Correlations between surface marker patterns in meningiomas, prognosis and location.

Background: Meningiomas exhibit considerable phenotypic variation within each WHO grade, thus additional markers are needed to identify prognostically relevant subgroups and optimize long-term management. Among biomarkers, genetic signatures correlate with prognoses. High Ki-67 proliferation indices and TERT promotor mutations and loss of CDKNA are known prognostic markers.

The Ki-67 Proliferation Index as a Marker of Time to Recurrence in Intracranial Meningioma.

Background: There are examples of incongruence between the WHO grade and clinical course in meningioma patients. This incongruence between WHO grade and recurrence has led to search for other prognostic histological markers.

Objective: To study the correlation between the Ki-67 proliferative index (PI), risk of recurrence, and recurrence rates in meningioma patients.

High prevalence of cytomegalovirus infection in surgical intestinal specimens from infants with necrotizing enterocolitis and spontaneous intestinal perforation: A retrospective observational study.

Background: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a severe, often fatal gastrointestinal emergency that predominantly affects preterm infants, and there is evidence that neonatal cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection may in some cases contribute to its pathogenesis.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of CMV in infants with NEC.

Study Design: Seventy intestinal specimens from 61 infants with NEC, spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP), or related surgical complications were collected at Karolinska University Hospital and Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden.

Increased survival using delayed gamma knife radiosurgery for recurrent high-grade glioma: a feasibility study.

Objective: The current study retrospectively assessed delayed gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) in the management of high-grade glioma recurrences.

Methods: A total of 55 consecutive patients with high-grade glioma comprising 68 World Health Organization (WHO) III and WHO IV were treated with GKRS for local recurrences between 2001 and 2007. All patients had undergone microsurgery and radiochemotherapy, considered as standard therapy for high-grade glioma.

An audit of immunohistochemical marker patterns in meningioma.

Meningiomas may express a number of potentially growth-promoting receptors including receptors for progesterone, growth hormone and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). These and other receptors are potential targets for chemotherapy. We have prospectively studied a panel of markers as a routine in order to obtain data of individual expression of markers that may provide targets for anti-receptor treatment.

The microenvironment of human neuroblastoma supports the activation of tumor-associated T lymphocytes.

Tumor infiltration by lymphocytes has been linked to improved clinical outcome in children with neuroblastoma (NB) but T-cell activation has never been demonstrated to occur within the NB microenvironment. Here we show that tumor-associated lymphocytes (TALs) obtained from lesions representing all genetic subsets of NB and autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) analyzed on the day of tumor excision differed in composition, phenotype and functional characteristics. The NB microenvironment appeared to promote the accumulation of CD3CD8 T cells and contained a larger proportion of T cells expressing the interleukin-2 receptor α chain (CD25) and manifesting an effector memory (CCR7CD45RA) phenotype.

Effects of valganciclovir as an add-on therapy in patients with cytomegalovirus-positive glioblastoma: a randomized, double-blind, hypothesis-generating study.

Cytomegalovirus is highly prevalent in glioblastomas. In 2006, we initiated a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, hypothesis-generating study to examine the safety and potential efficacy of Valganciclovir as an add-on therapy for glioblastoma. Forty-two glioblastoma patients were randomized in double-blind fashion to receive Valganciclovir or placebo in addition to standard therapy for 6 months.

Human cytomegalovirus infection levels in glioblastoma multiforme are of prognostic value for survival.

Background: Patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) generally live 12-15 months after diagnosis, despite maximal surgical resection, adjuvant radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. HCMV has been detected in 90-100% of GBMs. We recently found that low grade HCMV infection in GBM tumours was highly associated with survival over 18 months (case-control study).

Prepubertal follow-up after hypospadias repair with autologous in vitro cultured urothelial cells.

Aim: To evaluate the long-term effects on hypospadias repair with cultured autologous urothelial cells.

Methods: From 2000 to 2002, six patients with scrotal or perineal hypospadias and pronounced chordee were treated surgically with cultured autologous urothelial cell transplants. All patients were evaluated at 6-8 years postoperatively, that is, in the prepubertal period.

Low levels of Human Cytomegalovirus Infection in Glioblastoma multiforme associates with patient survival; -a case-control study.

Background: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) represent the most aggressive brain tumor with a median overall survival of about 12-15 months. Over 90% of GBM tumors have recently been shown to be infected with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). In this case-control study, we evaluated whether there was an association between the grade of HCMV infection and long-term survival (> 18 months) in GBM patients.

Long-term 25-year follow-up of surgically treated parasagittal meningiomas.

Background: Parasagittal meningiomas are either treated with conservative surgery or aggressive surgery with extensive vascular reconstructions to achieve radicality. The optimal management is subject to controversy. A prerequisite for good management and for design of relevant studies is the knowledge of natural history after radical and subtotal surgery.

Mucous gland metaplasia in the esophagus and gastric mucosa in baboons.

Background: Chewing of regurgitated food elicits in baboons life-long gastro-esophageal reflux (GER). The acid reflux transforms the multilayered squamous cell epithelium of the esophagus into columnar-lined mucosa with mucus-producing accessory glands. The function of this mucous gland metaplasia (MGM), which mimics Barrett's mucosa with MGM in humans, is to buffer the gastric acid entering the esophagus during regurgitation.

Brain abnormalities and glioma-like lesions in mice overexpressing the long isoform of PDGF-A in astrocytic cells.

Background: Deregulation of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) signaling is a hallmark of malignant glioma. Two alternatively spliced PDGF-A mRNAs have been described, corresponding to a long (L) and a short (S) isoform of PDGF-A. In contrast to PDGF-A(S), the PDGF-A(L) isoform has a lysine and arginine rich carboxy-terminal extension that acts as an extracellular matrix retention motif.

Activation of neural and pluripotent stem cell signatures correlates with increased malignancy in human glioma.

The presence of stem cell characteristics in glioma cells raises the possibility that mechanisms promoting the maintenance and self-renewal of tissue specific stem cells have a similar function in tumor cells. Here we characterized human gliomas of various malignancy grades for the expression of stem cell regulatory proteins. We show that cells in high grade glioma co-express an array of markers defining neural stem cells (NSCs) and that these proteins can fulfill similar functions in tumor cells as in NSCs.

Further studies on Barretts mucosa in baboons: metaplastic glandular cells produce sialomucin.

Background: In humans and in baboons, protracted gastro-esophageal reflux (GER) transforms the squamous-lined esophagus into columnar-lined (that is Barrett's mucosa, BM). Alcian blue stain (AB) is used to evidence sialomucin-producing goblet cells in human BM.

Aim: To assess the frequency and distribution of sialomucin-producing cells in BM in baboons.

A simple method to record parietal cells in the fundic mucosa in baboons.

Background: Gastric parietal cells in a baboon were recently found to be auto-fluorescent.

Aim: To study gastric sections with a fluorescent microscope in a cohort of baboons.

Material And Methods: Gastric sections from 38 baboons were stained with hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) and examined in a fluorescence microscope (FLM).

Nerve growth factor receptor immunohistochemistry has a limited additional value to diagnose Hirschsprung's disease.

Purpose: The diagnosis of Hirschsprung's disease (HSCR) is based on the histopathological evaluation of rectal suction biopsies (RSB), using haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stains and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) histochemistry. The use of different immunohistochemical markers, such as nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR), has been suggested to facilitate the diagnosis of HSCR. The aim of this study was to evaluate the addition of NGFR immunohistochemistry to diagnose HSCR.

Expression of PROX1 Is a common feature of high-grade malignant astrocytic gliomas.

PROX1 is a prospero-related transcription factor that plays a critical role in the development of various organs including the mammalian lymphatic and central nervous systems; it controls cell proliferation and differentiation through different transcription pathwaysand has both oncogenic and tumor-suppressive functions. We investigated PROX1 expression patterns in 56 human astrocytic gliomas of different grades using immunohistochemistry. An average of 79% of cells in World Health Organization Grade IV (glioblastoma, n = 15) and 57% of cells in World Health Organization Grade III (anaplastic astrocytoma, n = 13) were strongly PROX1 positive; low-grade diffuse astrocytomas (Grade II, n = 13) had 21% of cells that were strongly positive; Grade I tumors (n = 15) had 1.

The frequency of glassy cells in Barrett's mucosa: a study in Baboons.

Background: Glands with glassy cells (GGCs) were recently found in 1.8% of patients showing Barrett's mucosa in esophageal biopsies. Similar GGCs were more recently detected in a baboon having glandulo-metaplastic esophageal mucosa (GMEM).

DNA from KI, WU and Merkel cell polyomaviruses is not detected in childhood central nervous system tumours or neuroblastomas.

Background: BK and JC polyomaviruses (BKV and JCV) are potentially oncogenic and have in the past inconclusively been associated with tumours of the central nervous system (CNS), while BKV has been hinted, but not confirmed to be associated with neuroblastomas. Recently three new polyomaviruses (KIPyV, WUPyV and MCPyV) were identified in humans. So far KIPyV and WUPyV have not been associated to human diseases, while MCPyV was discovered in Merkel Cell carcinomas and may have neuroepithelial cell tropism.

The columnar-lined mucosa at the gastroesophageal junction in non-human primates.

Despite that anatomists consider the cardia as a portion of the stomach, there is disagreement in the literature over whether the cardia mucosa, described as columnar-lined with mucus-producing glands (CLMMG) with or without occasional interspersed oxyntic cells, is part of the stomach, part of the esophagus or a distinct entity. For some authors this mucosa phenotype is a metaplastic glandular change of the distal esophagus caused by protracted gastro-esophageal reflux (GER). In this survey, the presence of CLMMG mucosa was searched for at the esophagus-gastric junction in 50 non-human primates (NHP).

Incidence of lymphocytic esophagitis in baboons.

Background: We previously reported a novel histological phenotype of chronic esophagitis, lymphocytic esophagitis, in patients without gastroesophageal reflux. The aim of the present study was to explore the possible occurrence of lymphocytic esophagitis in baboons.

Materials And Methods: Filed hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained sections from the esophagi of 103 consecutive baboons were reviewed.

Malignant solitary fibrous tumour of the orbit.

Purpose: We aimed to report a case of orbital solitary fibrous tumour (SFT) in a child and to review the relevant literature.

Methods: We describe an SFT in a 13-year-old boy with a 1-month history of painless proptosis in the left eye.

Results: Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a well circumscribed mass filling most of the left intraconal orbit.

The frequency of lymphocytic and reflux esophagitis in non-human primates.

We previously reported in humans a novel histologic phenotype of non-gastro-esophageal reflux disease called lymphocytic esophagitis. In this work, the esophagi of 121 non-human primates (103 baboons and 18 macaques) were investigated. 45 baboons (43.

Tumor-growth-promoting cyclooxygenase-2 prostaglandin E2 pathway provides medulloblastoma therapeutic targets.

Prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) has been shown to play important roles in several aspects of tumor development and progression. PGE(2) is synthesized from arachidonic acid by cyclooxygenases (COX) and prostaglandin E synthases (PGES) and mediates its biological activity through binding to the four prostanoid receptors EP(1) through EP(4). In this study, we show for the first time that medulloblastoma (MB), the most common malignant childhood brain tumor, expresses high levels of COX-2, microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1, and EP(1) through EP(4) and secretes PGE(2).