CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY OF CEREBRAL SUBCORTICAL CAVERNOUS ANGIOMA AS EPILEPTOGENIC FOCUS

The authors conducted a comparative histological study of two groups of patients with cerebral subcortical cavernous angioma. One group was composed of 5 asymptomatic cases detected accidentally. The other group was composed of 4 patients presenting as epilepsy. The results obtained may be summarized as follows ; 1) Hemosiderin deposit and gliosis were seen in all cases examined ; 2) Granulomatous change was a histological finding associated with epileptogenesis ; 3) The histological changes, starting with proliferation of collagen fibers and leading to hyaline degeneration, calcification, and then hemangioma calcificans, seem to represent a course of spontaneous healing, when viewed from epileptogenesis

The Improvements in Quality of LIS Education through the Mutual International Exchanges of Students in the East Asia

Abstract: A great deal of useful content now does not go through the publishing process is going directly online by blog or wiki. At present, academi

A Case of Benign Schwannoma of the Transverse Colon with Granulation Tissue

Schwannomas occurring in the gastrointestinal tract are rare, and among them, schwannomas of the large intestine are extremely rare. In this paper, we report a case of a macroscopically atypical schwannoma of the transverse colon. The case is a female aged 67. Stool occult blood test was positive, and colonoscopy revealed a protruded lesion resembling a type 1 carcinoma measuring 4 cm with a reddish and uneven surface on the transverse colon. The surface was smooth and lobulated in observation with indigo carmine spray, and granulation tissue was revealed by biopsies. CT of the abdomen showed an irregular mass, and clinical examinations could not rule out malignancy. Therefore, partial transverse colectomy with peripheral lymph node dissection was performed. Histologically, proliferation of spindle cells was observed originating from the muscularis propria, and most of the upper part of the lesion was replaced by granulation tissue. In immunohistochemical staining, S-100 protein and NSE were positive while KIT, CD34, desmin and smooth muscle actin were negative, and the tumor was therefore diagnosed to be a schwannoma. In addition, since the MIB-1 labeling index was low and virtually no mitosis was observed, it was diagnosed as benign tumor

Population-genetic nature of copy number variations in the human genome

Copy number variations (CNVs) are universal genetic variations, and their association with disease has been increasingly recognized. We designed high-density microarrays for CNVs, and detected 3000–4000 CNVs (4–6% of the genomic sequence) per population that included CNVs previously missed because of smaller sizes and residing in segmental duplications. The patterns of CNVs across individuals were surprisingly simple at the kilo-base scale, suggesting the applicability of a simple genetic analysis for these genetic loci. We utilized the probabilistic theory to determine integer copy numbers of CNVs and employed a recently developed phasing tool to estimate the population frequencies of integer copy number alleles and CNV–SNP haplotypes. The results showed a tendency toward a lower frequency of CNV alleles and that most of our CNVs were explained only by zero-, one- and two-copy alleles. Using the estimated population frequencies, we found several CNV regions with exceptionally high population differentiation. Investigation of CNV–SNP linkage disequilibrium (LD) for 500–900 bi- and multi-allelic CNVs per population revealed that previous conflicting reports on bi-allelic LD were unexpectedly consistent and explained by an LD increase correlated with deletion-allele frequencies. Typically, the bi-allelic LD was lower than SNP–SNP LD, whereas the multi-allelic LD was somewhat stronger than the bi-allelic LD. After further investigation of tag SNPs for CNVs, we conclude that the customary tagging strategy for disease association studies can be applicable for common deletion CNVs, but direct interrogation is needed for other types of CNVs

Promotion of allergic immune responses by intranasally-administrated nanosilica particles in mice

With the increase in use of nanomaterials, there is growing concern regarding their potential health risks. However, few studies have assessed the role of the different physical characteristics of nanomaterials in allergic responses. Here, we examined whether intranasally administered silica particles of various sizes have the capacity to promote allergic immune responses in mice. We used nanosilica particles with diameters of 30 or 70 nm (nSP30 or nSP70, respectively), and conventional micro-sized silica particles with diameters of 300 or 1000 nm (nSP300 or mSP1000, respectively). Mice were intranasally exposed to ovalbumin (OVA) plus each silica particle, and the levels of OVA-specific antibodies (Abs) in the plasma were determined. Intranasal exposure to OVA plus smaller nanosilica particles tended to induce a higher level of OVA-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) E, IgG and IgG1 Abs than did exposure to OVA plus larger silica particles. Splenocytes from mice exposed to OVA plus nSP30 secreted higher levels of Th2-type cytokines than mice exposed to OVA alone. Taken together, these results indicate that nanosilica particles can induce allergen-specific Th2-type allergic immune responses in vivo. This study provides the foundations for the establishment of safe and effective forms of nanosilica particles