Social deprivation in maternal mouthbrooders Tropheus sp. "Caramba" (Teleostei: Cichlidae) decreases the success rate of reproduction and survival rate of fish fry.

Early offspring separation from mothers causes social deprivation. Mouthbrooding, when eggs and fry are incubated in the buccal cavity of the parent, is one of the reproductive strategies in fish. The mother is the incubating parent in African lake cichlids from the genus Tropheus. Many of these are produced in captivity and some producers use artificial incubators in which eggs are incubated separately from the mother. We hypothesized that this practice may dramatically modify the reproduction rate of fish individuals produced by the method of artificial incubation. The long-term experiment focused on Tropheus sp. "Caramba" had been carried out for 10 years when maternally incubated and separated individuals were compared. We found a negative effect of artificial egg and offspring incubation out of the mother's buccal cavity. The deprived females laid the same number of eggs as maternally incubated females, but most eggs were lost during the incubation. Moreover, the reproduction frequency was significantly lower in deprived females in comparison with those maternally incubated. This study should be perceived as preliminary. For this reason and with respect to welfare principles, we strongly recommend similarly designed experiments focused on other potentially sensitive fish mouthbrooders. Once the syndrome would be confirmed, we recommend avoiding artificial incubation of mouthbrooding fish in general.

Low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma of the maxillary sinus.

BACKGROUND: Low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma (LGFMS) is a rare malignant tumor. Moreover, only 3 cases of LGFMS originating from the nasal cavity and/or paranasal sinuses have been published so far. METHODS: Two patients with histologically confirmed LGFMS of the maxillary sinus were primarily treated by open and endoscopic surgery. In one case adjuvant radiotherapy was indicated because of the uncertainty of the surgical margins. RESULTS: Both surgeries were technically demanding and accompanied by significant bleeding from the tumors. Despite the extensive interventions there were no postoperative complications and no significant morbidity of the patients. There is no evidence of the disease 148 and 65 months after the treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of the excellent post-treatment results, based on our experience, preoperative embolisation of the tumor should be considered prior to the surgical resection.

Glycation and advanced glycation end-products in laboratory experiments in vivo and in vitro.

The purpose of our study was to determine the amount of glycated proteins and advanced glycation end products (AGE) in cataractous lens homogenates of patients who underwent phacoemulsification, and to define a simple in vitro protein model of glycoxidation. Analysis of 30 cataractous lenses (15 diabetic and 15 non-diabetic) revealed a significant increase in both glycated lens proteins of diabetics compared with the controls (0.15 vs 0.08 nmol/mg protein, P < 0.01) and AGE-linked fluorescence at 440 nm (4.8 vs 2.8 AU/mg protein, P < 0.01). The presence of AGE fluorescence in lenses indicates the role of oxidative stress in cataractogenesis. Fifty-six days incubation of alanine and aspartate aminotransferases, used as model proteins, with 500 mM D-fructose at 25 and 37 degrees C led to a complete inhibition of ALT and AST activities. The fluorescence of both aminotransferases rose according to the chosen incubation temperature: 37 degrees C > 25 degrees C > 4 degrees C. ALT and AST incubated in a medium containing D-fructose are subject to nonenzymatic glycation followed by a consequent formation of AGE products. Our data: i) support the concept of glycation-glycoxidation pathway appearing in diabetic patients; ii) form a base for determination of the efficiency of various antioxidative compounds in vitro.