Liposarcoma of the uterine corpus: A case report and literature review

Liposarcoma of the uterine corpus is extremely rare. We performed a laparotomy on a 55-year-old woman with the complaints of abdominal distension and genital bleeding who was found to have a uterine tumor, 17 × 16 cm in diameter. The preoperative diagnosis was a lipoma or lipoleiomyoma of the uterine corpus. However, pathological examination revealed proliferation of mature adipocytes and lipoblast-like atypical cells with small, weakly pleomorphic nuclei and foamy or vacuolated cytoplasm present within a fibrous septum. Immunohistochemistry showed that the tumor cells were focally positive for mouse double minute 2 homolog (MDM2). The final pathological diagnosis was a well-differentiated liposarcoma of International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IB (pT1bNxM0). On magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), T1 -weighted and fat-saturated images showed high and low intensity in the tumor, respectively, suggesting that this tumor contained a fat component. The septum inside the tumor had a contrast enhancement on T1-weighted, gadolinium-enhanced imaging. The septum was nonuniformly thickened and partially nodular. In hindsight, these findings may have suggested a well-differentiated liposarcoma in the uterine corpus rather than a lipoma or lipoleiomyoma. Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of a liposarcoma of the uterine corpus when a neoplasm contains adipose tissue and a nonuniformly thickened or partially nodular septum on MRI. Keywords: Liposarcoma, MDM2, MRI, uterine corpus, well-differentiated typ

Association between serum leptin concentrations and homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance of 2.5 and higher in normal weight Japanese women

Abstract Normal weight insulin resistant phenotype was characterized in 251 Japanese female university students using homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance. Birth weight, body composition at age 20, cardiometabolic traits and dietary intake were compared cross-sectionally between insulin sensitive (< 1.6, n = 194) and insulin resistant (2.5 and higher, n = 16) women. BMI averaged < 21 kg/m2 and waist < 72 cm and did not differ between two groups. The percentage of macrosomia and serum absolute and fat-mass corrected leptin concentrations were higher in insulin resistant women although there was no difference in birth weight, fat mass index, trunk/leg fat ratio and serum adiponectin. In addition, resting pulse rate, serum concentrations of free fatty acids, triglycerides and remnant-like particle cholesterol were higher in insulin resistant women although HDL cholesterol and blood pressure did not differ. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, serum leptin (odds ratio:1.68, 95% confidential interval:1.08–2.63, p = 0.02) was associated with normal weight insulin resistance independently of macrosomia, free fatty acids, triglycerides, remnant-like particle cholesterol and resting pulse rate. In conclusion, normal weight IR phenotype may be associated with increased plasma leptin concentrations and leptin to fat mass ratio in young Japanese women, suggesting higher leptin production by body fat unit

Development of Defective and Persistent Sendai Virus Vector: A UNIQUE GENE DELIVERY/EXPRESSION SYSTEM IDEAL FOR CELL REPROGRAMMING*

The ectopic expression of transcription factors can reprogram differentiated tissue cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. However, this is a slow and inefficient process, depending on the simultaneous delivery of multiple genes encoding essential reprogramming factors and on their sustained expression in target cells. Moreover, once cell reprogramming is accomplished, these exogenous reprogramming factors should be replaced with their endogenous counterparts for establishing autoregulated pluripotency. Complete and designed removal of the exogenous genes from the reprogrammed cells would be an ideal option for satisfying this latter requisite as well as for minimizing the risk of malignant cell transformation. However, no single gene delivery/expression system has ever been equipped with these contradictory characteristics. Here we report the development of a novel replication-defective and persistent Sendai virus (SeVdp) vector based on a noncytopathic variant virus, which fulfills all of these requirements for cell reprogramming. The SeVdp vector could accommodate up to four exogenous genes, deliver them efficiently into various mammalian cells (including primary tissue cells and human hematopoietic stem cells) and express them stably in the cytoplasm at a prefixed balance. Furthermore, interfering with viral transcription/replication using siRNA could erase the genomic RNA of SeVdp vector from the target cells quickly and thoroughly. A SeVdp vector installed with Oct4/Sox2/Klf4/c-Myc could reprogram mouse primary fibroblasts quite efficiently; ∼1% of the cells were reprogrammed to Nanog-positive induced pluripotent stem cells without chromosomal gene integration. Thus, this SeVdp vector has potential as a tool for advanced cell reprogramming and for stem cell research