The RECIST criteria compared to conventional response evaluation after peptide receptor radionuclide therapy in patients with neuroendocrine neoplasms

Annals of Nuclear Medicine - The Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST) is the most used radiological method for evaluating response after peptide receptor radionuclide therapy...     

Cerebellar nuclear afferents--where do they originate? A re-evaluation of the projections from some lower brain stem nuclei

Summary Cerebellar nuclear afferents from some caudal brain stem nuclei in the cat were studied by means of retrograde transport after implantation of the wheat germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase complex in crystalline form in the cerebellar nuclei. The findings give evidence that projections to the cerebellar nuclei from certain nuclei of the reticular formation proper (e.g., from the gigantocellular reticular nucleus) are very modest, while there appears to be no or extremely few cerebellar nuclear afferents from the paramedian reticular, spinal trigeminal, gracile, cuneate and external cuneate nuclei. Previous tracer studies have given evidence that also the pontine and red nuclei send very few, if any, fibres to the cerebellar nuclei. All these brain stem regions are known to project to the cerebellar cortex. This relative lack of mossy fibre collaterals to the cerebellar nuclei is discussed with references to previous literature on the distribution of cerebellar nuclear afferents, and the problem of how the cerebellar nuclei are facilitated is considered.Abbreviations Br.c. superior cerebellar peduncle (brachium conjunctivum) - Br.p. middle cerebellar peduncle (brachium pontis) - C.r. interior cerebellar peduncle (restiform body) - HRP horseradish peroxidase - L left - N.c. cuneate nucleus - N.c.e. external cuneate nucleus - N.c.t. nucleus of corpus trapezoideum - NIA anterior interposed nucleus - NIP posterior interposed nucleus - NL lateral (dentate) nucleus - N.l.l. nuclei of lateral lemniscus - NM medial (fastigial) nucleus - N.m.X. dorsal motor vagal nucleus - N.mes. mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus - N.r.l. lateral reticular nucleus (nucleus of the lateral funiculus) - N.r.p. paramedian reticular nucleus - N.r.t. reticular tegmental pontine nucleus - N V, VI, VII, XII root fibres of cranial nerves - Ol.s. superior olive - P.h. nucleus praepositus hypoglossi - Py pyramid - R right - R.gc. gigantocellular reticular nucleus - R.l. lateral reticular nucleus of Meessen and Olszewski - R.p.c. caudal pontine reticular nucleus - R.pc. parvicellular reticular nucleus - R.v. ventral reticular nucleus - Tr.sp.V. spinal tract of the trigeminal nerve - T.s. solitary tract surrounded by nucleus of solitary tract - V.m. medial vestibular nucleus - WGA wheat germ agglutinin - WGA-HRP wheat germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase conjugate - V, VI, VII, X, XII motor nuclei of cranial nerves     

Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL1RA) in acute leukaemia: IL1RA is both secreted spontaneously by myelogenous leukaemia blasts and is a part of the acute phase reaction in patients with chemotherapy- induced leucopenia

Abstract: Blast cells derived from peripheral blood of patients with acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) were cultured in vitro and interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL1RA) concentrations determined in culture supernatants. AML blasts derived from patients classified as AML-M4 and AML-M5 subtype showed an increased release of IL1RA. IL1α and IL1β caused a similar increase in AML blast release of IL1RA, and addition of anti-ILl antibodies decreased IL1RA release. IL1RA release from AML blasts was also increased by stem cell factor, tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and macrophage colony-stimulating factor, whereas interleukin 3, interleukin 6, leukaemia inhibitory factor and granulocyte colony- stimulating factor did not significantly alter IL1RA release. When investigating IL1RA serum levels, serum concentrations were decreased in acute leukaemia patients with chemotherapy-induced cytopenia compared with healthy controls. Serum levels of both IL1RA as well as IL1β and soluble TNFα receptors increased when the leucopenic patients developed complicating bacterial infections.     

Divergent axon collaterals to cerebellum and amygdala from neurons in the parabrachial nucleus, the nucleus locus coeruleus and some adjacent nuclei

Summary After injections in the cat of Rhodamine labelled latex microspheres in the amygdala and of Fast Blue in the cerebellum neurons labelled with one of these tracers as well as some double labelled neurons were found in the parabrachial nucleus, the nucleus locus coeruleus and some adjacent nuclei (the nucleus subcoeruleus and the pontine tegmental reticular formation). All double labelled cells were located on the ipsilateral side. A few double labelled neurons were also found bilaterally in the dorsal raphe nucleus. It therefore appears that a certain number of cerebellar projecting neurons in these brain stem nuclei by means of divergent axon collaterals also project to the amygdala. The location of the double labelled cells found in this study suggests that at least some of the neurons are catecholaminergic. The findings are related to previous reports on the distribution of catecholaminergic neurons and on the amygdaloid and cerebellar projections from this part of the brain stem, and the possible involvement of these connections in cerebellar non-somatic responses are discussed. Some comments are made concerning the use of fluorescent latex microspheres for double labelling studies in combination with another fluorescent tracer.     

Flattening the quality of life curve? A prospective person-centred study from Norway amid COVID-19

Quality of Life Research - We examined multidimensional, heterogeneous reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated measures to provide further insights into the developmental processes of...     

A commercial mixture of the brominated flame retardant pentabrominated diphenyl ether (DE-71) induces respiratory burst in human neutrophil granulocytes in vitro.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are widely used brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which have become ubiquitous in the environment. This study investigates the effects of the pentabrominated diphenyl ether mixture, DE-71, on human neutrophil granulocytes in vitro. DE-71 enhanced production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a concentration-dependent manner measured as lucigenin-amplified chemiluminescence. Octabrominated diphenyl ether (OBDE), decabrominated diphenyl ether (DBDE), and the non-brominated diphenyl ether did not induce ROS formation at the concentrations tested. DPI (4 microM), an inhibitor of the NADPH oxidase completely inhibited DE-71 induced ROS formation, highlighting a role for NADPH oxidase activation. The protein kinase C inhibitor BIM (0.25 microM) and the selective chelator of intracellular calcium, BAPTA-AM (5 microM), also inhibited NADPH oxidase activation, indicating a calcium-dependent activation of PKC. ROS formation was also inhibited by the tyrosine kinase inhibitor tyrphostin (1 microM), the phospholipase C inhibitor ET-18-OCH3 (5 microM), and the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase inhibitor LY294002 (25 microM). Alterations in intracellular calcium were measured using fura-2/AM, and a significant increase was measured after exposure to DE-71 both with and without extracellular calcium. The tetra brominated compound BDE-47 also enhanced ROS formation in a concentration dependent manner. The combination of DE-71 with the bacteria-derived N-formyl peptide fMLP and PCB153 induced an additive effect in the lucigenin assay. We suggest that tyrosine kinase mediated activation of PI3K could result in enhanced activation of calcium-dependent PKC by enhanced PLC activity, followed by intracellular calcium release leading to ROS formation in neutrophil granulocytes.