Pediatric robotic surgery: early assessment.

Objectives: This article reviews the evidence regarding the feasibility, safety, benefits, limitations, and costs of robotically assisted surgery in children, evaluates how the technology compares with other pediatric surgical techniques, and provides insights about the near and more-distant future of the technology.

Methods: The peer-reviewed medical pediatric literature was searched for studies that provided evidence of the feasibility and safety of robotic surgery in children and for studies that compared pediatric robotic surgery with conventional laparoscopic surgery or open surgery.

Results: A total of 8 case series and 5 studies comparing robotic surgery with open or conventional laparoscopic surgery met the selection criteria for review.

A functional NF-kappaB enhancer element in the first intron contributes to the control of c-fos transcription.

Eukaryotic gene transcription is controlled not only by gene promoters but also by intragenic cis-elements. Such regulation is important for the transcription of immediate early genes (IEGs) and in particular for the c-fos gene, the first intron of which contains many potential transcription factor binding elements. In the present study, we addressed the intronic control of c-fos transcription by the NF-kappaB signalling pathway in the neuroendocrine cell line GH4C1.

Effect of centrally administered C75, a fatty acid synthase inhibitor, on ghrelin secretion and its downstream effects.

The central administration of the fatty acid synthase (FAS) inhibitor, C75, rapidly suppresses the expression of orexigenic neuropeptides [neuropeptide Y (NPY) and agouti-related protein (AgRP)] and activates expression of anorexigenic neuropeptides [proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART)] in the hypothalamus. The combined actions of these changes inhibit food intake and decrease body weight. Intracerebroventricular injection of C75 appears to rapidly inhibit the secretion of ghrelin by hypothalamic explants ex vivo and by the stomach in vivo.

Spontaneous calcium oscillations control c-fos transcription via the serum response element in neuroendocrine cells.

In excitable cells the localization of Ca2+ signals plays a central role in the cellular response, especially in the control of gene transcription. To study the effect of localized Ca2+ signals on the transcriptional activation of the c-fos oncogene, we stably expressed various c-fos beta-lactamase reporter constructs in pituitary AtT20 cells. A significant, but heterogenous expression of c-fos beta-lactamase was observed in unstimulated cells, and a further increase was observed using KCl depolarization, epidermal growth factor (EGF), pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP), and serum.

MAP kinase phosphatase-1 gene transcription in rat neuroendocrine cells is modulated by a calcium-sensitive block to elongation in the first exon.

Transcriptional elongation of many eukaryotic, prokaryotic, and viral genes is tightly controlled, which contributes to gene regulation. Here we describe this phenomenon for the MAP kinase phosphatase 1 (MKP-1) immediate early gene. In rat GH4C1 pituitary cells, MKP-1 mRNA is rapidly and transiently induced by the thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) and the epidermal growth factor EGF via transcriptional activation of the gene.