this topic and display SCS as a possible therapeutic tool in the treatment of VS

Yeast functional assay of the p53 gene status in human cell lines maintained in our laboratory

We used a yeast functional assay (functional analysis of separated alleles in yeast: FASAY) to determine the p53 gene status of human cell lines maintained in our laboratory. This assay enables the researcher to score wild-type p53 expression on the basis of the ability of expressed p53 to transactivate the reporter gene HIS 3 via the p53-responsive GAL 1 promoter in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The cell lines examined were ten hepatoma, two hepatoblastoma, three in vitro immortalized fibroblast, two osteosarcoma, a chondrosarcoma, an ovarian teratocarcinoma and a colon cancer cell line. Out of 20 cell lines, 11 cell lines had mutations in both alleles of the p53 gene, and another 8 cell lines had no mutation in the p53 gene. Thus, 55% of the cell lines examined had mutations in the p53. Interestingly, PA-1 cells had both the normal and the mutant p53 alleles, showing that FASAY is a useful method for detecting the wild-type and mutated p53 genes simultaneously. As for the three liver cell lines harboring HBsAg, there was no relationship between their p53 gene status and the presence of HBsAg. Two cell lines were normal for p53 status, while the other had a mutation of the p53 gene.</p