No abstract

We developed the MIPS to address limitations in current intraoperative imaging methods. Our retrospective analysis provides evidence of the feasibility and clinical utility of the MIPS to identify anatomical landmarks for parenchymal dissection. The MIPS holds promise as a novel real-time navigation system for liver resection.

No abstract

Streptococcus suis in Humans, Thailand

Background/Aim: Cisplatinum (CDDP) is a firstline drug in osteosarcoma treatment and the acquisition of resistance to CDDP is associated with a poor prognosis. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is a nuclear hormone receptor that plays important roles in cell proliferation, differentiation, development, metabolism and cell death. Recently, PPARγ was reported to enhance the efficacy, overcome resistance, and decrease the toxicity of CDDP in various human cancers. In this study we tested whether pioglitazone (PIO), a PPARγ agonist, could overcome CDDP resistance in osteosarcoma. Materials and Methods: In this study, we used a human osteosarcoma cell line and a patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) models of osteosarcoma. We measured cell viability of 143B human osteosarcoma cells when treated with CDDP and PIO. We randomized PDOX models of osteosarcoma into four treatment groups: Group 1, Untreated control; Group 2, PIO alone; Group 3, CDDP alone; Group 4, a combination of CDDP and PIO. Each group comprised six mice. Mice were treated for 14 days and tumor size and body weight were measured. Results: Cell viability of 143B human osteosarcoma cells was significantly reduced when PIO (50 μmol/l) was combined with CDDP compared to CDDP alone. PDOX osteosarcoma tumors treated with the CDDP-PIO combination showed the strongest tumor growth inhibition compared to other treatment groups. PDOX osteosarcoma tumors treated with the CDDP-PIO combination had the least cancer cells and the most necrosis in histological section. Conclusion: These results suggest that combining PIO along with CDDP could be an effective treatment strategy for osteosarcoma and has important clinical potential for patients. Cisplatinum (CDDP) is first-line therapy for osteosarcoma. However, its use is limited due to side-effects, such as nephrotoxicity, neuropathies, and/or bone marrow toxicity (1). Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is a member of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily. PPARγ plays important roles in cell proliferation and differentiation, lipid metabolism, development, and cell death and is a candidate tumor suppressor gene (2). PPARγ ligands exert anti-tumor efficacy in various cancer models, however, monotherapy of PPARγ ligands showed a limited efficacy in clinical trials (3). Even though PPARγ ligands are less efficacious as monotherapy, in combination with traditional chemotherapy drugs, they showed improved clinical potential (3). We previously showed that the PPARγ ligand pioglitazone (PIO) could overcome doxorubicin-resistance in an osteosarcoma patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) model (4). It has been demonstrated that PPARγ ligands combined with platinum-based drugs increase therapeutic efficacy in multiple cancer models such as nonsmall cell lung cancer (5), colon cancer (6), and ovarian cancer (6), but not in osteosarcoma. In the present study, we tested whether PIO could overcome CDDP-resistance in osteosarcoma PDOX model.

No abstract

Streptococcus gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus causes endocarditis in humans and acute septicemia in domestic birds. We describe here the infective endocarditis caused by the bacterium found among clinically healthy broilers at two abattoirs in Japan. The chickens were thought to be healthy because of the lack of clinical symptoms and normal levels of mortality before slaughtering. At the time of inspection, some chickens were condemned because of organ disorders characterized by vegetative valvular endocarditis as well as focal necrosis in heart, liver, and spleen. Streptococcus gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus was isolated from the organs as a pure culture, indicating that the bacterium probably was the causative agent of the disorders. Amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis of the isolates collected at the abattoirs from chickens grown in nine different farms indicated that the isolates were different variants of the same clonal lineage and may have been derived from the same ancestor. These results suggest that S. gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus causes infectious endocarditis in chickens and that healthy chickens may possess the bacterium in their normal flora as an opportunistic pathogen.

The MIPS is effective in detecting SLNs in patients with breast cancer, providing continuous and accurate projection of fluorescence signals in the surgical field, without need for operating lights, and could be useful in real-time navigation surgery for SLN biopsy.