Calcified deep somatic soft tissue leiomyoma of the leg: A case report.

Deep somatic soft tissue leiomyoma is a rare benign smooth muscle tumor, with around 60 cases reported thus far in the literature. Herein, we report a huge leiomyoma in deep somatic soft tissue with massive calcification in the peroneus longus muscle. A 29-year-old male patient presented with a hard, spindle-shaped, 15-cm-diameter mass of the left lower leg. Plain radiography showed marked calcification within the lesion, and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a well-circumscribed lesion with strong contrast enhancement within the peroneus longus. A core needle biopsy was performed to rule out a soft tissue sarcoma, and deep somatic soft tissue leiomyoma was preoperatively diagnosed. A marginal excision was performed, and the patient recovered without event and has been recurrence-free for 16 months. As far as we know, the present soft tissue leiomyoma was one of the largest to be documented, the previously reported cases being up to 14 cm in maximum diameter. Leiomyomas of deep somatic soft tissue should be included in the differential diagnosis of a huge, deep-seated tumor with marked calcification as well as sarcomas, especially in younger patients.

Grainyhead-like 2 regulates epithelial morphogenesis by establishing functional tight junctions through the organization of a molecular network among claudin3, claudin4, and Rab25.

During development, epithelial progenitors establish intercellular junctions, including tight junctions (TJs), and form three-dimensional (3D) tissue structures, which are often associated with luminal structures. Here we identify grainyhead-like 2 (Grhl2) as a transcription factor that regulates the size of luminal space surrounded by polarized epithelial cells. We show that HPPL, a liver progenitor cell line, transfected with Grhl2 cDNA forms remarkably larger cysts than the control cells in 3D cultures. We find that Grhl2 up-regulates claudin (Cldn) 3 and Cldn4, and their functions are necessary for the formation of large cysts. Overexpression of Cldn3 alone induces the cyst expansion. In contrast, expression of Cldn4 alone does not induce expansion, as it is not localized at TJs. Of interest, Rab25, another Grhl2 target, not only increases the Cldn4 protein, but also enhances its localization at TJs. Taken together, the results indicate that Grhl2 regulates epithelial morphogenesis through transcriptional up-regulation of Cldn3 and Cldn4, as well as of Rab25, which increases the Cldn4 protein and its localization at TJs. The results reveal a molecular network regulating epithelial lumen formation organized by Grhl2.