A case of left atrial myxoma accompanied by pancytopenia and pathological findings suggestive of pulmonary hypertension

A case of left atrial myxoma accompanied by peculiar symptoms is reported. A 15-year old boy had progressive congestive heart failure and three episodes of acute attacks of panctyopenia. The anemia was accompanied by helmet-shaped, broken red blood cells, erythroid hyperplasia and elevation of indirect bilirubin. The thrombocytopenia gave rise to hemorrhagic tendency of the skin and mucous membrane. The leukocytopenia was seen at the same time. The patient also had general constitutional disturbances showing generalized malaise, persistent fever, elevation of erythrocyte sedimentation rate, positive C-reactive protein, pulmonary infection and anginal attacks. Postmortem examinations revealed a left atrial myxoma and intricated pulmonary changes. There was obliterative endarteritis of the left coronary branch and pulmonary arteries. The interstitial pulmonary fibrosis was also prominent. The pancytopenia should have been induced by the mechanical damage of circulating blood cells by the left atrial myxoma. The pathological findings of the lungs were highly suggestive of pulmonary hypertension, which was assumed to be due to mitral block caused by the atrial myxoma.</p

Gene expression profiles of novel caprine placental prolactin-related proteins similar to bovine placental prolactin-related proteins

BACKGROUND: This study reports the identification of a full-length cDNA sequence for two novel caprine prolactin-related proteins (cPRP1 and cPRP6), and their localization and quantitative expression in the placenta. Caprine PRPs are compared with known bovine PRPs. We examined their evolution and role in the ruminant placenta. RESULTS: Full-length cPRP1 and cPRP6 cDNA were cloned with a 717- and 720- nucleotide open-reading frame corresponding to proteins of 238 and 239 amino acids. The cPRP1 predicted amino acid sequence shares a 72% homology with bovine PRP1 (bPRP1). The cPRP6 predicted amino acid sequence shares a 74% homology with bovine PRP6 (bPRP6). The two cPRPs as well as bPRPs were detected only in the placentome by RT-PCR. Analysis by in situ hybridization revealed the presence of both cPRPs mRNA in the trophoblast binucleate cells. These mRNA were quantified by real-time RT-PCR analysis of the placentome at 30, 50, 90 and 140 days of pregnancy. Both new cPRP genes were able to translate a mature protein in a mammalian cell-expression system. Western blotting established the molecular sizes of 33 kDa for cPRP1 with FLAG-tag and 45 kDa for cPRP6 with FLAG-tag. The sequence properties and localized expression of cPRP1 and cPRP6 were similar to those of bovine. However, their expression profiles differed from those in bovine placenta. Although this study demonstrated possible roles of PRPs in caprine placenta, PRPs may regulate binucleate-cell functions like those in bovine, but their crucial roles are still unclear. CONCLUSION: We have identified the novel PRPs in caprine placenta. Localization and quantitative expression of caprine PRPs were compared with bovine PRPs. The data indicate that PRP genes in caprine placenta have coordination functions for gestation, as they do in bovine. This is the first study of PRPs function in caprine placenta

Diversified Adversarial Attacks based on Conjugate Gradient Method

Deep learning models are vulnerable to adversarial examples, and adversarial attacks used to generate such examples have attracted considerable research interest. Although existing methods based on the steepest descent have achieved high attack success rates, ill-conditioned problems occasionally reduce their performance. To address this limitation, we utilize the conjugate gradient (CG) method, which is effective for this type of problem, and propose a novel attack algorithm inspired by the CG method, named the Auto Conjugate Gradient (ACG) attack. The results of large-scale evaluation experiments conducted on the latest robust models show that, for most models, ACG was able to find more adversarial examples with fewer iterations than the existing SOTA algorithm Auto-PGD (APGD). We investigated the difference in search performance between ACG and APGD in terms of diversification and intensification, and define a measure called Diversity Index (DI) to quantify the degree of diversity. From the analysis of the diversity using this index, we show that the more diverse search of the proposed method remarkably improves its attack success rate.Comment: Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2022

Expression of extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN) and its related extracellular matrix degrading enzymes in the endometrium during estrous cycle and early gestation in cattle

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN) regulates several biological functions involving the modulation of cell behaviors via cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. According to its diverse functions, we hypothesized that EMMPRIN may play an important role in endometrial remodeling and establishment of pregnancy in cow.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, endometrial tissues from the cyclic cows during before ovulation, after ovulation and middle of estrous cycle; and pregnant endometrial tissues from Day 19 to 35 of gestation have been used. Expression of mRNA was analyzed by RT-PCR, qPCR and in situ hybridization whereas protein expression by immunohistochemistry and western blot analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>EMMPRIN mRNA was expressed in both cyclic and pregnant endometrium and significantly higher in the endometrium at Day 35 of gestation than the cyclic endometrium. In Western blot analysis, an approximately 65 kDa band was detected in the endometrium, and approximately 51 kDa in the cultured bovine epithelial cells and BT-1 cells, respectively. Both in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry data showed that EMMPRIN was primarily expressed in luminal and glandular epithelium with strong staining on Day 19 conceptus. At Day 19 of gestation, expression of EMMPRIN mRNA on luminal epithelium was decreased than that observed at middle of estrous cycle, however, on Day 30 of gestation, slightly increased expression was found at the site of placentation. Expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-14 mRNA were mainly detected in stroma and their expression also decreased at Day 19 of gestation however it was also expressed at the site of placentation at Day 30 of gestation as observed for EMMPRIN. Expression of MMP-1 or -9 mRNA was very low and was below the detection limit in the cyclic and pregnant endometrium.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>EMMPRIN from the luminal epithelium may regulate the expression of stromal MMP-2 and -14 suggesting its crucial role in adhesion and fusion of embryo to luminal epithelium by directly itself through physiological tissues remodeling and developmental process, and/or stimulating MMPs to compensate endometrial functions.</p

Management of Apert Syndrome

Aim and objective: To present an Apert syndrome patient with midfacial growth deficiency treated with Le Fort III distraction osteogenesis and subsequent two-jaw surgery. Background: Apert syndrome is expressed as a severe and irregular craniosynostosis, midfacial hypoplasia, and symmetric syndactyly in the fingers and toes. For craniosynostosis syndromes, treatment planning is complex due to the disharmony between facial profile and occlusion. Case description: A 4-year-and-5-month-old boy, diagnosed with Apert syndrome, showed a concave profile accompanied with midfacial hypoplasia, moderate exorbitism, a reversed occlusion of −10.0 mm, an anterior open bite of −5.0 mm, and skeletal class III jaw-base relationship. The patient, aged 15 years and 4 months, underwent a Le Fort III osteotomy, and subsequent osteodistraction was performed via a rigid external distraction (RED) device. His midfacial bone was advanced by approximately 7.0 mm. One year after the distraction, preoperative treatment with 0.018-in preadjusted edgewise appliances was initiated. Two-jaw surgery with a Le Fort I osteotomy and bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy was performed after 42 months of preoperative orthodontic treatment. At the age of 20 years and 9 months, his facial profile dramatically changed to a straight profile, and an acceptable occlusion with an adequate interincisal relationship was obtained. A functional occlusion with an excellent facial profile was maintained throughout the 2-year retention period, although the upper dental arch width was slightly decreased, resulting in the recurrence of the left posterior crossbite. Conclusion: Our report indicates the necessity of long-term follow-up in patients with craniosynostosis because of syndrome-specific growth and methodologically induced relapse. Clinical significance: The two-stage operation combining early distraction osteogenesis and postgrowth orthognathic surgery proves to be an effective therapy for correcting midfacial hypoplasia and skeletal mandibular protrusion caused by Apert syndrome