Single incision thoracoscopic right upper lobectomy with systematic lymph node dissection

Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) provides less postoperative pain, preservation of the immune response and shorter recovery period, compared with thoracotomy. However, many patients complain of postoperative pain and paresthesia because VATS requires 3 or 4 incisions including a utility incision of 3–5 cm. To overcome this problem, single incision thoracoscopic surgery has emerged; this technique has been adopted for lung cancer surgery since 2010. Complete mediastinal lymph node dissection is the major role of lung cancer surgery. We describe a case of a right upper lobectomy with complete mediastinal lymph node dissection via single incision thoracosopic surgery

Familial Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 2 Parkinsonism Presenting as Intractable Oromandibular Dystonia

We have previously described a Korean family afflicted with spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) parkinsonism in which genetic analysis revealed CAG expansion of 40 repeats in the ATXN2 gene.1 The affected members presented with levodopa-responsive parkinsonism without cerebellar ataxia. Some showed motor fluctuation and dyskinesia, further mimicking idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD). Herein, we report a member of this family who developed jaw-opening and lingual-protrusion dystonia as the chief presentation

The Light and Period Variations of the Eclipsing Binary BX Draconis

New CCD photometric observations of BX Dra were obtained for 26 nights from 2009 April to 2010 June. The long-term photometric behaviors of the system are presented from detailed studies of the period and light variations, based on the historical data and our new observations. All available light curves display total eclipses at secondary minima and inverse O'Connell effects with Max I fainter than Max II, which are satisfactorily modeled by adding the slightly time-varying hot spot on the primary star. A total of 87 times of minimum light spanning over about 74 yrs, including our 22 timing measurements, were used for ephemeris computations. Detailed analysis of the O-C diagram showed that the orbital period has changed in combinations with an upward parabola and a sinusoidal variation. The continuous period increase with a rate of +5.65 \times 10^-7 d yr^-1 is consistent with that calculated from the Wilson-Devinney synthesis code. It can be interpreted as a mass transfer from the secondary to the primary star at a rate of 2.74 \times 10^-7 M\odot yr^-1, which is one of the largest rates for contact systems. The most likely explanation of the sinusoidal variation with a period of 30.2 yrs and a semi-amplitude of 0.0062 d is a light-traveltime effect due to the existence of a circumbinary object. We suggest that BX Dra is probably a triple system, consisting of a primary star with a spectral type of F0, its secondary component of spectral type F1-2, and an unseen circumbinary object with a minimum mass of M3 = 0.23 M\odot.Comment: 24 pages, including 5 figures and 9 tables, accepted for publication in PAS

Comparison of volume-controlled and pressure-controlled ventilation using a laryngeal mask airway during gynecological laparoscopy

Background: Several publications have reported the successful, safe use of Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA)-Classic devices in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery. However, there have been no studies that have examined the application of volume-controlled ventilation (VCV) or pressure-controlled ventilation (PCV) using a LMA during gynecological laparoscopy. The aim of this study is to compare how the VCV and PCV modes and using a LMA affect the pulmonary mechanics, the gas exchange and the cardiovascular responses in patients who are undergoing gynecological laparoscopy. Methods: Sixty female patients were randomly allocated to one of two groups, (the VCV or PCV groups). In the VCV group, baseline ventilation of the lung was performed with volume-controlled ventilation and a tidal volume of 10 ml/kg ideal body weight (IBW). In the PCV group, baseline ventilation of the lung using pressure-controlled ventilation was initiated with a peak airway pressure that provided a tidal volume of 10 ml/kg IBW and an upper limit of 35 cmH2O. The end-tidal CO2, the peak airway pressures (Ppeak), the compliance, the airway resistance and the arterial oxygen saturation were recorded at T1: 5 minutes after insertion of the laryngeal airway, and at T2 and T3: 5 and 15 minutes, respectively, after CO2 insufflation. Results: The Ppeak at 5 minutes and 15 minutes after CO2 insufflation were significantly increased compared to the baseline values in both groups. Also, at 5 minutes and 15 minutes after CO2 insufflation, there were significant differences of the Ppeak between the two groups. The compliance decreased in both groups after creating the pneumopertoneim (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that PCV may be an effective method of ventilation during gynecological laparoscopy, and it ensures oxygenation while minimizing the increases of the peak airway pressure after CO2 insufflation. ��� the Korean Society of Anesthesiologists, 2011

Degradation of HER2/neu by ANT2 shRNA suppresses migration and invasiveness of breast cancer cells

Background: In breast cancer, the HER2/neu oncoprotein, which belongs to the epidermal growth factor receptor family, may trigger activation of the phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway, which controls cell proliferation, survival, migration, and invasion. In this study, we examined the question of whether or not adenine nucleotide translocase 2 (ANT2) short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated down-regulation of HER2/neu and inhibitory effects on the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway suppressed migration and invasiveness of breast cancer cells. Methods: We utilized an ANT2 vector-based RNA interference approach to inhibition of ANT2 expression, and the HER2/neu-overexpressing human breast cancer cell line, SK-BR3, was used throughout the study. Results: In this study, ANT2 shRNA decreased HER2/neu protein levels by promoting degradation of HER2/neu protein through dissociation from heat shock protein 90 (HSP90). As a result, ANT2 shRNA induced inhibitory effects on the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Inhibition of PI3K/Akt signaling by ANT2 shRNA caused down-regulation of membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression, decreased matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) and MMP9 activity, and suppressed migration and invasion of breast cancer cells. Conclusions: These results indicate that knock-down of ANT2 by shRNA down-regulates HER2/neu through suppression of HSP90`s function and inhibits the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, resulting ultimately in suppressed migration and invasion of breast cancer cells.Wang S, 2009, MOL CANCER, V8, DOI 10.1186/1476-4598-8-81MAHMUT Y, 2009, CANC METASTASIS REV, V28, P15Jang JY, 2008, BREAST CANCER RES, V10, DOI 10.1186/bcr1857Ono M, 2006, CLIN CANCER RES, V12, P7242, DOI 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-06-0646Stirling PC, 2006, NAT STRUCT MOL BIOL, V13, P865, DOI 10.1038/nsmb1153Le Bras M, 2006, CANCER RES, V66, P9143, DOI 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-05-4407Scaltriti M, 2006, CLIN CANCER RES, V12, P5268, DOI 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-06-1554ERIC I, 2006, AM J PHYSIOL-CELL PH, V291, P579Romond EH, 2005, NEW ENGL J MED, V353, P1673Piccart-Gebhart MJ, 2005, NEW ENGL J MED, V353, P1659Chevrollier A, 2005, J BIOENERG BIOMEMBR, V37, P307, DOI 10.1007/s10863-005-8642-5Meares GP, 2004, FEBS LETT, V574, P181, DOI 10.1016/j.febslet.2004.08.026Sreedhar AS, 2004, FEBS LETT, V562, P11Citri A, 2004, CELL CYCLE, V3, P51Luciakova K, 2003, J BIOL CHEM, V278, P30624, DOI 10.1074/jbc.M303530200Rao JS, 2003, NAT REV CANCER, V3, P489, DOI 10.1038/nrc1121Val JFF, 2002, CANCER GENET CYTOGEN, V138, P69GARCIARUIZ C, 2002, J BIOL CHEM, V277, P16396Slamon DJ, 2001, NEW ENGL J MED, V344, P783Prenzel N, 2001, ENDOCR-RELAT CANCER, V8, P11Braun S, 2001, CANCER RES, V61, P1890Xu WP, 2001, J BIOL CHEM, V276, P3702Sternlicht MD, 2001, ANNU REV CELL DEV BI, V17, P463Greenlee RT, 2001, CA-CANCER J CLIN, V51, P15Fang JM, 2000, P NATL ACAD SCI USA, V97, P3884Clynes RA, 2000, NAT MED, V6, P443Zhou BP, 2000, J BIOL CHEM, V275, P8027Menard S, 2000, J CELL PHYSIOL, V182, P150Cobleigh MA, 1999, J CLIN ONCOL, V17, P2639Pegram MD, 1998, J CLIN ONCOL, V16, P2659Fiore C, 1998, BIOCHIMIE, V80, P137WOLFGANG HS, 1998, J CELL BIOL, V143, P901Werb Z, 1997, CELL, V91, P439Baselga J, 1996, J CLIN ONCOL, V14, P737CORNELIUS LA, 1995, J INVEST DERMATOL, V105, P170HANEMAAIJER R, 1993, BIOCHEM J, V296, P803UNEMORI EN, 1990, J BIOL CHEM, V265, P445MIGNATTI P, 1989, J CELL BIOL, V108, P671SLAMON DJ, 1987, SCIENCE, V235, P177

Diosgenin Induces Apoptosis in HepG2 Cells through Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species and Mitochondrial Pathway

Diosgenin, a naturally occurring steroid saponin found abundantly in legumes and yams, is a precursor of various synthetic steroidal drugs. Diosgenin is studied for the mechanism of its action in apoptotic pathway in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Based on DAPI staining, diosgenin-treated cells manifested nuclear shrinkage, condensation, and fragmentation. Treatment of HepG2 cells with 40 μM diosgenin resulted in activation of the caspase-3, -8, -9 and cleavage of poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) and the release of cytochrome c. In the upstream, diosgenin increased the expression of Bax, decreased the expression of Bid and Bcl-2, and augmented the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Diosgenin-induced, dose-dependent induction of apoptosis was accompanied by sustained phosphorylation of JNK, p38 MAPK and apoptosis signal-regulating kinase (ASK)-1, as well as generation of the ROS. NAC administration, a scavenger of ROS, reversed diosgene-induced cell death. These results suggest that diosgenin-induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells through Bcl-2 protein family-mediated mitochndria/caspase-3-dependent pathway. Also, diosgenin strongly generated ROS and this oxidative stress might induce apoptosis through activation of ASK1, which are critical upstream signals for JNK/p38 MAPK activation in HepG2 cancer cells

Image-to-Image Retrieval by Learning Similarity between Scene Graphs

As a scene graph compactly summarizes the high-level content of an image in a structured and symbolic manner, the similarity between scene graphs of two images reflects the relevance of their contents. Based on this idea, we propose a novel approach for image-to-image retrieval using scene graph similarity measured by graph neural networks. In our approach, graph neural networks are trained to predict the proxy image relevance measure, computed from human-annotated captions using a pre-trained sentence similarity model. We collect and publish the dataset for image relevance measured by human annotators to evaluate retrieval algorithms. The collected dataset shows that our method agrees well with the human perception of image similarity than other competitive baselines.Comment: Accepted to AAAI 202