Eosinophilic solid and cystic renal cell carcinoma: a review of literature focused on radiological findings and differential diagnosis.

Eosinophilic solid and cystic renal cell carcinoma (ESC-RCC) is a rare type of renal cell carcinoma with inert biological behavior that has not yet been included in the 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) classification, and its imaging manifestations are unclear due to its rarity. Although there have only been a few cases, the CT and MRI findings of ESC-RCC are characterized by its cystic solid structure, according to the proportion of cystic and solid components observed on images, ESC-RCC can be categorized into three types. Especially the Type I, when the cystic-solid components are almost equal, the imaging findings are illustrated as "lotus root-like," which may be helpful in the differential diagnosis of ESC-RCC from other types of renal tumors. In fact, ESC-RCC has diverse radiological appearances, and the differentiation of clear cell renal cell carcinoma, renal oncocytoma, chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, and renal angiomyolipoma remains challenging. This review aims to discuss ESC-RCC with a focus on the radiological findings and differential diagnosis of ESC-RCC.

Atrazine exposure and recovery alter the intestinal structure, bacterial composition and intestinal metabolites of male Pelophylax nigromaculatus.

The pesticide atrazine poses a potential threat to the health of frogs living in farmland areas. The exposure concentration in traditional pesticide experiments is usually constant, while pesticide pollution in actual water may fluctuate due to periodic or seasonal application. We examined the effects of different concentrations of atrazine (50, 100 and 500 µg/L) over a 14-day exposure and a 7-day recovery on intestinal histology, bacterial composition and intestinal metabolites of male Pelophylax nigromaculatus. HE staining revealed that after a 14-day atrazine exposure, the 100 µg/L and 500 µg/L groups showed obvious cysts and significantly decreased intestinal crypt depth and villus height. After a 7-day recovery, the damaged intestine in the 100 µg/L group was partially recovered, while in the 500 µg/L exposure group there was no improvement. 16S rRNA gene analysis of intestinal bacteria showed that 500 µg/L atrazine exposure significantly caused a persistent decrease in bacterial α diversity. Compared to the control and other atrazine exposure groups, the 500 µg/L group showed significant changes in the relative abundance of predominant bacteria. In addition, most dominant bacteria in the 500 µg/L recovery group showed significant differences with the 50 µg/L and 100 µg/L recovery groups. Nontargeted metabolomics profiling based on UPLC/MS analysis showed that atrazine exposure and recovery induced changes in the intestinal metabolic profile. The changes in metabolites were mainly related to purine/pyrimidine metabolism, glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, and arginine and proline metabolism. In general, these pathways were closely related to energy metabolism and amino acid metabolism. These results suggest that the short-term exposure to 500 µg/L atrazine causes persistent harm to intestinal health. This study is an important step toward a better understanding of the toxic effects of atrazine exposure and recovery in frog intestines.

Toxicity of Pb continuous and pulse exposure on intestinal anatomy, bacterial diversity, and metabolites of Pelophylax nigromaculatus in pre-hibernation.

Amphibians are often exposed to pulse pollution due to fluctuational inputs of pollutants in water. Traditional ecotoxicology research is mainly performed under constant exposure conditions, which is not consistent with the true environmental pollution. Frogs are sensitive to changes in water pollutants in pre-hibernation. Thus, to understand the toxicity difference to continuous and pulse exposure in environmental concentrations of Pb (100 µg/L), Pelophylax nigromaculatus adults were exposed to short-term treatments (8 days) in pre-hibernation. Individual mortality, intestinal anatomical structure, bacterial diversity, and metabolites were measured in a control group (CON), a Pb continuous treatment group (CEPb) and a Pb pulse treatment group (PEPb). The results showed that PEPb significantly increased individual mortality, compared to the control group and CEPb. PEPb induced pathological changes in the small intestinal tissues, such as mucosal erosion, swollen and distorted villi, large vacuoles, and the proliferation of goblet cells. In addition, PEPb altered the structure and diversity of intestinal bacteria, resulting in an increase in some pathogenic bacteria (e.g. Bacteroides and Ruminococcus) and a decrease in beneficial bacteria (e.g. Cetobacterium and Akkermansia). Both CEPb and PEPb significantly changed intestinal metabolites and metabolic pathways. Moreover, PEPb has a significant effect on the metabolism of amino acids by increasing the content of 5-Aminopentanoic acid, cis-4-Hydroxy-l-proline, Glycocholic acid, l-Alanine, and l-Isoleucine. We concluded that PEPb may lead to intestine impairment of P. nigromaculatus in pre-hibernation by inducing intestinal structural integrity destruction, bacterial imbalance, and metabolic dysfunction, resulting in a significant increase in mortality. The study provides new insights for understanding the intestinal responses of frogs to pulse metal exposure.

Effect of Lead Exposure on Jumping Ability in Pelophylax nigromaculata.

Jumping ability determines the likelihood of survival and reproduction of amphibians. To study the toxic effect of lead (Pb) on the jumping ability of amphibians, Pelophylax nigromaculata were treated with 0, 1 and 10 mg/L Pb for 10 days and 20 days each. The results showed that for both treatment time (10 days and 20 days), compared to the control group, the 1 mg/L Pb treatment had no significant effect on jumping parameters. Compared to the control group, the maximum jumping height, distance, speed and acceleration in the 10-day 10 mg/L Pb treatment group increased significantly, but after 20 days the jumping parameters decreased significantly. With an increase in duration and concentration, the correlation coefficient and the correlation between these jumping parameters decreased. Our results indicate that an exposure to 10 mg/L Pb for 20 days has a significant negative effect on the jumping ability of amphibians.

Simultaneous detection of plant growth regulators jasmonic acid and methyl jasmonate in plant samples by a monoclonal antibody-based ELISA.

Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and its free-acid form, jasmonic acid (JA), collectively referred to as jasmonates (JAs), are natural plant growth regulators that are widely present in higher plants. Simultaneous detection of JA and MeJA in plant samples is of significance and is a great challenging issue. In this study, coupling with two extraction methods, a sensitive monoclonal antibody (mAb) based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for simultaneous detection of JA and MeJA in plant samples was developed. The JA-bovine serum albumin (BSA) conjugate was used as an immunogen for the production of mAb. As the produced mAb exhibited higher recognition ability towards MeJA than towards JA, ELISA was established using MeJA as the standard. Under optimal experimental conditions, the IC50 and LOD values of ELISA for MeJA were 2.02 ng mL-1 and 0.20 ng mL-1, respectively. In the first extraction method, MeJA in plant samples was evaporated and only JA was extracted. In the second extraction method, both JA and MeJA were extracted. After methylation, JA in the extracts was converted into MeJA, and the whole MeJA in the extracts was measured by ELISA. Plant samples including the leaves of Salvia splendens, the flowers of Salvia splendens and the fruit of grapes were collected. JA and MeJA in these samples were detected by the proposed ELISA. It was found that the concentrations of JA in these three plant samples were about 3-5 times higher than those of MeJA in those samples. ELISA was also confirmed by HPLC. There was a good correlation between ELISA and HPLC.