A rare case of solitary fibrous tumor of the lung parenchyma: case report.

Solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) of the lung is a rare neoplasm, usually originating from lung pleura. We present a case report of a 57-year-old male with no significant medical history who was incidentally diagnosed with an SFT of lung parenchyma on chest computed tomography scan. Radiological imaging revealed a well-defined mass in the left lower lobe of the lung. Biopsy and histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of solitary fibrous tumor. This case highlights the importance of considering SFT in the differential diagnosis of lung masses, as its clinical presentation and radiological features can mimic those of more common pulmonary malignancies.

Water acidification weakens the carbon sink capacity of mixotrophic organisms.

Mixotrophs combine both autotrophic and heterotrophic cell structures, and their highly plastic nutritional modes can shape the structure of food web and affect the carbon sink capacity of aquatic ecosystems. As pH affects the growth of phytoplankton by altering the carbonate balance system, water acidification caused by environmental pollution and global climate change may affect the nutritional modes of mixotrophs and bring a serious environmental consequence. In this study, we cultured mixotrophic Ochromonas gloeopara under autotrophic, mixotrophic, and heterotrophic conditions at different pH levels to test the tendency of its nutritional model and the changes in photosynthetic carbon fixation capacity. Results showed that: (1) with decreasing pH, carbon uptake of Ochromonas through phagocytosis gradually replaced the carbon fixation of photosynthesis; (2) with increasing pH, Ochromonas grazing rate decreased, and the relative contribution of photosynthetic carbon fixation to total carbon acquisition increased for Ochromonas; (3) Ochromonas became more heterotrophic under water acidification, which was involved in the up-regulated expression of genes encoding key enzymes that regulate nutrient perception, movement ability, and cell repair. These findings suggested that acidification caused mixotrophic organisms to become more heterotrophic, which can change their functional role and weaken their carbon sink capacity.

MoNuSAC2020: A Multi-Organ Nuclei Segmentation and Classification Challenge.

Detecting various types of cells in and around the tumor matrix holds a special significance in characterizing the tumor micro-environment for cancer prognostication and research. Automating the tasks of detecting, segmenting, and classifying nuclei can free up the pathologists' time for higher value tasks and reduce errors due to fatigue and subjectivity. To encourage the computer vision research community to develop and test algorithms for these tasks, we prepared a large and diverse dataset of nucleus boundary annotations and class labels. The dataset has over 46,000 nuclei from 37 hospitals, 71 patients, four organs, and four nucleus types. We also organized a challenge around this dataset as a satellite event at the International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) in April 2020. The challenge saw a wide participation from across the world, and the top methods were able to match inter-human concordance for the challenge metric. In this paper, we summarize the dataset and the key findings of the challenge, including the commonalities and differences between the methods developed by various participants. We have released the MoNuSAC2020 dataset to the public.

[Antitumour effect of total saponins of Rubus parvifolius on malignant melanoma].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the antitumor effect of total saponins of R. parvifolius on malignant melanoma. METHOD: The human malignant melanoma A375 cells were regularlly subcultured in vitro, and were divided into five groups contained positive control group (CTX), high concentration (0.01 mg x mL(-1)) and middle concentration (0.001 mg x mL(-1)) and low concentration (0.000 1 mg x mL(-1)) total saponins of R. parvifolius groups and negative control group. By using MTT colorimetric method, the cell viability was measured. B16 melanoma cells were transplanted to mice, which were divided into positive control group, high dose (100 mg x kg(-1)) and middle dose (50 mg x kg(-1)) and low dose (25 mg x kg(-1)) total saponins of R. parvifolius groups and negative control group. The inhibition effect of the tumor in vivo, mean survival time and rate of life-elongation of the mice were observed. TUNEL method was used to detect the apoptosis of B16 malignant melanoma. RESULT: Antitumor assay in vitro showed that the absorbency increased in the concentration of 0.01, 0.001 mg x mL(-1) with statistical significance (P < 0.05 vs negative control). Antitumor assay in vivo showed that the tumor inhibitory rate of high dose (100 mg x kg(-1)) and middle dose (50 mg x kg(-1)) of total saponins of R. parvifolius were 37.02% and 30.61%, respectively. Loaded tumor mouse survival duration could be prolonged. The apoptosis indexes of B16 tumor cells in three treatment groups were 32.5%, 20.5% and 5.5%, respective and there was statistical significance (P < 0.05 vs negative control). CONCLUSION: The total saponins of R. parvifolius has remarkable inhibition of proliferation of malignant melanoma cells in vivo and in vitro and exerts antitumor activities through promoting tumor cell apoptosis.