Toll-like Receptor 4, F4/80 And Pro-inflammatory Cytokines In Intestinal And Mesenteric Fat Tissue Of Crohn's Disease.

Crohn's disease (CD) is a chronic intestinal ailment with a multifactorial etiology, whose incidence has increased during the last three decades. Recently, a role for mesenteric fat has been proposed in CD pathophysiology, since fat hypertrophy is detected nearby the affected intestinal area; however, there are few studies on this aspect. To evaluate inflammatory activity in intestinal mucosa and mesenteric fat tissue of patients with CD and controls. Ten patients with ileocecal CD and 16 patients with non-inflammatory disease (control groups) were studied. The specimens were snap-frozen and the expression of TLR-4, F4/80, IL1-β and IL-6 were determined by immunoblot of protein extracts. TLR4 RNA level were measured using RT-PCR. The t Test was applied (p<0.05). The local ethical committee approved the study. The intestinal mucosa of CD group had significantly higher protein levels of TLR-4, F4/80, IL-1β and IL-6 than the controls. The gene expression of TLR4 was lower in the intestinal mucosa of CD compared to the control group. Regard the mesenteric fat tissue, there was no statistical difference related to TLR-4, F4/80, IL-1β and IL-6 proteins expression. These findings may result from an up-regulation of macrophage activation and intracellular pathways activated by bacterial antigens, which are more important in intestinal mucosa than fat tissue in CD patients. This may represent an anomalous regulation of innate immunity and could contribute to the production of proinflammatory mediators and disease development.698-10

Detection of epithelial apoptosis in pelvic ileal pouches for ulcerative colitis and familial adenomatous polyposis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) is the surgical procedure of choice for patients with refractory ulcerative colitis (UC) and for familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) with many rectal polyps. Pouchitis is one of the more frequent complications after IPAA in UC patients; however, it is rare in FAP.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>Evaluate pro-apoptotic activity in endoscopically and histological normal mucosa of the ileal pouch in patients with UC and FAP.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Eighteen patients (nine with UC and nine with FAP) with J pouch after total rectocolectomy were studied. Biopsies were obtained from the mucosa of the pouch and from normal ileum. The specimens were snap-frozen and the expressions of Bax and Bcl-2 were determined by immunoblot of protein extracts and by immunohistochemistry analysis. FADD, Caspase-8, APAF-1 and Caspase-9 were evaluated by immunoprecipitation and immunoblot.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Patients with UC had significantly higher protein levels of Bax and APAF-1, Caspase-9 than patients with FAP, but were similar to controls. The expressions of Bcl-2 and FADD, Caspase-8 were similar in the groups. Immunohistochemistry for Bax showed less intensity of immunoreactions in FAP than in UC and Controls. Bcl-2 immunostaining was similar among the groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Patients with FAP present lower levels of pro-apoptotic proteins in all methods applied, even in the absence of clinical and endoscopic pouchitis and dysplasia in the histological analysis. These findings may explain a tendency of up-regulation of apoptosis in UC patients, resulting in higher rates of progression to pouchitis in these patients, which could correlate with mucosal atrophy that occurs in inflamed tissue. However, FAP patients had low pro-apoptotic activity in the mucosa, and it could explain the tendency to low cell turn over and presence of adenomas in this syndrome.</p

Novel transposable elements from Anopheles gambiae

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transposable elements (TEs) are DNA sequences, present in the genome of most eukaryotic organisms that hold the key characteristic of being able to mobilize and increase their copy number within chromosomes. These elements are important for eukaryotic genome structure and evolution and lately have been considered as potential drivers for introducing transgenes into pathogen-transmitting insects as a means to control vector-borne diseases. The aim of this work was to catalog the diversity and abundance of TEs within the <it>Anopheles gambiae </it>genome using the PILER tool and to consolidate a database in the form of a hyperlinked spreadsheet containing detailed and readily available information about the TEs present in the genome of <it>An. gambiae</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we present the spreadsheet named AnoTExcel that constitutes a database with detailed information on most of the repetitive elements present in the genome of the mosquito. Despite previous work on this topic, our approach permitted the identification and characterization both of previously described and novel TEs that are further described in detailed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Identification and characterization of TEs in a given genome is important as a way to understand the diversity and evolution of the whole set of TEs present in a given species. This work contributes to a better understanding of the landscape of TEs present in the mosquito genome. It also presents a novel platform for the identification, analysis, and characterization of TEs on sequenced genomes.</p

Evaluation Of Lateral Lymph Node Metastases In Advanced Distal Rectal Cancer.

The importance of lateral node dissection has not yet been fully investigated in advanced rectal cancer. To evaluate tumor cells in perirectal and lateral lymph nodes dissection from rectal adenocarcinomas considered free of disease by the hematoxylin-eosin test. Fifteen patients submitted to neoadjuvant therapy and surgery for rectal adenocarcinoma with lateral node dissection were studied, retrospectively. The paraffin blocs of the nodes were analyzed with a immunohistochemical study and multiples cross section of the nodes. A total of 331 lymph nodes from these 15 patients were assessed, distributed as 258 perirectal nodes, 73 non perirectal, and 27 lateral nodes. The average was 22.1 lymph nodes per patient. Three patients out of 15 (20%) with histological negative lateral lymph node had occult metastasis detected by pancytokeratins AE1 and AE3. One of these cases didn't present tumor in the surgical specimen of the rectum. A case of positive lateral node identified by hematoxylin-eosin was also identified by immunohistochemical study. Although we had a small number of patients in the present study, lateral node dissection is important in selected cases of advanced cancer. Pancytokeratins AE1 and AE3 had a potential to improve study for detection of occult node metastasis, being helpful in rectal cancer prognosis.571363-

Estudo comparativo de modelos computacionais gerados sobre representações de imagens de coloscopia: tecido de mucosa normal VS tecido de mucosa de pólipo cólico Comparative study of computacional models generated from representations of colonoscopic images: normal mucosal tissues VS mucosal tissues of colic polyp

OBJETIVO: analisar a qualidade preditiva de modelos computacionais para a diferenciação de tecidos cólicos, construídos a partir da representação de Imagens de Coloscopia (IC) como Matrizes de Co-ocorrência (MC). MATERIAIS E MÉTODOS: os modelos foram construídos aplicando técnicas de análise de imagens e de inteligência artificial. Foram utilizadas 67 IC, contendo pólipos, a partir das quais foram extraídas uma imagem da parte de tecido de pólipo e outra de tecido sem pólipo adjacente, totalizando 134 imagens. Para cada imagem, foram construídas MC para diferentes valores do parâmetro distância, D = 1 a 5, e extraídas 11 características de textura. Com essa representação, foram criados cinco modelos computacionais baseados em árvores de decisão. Os modelos foram avaliados utilizando: (a) validação cruzada e (b) tabelas de contingência. RESULTADOS: na análise (a), o modelo de D = 3 apresentou o menor erro médio (22,25% ± 11,85%). Na análise (b), os modelos de D = 1 e 3 apresentaram os melhores valores de precisão. CONCLUSÃO: os valores do parâmetro de distância D = 1 e 3 apresentaram os modelos com as melhores qualidades preditivas. Os resultados mostraram que os modelos construídos apresentaram-se promissores para a construção de sistemas computacionais de suporte à decisão.<br>PURPOSE: to evaluate the predictive quality of computational models to differentiate colic tissues, based on Cooccorrurence Matrices (MC) representation of Coloscopic Images (IC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: image analysis and artificial intelligence methods were employed to construct computational models. Sixty seven IC images, containing polyp, were considered in this work, from which a part containing a polypus and another without it were collected given origin to 134 images. For each one of these, different MC were constructed considering five distance parameters (D = 1 to 5) and the extraction of 11 texture characteristics. With this representation, five computational models were generated based on decision trees. These models were evaluated using two techniques: (a) cross-validation and (b) contingency tables. RESULTS: for the (a) analysis, the model with D = 3 presented the smaller average error (22.25% ± 11.85%). For the (b) analysis, models with D = 1 and 3 presented the best precision values. CONCLUSION: parameters D = 1 and 3 presented models with the best predictive qualities. Results showed that the constructed models were promising to be applied within decision making computational systems