Sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma: a case report and literature review.

Background: The poorly differentiated renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with rhabdomyosarcomatous sarcomatoid differentiation shows a severely aggressive biological behavior characterized by rapid disease progression. Preoperative identification of the subtype with the prognostic factors and imaging features of sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma (SRCC) would be of great clinical significance.

Case Presentation: A 45-year-old male patient presented a nine day history of gross hematuria without any other symptoms.

Temporal expression patterns of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-4 in the embryonic and postnatal rat brain.

Background: IGFBP-4 has been considered as a factor involving in development of the central nervous system (CNS), but its role needs to be further clarified. In present study, the localization of IGFBP-4 expression in the embryonic forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain was determined using immunohistochemistry, and the levels of IGFBP-4 protein and mRNA were semi-quantified using RT-PCR and Western blot in the embryonic (forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain) and postnatal brain (cerebral cortex, cerebellum and midbrain).

Results: A clear immunoreactivity of IGFBP-4 covered almost the entire embryonic brain (forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain) from E10.

Dopaminergic axons preferentially innervate dendritic spines with hyperactive glutamatergic synapses in the rat striatum.

Dopaminergic and glutamatergic afferents simultaneously innervate median spiny neurons (MSNs) and interact to mediate basal ganglia functions. However, the association between dopaminergic and glutamatergic axons is not clear. In the present study, nigrostriatal, corticostriatal, and thalamostriatal axons were anterogradely traced with biotinylated dextran amines (BDA) in rats, and MSNs were labeled with chloromethylbenzamido-DiI for neurogeometric analysis.

Expression of GAP-43 in fibroblast cell lines influences the orientation of cell division.

The orientation (vertical or horizontal) of cell division is known to be critical for neural cell fate determination during neurogenesis. At the onset of neurogenesis, neurogenic progenitor cells are dividing with the cleavage plane parallel to the ventricular surface (horizontal division), which would lead to critical apical components being unequally distributed to both their two daughter cells. The daughter cells lack of inheritance is going to differentiate into the neuron.

Astrocytes modulate distribution and neuronal signaling of leptin in the hypothalamus of obese A vy mice.

We tested the hypothesis that astrocytic activity modulates neuronal uptake and signaling of leptin in the adult-onset obese agouti viable yellow (A vy) mouse. In the immunohistochemical study, A vy mice were pretreated with the astrocyte metabolic inhibitor fluorocitrate or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) vehicle intracerebroventricularly (icv) followed 1 h later by Alexa568-leptin. Confocal microscopy showed that fluorocitrate pretreatment reduced astrocytic uptake of Alexa568-leptin 30 min after icv while increasing neuronal uptake in the arcuate nucleus and dorsomedial hypothalamus.

Hyaluronic acid hydrogel modified with nogo-66 receptor antibody and poly-L-lysine to promote axon regrowth after spinal cord injury.

The biomaterials used for central nervous system injury require not only interacting with specific cell adhesion but also specific growth factor receptors to promote nerve regeneration. In this study, hyaluronic acid (HA)-based hydrogels modified with poly-L-lysine (PLL) and nogo-66 receptor antibody (antiNgR) (HA-PLL/antiNgR) were administered to rats after lateral hemisection of the spinal cord. Anti-neurofilament positive axons were found to extend into the HA-PLL/antiNgR hydrogel at 8 weeks after implantation, which shows significant difference compared with HA-PLL or blank control group.

Cerebrovascular hypoperfusion induces spatial memory impairment, synaptic changes, and amyloid-β oligomerization in rats.

Cerebrovascular hypoperfusion occurs prior to the clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and represents the most accurate indicator predicting whether an individual develops AD at a future time. To study how cerebrovascular hypoperfusion contributes to AD, we induced cerebrovascular hypoperfusion by bilateral carotid occlusion surgery in adult rats and investigated its impacts on spatial memory, synapses, and accumulation of oligomeric amyloid-β. We found progressive spatial memory deficits, as tested by Morris water maze, starting 30 days after occlusion surgery.

Expression of the neural specific protein, GAP-43, dramatically lengthens the cell cycle in fibroblasts.

It has been demonstrated that during neurogenesis in the mammalian brain, cell-cycle lengthening in neuronal progenitors may cause them to switch from proliferation to neuron-generating division. However, little is known about the cellular mechanisms involved in lengthening of the cell cycle. Growth-associated protein-43 (GAP-43) is a nervous system-specific protein whose expression in proliferating neuroblasts is related to neurogenesis.

Establishment of an immortalized GABAergic neuronal progenitor cell line from embryonic ventral mesencephalon in the rat.

Effective cell replacement therapies for neurological disease require neuron-restricted precursors as grafted cells. The problem of obtaining sufficient grafts for transplantation can be resolved by creating an appropriate immortalized cell line. In the present study, a thermally controlled immortalized GABAergic neuronal progenitor cell line (RMNE6) was established from E13 rat ventral mesencephalon cells immortalized using the temperature-sensitive mutant of SV40 large T antigen (ts-TAg).