Effect of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury on Behavioral Reactions and Neocortical Morphology in Rats.

The original weight-drop model was employed to examine the effect of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) on behavioral phenotype and neocortical morphology in rats. The neurological examination of rats with moderate TBI revealed the focal symptoms corresponding to pronounced neurological disorders, whereas in rats after mild TBI, there were only minor coordination disorders. On day 7 after injury, the rats with mild TBI demonstrated enhanced anxiety assessed by conditioned passive avoidance response. The morphometric analysis of the brain tissues revealed narrowing of the capillaries and increased score of hyperchromic neocortical neurons, which attested to cerebral hypoxia. The manifestations of mild TBI in original rat model demonstrated a close similarity to the symptoms of TBI in humans.

Soluble forms of immune checkpoints in ovarian cancer.

The data of a complex immunoassay comparative study of the content of soluble forms of sPD-1, sPD-L1, sNKG2D, sNKG2DL1, sB7-H3 and sHLA-G in the blood plasma of 75 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer and 20 healthy donors of the control group are presented. The diagnostic significance of the studied proteins was determined. The study showed that the profile of soluble immunity checkpoints differs when malignant ovarian pathology occurs. There was a statistically significant decrease in the content of sPD-L1, sNKG2DL1, sB7-H3, and sHLA-G in the blood plasma of patients compared with the control group. Differences were found in the content of the studied markers depending on the histological type of tumors. Correlations between the soluble forms of some of the studied proteins are shown, indicating the presence of independent mechanisms of immune regulation in ovarian cancer, which may explain the insufficient effectiveness of the existing immunotherapy for this type of tumor. The results obtained will undoubtedly facilitate the development of new effective methods for the diagnostics and therapy of ovarian cancer.

[Digital image in the practice of Cytology: a pilot study.]

Cytological study is a highly specialized type of laboratory analysis of the cellular composition of biological material and is to assess the morphological characteristics of cellular elements. The modern development of digital technologies is increasingly forming the interest of specialists to such a section as telepathology (digital pathology), which is a process of virtual microscopy with the transformation of classical cytological preparations into digital. Most morphologists currently use some forms of digital imaging, such as static images obtained by optical cameras mounted under a microscope. The development of more high quality image and resolution in the digital pathology promotes the use of telepathology, including telecitology in their daily work for training specialists, counselling of medications, monitoring the quality of diagnosis.

[Possibilities of cytological diagnosis of the nature of the exudate at the stage of emergency.]

Cytological diagnosis by effusions is currently the only reliable method of morphological verification of the diagnosis, it has prognostic significance and determines the choice of treatment strategy. At the same time, the variability of normal mesothelial cells causes significant difficulties in its differential diagnosis with reactive mesothelium, malignant mesothelioma and cancer metastasis, which requires additional analytical methods. A retrospective study of cytological preparations for 2017 was conducted, as well as the effectiveness of the use of fluorescent immunocytochemistry (FITZ) on the test system "biochip" in combination with a traditional cytological study was evaluated. During the period of November 2017 - July 2018, 46 exudates of serous cavities were studied, which showed that 9 patients (19.6%) were diagnosed with metastatic effusion, 31 (66.7%) patients had reactive exudate, suspicion of the malignant nature of serous fluid was expressed in 4 patients (8.7%), and 4.8% of persons (2 samples) failed to make an accurate diagnosis. After an additional FITZ study using the "Biochip" test system, the number of patients diagnosed with metastatic effusion increased to 7 (25.9%) due to a decrease in the percentage of cases of unspecified effusion. The combined use of traditional cytology and fluorescent immunocytochemistry in the diagnosis of effusion fluids at the stage of emergency medical care to the patient complements each other and contributes to a faster and more reliable diagnosis, as it allows to confirm the malignancy of the test material, and to assume the primary focus.