Improved Quality of Life Among Chronic Pancreatitis Patients Undergoing Total Pancreatectomy With Islet Autotransplantation-Single Center Experience With Large Cohort of Patients.

Total pancreatectomy with islet autotransplantation (TPIAT) is the treatment of choice to preserve pancreatic endocrine function, alleviate pain, and improve quality of life (QoL) when other strategies are ineffective for chronic pancreatitis (CP) patients. This study utilized pancreatic disease-specific surveys developed by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) to conduct a comprehensive, single-center examination of a large cohort of patients to gain understanding of QoL post-TPIAT. Two validated QoL surveys of the EORTC-QLQ-C30 and QLQ-PAN26-were administered in a prospective cohort of CP patients during pre-and post-operative scheduled visits.

Spleen-preserving total pancreatectomy and islet autotransplantation with complete preservation of the splenic arterial and venous supply does not impact islet yield and function.

Background: Standard total pancreatectomy and islet autotransplantation (TPIAT) for chronic pancreatitis includes splenectomy, but TPIAT can be performed without splenectomy by full preservation of the blood supply to the spleen.

Methods: We compared the metabolic and clinical outcomes of patients who underwent TPIAT at our center between 2015 and 2021 with or without splenectomy. A total of 89 patients were included in the study, and 17 of them underwent spleen-preserving total pancreatectomy (SPTP).

Postoperative Outcomes Analysis After Pancreatic Duct Occlusion: A Safe Option to Treat the Pancreatic Stump After Pancreaticoduodenectomy in Low-Volume Centers.

Surgical resection is the only possible choice of treatment in several pancreatic disorders that included periampullar neoplasms. The development of a postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) is the main complication. Despite three different surgical strategies that have been proposed-pancreatojejunostomy (PJ), pancreatogastrostomy (PG), and pancreatic duct occlusion (DO)-none of them has been clearly validated to be superior.

Long-Term Results After Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy with Concomitant Posterior Cruroplasty: 5-Year Follow-up.

Background: Hiatal hernia (HH) repair during laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) has been advocated to reduce the incidence of postoperative gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and/or intrathoracic migration (ITM). The necessity of intraoperative repair in asymptomatic patients is still controversial. Previous, mid-term results of a prospective, comparative study evaluating posterior cruroplasty concomitant with LSG (group A 48 patients with simple vs.

Myogenic oxidative imbalance interferes with antral motility in obese subjects.

Background: Obesity is characterized by a systemic low-grade chronic inflammatory oxidative condition that affects vascular and cardiac smooth muscle relaxation. In human antrum, relaxation is mediated by vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) through cAMP and cGMP signaling pathways. A genome-wide association study has demonstrated an association between VIP and obesity.

Rectal Carcinoid Tumor With Liver Metastases Treated by Local Excision and Orthotopic Liver Transplant With Long-term Follow-up.

In patients affected by unresectable liver metastases from neuroendocrine tumor, liver transplant represents currently the only realistic chance for cure. The first attempt to establish selection criteria for liver transplant in patients affected by neuroendocrine tumor liver metastases was made by Mazzaferro and associates in 2007. We report the case of a 46-year-old man who came to our institution in 2006 with right upper quadrant abdominal pain.

Absence of the human CYP2C8*3 allele in Ugandan children exposed to Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Study of host pharmacogenetics can improve our knowledge of mechanisms of drug resistance selection and spread. This issue has recently been addressed with respect to chloroquine and amodiaquine in malaria endemic areas of West and East Africa. Here we report, from surveys performed in two different areas of Uganda, that the human CYP2C8*3 allele, which had been reported to be strongly associated with parasite drug resistance in Zanzibar, is absent, being a marker of genetic admixture of the Zanzibari population with a Caucasoid component.

Recurrent gallstone ileus: case report and literature review.

The gallstone ileus is a rare complication of cholelithiasis and it represents the 1-4% of small intestinal mechanical obstruction. Gallstone is generally wedged in the terminal ileum, even if unusual locations have been described. The literature reports a very high morbidity and mortality, often because misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis.

Looking for the gold standard: assessment of the effectiveness of four traps for monitoring mosquitoes in Italy.

Several kinds of traps are available for the collection of Culicidae species creating nuisance problems and/or a potential risk of pathogen transmission. The choice of the most appropriate sampling device should take into consideration the objective of the monitoring activity (e.g.

Distribution of human CYP2C8*2 allele in three different African populations.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate cytochrome P450 2C8*2 (CYP2C8*2) distribution and allele frequency in three populations from West and East Africa exposed to Plasmodium falciparum malaria. CYP2C8 enzyme is involved in the metabolism of the anti-malarials amodiaquine and chloroquine. The presence of the CYP2C8*2 defective allele has been recently associated to higher rate of chloroquine-resistant malaria parasites.

Human genetic variation is associated with Plasmodium falciparum drug resistance.

One approach to investigate if human genetic variation influences the selection of Plasmodium falciparum drug resistance is to compare the frequency of resistant infections among human populations differing in their genetic background and living in the same epidemiological context. A further complementary approach consists in comparing drug resistance among subjects differing for genes involved in drug metabolism. Here we report, from malariological surveys performed in Burkina Faso, that the prevalence of P.

Humoral response to the Anopheles gambiae salivary protein gSG6: a serological indicator of exposure to Afrotropical malaria vectors.

Salivary proteins injected by blood feeding arthropods into their hosts evoke a saliva-specific humoral response which can be useful to evaluate exposure to bites of disease vectors. However, saliva of hematophagous arthropods is a complex cocktail of bioactive factors and its use in immunoassays can be misleading because of potential cross-reactivity to other antigens. Toward the development of a serological marker of exposure to Afrotropical malaria vectors we expressed the Anopheles gambiae gSG6, a small anopheline-specific salivary protein, and we measured the anti-gSG6 IgG response in individuals from a malaria hyperendemic area of Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Evaluation of bloodsucking arthropod bite as possible risk co-factor in Human herpesvirus-8 transmission route.

Human herpesvirus-8 non-sexual transmission occurs primarily from mother-to-child. The viral load in saliva is higher than in other human fluids. Moreover, there is evidence that bloodsucking arthropod bites induce an inflammatory/immune response that facilitates viral replication.

Distribution of 'promoter' sandflies associated with incidence of classic Kaposi's sarcoma.

The patchy geographical distributions of classic Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV-8), better known as Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) remain unexplained. It has been proposed that certain species of bloodsucking insects ('promoter arthropods') promote the reactivation of HHV-8/KSHV and facilitate both HHV-8/KSHV transmission and KS development. This hypothesis was tested by sampling the presence and density of human-biting Diptera with CDC light traps in two areas of Sardinia with contrasting incidence rates of classic KS.

The Anopheles gambiae salivary protein gSG6: an anopheline-specific protein with a blood-feeding role.

The Anopheles gambiae salivary gland protein 6 (gSG6) is a small protein specifically found in the salivary glands of adult female mosquitoes. We report here the expression of a recombinant form of the protein and we show that in vivo gSG6 is expressed in distal-lateral lobes and is secreted with the saliva while the female mosquito probes for feeding. Injection of gSG6 dsRNA into adult A.

Analysis of apyrase 5' upstream region validates improved Anopheles gambiae transformation technique.

Background: Genetic transformation of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae has been successfully achieved in recent years, and represents a potentially powerful tool for researchers. Tissue-, stage- and sex-specific promoters are essential requirements to support the development of new applications for the transformation technique and potential malaria control strategies. During the Plasmodium lifecycle in the invertebrate host, four major mosquito cell types are involved in interactions with the parasite: hemocytes and fat body cells, which provide humoral and cellular components of the innate immune response, midgut and salivary glands representing the epithelial barriers traversed by the parasite during its lifecycle in the mosquito.

Chromosomal plasticity and evolutionary potential in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto: insights from three decades of rare paracentric inversions.

Background: In the Anopheles gambiae complex, paracentric chromosomal inversions are non-randomly distributed along the complement: 18/31 (58%) of common polymorphic inversions are on chromosome arm 2R, which represents only approximately 30% of the complement. Moreover, in An. gambiae sensu stricto, 6/7 common polymorphic inversions occur on 2R.

The role of research in molecular entomology in the fight against malaria vectors.

The text summarizes the principal current fields of investigation and the recent achievements of the research groups presently contributing to the Molecular Entomology Cluster of the Italian Malaria Network. Particular emphasis is given to the researches with a more direct impact on the fight against malaria vectors.

Exploring proteins in Anopheles gambiae male and female antennae through MALDI mass spectrometry profiling.

MALDI profiling and imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) are novel techniques for direct analysis of peptides and small proteins in biological tissues. In this work we applied them to the study of Anopheles gambiae antennae, with the aim of analysing expression of soluble proteins involved in olfaction perireceptor events. MALDI spectra obtained by direct profiling on single antennae and by the analysis of extracts, showed similar profiles, although spectra obtained through profiling had a richer ion population and higher signal to noise ratio.