Objectives:To retrospectively describe our 10-year experience with extracranial non-vestibular head and neck schwannomas by presenting their clinical features, diagnostic methods, surgical decisions, and treatment outcomes.Methods:This is a retrospective study conducted at the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Shanghai First People’s Hospital, Shanghai, China. The medical records of 46 patients diagnosed with schwannoma in the extracranial head and neck region as confirmed on paraffin-embedded sections from January 2003 to December 2012 were reviewed.Results:All tumors were benign, and 52% presented as asymptomatic palpable solitary masses. Compressive symptoms, which can represent meaningful indicators of the nerve of origin were commonly noted. The most common nerve of origin was the brachial plexus (n=13, 28.3%).Conclusion:While postoperative histopathologic examination is still the gold standard, fine needle aspiration cytology, CT scan, and magnetic resonance imaging may be useful in the diagnosis of schwannomas. As schwannomas are radioresistant, and as, despite their benign nature, can cause severe secondary symptoms, the best treatment of choice is complete excision with preservation of functions.

Exosomes, a kind of extracellular vesicle, are promising therapeutic agents for spinal cord injury (SCI). This article aimed to investigate effects of exosomes secreted from miRNA-29b-modified bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on SCI. Exosomes were extracted from BMSCs transfected with miRNA-29b or negative control (miR NC). SCI rats were injected intravenously with exosomes (control exosomes, miRNA-29b exosomes) and BMSCs (miR NC, miRNA-29b) through the tail vein. The expression of miRNA-29b in spinal cord tissues of SCI rats was detected by qRT-PCR. The hind limb motor function was evaluated by Basso Beattie Bresnahan (BBB) score. The histopathological damage and neuronal regeneration in spinal cord tissues was observed by HE staining and immunohistochemistry, respectively. The injection of miRNA-29b exosomes and miRNA-29b BMSCs both significantly increased the expression of miRNA-29b in spinal cord tissues of SCI rats (P<0.05). Compared with SCI rats, rats in the miRNA-29b exosomes and the miRNA-29b groups exhibited improved SCI, including increased BBB score, NF200 and GAP-43 positive neurons, as well as decreased contractile nerve cell numbers and GFAP positive neurons (all P<0.05). The relieving degree of SCI was significantly higher in the miRNA-29b exosomes group than in the miRNA-29b BMSCs group (P<0.05). Exosomes secreted from miRNA-29b-modified BMSCs were effective in the repair of SCI in rats.

Recently, the sonocatalytic technology using various semiconductors combined with ultrasonic irradiation has been received much attention to solve the environmental problems. In this paper, nano-sized titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) powder as a sonocatalyst was irradiated by ultrasound and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during sonocatalytic reaction process has been estimated by the method of Oxidation-Extraction Photometry (OEP). That is, the 1,5-diphenylcarbohydrazide (DPCI) can be oxidized by ROS into diphenylcarbonzone (DPCO), which can be extracted by the mixed solution of benzene and carbon tetrachloride and show the great absorbance at 563 nm wavelength. The synergistic effect of TiO(2) and ultrasonic irradiation was estimated and some influencing factors, such as ultrasonic irradiation time and TiO(2) addition amount on the generation of ROS were reviewed. The results indicate that the quantities of generated ROS increase with the increase of ultrasonic irradiation time and TiO(2) addition amount. Moreover, the relationship between quantities of generated ROS and DPCI concentration was also studied. And then, several quenchers were used to determine the kind of the generated ROS. At last, the researches on the sonocatalytic degradation of organic dyes and the corresponding reaction kinetics have also been performed, which is found to follow the pseudo first-order kinetics approximately. This paper may offer some important subjects for broadening the applications of sonocatalytic technology.