[Conservative therapy of parenchymal renal carcinoma]. / Terapia conservativa del carcinoma renale parenchimale.

From January 1987 to October 1990, 20 patients (16 M. 4 F.) affect by localized renal cell carcinoma, underwent a conservative surgical treatment. This case study includes 8 patients with bilateral (4 synchronous-4 asynchronous), and 12 patients with unilateral renal carcinoma. In the latter group only two patients had a pathological contralateral kidney. A parenchyma sparing operation was performed electively in 10 cases and was necessary in the other 10. The tumors were found to be PT1 or pT2 in all the elective cases, except one unexpected pT3a; 1pT1, 5pT2, 1pT3a and 3pT3b in the remaining group. The follow up ranges between 1 and 36 months, two deaths in bilateral tumors cases were observed. No local recurrences have been detected up to now.

Adhesion, growth, and matrix production by osteoblasts on collagen substrata.

A number of studies have demonstrated the pivotal role of collagen molecules in modulating cell growth and differentiation. In order to analyze the direct effects of collagen type I on the osteoblastic phenotype, we have devised an in vitro culture system for studying the interactions between bovine collagen type I and Saos-2 cells, a human osteoblastic cell line. Saos-2 cells were cultured both on top of collagen-coated culture dishes as well as inside a three-dimensional collagen network. Plating on dishes treated with collagen induced maximal adhesion of Saos-2 cells after 24-hour incubation. Cells cultured on collagen gel matrix expressed about 2.5-fold more alkaline phosphatase when compared with untreated plastic dishes. On collagen-coated dishes the responsiveness of Saos-2 cells to parathyroid hormone was decreased, whereas no modifications were observed in the effect of vasoactive intestinal peptide on these cells. Using a microfluorimetric measurement of DNA, an increase of proliferation was observed in Saos-2 cells cultured on collagen gel. Saos-2 cells were also able to colonize collagen sponges and in this three-dimensional network they were able to synthesize osteocalcin, as assessed both by immunocytochemistry and radioimmunoassay. In this study we have demonstrated that bovine collagen type I exhibits favorable effects on attachment and functional and growth activities of a human osteoblastic cell line, encouraging its use as a bone graft material.