ABSTRACT
A 28-year-old woman was diagnosed as having an ectopic kidney in adolescence. She desired to donate her ectopic kidney to her mother, who was diagnosed as having renal failure. The ectopic kidney was located behind the sigmoid colon with 3 renal arteries and 3 renal veins. Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy was performed by reduced port surgery using the GelPOINT access platforms at a midline incision below the umbilicus with 1 accessory port. A thin artery of the donated kidney was ligated. An artery of the upper pole was anastomosed to the internal iliac artery, and a second artery was anastomosed directly to the inferior epigastric artery. Three veins were anastomosed to the external iliac vein: 1 anastomosed directly, 1 interposed by saphenous vein graft, and 1 interposed by harvested ovarian vein. To our knowledge, this is the first successful case of transplantation using an ectopic pelvic kidney by reduced port laparoscopic donor nephrectomy.
Subject(s)
Choristoma/surgery , Female Urogenital Diseases/surgery , Kidney Transplantation/methods , Kidney , Nephrectomy/methods , Tissue and Organ Harvesting/methods , Adult , Female , Humans , Laparoscopy/methods , Living Donors , Pelvis/surgeryABSTRACT
We demonstrate a high-precision measurement of the isotopomer abundance ratio 14N(15)N(16)O/15N(14)N(16)O/14N(14)N(16)O (approximately 0.37/0.37/100) using three wavelength-modulated 2 microm diode lasers combined with a multipass cell which provides different optical pathlengths of 100 and 1 m to compensate the large abundance difference. A set of absorption lines for which the absorbances have almost the same temperature dependence are selected so that the effect of a change in gas temperature is minimized. The test experiment using pure nearly natural-abundance N(2)O samples showed that the site-selective 15N/14N ratios can be measured relative to a reference material with a precision of +/-3 x 10(-4) (+/-0.3 per thousand) in approximately 2 h.
Subject(s)
Nitrous Oxide/chemistry , Lasers , Nitrogen Isotopes/chemistry , Spectrum AnalysisABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Cyclooxygenase (COX) is a key enzyme in the conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins and other eicosanoids. A recent report has indicated a selective COX-2 inhibitor resulted in increased apoptosis and down-regulated bcl-2 expression in the androgen-sensitive human prostate cancer cell. We investigated the localization of COXs in prostatic adenocarcinoma and the possible correlation of androgen blockade with its expression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The immunohistochemical expression of COX-1, COX-2 and bcl-2 protein was studied using paraffin-embedded archival tissues both before and after hormonal therapy. The number of apoptotic cells was also determined. RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry for COX-1, not COX-2, showed the constitutive expression in the stroma of normal prostate. The expression of COX-2 protein was detected less often than that of COX-1 protein in most cases of prostatic adenocarcinoma before hormonal therapy. Neoadjuvant hormonal therapy induced the expression of COX-2 protein in smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts and adenocarcinoma cells. The expression after hormonal therapy was possibly correlated with the bcl-2 protein expression. CONCLUSION: The present study is the first to demonstrate the immunohistochemical expression of COXs in human prostate tissue and indicated that COXs were relevant to homeostasis and tumor development of the prostate.
Subject(s)
Adenocarcinoma/enzymology , Apoptosis , Isoenzymes/metabolism , Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases/metabolism , Prostatic Neoplasms/enzymology , Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2/analysis , Adenocarcinoma/pathology , Cyclooxygenase 1 , Cyclooxygenase 2 , Humans , Immunohistochemistry , Male , Membrane Proteins , Prostatic Neoplasms/pathologyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Retinoids play an important role in regulating cellular proliferation and differentiation. Although their effects are mediated by retinoic acid receptors (RARs) and retinoid X receptors (RXRs), limited information is available about the expression of RARs and RXRs in prostatic adenocarcinoma. We intended in this study to elucidate further the participation of those receptors in tumor progression of human prostate. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The immunohistochemical expression of RARs and RXRs proteins was studied using paraffin-embedded archival tissues obtained from patients with and without neoadjuvant hormonal therapies for prostatic adenocarcinoma. RESULTS: The immunoreactivity against RAR-alpha, RAR-gamma, RXR-alpha and RXR-gamma were detected in many, if not all, prostatic adenocarcinoma cells of the cases without and with neoadjuvant hormonal therapy, whereas less expression of both RAR-beta and RXR-beta were identified. Positively stained adenocarcinoma cells with RAR-beta and RXR-beta were found to be decreased in the cases with neoadjuvant therapy. In addition, the specimens showing positive immunoreaction of RAR-beta were limited to the cases of moderately- and poorly-differentiated but not well-differentiated, adenocarcinomas. CONCLUSION: We first demonstrated the expression of RARs and RXRs proteins in prostatic adenocarcinoma using subtype-specific antibodies. Immunohistochemistry using those antibodies might give an indication of susceptibility of the patients to retinoid therapy as a possible treatment of prostatic adenocarcinoma.