Abstract.The pituitary function of patients with Rathke's cleft cyst before and after surgery was investigated to clarify the significance of surgery and operative indications.The authors have treated 19

The incidence of intracranial aneurysm associated with pituitary adenoma is not definitely established although reported higher than in general population. This study was designed to find the existence of such association in a large series of pituitary adenoma cases. A retrospective study of 467 cases of pituitary adenoma (mean age: 41 +/- 15 years) was done. All patients underwent cerebral angiography at least of anterior circulation, detailed hormonal study, and 155 cases had additional magnetic resonance (MR) angiography. Twenty-five cases (5.4%) of pituitary adenoma (mean age 52 years) had intracranial aneurysm, 97% on anterior circulation, and 12% had multiple aneurysms. Two cases presented with aneurysmal rupture and the rest were incidental. Aneurysm was more frequently seen with increasing age (p < 0.001) and the age distribution resembled that of aneurysm among general population. Although the combination was most frequent among nonfunctioning adenoma (8.8%), and least frequent among prolactinoma (2.4%), this association was again due to age factor. There was no association between hormone secretion, size and invasive nature of the tumor. The results showed no association between intracranial aneurysm and pituitary adenoma. Our speculation is that such occurrence is merely a chance factor and the risk is no greater than that among general population.

The authors report on a patient who exhibited intractable epilepsy due to an inaccessible hypothalamic hamartoma and subsequently underwent stereotactic radiosurgery. This 25-year-old man had a 24-year history of intractable gelastic and tonic-clonic seizures. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging performed at examination as well as that performed 30 months earlier demonstrated a nonenhancing and nonprogressive spherical mass, approximately 10 mm in diameter, located on the patient's right side at the floor of the third ventricle. Focal radiation treatment performed with a gamma knife unit administered 36 Gy to the center and 18 Gy to the periphery of the lesion. This treatment resulted in an improvement in seizure control. Before the patient underwent radiosurgery, he suffered from three to six generalized seizures per month in spite of attentive compliance with an anticonvulsant medication regimen. After irradiation of the harmatoma, the frequency of the seizures transiently increased and then subsided 3 months posttreatment. The patient has been free of seizures for the last 21 months, with no neurological or endocrinological complications. Magnetic resonance imaging performed 12 months posttreatment demonstrated complete disappearance of the lesion.

BackgroundThe medicinal orchid Dendrobium moniliforme contains water-soluble polysaccharides, phenanthrenes, bibenzyl derivatives, and polyphenol compounds. This study explored the antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of D. moniliforme extracts and detected their bioactive compounds.MethodsPlant material was collected from the Daman of Makawanpur district in central Nepal. Plant extracts were prepared from stems using hexane, chloroform, acetone, ethanol and methanol. The total polyphenol content (TPC) in each extract was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu’s reagent and the total flavonoid content (TFC) in each extract was determined using the aluminium chloride method. The in vitro antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of each extract were determined using DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assays respectively. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was used to detect bioactive compounds.ResultsTPC content was highest (116.65 μg GAE/mg of extract) in D. moniliforme chloroform extract (DMC) and TFC content was highest (116.67 μg QE/mg of extract) in D. moniliforme acetone extract (DMA). D. moniliforme hexane extract (DMH) extract showed the highest percentage of DPPH radical scavenging activity (94.48%), followed closely by D. moniliforme ethanol extract (DME) (94.45%), DMA (93.71%) and DMC (94.35%) at 800 μg/ml concentration. The antioxidant capacities of DMC, DMA, DMH and DME, which were measured in IC50 values, were much lower 42.39 μg/ml, 49.56 μg/ml, 52.68 μg/ml, and 58.77 μg/ml respectively than the IC50 of D. moniliforme methanol extract (DMM) (223.15 μg/ml). DMM at the concentration of 800 μg/ml most inhibited the growth of HeLa cells (78.68%) and DME at the same concentration most inhibited the growth of U251 cells (51.95%). The cytotoxic capacity (IC50) of DMM against HeLa cells was 155.80 μg/ml of extract and that of DME against the U251 cells was 772.50 μg/ml of extract. A number of bioactive compounds were detected in both DME and DMM.ConclusionThe fact that plant extract of D. moniliforme has a number of bioactive compounds which showed antioxidant and cytotoxic activities suggests the potential pharmacological importance of this plant.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12906-018-2197-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Dendrobium crepidatum is an epiphytic orchid found in south Asia including Nepal and China. This orchid species is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, cataracts, and fever. The objectives of the present research were to assess the antioxidant and cytotoxic properties of its stem’s extracts with the identification of bioactive secondary metabolites. The antioxidant and cytotoxic activities were evaluated using the DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assays, respectively, and compounds were identified using GC–MS (gas chromatography and mass spectrometry). Ethanol and acetone extracts scavenged 94.69 ± 0.10% and 93.41 ± 0.86% of DPPH free radicals, respectively. They showed 50% inhibition of DPPH free radicals (IC50) at concentrations of 73.90 µg/mL and 99.44 µg/mL, which were found to be statistically similar to that of ascorbic acid (control). Chloroform extract inhibited the growth of 81.49 ± 0.43% of HeLa (human cervical carcinoma) cells and hexane extract inhibited the growth of 76.45 ± 4.26% of U251 (human glioblastoma) cells at 800 µg/mL concentration. These extracts showed 50% inhibition of cell growth (IC50) toward both the HeLa and U251 cell lines at their high concentrations, which were found statistically significantly different from that of cisplatin drug (control). The above extracts showed antioxidant and cytotoxic properties, potentially due to the presence of tetracosane, triacontane, stigmasterol, and some phenol derivatives (2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, 2-methoxy-5-(1-propenyl)-phenol, p-mesyloxyphenol, and 2,6-dimethoxy-4-(2-propenyl)-phenol). This study explores the potential of this orchid in alternative medicine toward the development of drugs from its medicinally active compounds.