Juvenile Paget's Disease with Paranasal Sinus Aplasia

Juvenile Paget's disease (JPD) is a rare skeletal disorder that's characterized by bone demineralization and elevated levels of serum alkaline phosphatase. JPD involves the paranasal sinuses in extremely rare cases. We report here on a 25-month-old Asian male who was diagnosed of JPD associated with aplasia of the paranasal sinuses, but not the ethmoid sinuses. The patient was successfully treated by surgery and we undertook no medical intervention. This appears to be the first reported case of JPD associated with bilateral paranasal sinus aplasia

Total Ankylosis by Heterotopic Ossification in an Adolescent Anterior Trans-olecranon Fracture Dislocation: A Case Report

The incidence of heterotopic ossification in adolescents appears to be lower than in adults. There exist very few reports of heterotopic ossification with total bony ankylosis in child or adolescent populations. We describe a case of total bony ankylosis of the elbow secondary to heterotopic ossification, in a 14-year-old female. Total ankylosis of the elbow at 45 degrees of flexion was noted 6 months post-surgery, and complete surgical excision of the heterotopic mass was performed. After an additional one-time dose of radiation therapy and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug medication, full range of motion was obtained without any recurrence or other complications, up to the last follow-up of 30 months

Protective Immunity Against Challenge Infection with Trichinella spiralis in the Rat

Protective immunity and immune response were studied in rats after primarily infection with Trichinella spiralis. The parameters measured include serum antibody isotype responses, mesenteric lymph node (MLN) cell and spleen cell proliferation responses in vitro, and the levels of interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4 and IL-10 as markers of the T-helper (Th) subset. Protective immunity was assessed by the degree of expulsion of adult worms from the rat intestine. Protective immunity against adult worms after challenge infection was 99.80%. Although IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-4 and IL-10 in both the MLNs and spleen were detected, IFN-γ and IL-2 levels were higher in the spleen than in the MLNs, and IL-4 and an increased amount of IL-10 was released in the MLNs as compared to the spleen. The levels of the specific immunoglobulins (Ig) G, IgM, IgG1 and IgG2a on week 6 after primary infection, and on day 7 after challenge infection, were higher as compared to levels in uninfected rats that only received a challenge infection (P ? 0.001), whereas the antibody level of IgG1 was significantly elevated from that of IgG2a (P ? 0.001). These results demonstrate that Th1 type responses predominated. In addition, as Th2 type cytokines were also produced, it is proposed that the protective immunity by primary infection was also related to the Th1 type responses

Use of intravenous immunoglobulin in a disseminated varicella infection in an immunocompromised child

Varicella-zoster virus infection can lead to severe illness in immunocompromised patients. Further the mortality rate of disseminated varicella infection is extremely high particularly in immunocompromised children. We report a case of disseminated varicella infection in a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who was receiving chemotherapy, but was initially admitted with only for acute abdominal pain. The patient rapidly developed severe complications, including acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute hepatitis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and encephalopathy. Acyclovir is a highly potent inhibitor of varicella-zoster virus infection. However, owing to rapid disease progression, it might not be sufficient to control a disseminated varicella infection, especially in immunocompromised patients. Immunoglobulin neutralize virus invasion and suppress viremia, acting synergistically with acyclovir. In this case, early administration of acyclovir and a high-dose of immunoglobulin, combined with mechanical respiratory support, proved adequate for treatment of this severe illness

TmToll-7 Plays a Crucial Role in Innate Immune Responses Against Gram-Negative Bacteria by Regulating 5 AMP Genes in Tenebrio molitor

Although it is known that the Drosophila Toll-7 receptor plays a critical role in antiviral autophagy, its function in other insects has not yet been reported. Here, we have identified a Toll-like receptor 7 gene, TmToll-7, in the coleopteran insect T. molitor and examined its potential role in antibacterial and antifungal immunity. We showed that TmToll-7 expression was significantly induced in larvae 6 h after infection with Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and 9 h after infection with Candida albicans. However, even though TmToll-7 was induced by all three pathogens, we found that TmToll-7 knockdown significantly reduced larval survival to E. coli, but not to S. aureus, and C. albicans infections. To understand the reasons for this difference, we examined the effects of TmToll-7 knockdown on antimicrobial peptide (AMP) gene expression and found a significant reduction of E. coli-induced expression of AMP genes such as TmTenecin-1, TmDefensin-1, TmDefensin-2, TmColeoptericin-1, and TmAttacin-2. Furthermore, TmToll-7 knockdown larvae infected with E. coli showed significantly higher bacterial growth in the hemolymph compared to control larvae treated with Vermilion dsRNA. Taken together, our results suggest that TmToll-7 plays an important role in regulating the immune response of T. molitor to E. coli

Variation of Physical Parameters in Plasma Wound Healing

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Variation of Physical Parameters and Anomalous Healing Observation in Plasma Wound Healing

The plasma healing of acute wound on 56 hairless mice is examined and initiated by several externally controlled physical parameters such as driving frequency and power, duration and interval of plasma treatment, a fraction of air mixture, the gap distance between plasma and wound, and others. The variation of these physical parameters results in a different amount of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS), which stimulate the regulation of RONS in mouse tissue before revealing several important bioindicators in the process of wound healing. While focusing on an important physical indicator such as the wound size, the limited examination with 56 mice showed promising results [much improved over the previous mice experiments by single-frequency plasma (SP)] by Dual-frequency plasma (DP) with 2% air mixture to argon, which effectively correlates with the observation of optical emission spectra. Circular acute wounds treated by DP (2%) were reduced to 24% in just 8 h after the treatment and further reduced to 5% within a few days.11Nsciescopu