Cardiovascular development: towards biomedical applicability: Epicardium-derived cells in cardiogenesis and cardiac regeneration

During cardiogenesis, the epicardium grows from the proepicardial organ to form the outermost layer of the early heart. Part of the epicardium undergoes epithelial-mesenchymal transformation, and migrates into the myocardium. These epicardium- derived cells differentiate into interstitial fibroblasts, coronary smooth muscle cells, and perivascular fibroblasts. Moreover, epicardium-derived cells are important regulators of formation of the compact myocardium, the coronary vasculature, and the Purkinje fiber network, thus being essential for proper cardiac development. The fibrous structures of the heart such as the fibrous heart skeleton and the semilunar and atrioventricular valves also depend on a contribution of these cells during development. We hypothesise that the essential properties of epicardium-derived cells can be recapitulated in adult diseased myocardium. These cells can therefore be considered as a novel source of adult stem cells useful in clinical cardiac regeneration therapy

Disruption of the gene encoding the secreted acid protease (ACP) in the yeast Candida tropicalis

The gene for the secreted acid protease (ACP), a potential virulence factor of Candida species, was inactivated in Candida tropicalis by gene disruption. The disruption was performed by cotransformation of an ade2 C. tropicalis mutant with a linear DNA fragment carrying a deletion in ACP, and the replicative vector pMK16 which carries a selectable ADE2 gene marker. Few of the transformants exhibited lower protease secretion levels and were shown to have one deleted and one unaffected ACP copy, since C. tropicalis is a diploid yeast. These transformants were rendered homozygotic for this deletion by mild UV-treatment. One of the homozygotic acp deletion mutants obtained was completely devoid of extracellular protease activity and grew poorly on bovine serum albumin-containing medium. This mutant could be complemented by an ACP fragment inserted in pMK16, but also by an acid protease gene isolated from C. parapsilosis

Norwegian scabies in a patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

We report the case of a 42-year-old man with symptomatic HIV infection (C3 CDC stage) who presented widespread hyperkeratotic skin lesions diagnosed as Norwegian scabies. The CD4 count was 87 cells/mm3. The patient has been the source of a nosocomial outbreak (20 individuals affected). He was treated successfully with combined topical treatment (permethrin 5% cream plus keratolytic agents) and oral ivermectin

Cloning and sequencing of two Candida parapsilosis genes encoding acid proteases

Candida parapsilosis secretes an inducible acid protease (ACP) when cultivated in the presence of bovine serum albumin as the sole nitrogen source. In order to clone the ACP gene (ACP) of C. parapsilosis, a genomic library was screened with C. tropicalis ACP as the probe. Two different ORFs, ACPR and ACPL, were found to hybridize with the C. tropicalis ACP. ACPR contained a DNA sequence in agreement with the N-terminal amino acid sequence of C. parapsilosis ACP isolated from culture supernatants. ACPR was shown to be expressed and functional in a C. tropicalis acid protease mutant (acp) and with SDS-PAGE the protein product showed the same mobility as the ACP secreted by C. parapsilosis. These results imply that ACPR encodes the C. parapsilosis ACP. The deduced amino acid sequence of ACPR is similar to the amino acid sequence of proteases of the pepsin family. As in the case of the C. tropicalis and C. albicans ACP, the 5' extremity of ACPR revealed a propeptide containing two Lys-Arg amino acid pairs that have been identified as peptidase processing sites in several yeast-secreted peptides and protein precursors. As judged from the deduced amino acid sequences, the ACPL product would be similar to that of ACPR; however, a protein corresponding to ACPL was not found in supernatants from C. parapsilosis liquid cultures. In addition, ACPL did not complement the C. tropicalis acp mutant. We conclude that ACPL is a pseudogene or serves an as yet unidentified function

Hairy pinnae after orchiectomy and chemotherapy for testicular cancer: acquired localized hypertrichosis of the ears

Acquired localized hypertrichosis has rarely been reported. Here, we describe a patient with localized hypertrichosis of the pinnae that occurred 4 months after orchiectomy and chemotherapy for a testicular carcinoma. To our knowledge, this is the first case of an acquired hypertrichosis of the pinnae after cancer therapy. We propose that in our patient either hypogonadism or the hormonal imbalance caused by the cancer therapy led to the development of the hairy pinnae, perhaps alongside a genetic predisposition for hairy ears

Monosymptomatic Loa loa infection

We report the case of a 17-year-old student from Cameroon who presented an atypical, mono-symptomatic form of Loa loa infection, characterized only by rare subcutaneous movements of adult worms