Functional profile of perilesional gray matter in focal cortical dysplasia: an fMRI study.

Objectives: We aim to investigate the functional profiles of perilesional gray matter (GM) in epileptic patients with focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) and to correlate these profiles with FCD II subtypes, surgical outcomes, and different antiseizure medications (ASMs) treatment response patterns. Methods: Nine patients with drug-responsive epilepsy and 30 patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (11 were histologically confirmed FCD type IIa, 19 were FCD type IIb) were included. Individual-specific perilesional GM and contralateral homotopic GM layer masks were generated. These masks underwent a two-voxel (2 mm) dilation from the FCD lesion and contralateral homotopic region, resulting in 10 GM layers (20 mm). Layer 1, the innermost, progressed to Layer 10, the outermost. Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) analyses were conducted to assess the functional characteristics of ipsilateral perilesional GM and contralateral homotopic GM. Results: Compared to the contralateral homotopic GM, a significant reduction of ALFF was detected at ipsilateral perilesional GM layer 1 to 6 in FCD type IIa (after Bonferroni correction p < 0.005, paired t-test), whereas a significant decrease was observed at ipsilateral perilesional GM layer 1 to 2 in FCD type IIb (after Bonferroni correction p < 0.005, paired t-test). Additionally, a significant decrease of the ReHo was detected at ipsilateral perilesional GM layer 1 compared to the CHRs in FCD type IIb. Notably, complete resection of functional perilesional GM alterations did not correlate with surgical outcomes. Compared to the contralateral homotopic GM, a decreased ALFF in the ipsilateral perilesional GM layer was detected in drug-responsive patients, whereas decreased ALFF in the ipsilateral perilesional GM layer 1-6 and decreased ReHo at ipsilateral perilesional GM layer 1 were observed in drug-resistant patients (after Bonferroni correction p < 0.005, paired t-test). Conclusion: Our findings indicate distinct functional profiles of perilesional GM based on FCD histological subtypes and ASMs' response patterns. Importantly, our study illustrates that the identified functional alterations in perilesional GM may not provide sufficient evidence to determine the epileptogenic boundary required for surgical resection.

Automated detection of focal cortical dysplasia based on magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography.

PURPOSE: Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is a common etiology of drug-resistant focal epilepsy. Visual identification of FCD is usually time-consuming and depends on personal experience. Herein, we propose an automated type II FCD detection approach utilizing multi-modal data and 3D convolutional neural network (CNN). METHODS: MRI and positron emission tomography (PET) data of 82 patients with FCD were collected, including 55 (67.1%) histopathologically, and 27 (32.9%) radiologically diagnosed patients. Three types of morphometric feature maps and three types of tissue maps were extracted from the T1-weighted images. These maps, T1, and PET images formed the inputs for CNN. Five-fold cross-validations were carried out on the training set containing 62 patients, and the model behaving best was chosen to detect FCD on the test set of 20 patients. Furthermore, ablation experiments were performed to estimate the value of PET data and CNN. RESULTS: On the validation set, FCD was detected in 90.3% of the cases, with an average of 1.7 possible lesions per patient. The sensitivity on the test set was 90.0%, with 1.85 possible lesions per patient. Without the PET data, the sensitivity decreased to 80.0%, and the average lesion number increased to 2.05 on the test set. If an artificial neural network replaced the CNN, the sensitivity decreased to 85.0%, and the average lesion number increased to 4.65. SIGNIFICANCE: Automated detection of FCD with high sensitivity and few false-positive findings is feasible based on multi-modal data. PET data and CNN could improve the performance of automated detection.

Effects of rotational culture on morphology, nitric oxide production and cell cycle of endothelial cells.

Devices for the rotational culture of cells and the study of biological reactions have been widely applied in tissue engineering. However, there are few reports exploring the effects of rotational culture on cell morphology, nitric oxide (NO) production, and cell cycle of the endothelial cells from human umbilical vein on the stent surface. This study focuses on these parameters after the cells are seeded on the stents. Results showed that covering of stents by endothelial cells was improved by rotational culture. NO production decreased within 24 h in both rotational and static culture groups. In addition, rotational culture significantly increased NO production by 37.9% at 36 h and 28.9% at 48 h compared with static culture. Flow cytometry showed that the cell cycle was not obviously influenced by rotational culture. Results indicate that rotational culture may be helpful for preparation of cell-seeded vascular grafts and intravascular stents, which are expected to be the most frequently implanted materials in the future.

Important role of TNF-alpha in inhibitory effects of Radix Sophorae Flavescentis extract on vascular restenosis in a rat carotid model of balloon dilatation injury.

The aim of this study was to determine the molecular mechanism underlying the inhibition of vascular restenosis by Radix Sophorae Flavescentis (RSF) extract after balloon dilatation injury. In a rat carotid model of balloon dilatation injury, the RSF extract showed a significant inhibitory effect on vascular restenosis. Immunohistochemistry showed that the expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in the vascular focus was markedly reduced upon treatment with the RSF extract, whereas the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigens (PCNA) was mostly unaffected. Colorimetric assays of methylene blue incorporation demonstrated that the proliferation of cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) was not inhibited with serum from rats treated with RSF extract. However, the expression of TNF-alpha in cultured VSMCs was significantly downregulated by serum from rats treated with RSF extract. These results suggested that RSF extract has an inhibitory effect on vascular restenosis after balloon dilatation injury which might be, in part, attributable to its inhibition of TNF-alpha expression.