Life-threatening intoxication with methylene bis(thiocyanate): clinical picture and pitfalls. A case report

BACKGROUND: Methylene bis(thiocyanate) (MBT) is a microbiocidal agent mainly used in industrial water cooling systems and paper mills as an inhibitor of algae, fungi, and bacteria. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe the first case of severe intoxication following inhalation of powder in an industrial worker. Profound cyanosis and respiratory failure caused by severe methemoglobinemia developed within several minutes. Despite immediate admission to the intensive care unit, where mechanical ventilation and hemodialysis for toxin elimination were initiated, multi-organ failure involving liver, kidneys, and lungs developed. While liver failure was leading, the patient was successfully treated with the MARS (molecular adsorbent recirculating system) procedure. CONCLUSION: Intoxication with MBT is a potentially life-threatening intoxication causing severe methemoglobinemia and multi-organ failure. Extracorporeal liver albumin dialysis (MARS) appears to be an effective treatment to allow recovery of hepatic function

Characterisation of the Cell Line HC-AFW1 Derived from a Pediatric Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Current treatment of paediatric hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is often inefficient due to advanced disease at diagnosis and resistance to common drugs. The aim of this study was to generate a cell line derived from a paediatric HCC in order to expand research in this field. We established the HC-AFW1 cell line from a liver neoplasm of a 4-year-old boy through culturing of primary tumor specimens. The cell line has been stable for over one year of culturing and has a doubling time of 40 h. The tumour cells have an epithelial histology and express HCC-associated proteins such as Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), Glypican 3, E-cadherin, CD10, CD326, HepPar1 and Vimentin. Forty-nine amino acids in exon 3 of β-Catenin that involve the phosphorylation sites of GSK3 were absent and β-Catenin is detectable in the cell nuclei. Cytogenetic analysis revealed large anomalies in the chromosomal map. Several alterations of gene copy numbers were detected by genome-wide SNP array. Among the different drugs tested, cisplatin and irinotecan showed effective inhibition of tumour cell growth in a proliferation assay at concentrations below 5 µg/ml. Subcutaneous xenotransplantation of HC-AFW1 cells into NOD/SCID mice resulted in fast growing dedifferentiated tumours with high levels of serum AFP. Histological analyses of the primary tumour and xenografts included national and international expert pathological review. Consensus reading characterised the primary tumour and the HC-AFW1-derived tumours as HCC. HC-AFW1 is the first cell line derived from a paediatric HCC without a background of viral hepatitis or cirrhosis and represents a valuable tool for investigating the biology of and therapeutic strategies for childhood HCC

Vegetation refugia can inform climate-adaptive land management under global warming

Natural resource managers need information about the risks associated with climate change to provide guidance on where to implement various management practices on natural lands. The spatial variation of projected impacts within a vegetation type can be used to target climate-adaptive management actions because different locations will be exposed to different levels of climatic stress. Vegetation refugia are areas that retain non-stressful climate conditions under future climates. Consensus vegetation refugia – areas retaining suitable climates under both wetter and drier future projections – represent only 14.6% of California's natural vegetation. One state and one federal government agency have incorporated vegetation refugia maps into conservation planning for 522 vertebrate species and for post-wildfire reforestation. Monitoring how vegetation responds to management actions at sites within vegetation refugia can improve the conservation of plants subjected to a changing climate

Higher predation risk for insect prey at low latitudes and elevations

Biotic interactions underlie ecosystem structure and function, but predicting interaction outcomes is difficult. We tested the hypothesis that biotic interaction strength increases towards the Equator, using a global experiment with model caterpillars to measure predation risk. Across an 11,660 km latitudinal gradient spanning six continents, we found increasing predation towards the Equator – with a parallel pattern of increasing predation towards lower elevations. Patterns across both latitude and elevation were driven by arthropod predators, with no systematic trend in attack rates by birds or mammals. These matching gradients at global and regional scales suggest coherent drivers of biotic interaction strength, a finding which needs to be integrated into general theories of herbivory, community organization, and life history evolution