A Case of Monostotic Fibrous Dysplasia of the Temporal Bone Asso­ciated with Epileptic Seizure

An 11-year-old male with monostotic fibrous dysplasia of the left temporal bone was reported. At the age of seven years, the patient began having epileptic attacks, and a bony swelling of the left temporal region was noticed by his mother. Roentgenologically, there were almost thorough osseous obstruction and osseous proliferation of the external auditory canal and pars petrosa, respectively. Audiologic examinations indicated gradual functional disturbance based on the affected internal ear. A total of 20 cases with monostotic fibrous dysplasia of the temporal bone reported between 1946 and 1980 was analyzed, and the association of fibrous dysplasia and epilepsy was discussed.</p

Temporal bone histopathology in trisomy 18 syndrome: a report of two cases.

Temporal bone histopathological findings of two patients with trisomy 18 syndrome are described. Many of the abnormalities previously described were seen in the present cases; namely, atresia of the external auditory canal, aberrant course of the tensor tympani muscle, malformed stapes, aberrant course of the facial nerve with an obtuse angulation at the first genu and displacement of geniculate ganglion cells into the internal auditory canal, shortened cochlea with decreased spiral ganglion cell population, and vestibular anomalies, such as bony and membranous blockage of the superior semicircular canal. Moreover, an extremely underdeveloped malleus and incus continuous with a persistent Meckel's cartilage were observed.</p

Surgery to improve hearing of a preschool child with profound bilateral deafness

Hearing loss in children under school age adversely effects speech and personality development. It is possible to improve conductive hearing loss by surgery, but difficult to improve combined hearing loss. The authors succeeded surgically improving the hearing of a 5 year-old boy suffering from speech retardation due to bilateral congenital combined hearing loss. The improvement in hearing aided speech training. He has graduated from schools for the deaf (primary, middle and senior high school). His I.Q. is 70 or less. The average hearing is in the speech range of 90 dB bilaterally, showing combined hearing loss by play audiometry. At the age of 1.5 years, he was suspected of having congenital aural atresia on the right side, congenital narrow ear canal on the left side and minor anomalies of the auricles bilaterally, including congenital aural fistulas. His mother and younger brother also suffer from bilateral congenital combined hearing loss. The tympanotomy on the left ear revealed severe anomalies, such as omega shaped ossicle composed of the malleus and incus joined to the posterior bony wall of external auditory canal and bony fixation of the stapes footplate. The bulky ossicle was mobilized by cutting the junction to the bony canal wall, and a small fenestra stapedectomy was performed. A tympanotomy on the right ear was also performed, but irregular development of the inner ear prevented the possibility of obtaining hearing improvement. The authors discussed the possibility and significance of surgery to improve hearing even in cases of profound combined hearing loss in preschool children

The reconstructive surgery of head and neck cancers

Thiry nine reconstructive surgeries were performed in 37 cases of head and neck cancers from January, 1989 to August, 1991 in our department. The best functional results were obtained on deglutition, swallowing and phonatin after intraoral and/or mesopharyngeal reconstruction using free radial forearm flaps. The free jejunal transposition procedure had the lowest complication rate. The rectus abdominus musculocutaneous free flap was used for nasal, paranasal reconstruction. Esthetics could be presereved by this reconstruction method due to mider postoperative atrophy and contraction. Eye sockets for the artificial eyes were made with eye conjunctiva in 3 canses of extended total maxillectomy with the orbital exenteration. The use of microvas-cular free flaps in this new plastic surgery resulted in the decrease of refusal of operations in maxillectomy canses

<i>psm-mec</i> RNA inhibits <i>agrA</i> translation.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Cell extracts of overnight cultures of Newman strain (WT) and the <i>agr-</i>null mutant (Δ<i>agr</i>) were electrophoresed in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels. One gel was stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue (Left panel). Proteins in another gel were transferred to a membrane and used for Western blotting by anti-AgrA IgG (Right panel). (<b>B</b>) Cell extracts of 24 h-cultures of Newman strains transformed with empty vector (pND50), a plasmid carrying wild-type <i>psm-mec</i> (pF), a plasmid carrying <i>psm-mec</i> with a stop-codon (pC1), and a plasmid carrying <i>psm-mec</i> with the -7T>C promoter mutation (pM1) were subjected to Western blotting by anti-AgrA IgG. Each lane contains 3.5 µg proteins of cell extracts. (<b>C</b>) Cell extracts of 24 h-cultures of Newman, MW2 (USA400), and FRP3757 (USA300) strains that were transformed with pF carrying <i>psm-mec</i> (multi-copy), or integrated with <i>psm-mec</i> into the chromosome (single-copy) were subjected to Western blotting by anti-AgrA IgG (Upper panel). Each lane contains 3 µg proteins of cell extracts. Band intensities of AgrA were measured and are presented in the lower graph. The vertical axis represents the relative value against the AgrA band intensity of the parent strain in each Newman, MW2, and FRP3757 genetic background. Means ± standard deviations from four independent experiments are presented. Student t-test P-values between the parent strain and the <i>psm-mec</i>-introduced strain in each genetic background are presented. (<b>D</b>) The <i>agr</i> null mutant of Newman transformed with pMNS-agrBDCA carrying IPTG-inducible <i>agrBDCA</i> and pKE516 (empty vector), or pMNS-agrBDCA and pKE516-F carrying wild-type <i>psm-mec</i> was cultured in the presence or absence of IPTG. Cell extracts of 24-h cultures were subjected to Western blotting by anti-AgrA IgG. Each lane contains 6 µg proteins of cell extracts. (<b>E</b>) Schematic representation of <i>luc-</i>fusions of the <i>recF</i> promoter, <i>agrA</i> SD, the <i>agrA</i> ORF, and the <i>luc</i> ORF. Bold gray lines represent the plasmid construct. Horizontal dotted lines represent the regions deleted from the plasmids. Putative binding region means the region predicted to bind to the <i>psm-mec</i> RNA by <i>in silico</i> analysis. SD means Shine-Dalgarno sequence of <i>agrA</i>. (<b>F</b>) Luciferase activities of Newman strains that were transformed with the <i>luc-</i>fusion plasmids with <i>psm-mec</i> (+F) or without <i>psm-mec</i> (−F) were measured. The vertical axis represents the luciferase activity. Student t-test P-values between +F and −F are presented. NS, P>0.05. (<b>G</b>) Newman strain, which was integrated with <i>psm-mec</i> or without <i>psm-mec</i>, was transformed with the <i>luc-</i>fusion plasmids. Luciferase activities of the strains were measured. The vertical axis represents the relative luciferase activity of the <i>psm-mec</i>-integrated Newman [+F (single-copy)] against that of the Newman strain (−F). Student t-test P-values between +F and −F are presented. NS, P>0.05.</p

<i>psm-mec</i> RNA increased the amount of HutU, Spa, and Ddh in CA-MRSA FRP3757 (USA300).

<p>(<b>A</b>) The nucleotide sequence of the <i>psm-mec</i> ORF in pF, the stop-codon introduced sequence of <i>psm-mec</i> ORF in pC1, and the synonymous-codon substituted sequence of <i>psm-mec</i> ORF in pFP are shown. The substituted nucleotides are colored in red. The amino acid sequence of PSM-mec protein is shown below the respective nucleotide sequence. (<b>B</b>) Cell extract of FRP3757 strain that was transformed with empty vector (pND50), <i>psm-mec</i> (pF), mutated <i>psm-mec</i> harboring a stop codon (pC1), or mutated <i>psm-mec</i> harboring synonymous codon substitutions (pFP) was analyzed by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Proteins were stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue. The protein spot was excised and identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (<b><a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003269#ppat.1003269.s007" target="_blank">Table S1</a></b>).</p

<i>psm-mec</i> RNA specifically binds <i>agrA</i> mRNA and inhibits its translation.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Hybridization between <i>psm-mec</i> RNA and <i>agrA</i> mRNA was predicted by an <i>in silico</i> program RNA hybrid. Black and gray lines represent strong and weak hydrogen bonds, respectively. (<b>B</b>) Binding between <i>psm-mec</i> RNA and <i>agrA</i> RNA (−20–717) was analyzed using a gel-retardation assay. Various amounts of nonlabeled <i>agrA</i> RNA were added to ³²P-labeled <i>psm-mec</i> RNA (0.13 pmol), and electrophoresed in 6% native polyacrylamide gel. In the right six lanes, nonlabeled <i>psm-mec</i> RNA or yeast tRNA was added to compete with the binding between <i>agrA</i> RNA and ³²P-labeled <i>psm-mec</i> RNA. (<b>C</b>) Binding experiment between <i>psm-mec</i> RNA and deletion mutants of <i>agrA</i> RNA. Various amounts of nonlabeled <i>agrA1</i> RNA (−20–267) or <i>agrA2</i> RNA (−20–198) were added to ³²P-labeled <i>psm-mec</i> RNA (0.13 pmol). (<b>D</b>) Nucleotide sequences of <i>psm-mec</i> RNA, a deletion mutant of <i>psm-mec</i> RNA (<i>psm-mec-</i>D), and a nucleotide-substituted <i>psm-mec</i> RNA (<i>psm-mec-</i>M) are presented. Red dotted line in <i>psm-mec</i>-D indicates the deleted region. Red letters in <i>psm-mec-</i>M indicate the substituted nucleotides that are not complementary to <i>agrA</i> RNA. (<b>E</b>) Various amounts of nonlabeled <i>psm-mec</i> RNA, <i>psm-mec-</i>D RNA, or <i>psm-mec-</i>M RNA were added to ³²P-labeled <i>agrA1</i> RNA (−20–267), and electrophoresed in 6% native polyacrylamide gel. (<b>F</b>) Luciferase activities of Newman strains that were transformed with pGP-agrA-luc carrying no <i>psm-mec</i> (−F), <i>psm-mec</i> (+F), <i>psm-mec</i>-D, or <i>psm-mec</i>-M were measured. The vertical axis represents the relative luciferase activity against that of pGP-agrA-luc carrying no <i>psm-mec</i>. Means ± standard deviations from three independent experiments are presented. Student t-test P-values are presented. (<b>G</b>) Cell extracts (3 µg protein) of 24 h-cultures of Newman strains transformed with pND50 (empty vector), pF carrying <i>psm-mec</i>, p-psm-mec-D carrying <i>psm-mec-</i>D, or p-psm-mec-M carrying <i>psm-mec-</i>M were subjected to Western blotting by anti-AgrA IgG (Left panel). Band intensities of AgrA were measured (Right graph). Means ± standard deviations from three independent experiments are presented. Student t-test P-values are presented. (<b>H</b>) Amounts of PSMα3 in the supernatants of 24 h-cultures of Newman strains transformed with <i>psm-mec</i>, <i>psm-mec-</i>D, or <i>psm-mec</i>-M were measured. The vertical axis represents the relative amount of PSMα3 against that of Newman strain transformed with pND50 (empty vector). Student t-test P-values are presented.</p