Immunohistochemical Study of Dark and Progenitor Carotid Body Cells: Artefacts or Real Subtypes?

Postmortem changes occurring in human carotid body were simulated on the Wistar rat model. It was shown that light, dark, and pyknotic (progenitor) subtypes of human carotid body cells are an artifact and cannot be used in clinical practice to study the characteristics of various human diseases. The differences between the control group of healthy individuals and individuals with the various pathologies are most likely due to the different levels of premortal hypoxia that the tissue had been exposed to. Moreover, widespread antigens used in practice were divided into 2 groups by their tolerance to autolysis: stable and unstable ones. This can be useful for the development of immunohistochemical test algorithms for the diagnostics on autopsy material.

[Central Aortic Pressure: Reference and Diagnostic Values].

OBJECTIVE: Practical application of central aortic pressure (CAP) parameters is limited by the absence of generally recognized reference and threshold diagnostic indices. The purpose of this work is to establish their values in the general population of Novosibirsk. Materials and Methods. A total of 327 people were examined: 155 men and 172 women aged 25-44 years from a representative sample from the general population of Novosibirsk. Applanation tonometry of the radial artery was performed by the SphygmoCor system. The reference values of CAP parameters were obtained by a nonparametric method according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) recommendations (95 % percentile interval with 2.5 % and 97.5 % cut-off points and their 90 % confidence intervals). Diagnostic thresholds and categories of CAP were determined as mean values depending on the categories of brachial arterial pressure (BP) and on the basis of risk estimates, as well as sensitivity and specificity values for left ventricular hypertrophy similar to risk and sensitivity and specificity values of threshold levels (categories) of brachial BP. RESULTS: The reference values of the parameters of the CAP were: 18-43 mm Hg for pulse pressure; 5-24 mm Hg for the amplification of pulse pressure; - 8.8-40 % for the augmentation index. Diagnostic categories of CAP were determined to be: optimal - less than 110 / 80, normal - 110 / 80-114 / 84, high normal - 115 / 85-124 / 89, hypertension - more than 125 / 90 mm Hg. CONCLUSION: The reference values, diagnostic thresholds and categories of parameters of CAP in the general population of Novosibirsk aged 25-44 years have been determined. It is expedient to further study them.

Corrigendum: Eastern Canadian Gastrointestinal Cancer Consensus Conference 2014.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3747/co.22.2603.].

Eastern Canadian Colorectal Cancer Consensus Conference 2013: emerging therapies in the treatment of pancreatic, rectal, and colorectal cancers.

The annual Eastern Canadian Colorectal Cancer Consensus Conference held in Montreal, Quebec, 17-19 October 2013, marked the 10-year anniversary of this meeting that is attended by leaders in medical, radiation, and surgical oncology. The goal of the attendees is to improve the care of patients affected by gastrointestinal malignancies. Topics discussed during the conference included pancreatic cancer, rectal cancer, and metastatic colorectal cancer.

Eastern Canadian Gastrointestinal Cancer Consensus Conference 2016.

The annual Eastern Canadian Gastrointestinal Cancer Consensus Conference 2016 was held in Montreal, Quebec, 5-7 February. Experts in radiation oncology, medical oncology, surgical oncology, and infectious diseases involved in the management of patients with gastrointestinal malignancies participated in presentations and discussion sessions for the purpose of developing the recommendations presented here. This consensus statement addresses multiple topics: ■ Follow-up and survivorship of patients with resected colorectal cancer■ Indications for liver metastasectomy■ Treatment of oligometastases by stereotactic body radiation therapy■ Treatment of borderline resectable and unresectable pancreatic cancer■ Transarterial chemoembolization in hepatocellular carcinoma■ Infectious complications of antineoplastic agents.

Eastern Canadian Gastrointestinal Cancer Consensus Conference 2014.

The annual Eastern Canadian Colorectal Cancer Consensus Conference was held in Montreal, Quebec, 23-25 October 2014. Expert radiation, medical, and surgical oncologists and pathologists involved in the management of patients with gastrointestinal malignancies participated in presentations and discussions resulting in consensus statements on such hot topics as management of neuroendocrine tumours, advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer, and metastatic colorectal cancer.

Role of neoadjuvant therapy in the management of pancreatic cancer: is the era of biomarker-directed therapy here?

Pancreatic cancer is the 4th leading cause of cancer-related death. Complete surgical resection (CR0) is considered the only curative treatment. Most patients present with unresectable or borderline resectable disease. Many small phase i/ii trials have tried to address the role of neoadjuvant treatment using chemotherapy with or without chemoradiation in the management of locally advanced disease. However, many of them looked at the rate of CR0 resection and the feasibility of such treatment. A trend for improved overall survival has been observed in the group of patients with borderline resectable disease who completed neoadjuvant treatment. A large proportion of patients progress while on treatment, sparing them from unnecessary surgery. We searched the PubMed database (using the key words "pancreatic cancer," or "pancreatic neoplasm," or "pancreatic adenocarcinoma," and "neoadjuvant treatment," or "neoadjuvant chemotherapy," or "neoadjuvant radiation therapy," or "neoadjuvant chemo-radiation," or "adjuvant therapy" [all fields] and "clinical trial" or "study") and abstracts presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meetings on gastrointestinal cancers. Here, we review the most recent papers that present results on neoadjuvant therapy in pancreatic cancer. All but one report used overall survival as an endpoint. Unfortunately, there are no valid biomarkers predicting tumour progression or recurrence, and response to treatment than can help to guide therapeutic choices. Our recommendation is to consider neoadjuvant treatment in cases of borderline resectable disease. In patients with primary resectable tumours, surgery followed by adjuvant treatment and enrollment on adjuvant treatment studies would be appropriate.

Evolution of sites of recurrence after early breast cancer over the last 20 years: implications for patient care and future research.

Improvements in adjuvant therapy have led to a sustained fall in recurrences after early breast cancer. The differential reduction in local and systemic recurrences is poorly understood. This study aimed to explore changes in the distribution of loco-regional and distant recurrences in clinical trials reported over the last 20 years. We also aimed to determine the relative impact of adjuvant chemotherapy and endocrine therapy. MEDLINE search for adjuvant, phase III randomized breast cancer clinical studies between January 1990 and March 2011 was performed. Neoadjuvant, single agent biologics and studies that did not report the proportion of loco-regional and distant recurrences were excluded. The change in the frequency of recurrences was assessed as the nonparametric correlation between the number of loco-regional recurrences as a proportion of all recurrences and time. Studies were weighted by sample size. The differential effect of chemotherapy and endocrine therapy was also assessed. Fifty-three randomized clinical trials with a total of 86,598 patients were included in the analysis. Between 1990 and 2011, the proportion of loco-regional recurrences has decreased from approximately 30 to 15 % (Spearman's ρ = -0.40, p < 0.001). There was no interaction between type of surgery (mastectomy vs. lumpectomy), administration of adjuvant radiation therapy and menopausal status and the correlation of loco-regional recurrences and time. Chemotherapy regimen showed a larger negative correlation compared with endocrine therapy ( ρ = 0.49 vs. ρ = 0.24). Advances in treatment of early breast cancer have differentially reduced the proportion of loco-regional recurrences compared with distant recurrences. In recent trials, loco-regional recurrences account for less than 10-15 % of all recurrences. These falling event rates may affect patient care, especially when deciding on treatments influencing loco-regional control. This change may also impact on the design of clinical trials assessing loco-regional therapy such as surgery and/or local radiation therapy.

[The early rehabilitation of the patients with shoulder impingement syndrome using robotic technologies].

The objective of the present study was to develop a complex of rehabilitative measures for the treatment of the patients presenting with shoulder impingement syndrome including the combined application of the robotic technology based on the Multi-Joint System (Italy) in conjunction with physical therapy and massage. In addition, we estimated dynamics of the "American assessment shoulder and elbow surgery" test, the shoulder score index, the range of motion in the shoulder joint on the affected side with the help of the Multi-Joint System. It is concluded that the early use of the Multi-Joint System in combination with physical therapy and massage techniques provides the highly efficacious tool for the management of the patients suffering impingement syndrome.

[Surgical strategy in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm and coincidental, malignancy of different localization].

Abdominal aortic aneurysm was detected in 269 patients and 26 (9.6%) of them had a coincidental malignancy. There were 25 (96.2%) men and 1 (3.8%) woman of age from 46 to 88 years (on the average 67.9 +/- 1.7 years old). All of them had different accompanying diseases, influencing the choice of treatment strategy. More than half of patients (16 (61.5%) had the advanced stage III or IV (3H) of cancer and three of them occupied the first place due to their wide occurrence: tumors of lung--42.3%, of stomach--19.2%, of large intestine--11.5%. The operations were performed in 8 patients with malignancy and in 2 patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm. Two-step operations were performed in 4 patients, the simultant operation--in one patient.

[Ischemic heart disease and arterial hypertention as risk factors of surgical treatment of patients with infrarenal segment of aortic aneurysm].

A retrospective analysis of the data of 188 patients with the infrarenal segment of the aortic aneurysm (ISAA) showed, that ischemic heart disease and arterial hypertension were diagnosed practically in all patients--175 (93.0%) and 177 (94.1%) patients respectively. A decreased retractor function of the myocardium was noted in 88 (46.8%) of patients. According to the findings of echocardiography 134 (71.3%) patients had the arterial hypertension of third degree. For the assessment of the influence of the accompanying cardiac pathology on the results of planned surgical treatment and systematization of postoperative cardiac complications the classification, which was proposed by R. B. Rutherford et al. and modified by A. V. Pokrovsky et al. was used. The obtained data point at a direct proportional relationship between the degree of the initial cardiac status, frequency and severity of postoperative cardiac complications in patients after resection of ISAA in 1.6-2.3 times.

[Aneurysmatic and occlusive lesions of the aorto-iliac segment in combination with cancer of the lungs and organs of the abdominal cavity].

An analysis of retrospective data has shown that 34 (14.4%) out of 236 patients with aneurysm of the abdominal aorta and iliac arteries and in 62 (5.1%) out of 1214 patients with occlusion or stenosis of these vessels mainly had cancer of the lungs (52%) and stomach (17.7%) with almost similar incidence in both groups. Colorectal cancer (8.3%) and cancer of other organs of the abdominal cavity were detected more rarely. Aneurysmatic (12 patients) and occlusive-stenosing (17 patients) lesions of the aorto-iliac segment were noted in 29 (0.4%) among 6834 patients with lung cancer or organs of the abdominal cavity. There were three subgroups of patients: (1) first cancer was diagnosed, and then aneurysm, stenosis or occlusion of these arteries (12-12.5%); (2) diseases of the arteries and cancer were diagnosed simultaneously (60-62.5%) and (3) first lesions of the arteries and later cancer (24-25%). Two-stage operative interventions for these diseases were made in 30 (31.2%) patients.

Eastern Canadian Colorectal Cancer Consensus Conference 2017.

The annual Eastern Canadian Gastrointestinal Cancer Consensus Conference 2017 was held in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, 28-30 September. Experts in radiation oncology, medical oncology, surgical oncology, and cancer genetics who are involved in the management of patients with gastrointestinal malignancies participated in presentations and discussion sessions for the purpose of developing the recommendations presented here. This consensus statement addresses multiple topics in the management of gastric, rectal, and colon cancer, including ■ identification and management of hereditary gastric and colorectal cancer (crc);■ palliative systemic therapy for metastatic gastric cancer;■ optimum duration of preoperative radiation in rectal cancer-that is, short- compared with long-course radiation;■ management options for peritoneal carcinomatosis in crc;■ implications of tumour location for treatment and prognosis in crc; and■ new molecular markers in crc.

[A comparative characterization of fungal melanin and the humin-like substances synthesized by Cerrena maxima 0275].

Comparative studies of fungal melanin and two preparations of the high-molecular-weight humin-like substances formed during a solid-phase cultivation of the basidiomycete Cerrena maxima 0275 for 45 and 70 days were performed. The fungal melanin from Aspergillus niger and the humin-like substances synthesized by the basidiomycete C. maxima 0275 are similar in their physicochemical properties (elemental composition and behavior in acids and alkalis) and auxin-like activities. However, these biopolymers differ, essentially, at the structural level. According to IR spectroscopy data, the obtained humin-like substances display a higher similarity to natural humic acids and are more diverse in their functional groups compared with fungal melanins. Presumably, this is connected with the fact that laccase is involved in formation of humin-like substances; moreover, this enzyme is involved not only in the synthesis of these polymers, but also in their modification and degradation.

[The physical properties of the synovial fluid as a lubrication of joints].

The properties of the synovial fluid and the results of the electrophysical studies of the fluid by the thermoelectret method are briefly described. The interrelation between current peaks on the thermostimulated current spectra of thermostimulated currents of the synovial fluid and the liguid-crystalline state of its components was established. The results can be used for developing the methods of diagnostics of synovial joint diseases and design of artificial joints.

Determination of tRNA nucleotide residues directly interacting with proteins in the post- and pretranslocated ribosomal complexes.

Nucleotide residues of E. coli tRNA interacting directly with proteins in pre- and posttranslocated ribosomal complexes have been identified by analysis of photo-induced tRNA-protein cross-links. A9, G18, A26 and U59 residues of NAcPhePhe-tRNA, located in the Ab-site (pretranslocated complex) have been cross-linked with proteins S10, L27, S7 and L2 respectively. In deacylated tRNA, located in the Pb-site, residues C17, G44, C56 and U60 have been cross-linked with proteins L2, L5, L27 and S9 respectively. The G44-L5 cross-link disappeared after translocation (NAc-PhePhe-tRNA located in the Pt-site).

Nucleotide residues of tRNA, directly interacting with proteins within the complex of the 30 S subunit of E. coli ribosome with poly(U) and NAcPhe-tRNA(Phe).

With the aid of photoinduced tRNA-protein cross-linking, nucleotide residues A21, U45 and U60 were shown to interact directly with proteins S5, S7 and S9 respectively, in the complex of the 30 S subunit of E. coli ribosome with poly(U) and NAcPhe-tRNA(Phe). These nucleotide residues are located in the central part of the L-form in the tertiary structure of RNA.

Intersubunit RNA-protein contacts in pre- and post-translocated E. coli ribosome.

Ribosomal proteins participating in intersubunit RNA-protein contacts (directly interacting with RNA of the opposite subunit) were determined by means of ultraviolet-induced cross-links in pre- and post-translocated ribosomal complexes, as well as in the free 70 S ribosome (tight couple) of E. coli. In these 3 complexes at least L1 and L9 proteins interact with 16 S RNA, while S6, S9/11 and S15 react with 23 S RNA. All these proteins ('hinge-joint' proteins) are clustered on the small protuberance of the 50 S subunit and on the platform of the 30 S subunit. Reduction in the number of other (variable) intersubunit RNA-protein contacts in the course of transition from the tight couple to the pre- and, finally, to the post-translocated state, demonstrates gradual loosening of intersubunit interactions in 70 S ribosome. Such a loosening ('opening') of the 70 S ribosome is determined by conformational changes in ribosomal subunits and/or in their relative arrangement, conjugated with alteration of the functional state of the ribosomal complex.

Synthesis, gastroprotective, antisecretory and anti-Helicobacter effect of N-[3-(3-(1-piperidinylmethyl) phenoxy)propyl]-hydroxyacetamide 2-hydroxypropane-1,2,3-tricarboxylate bismuth (3+) complex (MX1)-MX1.

MX1 (N-[3-(3-(1-piperidinylmethyl)phenoxy)propyl]-hydroxyacetamide+ ++ 2-hydroxypropane-1,2,3-tricarboxylate bismuth (3+) complex) is a novel salt of the active metabolite of H2-antagonist roxatidine with a complex of bismuth with citric acid. In a model of ethanol-induced ulcers in male Wistar rats, both roxatidine and the bismuth salt reduced the number and the total length of lesions. Comparison of roxatidine and MX1 at equimolar doses of 160 mumol kg-1 showed a more potent cytoprotective effect of MX1. The potency of anti-secretory and antiacidic effects of MX1 was more than twice that of roxatidine on histamine-stimulated secretion in female Wistar pylorus-ligated rats. Microbiological tests with the reference bismuth preparation De-Nol showed prominent anti-Helicobacter properties of MX1 in-vitro. Both test compounds had similar range of MICs to Helicobacter pylori, from 4 to 64 microgram bismuth mL-1. The cytoprotective, antisecretory, anti-acidic and anti-Helicobacter properties of the new agent MX1 warrant further more extensive pharmacological and clinical trials.

Electret-thermal analysis of blood.

The thermally stimulated discharge (TSD) method, intended for the analysis of charged dielectrics, was used for human blood research. Above-room-temperature TSD spectra of blood consist of three peaks. There are indications that the low-temperature peak (40-50 degrees C) corresponds to the thermally stimulated destruction of hydrate shells surrounding blood components while the mid-temperature peak (70-90 degrees C) is related to thermal denaturation of blood proteins. The intensive high-temperature peak (105-120 degrees C) is observed when a phase transition of blood, accompanied by the formation of a firm dry film of blood, occurs. The position of the high-temperature peak depends on the blood group. Data is discussed which suggests that the spontaneous "quasi-electret effect" of blood relates to the character of the biochemical processes taking place in human organisms. The TSD method might be used as simple and informative means of diagnostics in cooperation with medical and physical investigations.