Light chain deposition disease presenting with gastrointestinal disorder as primary manifestation: report of two cases and literature review.

Light chain deposition disease (LCDD) is an under-recognized condition characterized by deposition of abnormal monoclonal light chains in tissues, leading to organ dysfunction. LCDD involving the gastrointestinal tract is very uncommon, and its diagnosis is challenging. We herein report two cases of LCDD that manifested as inflammatory bowel disease-like symptoms and protein-losing gastroenteropathy. Both patients were women in their early 60s. Tissue biopsies from the gastrointestinal mucosa demonstrated extracellular deposits, which were negative by Congo red staining but positive for κ-light chain by immunohistochemistry. The recent literature on LCDD was reviewed. When patients unexpectedly show extracellular deposits in gastrointestinal biopsy specimens, evaluation of immunoglobulin chains is recommended for diagnosis of LCDD after systemic amyloidosis has been excluded.

Identification of curcumin as a novel potential drug for promoting the development of small ovarian follicles for infertility treatment.

In-vitro fertilization is an effective treatment for various causes of infertility. However, management of women with poor ovarian response or premature ovarian insufficiency remains challenging because these women have underdeveloped small ovarian follicles that do not respond to hormone treatment. In-vitro activation of small follicles has been developed but its efficiency has much room for improvement. In the current study, we provide several lines of evidence showing that curcumin, an FDA-approved traditional medicine, can specifically promote the development of mouse ovarian follicles from the primary to secondary stage, which greatly potentiates these small follicles for subsequent in-vivo development into antral follicles that can be ovulated. Mechanistically, we show that curcumin promotes the proliferation and differentiation of granulosa cells and the growth of oocytes by activating the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway. Most importantly, we show that in-vitro treatment of human ovarian tissues with curcumin can promote the in-vivo survival and development of small human ovarian follicles, showing that curcumin can be used as a potential drug to increase the success rate of in-vitro activation of small human follicles. We thus identify curcumin as a novel potential drug for promoting the development of small human ovarian follicles for infertility treatment.

A gastro-colic fistula secondary to high-grade B-cell gastric lymphoma in a patient with AIDS: a case report.

To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous reports of a gastro-colic fistula (GCF) secondary to primary high-grade B-cell gastric lymphoma associated with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Here, we report a 37-year-old man who presented with paroxysmal abdominal pain for 4 months, diarrhea for 15 days and weight loss of 4 kg. He had a history of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and was diagnosed with AIDS in 2013. The patient was diagnosed with a GCF secondary to primary high-grade B-cell gastric lymphoma by gastroscopy and histopathological examination. Two weeks after diagnosis, he died in another hospital. This is an uncommon case in which the GCF occurred secondary to malignant gastric lymphoma in a patient with AIDS. Supported by the literature, patients with HIV infection who complain of abdominal pain or a mass, severe diarrhea, and weight loss should be assessed for a GCF secondary to lymphoma because of its worse prognosis.