Actinomycosis of the Upper Lip

Actinomycotic infections are known to have an association with difficulties in diagnosis and treatment. These infections usually involve the head, neck, thorax, and abdomen. Actinomycosis of the upper lip is a rare condition and an important one as well, because it can imitate other diseases. As the initial impression, it can easily be mistaken for a mucocele, venous lake, or benign neoplasm. An 82-year-old man presented with an asymptomatic normal skin colored nodule on the upper lip. Histopathologic findings showed an abscess and sulfur granules in the dermis. Gram staining results showed a mesh of branching rods. In this report, we present an unusual case of actinomycosis of the upper lip and discuss its characteristics and therapeutic modalities

Calcified Carcinoma of the Gallbladder with Calcified Nodal Metastasis Presenting as a Porcelain Gallbladder: A Case Report

Porcelain gallbladder is regarded as a risk factor of gallbladder cancer. A porcelain gallbladder with calcified regional lymph nodes was found using computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a 43-year-old man who presented with nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. His cholecystectomy specimen showed diffuse wall thickening and contained small gallstones. Histological examination revealed diffuse infiltrative adenocarcinoma with extensive intratumoral calcification (calcified carcinoma). The majority of the calcified material was located within or replaced the tumor glands, and was not found in the stroma. A lymph node was totally replaced with a calcified metastatic adenocarcinoma. To the best of our knowledge, only one case of calcified lymph node metastasis from a calcified carcinoma of the gallbladder has been previously reported in the literature. We herein add a case of calcified carcinoma of the gallbladder with calcified lymph node metastasis, presenting as a porcelain gallbladder on CT and MRI

Transtorming Growth Factor β1 Induces Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition of A549 Cells

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) comprises an aggregate of mesenchymal cells. However, the cellular origin of these mesenchymal phenotypes remains unclear. Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) has been known as the main cytokine involved in the pathogenesis of IPF. We examined whether the potent fibrogenic cytokine TGF-β1 could induce the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in the human alveolar epithelial cell line, A549, and determined whether snail expression is associated with the phenotypic changes observed in the A549 cells. EMT was investigated with cells morphology changes under phase-contrast microscopy, western blotting, and indirect immunofluorescence stains. E-cadherin and transcription factor, snail, were also evaluated by measuring mRNA levels using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain rection (RT-PCR) analysis. The data showed that TGF-β1 induced A549 cells with epithelial cell characteristics to undergo EMT in a concentration-dependent manner. Following TGF-β1 treatment, A549 cells induced EMT characterized by cells morphological changes, loss of epithelial markers E-caherin and cytokeratin, increased stress fiber reorganization by F-actin, and cytokeratin replacement by vimentin. Although IL-1β failed to induce A549 cells to undergo EMT, the combination of TGF-β1 and IL-1β showed synergy effects in cells morphology changes and the expression of mesenchymal markers. The snail expression study using RT-PCR analysis provided that loss of E-cadherin expression was associated with snail expression. Stimulation of A54 cells with TGF-β1 plus IL-1β revealed a higher level of snail expression. Our data showed that EMT of A549 cells might be closely associated with snail expression

Comparison of IRES and F2A-Based Locus-Specific Multicistronic Expression in Stable Mouse Lines

Efficient and stoichiometric expression of genes concatenated by bi- or multi-cistronic vectors has become an invaluable tool not only in basic biology to track and visualize proteins in vivo, but also for vaccine development and in the clinics for gene therapy. To adequately compare, in vivo, the effectiveness of two of the currently popular co-expression strategies - the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) derived from the picornavirus and the 2A peptide from the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FDMV) (F2A), we analyzed two locus-specific knock-in mouse lines co-expressing SRY-box containing gene 9 (Sox9) and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) linked by the IRES (Sox9IRES-EGFP) or the F2A (Sox9F2A-EGFP) sequence. Both the constructs expressed Sox9 and EGFP proteins in the appropriate Sox9 expression domains, with the IRES construct expressing reduced levels of EGFP compared to that of the F2A. The latter, on the other hand, produced about 42.2% Sox9-EGFP fusion protein, reflecting an inefficient ribosome ‘skipping’ mechanism. To investigate if the discrepancy in the ‘skipping’ process was locus-dependent, we further analyzed the FLAG3-Bapx1F2A-EGFP mouse line and found similar levels of fusion protein being produced. To assess if EGFP was hindering the ‘skipping’ mechanism, we examined another mouse line co-expressing Bagpipe homeobox gene 1 homolog (Bapx1), Cre recombinase and EGFP (Bapx1F2A-Cre-F2A-EGFP). While the ‘skipping’ was highly efficient between Bapx1 and Cre, the ‘skipping’ between Cre and EGFP was highly inefficient. We have thus demonstrated in our comparison study that the efficient and close to equivalent expression of genes linked by F2A is achievable in stable mouse lines, but the EGFP reporter may cause undesirable inhibition of the ‘skipping’ at the F2A sequence. Hence, the use of other reporter genes should be explored when utilizing F2A peptides

The 5p15.33 Locus Is Associated with Risk of Lung Adenocarcinoma in Never-Smoking Females in Asia

Genome-wide association studies of lung cancer reported in populations of European background have identified three regions on chromosomes 5p15.33, 6p21.33, and 15q25 that have achieved genome-wide significance with p-values of 10−7 or lower. These studies have been performed primarily in cigarette smokers, raising the possibility that the observed associations could be related to tobacco use, lung carcinogenesis, or both. Since most women in Asia do not smoke, we conducted a genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in never-smoking females (584 cases, 585 controls) among Han Chinese in Taiwan and found that the most significant association was for rs2736100 on chromosome 5p15.33 (p = 1.30×10−11). This finding was independently replicated in seven studies from East Asia totaling 1,164 lung adenocarcinomas and 1,736 controls (p = 5.38×10−11). A pooled analysis achieved genome-wide significance for rs2736100. This SNP marker localizes to the CLPTM1L-TERT locus on chromosome 5p15.33 (p = 2.60×10−20, allelic risk = 1.54, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.41–1.68). Risks for heterozygote and homozygote carriers of the minor allele were 1.62 (95% CI; 1.40–1.87), and 2.35 (95% CI: 1.95–2.83), respectively. In summary, our results show that genetic variation in the CLPTM1L-TERT locus of chromosome 5p15.33 is directly associated with the risk of lung cancer, most notably adenocarcinoma

Вихретоковый анизотропный термоэлектрический первичный преобразователь лучистого потока

Представлена оригинальная конструкция первичного преобразователя лучистого потока, который может служить основой для создания приемника неселективного излучения с повышенной чувствительностью

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (P interaction  = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population.

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (Pinteraction = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

The Impact of Postoperative Radiotherapy on Dietary Function of Head and Neck Cancer Patients after Pharyngoesophageal Reconstruction with Free Jejunal Flap

This study investigated the impact of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) on dietary function in patients who underwent pharyngoesophageal defect reconstruction using a free jejunal flap. A retrospective chart review of 36 patients who underwent circumferential pharyngoesophageal defect reconstruction using a free jejunal flap was performed. The European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer head and neck cancer module questionnaire was used. Five items related to dietary function were selected and analyzed for changes in scores before and after PORT. Both the PORT and non-PORT groups showed improved dietary function before surgery, and no significant changes were noted at 3 and 12 months postoperatively. Repeated measures ANOVA showed that PORT had no significant impact on dietary function. In univariate analysis, no variable was a significant predictor of the score at 12 months, postoperatively. Previous radiotherapy and neck dissection had a close statistically significant relation. The multivariate analysis showed that neoadjuvant chemotherapy, previous radiotherapy, and neck dissection were significant predictors of the score at 12 months, postoperatively. PORT did not show a significant effect on the 12 months postoperative score. Free jejunal flap is an effective pharyngoesophageal defect reconstruction method that does not cause any dietary function disruption after PORT