Aspectos teórico-prácticos del procesamiento digital de imágenes en un laboratorio de patología / Theroetical and practical aspects of imaging processing in a pathology laboratory

La enseñanza y práctica de la patología se han beneficiado con las tecnologías del procesamiento de imágenes digitales. Estas nuevas tecnologías pueden ayudar al patólogo en los procesos de documentación, publicación y archivo. El objetivo de este trabajo es realizar una revisión de los principales aspectos teóricos y prácticos dela imagen digital. Se discuten en el mismo las ventajas y desventajas de los diferentes formatos de archivo de imágenes en mapa de bits y se presentan ejemplos de diferentes grados de resolución de una imagen digital (AU)

Apoptosis y cáncer / Apoptosis and Cancer

Apoptosis is a basic biological phenomenon with wide-ranging implications in tissue kinetics. This article describes several concepts related to apoptosis regulators and their role in tumor genesis, with special reference to its significance in cancer and in cancer therapy. Molecular aspects of cell death and disease and cytometry in cell necrobiology with analysis of accidental cell death are considered. Mitochondria as the central control pint of apoptosis, considering definition, mechanisms and relevance, are referred. The implications of basic research for clinical oncology are considered, describing recent concepts of mechanism and significance

Marcadores tumorales en cancer de mama / Tumor markers in breast neoplasm

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women in the western world. In spite of a great deal of scientific information in relation to its origin, of new diagnostic methods and treatments, mortality rate due to breast cancer has virtually remained stable over the past 20 years. Recent advances in molecular biology have improved the understanding of the basic biology of breast cancer. This fact has led to the identification of new tumor markers the ultimate goal of which is to reduce mortality by identifying women at risk as well as predicting the prognosis of existing disease and the response to different therapies. This article focuses on both traditional and new molecular markers, their clinical utility and their relevance in the routine evaluation of patients with breast cancer. (AU)

Marcadores tumorales en cáncer de mama. / [Tumor markers in breast neoplasm]

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women in the western world. In spite of a great deal of scientific information in relation to its origin, of new diagnostic methods and treatments, mortality rate due to breast cancer has virtually remained stable over the past 20 years. Recent advances in molecular biology have improved the understanding of the basic biology of breast cancer. This fact has led to the identification of new tumor markers the ultimate goal of which is to reduce mortality by identifying women at risk as well as predicting the prognosis of existing disease and the response to different therapies. This article focuses on both traditional and new molecular markers, their clinical utility and their relevance in the routine evaluation of patients with breast cancer.

Celulas dendriticas y su papel en patologia / Dendritic cells: their role in pathology

La finalidad de esta revisión es aportar un conocimiento general sobre las células dendríticas (CD), células accesorias de la respuesta inmune. Se las reconoce como las células presentadoras de antígenos por excelencia (APC) y por lo tanto expresan antígenos clase II del complejo mayor de histocompatibilidad (MHC). Los diversos tipos de CD tienen un origen común en la médula ósea diferenciándose luego bajo la influencia de variados estímulos y distribuyéndose en órganos linfoideos y no linfoideos. Desde los tejidos periféricos migran a los ganglios linfáticos donde presentan el antígeno a los linfocitos T. Dependiendo del microambiente expresan diversos marcadores de superfície siendo capaces de la secreción de citoquinas como IL-12, IL-1 y TNFalpha. Como APC cumplen un importante papel en la patogenia de enfermedades autoinmunes y virales destacándose su participación en la infección por HIV. Se las encuentran en el infiltrado de numerosos cánceres humanos donde actuando como APC podrían incluir una respuesta inmune antitumoral. En esta propiedad se basa su utilización para el tratamiento de linfomas y melanomas llevada a cabo actualmente en diversos laboratorios. (AU)

Modelo experimental de apoptosis "in vitro" en células HEP-2: el paclitaxel como agente inductor / Experiental model of apoptosis in vitro with HEP-2 cells: paclitaxel inducing agent

Apoptosis is an active form of cell death that can be observed both in physiological and pathological conditions. The apoptotic process (programmed cell death) can be studied "in vivo" and "in vitro" conditions. It is a programmed and organized energy dependent response to cellular media changes, and sometimes it requires genetic expression The typical morphological changes of apoptosis are: condensation of the cytoplasm and the nuclear chromatin, early cytoplasmatic blebs, DNA degradation preferentially between the nucleosomes and generation of apoptotic bodies. The aim of this paper is to describe an experimental model of apoprosis using Hep-2 cul-tured cells, and as inductor agent a culture medium solution with Paclitaxel at the concentra-tion of 5 (M/ml during 20 hours. Paclitaxel is a potent antitumor drug which acts by stabilizing microtubules (irreversible tubulin polymerization), preventing normal mitosis, and resulting in a blockage of the cell cycle at G2 - M and cell death from apoptosis. In the present work, we could appreciate the presence ofi apoptotic cells, cells blocked in mitosis, multinucleated interphase cells, and cells resembling controls. Our findings support the use of Paclitaxel for the development of experimental model of apoptosis "in vitro". (AU)