Retropubic Dilation With a Foley Catheter Balloon: A Novel Technique for Penile Prosthesis Reservoir Placement.

BACKGROUND: The 3-piece inflatable penile prosthesis was introduced in 1973 as a treatment for men with erectile dysfunction. Consisting of 2 corporal cylinders, 1 pump, and a fluid-filled reservoir, the prosthesis is placed by blunt dissection into the retropubic space. The dissection for the reservoir is performed blindly into a space juxtaposed with nerves, vessels, and the bladder. OBJECTIVE: To propose a novel approach for inflatable penile prosthesis reservoir placement involving gentle dilation of the retropubic space using a Foley catheter balloon. METHODS: Patient medical records from 1 surgeon were reviewed. Patients did not have a history of pelvic surgery or prostatectomy. Each implant was approached using a penoscrotal incision, and the retropubic space was dilated with a 30-mL Foley catheter balloon filled to 100-mL capacity before reservoir placement. The postoperative visits were examined for complications, including reservoir infection and herniation. A literature search of penile prosthesis reservoir placement technique and complications (eg, herniation, infection) of reservoir placement was also performed. RESULTS: Fifteen patient records were examined. The reservoir herniation rate was 0% and the infection rate was 7%. The average reservoir herniation rate is reported to be 1% to 3%, and the average infection rate is reported to be 1% to 5%. CONCLUSION: The use of a Foley catheter balloon is a safe, atraumatic, cost-effective, and easily performed method of dilating the retropubic space for subsequent inflatable penile prosthesis reservoir placement.

Temporal and spatial expression of TACC1 in the mouse and human.

TACC1 is the founding member of the evolutionarily conserved transforming acidic coiled coil genes. These genes play a role in normal development and tumorigenesis through interactions with multiple complexes involved in transcription, translation, and centrosomal dynamics. Despite its importance, detailed examination of the expression of TACC1 and splice variants has not previously been performed. In this study, the spatiotemporal distribution of the Tacc1 protein was examined immunohistochemically in cross-sections of mouse embryonic tissues. We also report the distribution of currently known/predicted TACC1 splice variants in adult humans. These results indicate that Tacc1 is regulated in a dynamic manner during embryogenesis. In adult humans, ubiquitous expression of at least one TACC1 splice variant is noted, although specific combinations of variants are evident in individual differentiated tissues. An important observation is that in the in vivo three-dimensional tissue architecture of the growing organism, both the human and mouse TACC1 protein can be localized to different subcellular compartments in a cell- and tissue-specific manner. This indicates that exploration of TACC1 function must take into account the temporal expression of specific splice variants that may perform different cell-type and tissue-specific functions. Furthermore, this analysis will provide the groundwork from which future Tacc1 knockout strategies can be designed and properly interpreted.

Structure-function evolution of the transforming acidic coiled coil genes revealed by analysis of phylogenetically diverse organisms.

BACKGROUND: Examination of ancient gene families can provide an insight into how the evolution of gene structure can relate to function. Functional homologs of the evolutionarily conserved transforming acidic coiled coil (TACC) gene family are present in organisms from yeast to man. However, correlations between functional interactions and the evolution of these proteins have yet to be determined. RESULTS: We have performed an extensive database analysis to determine the genomic and cDNA sequences of the TACCs from phylogenetically diverse organisms. This analysis has determined the phylogenetic relationship of the TACC proteins to other coiled coil proteins, the resolution of the placement of the rabbit TACC4 as the orthologue of human TACC3, and RHAMM as a distinct family of coiled coil proteins. We have also extended the analysis of the TACCs to the interaction databases of C. elegans and D. melanogaster to identify potentially novel TACC interactions. The validity of this modeling was confirmed independently by the demonstration of direct binding of human TACC2 to the nuclear hormone receptor RXRbeta. CONCLUSION: The data so far suggest that the ancestral TACC protein played a role in centrosomal/mitotic spindle dynamics. TACC proteins were then recruited to complexes involved in protein translation, RNA processing and transcription by interactions with specific bridging proteins. However, during evolution, the TACC proteins have now acquired the ability to directly interact with components of these complexes (such as the LSm proteins, nuclear hormone receptors, GAS41, and transcription factors). This suggests that the function of the TACC proteins may have evolved from performing assembly or coordination functions in the centrosome to include a more intimate role in the functional evolution of chromatin remodeling, transcriptional and posttranscriptional complexes in the cell.