Flow cytometry as a diagnostic tool in neuroblastoma.

In recent years, there has been an expansion in the use of flow cytometry (FC) immunophenotyping in the diagnosis and monitoring of childhood solid neoplasms. Neuroblastoma (NB), in turn, is the most common extracranial solid tumor in childhood. In the present study, we sought to compare FC and anatomopathological examination (PA) / immunohistochemistry (IHC) of children diagnosed or suspected with NB.

Life on a hilltop: vegetation history, plant husbandry and pastoralism at the dawn of Bergamo-Bergomum (northern Italy, 15th to 7th century bc).

Cores and trenches drilled or dug in religious and secular buildings in the hilltop town of Bergamo (northern Italy) were investigated by means of micro/macrobotanical and pedochemical analysis to unravel the cultural vegetation history of the area during ca. seven centuries across the Bronze-Iron Ages. We explore the predictive power of biological proxies, nutrients, and coupled C datings to reveal early phases of human settlement and activity in a modern urban context with low visibility and difficult accessibility.

Minipuberty and Sexual Dimorphism in the Infant Human Thymus.

AIRE expression in thymus is downregulated by estrogen after puberty, what probably renders women more susceptible to autoimmune disorders. Here we investigated the effects of minipuberty on male and female infant human thymic tissue in order to verify if this initial transient increase in sex hormones - along the first six months of life - could affect thymic transcriptional network regulation and AIRE expression. Gene co-expression network analysis for differentially expressed genes and miRNA-target analysis revealed sex differences in thymic tissue during minipuberty, but such differences were not detected in the thymic tissue of infants aged 7-18 months, i.