MR imaging findings of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma in the nasal cavity: a rare site of spread.

We here report an extremely rare case of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma to the nasal cavity only with MRI scan including diffusion-weighted imaging and a brief review of previous literature case reports.

CT Differentiation of Female Peritoneal Tuberculosis and Peritoneal Carcinomatosis From Normal-Sized Ovarian Cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the computed tomography (CT) features of female peritoneal tuberculosis and peritoneal carcinomatosis from normal-sized ovarian cancer for their differentiation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the CT features of 18 female peritoneal tuberculosis and 17 peritoneal carcinomatosis with proven normal-sized ovarian carcinomas. Omental change, mesenteric change, parietal peritoneal thickening, lymph node enlargement, ascites, ovarian CT attenuation, and ovarian capsular change were analyzed. RESULTS: Heterogeneous parenchymal hyperattenuation and capsular change of the ovary were more frequently seen in cases of peritoneal carcinomatosis than in cases of female peritoneal tuberculosis (P = 0.002, P < 0.001, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences in the other CT features. CONCLUSIONS: The differentiation of female peritoneal tuberculosis and peritoneal carcinomatosis with normal-sized ovarian cancer by CT may be a diagnostic challenge. Ovarian hyperattenuation and any prominent ovarian capsular change may facilitate the differentiation between these groups.

MRI features of calcifying aponeurotic fibroma in the upper arm: a case report and review of the literature.

Calcifying aponeurotic fibroma is a rare soft tissue tumor that occurs in the distal extremities of children and adolescents. We report a case of pathologically proven calcifying aponeurotic fibroma in the left upper arm of a 23-year-old female. Radiographs revealed increased soft tissue density with multiple stippled calcifications in the mid-portion of the patient's left upper arm. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a well-defined soft tissue mass with low to intermediate signal intensity on T1-weighted images, heterogeneously low signal intensity on T2-weighted images, and heterogeneous enhancement on fat-suppressed, contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images. Histologically, spindle cell proliferation with scattered calcifications and hyalinization was present. Seven years after surgery, there was no evidence of local recurrence. This is the first report of MRI findings of calcifying aponeurotic fibroma in the upper arm. We also summarize the MRI findings of 16 previously reported cases of calcifying aponeurotic fibroma originating in the upper or lower extremities.

The presence of centrioles and centrosomes in ovarian mature cystic teratoma cells suggests human parthenotes developed in vitro can differentiate into mature cells without a sperm centriole.

In most animals, somatic cell centrosomes are inherited from the centriole of the fertilizing spermatozoa. The oocyte centriole degenerates during oogenesis, and completely disappears in metaphase II. Therefore, the embryos generated by in vitro parthenogenesis are supposed to develop without any centrioles. Exceptional acentriolar and/or acentrosomal developments are possible in mice and in some experimental cells; however, in most animals, the full developmental potential of parthenogenetic cells in vitro and the fate of their centrioles/centrosomes are not clearly understood. To predict the future of in vitro human parthenogenesis, we explored the centrioles/centrosomes in ovarian mature cystic teratoma cells by immunofluorescent staining and transmission electron microscopy. We confirmed the presence of centrioles and centrosomes in these well-known parthenogenetic ovarian tumor cells. Our findings clearly demonstrate that, even without a sperm centriole, parthenotes that develop from activated oocytes can produce their own centrioles/centrosomes, and can even develop into the well-differentiated mature tissue.

Skin-derived stem cells in human scar tissues: a novel isolation and proliferation technique and their differentiation potential to neurogenic progenitor cells.

Adult tissues contain stem cells that can transdifferentiate into other cell lineages besides forming differentiated cells of their own tissue of origin. However, human adult skin-derived stem cells have a very low efficiency. Here we established a novel culture system involving bone morphogenetic protein-4 and a floating culture system with sphere-producing medium that can enrich adult stem-cell populations in vitro. Adult stem cells were isolated from useless human scar tissue. Like mesenchymal stem cells, cultured human scar tissue-derived stem cells (hSTSCs) altered their morphology and significantly increased the number of Nestin-positive cells in proportion to the alkaline phosphatase-positive cell ratio. Moreover, the expression of the pluripotency regulator Oct-4 and its target transcripts, Sox-2, c-kit, and Rex-1, was also stimulated by this culture system. Differentiation of neurogenic progenitor cells using basic fibroblast growth factor and Neurogen 2 was successfully performed in vitro more rapidly than previous reports. Neuronal differentiation results showed that our hSTSCs expressed marker of neurogenic genes, such as glial fibrillary acid protein, neural cell adhesion molecules, neuron filament-M, and microtubule-associated protein 2. These results suggest that bone morphogenetic protein-4 and the floating culture system with sphere-producing medium induced significant proliferation of hSTSCs and mediated reprogramming of the cells from adult somatic tissue into precursor state to some degree. It is thought that this new culture system might be a simple, effective, and easily manageable process for regenerative tissue repair and autotransplantation.

Derivation of embryonic germ cells from post migratory primordial germ cells, and methylation analysis of their imprinted genes by bisulfite genomic sequencing.

The embryonic germ cell (EGCs) of mice is a kind of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated from pre- and post-migratory primordial germ cells (PGCs). Most previous studies on DNA methylation of EGCs were restricted to 12.5 days post coitum (dpc). This study was designed to establish and characterize murine EGC lines from migrated PGCs as late as 13.5 dpc and to estimate the degrees of methylation of their imprinted genes as well as of the non-imprinted locus, Oct4, using an accurate and quantitative method of measurement. We established five independent EGC lines from post migratory PGCs of 11.5-13.5 dpc from C57BL/6xDBA/2 F1 hybrid mouse fetuses. All the EGCs exhibited the typical features of pluripotent cells including hypomethylation of the Oct4 regulatory region. We examined the methylation status of three imprinted genes; Igf2, Igf2r and H19 in the five EGC lines using bisulfite genomic sequencing analysis. Igf2r was almost unmethylated in all the EGC lines irrespective of the their sex and stage of isolation; Igf2 and H19 were more methylated than Igf2r, especially in male EGCs. Moreover, EGCs derived at 13.5 dpc exhibited higher levels of DNA methylation than those from earlier stages. These results suggest that in vitro derived EGCs acquire different epigenotypes from their parental in vivo migratory PGCs, and that sex-specific de novo methylation occurs in the Igf2 and H19 genes of EGCs.