Sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (AKI) is a leading cause of death in hospitalized patients worldwide. Despite decades of effort, there is no effective treatment for preventing the serious medical condition. Bee venom has long been used to treat a variety of inflammatory diseases. However, whether bee venom has protective effects against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced AKI has not been explored. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of bee venom on LPS-induced AKI. The administration of bee venom alleviated renal dysfunction and structural injury in LPS-treated mice. Increased renal levels of tubular injury markers after LPS treatment were also suppressed by bee venom. Mechanistically, bee venom significantly reduced plasma and tissue levels of inflammatory cytokines and immune cell infiltration into damaged kidneys. In addition, mice treated with bee venom exhibited reduced renal expression of lipid peroxidation markers after LPS injection. Moreover, bee venom attenuated tubular cell apoptosis in the kidneys of LPS-treated mice. In conclusion, these results suggest that bee venom attenuates LPS-induced renal dysfunction and structural injury via the suppression of inflammation, oxidative stress, and tubular cell apoptosis, and might be a useful therapeutic option for preventing endotoxemia-related AKI.

Nongestational choriocarcinoma differentiation is extremely rare in breast neoplasms. It is characterized by tumor cells similar to chorionic trophoblastic cells, which react with human placental lactogen and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). A 56-year-old woman presented with a palpable right breast mass without past history of trophoblastic tumors. An F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan revealed one focus with low accumulation of FDG in the right breast (maximum standardized uptake value, 1.98). The patient underwent a right mastectomy and biopsy of sentinel nodes. Microscopically, the tumor was a typical invasive ductal carcinoma with multiple foci of choriocarcinoma features. Immunohistochemistry showed that the tumor cells resembling choriocarcinoma were positive for hCG antibody, but negative for HER2/neu, estrogen receptor, and progesterone receptor. A pathologic diagnosis of breast carcinoma with choriocarcinomatous features was made. To our knowledge, this is the first report of invasive carcinoma with choriocarcinomatous features and an unusual finding of low accumulation in an F-18 FDG PET/CT scan in Korea.

Rectal neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are typically small lesions that are confined to the submucosa and have favorable behavior at the time of diagnosis. Local endoscopic or surgical resection is recommended because lymph node metastasis is very rare. In this report, we present the case of a 36-year-old male presenting with an incidentally found rectal mass during screening colonoscopy. Pathologic examination of the primary tumor revealed a 9-mm grade 1 NET with submucosal invasion and no significant aggressive factors except for central ulceration. However, radiologic studies revealed a suspected 2.6-cm mesorectal lymph node metastasis and multiple left internal iliac lymph node metastases. We performed laparoscopic intersphincteric resection with left lateral pelvic lymph node dissection. The final pathologic report revealed a metastatic lymph node with low grade, low mitotic count, and low Ki-67 index. We describe an overview of lymph node metastasis of rectal NETs focusing on lateral pelvic lymph node metastasis.

Pellino‐1 plays a crucial role in cellular proliferation and regulates inflammatory processes. This study investigated Pellino‐1 expression patterns and their relationship with CD4+ T‐cell subsets in psoriasis patients. Group 1 comprised primarily biopsied psoriasis lesions from 378 patients, multiplex‐immunostained for Pellino‐1, CD4 and representative T helper (Th) cells (T‐bet [Th1], GATA3 [Th2], and RORγt [Th17] and regulatory T cell [FoxP3] markers). Ki‐67 labeling was evaluated in the epidermis. Group 2 comprised 43 Pellino‐1‐positive cases immunostained for Pellino‐1 in both lesion and non‐lesion skin biopsy samples. Five normal skin biopsies served as controls. Among 378 psoriasis cases, 293 (77.5%) were positive for Pellino‐1 in the epidermis. Pellino‐1‐positivity was higher in psoriasis lesions than in non‐lesions and normal skin (52.55% vs. 40.43% vs. 3.48%, p < 0.001; H‐score, 72.08 vs. 47.55 vs. 4.40, p < 0.001, respectively). Pellino‐1‐positive cases also had a significantly higher Ki‐67 labeling index (p < 0.001). Epidermal Pellino1‐positivity was significantly associated with higher RORγt+ (p = 0.001) and FoxP3+ (p < 0.001) CD4+ T cell ratios but not T‐bet+ and GATA3+ CD4+ T cell ratios. Among the CD4+Pellino‐1+ T‐cell subsets, the CD4+Pellino‐1+RORγt+ ratio was significantly associated with epidermal Pellinio‐1 expression (p < 0.001). Pellino‐1 expression is thus increased in psoriasis lesions and associated with increased epidermal proliferation and CD4+ T‐cell subset infiltration, especially Th17 cells. This suggests that Pellino‐1 could be a therapeutic target that simultaneously regulates psoriasis epidermal proliferation and immune interactions.

A metachronous lymphoma occurs when the second primary lymphoma is diagnosed more than 6 months after the diagnosis of the primary lymphoma. In this article, we report a metachronous extranodal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type, and a primary testicular lymphoma. Extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type, is an extranodal lymphoma of the NK-cell or T-cell lineage, which is prevalent in Asians with a strong association with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). On the other hand, primary testicular lymphoma is a rare form of extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), accounting for 1% to 2% of NHL cases [1]. Most cases are diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with extranodal tropism and frequent relapses. To the best of our knowledge, there is no previous report of metachronous lymphoma, including extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type, and primary testicular DLBCL.