Obesity and metabolic disturbances in adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma patients

An adamantinous craniopharyngioma (CP) is rare benign pituitary tumour often growing invasively and thereby affecting the hypothalamus. The recurrence rate in CP is high and therapy of choice is surgery, followed by cranial radiotherapy (CRT) in about half of the patients. Patients with CP have a 3-19 fold higher cardiovascular mortality in comparison to the general population. The majority of patients have an extended hypopituitarism that needs balanced hormone supplementation. About half of the patient population suffer from hypothalamic damage due to the tumour or operation. These patients suffer from hypothalamic obesity together with increased vascular morbidity and compromised bone health, thirst disorders as well as somnolence and sleep apnea. Cardiovascular risk factors need up front therapy. There is a need for centralising this rare aggressive and difficult tumour to only a few centres and that it will be managed by a multidisciplinary team with experienced neurosurgeons, endocrinologists, neurooncologists, neuroradiologists, and neuroopthamologists for a better prognosis

Micropipette force sensors for in vivo force measurements on single cells and multicellular microorganisms

Measuring forces from the piconewton to millinewton range is of great importance for the study of living systems from a biophysical perspective. The use of flexible micropipettes as highly sensitive force probes has become established in the biophysical community, advancing our understanding of cellular processes and microbial behavior. The micropipette force sensor (MFS) technique relies on measurement of the forces acting on a force-calibrated, hollow glass micropipette by optically detecting its deflections. The MFS technique covers a wide micro- and mesoscopic regime of detectable forces (tens of piconewtons to millinewtons) and sample sizes (micrometers to millimeters), does not require gluing of the sample to the cantilever, and allows simultaneous optical imaging of the sample throughout the experiment. Here, we provide a detailed protocol describing how to manufacture and calibrate the micropipettes, as well as how to successfully design, perform, and troubleshoot MFS experiments. We exemplify our approach using the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, but by following this protocol, a wide variety of living samples, ranging from single cells to multicellular aggregates and millimeter-sized organisms, can be studied in vivo, with a force resolution as low as 10 pN. A skilled (under)graduate student can master the technique in ~1–2 months. The whole protocol takes ~1–2 d to finish.Peer reviewe