BackgroundNeuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) of the esophagus is a rare and highly aggressive disease but the biological features are poorly understood. The objective of this study was to analyze the clinicopathological and immunohistochemical features of NEC of the esophagus.MethodsFourteen patients diagnosed with NEC of the esophagus from 1998 to 2013 were included in this study. Clinicopathologic features, therapeutic outcomes and immunohistochemical results were analyzed.ResultsEleven out of 14 cases showed protruding or localized type with or without ulceration. Only three patients were negative for both lymph node and organ metastasis and seven cases were positive for metastases to distant organs and/or distant lymph nodes. Of the six patients with limited disease (LD), three patients were treated by surgery. Three patients with LD and seven patients with extensive disease (ED) were initially treated with chemotherapy, except for one who underwent concurrent chemo-radiotherapy due to passage disturbance. The median survival of patients with LD was 8.5 months, whereas that of patients with LD was 17 months. Among the 14 cases, 12 cases (83.3%), 13 cases (91.7%) and 12 cases (83.3%) showed positive immunostaining for choromogranin A, synaptophysin and CD56, respectively. Nine of 14 cases (64.2%) presented positive staining for c-kit and most (8/9, 88%) simultaneously showed p53 protein abnormality. Two cases were negative for c-kit and p53, and positive for CK20.ConclusionConsistent with previous reports, the prognosis of NEC of esophagus is dismal. From the results of immunohistochemical study, NEC of esophagus might be divided into two categories due to the staining positivity of c-kit and p53. This study provides new insight into the biology of NEC of the esophagus.
General expressions of the characteristic polynomials of various series of cyclic and linear polymers of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are presented, i.e., polyacene, zigzag-polyacene, 1,6dimethylbenzene polymer, polyperylene, etc. The densities of states of cyclic and linear polymers with the same repetitive units are shown. In some cases the allowed region of the energy levels of these polymers is found not to be the same. Several related problems are discussed.
We investigated mRNA expression of tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) and inflammatory cell dynamics for wound age estimation of bruises in mice. Neutrophils were detected from 1 h post-injury. Up to 8 h, they accumulated in subcutaneous tissue and the lower part of the dermis, and thereafter they extended to all the layers. Macrophages became detectable 3 h post-injury, and moderate infiltration of lymphocytes was seen from 144 h. In addition, epidermal thickening was also seen from 72 h. tPA mRNA expression peaked at 1 h, and increased slightly at 72 h post-injury. tPA mRNA was detected in epidermal cells, fibroblasts, and endothelial cells before and after injury, from 3 h in neutrophils and from 72 h in macrophages, respectively. This study presents the time-dependent expression of tPA mRNA in bruises in relation to temporal histologic characteristics during wound healing, which was considered to be useful for wound age estimation. Furthermore, it is suggested that tPA plays an important role in the first step of tissue remodeling.
Malignant rhabdoid tumor and epithelioid sarcoma are classified as tumors of uncertain differentiation. However, it is controversial whether these tumors are distinct entities because they share similar histological and immunohistochemical features such as the existence of rhabdoid cells or complete loss of SMARCB1 protein expression. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs, and it is suggested that knowledge of microRNA expression profiles in cancer may have substantial value for diagnostics. We first analyzed microRNA expression profiles in 13 frozen materials (five malignant rhabdoid tumors, two proximal type epithelioid sarcomas, and six conventional type epithelioid sarcomas) and subsequently examined the specific microRNA expressions in 29 paraffin-embedded materials (8 malignant rhabdoid tumors, 13 proximal type epithelioid sarcomas, and 8 conventional type epithelioid sarcomas) and 13 previously described frozen materials by quantitative RT-PCR. According to the unsupervised hierarchical clustering of microRNA, proximal type epithelioid sarcoma and conventional type epithelioid sarcoma were classified into the same category, whereas malignant rhabdoid tumor was a distinct category from both types of epithelioid sarcoma. In addition, when malignant rhabdoid tumor with SMARCB1 gene alterations and proximal type and conventional type epithelioid sarcoma with no SMARCB1 gene alterations were compared, 56 microRNAs were isolated as being significantly different (ANOVA, Po0.05). Among them, quantitative RT-PCR using frozen and paraffin-embedded materials demonstrated that expression levels of miR193a-5p (P ¼ 0.002), which has been suggested to downregulate SMARCB1 mRNA expression, showed statistically different expression levels between malignant rhabdoid tumor and epithelioid sarcoma with no SMARCB1 gene alterations. These results suggest that epithelioid sarcoma, especially proximal type epithelioid sarcoma, and malignant rhabdoid tumor are distinct tumors with respect to the microRNA expression profiles and that miR193a-5p may have an important role in the inhibition of SMARCB1 mRNA expression.
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