Biological activity of paediatric cerebral cavernomas: an immunohistochemical study of 28 patients.

Objective: According to the hypothesis that paediatric cerebral cavernomas may have different biological activity compared to adult cavernomas, immunohistochemical analysis was used to elucidate the biological nature of paediatric cavernomas.

Patients And Methods: We examined the histological features and the proliferative and angiogenic capacity of the tissue specimens acquired from 28 paediatric patients. Normal paediatric brain tissues obtained from paediatric autopsy cases were used as a control group.

Preconditioning-induced protection against cyanide-induced neurotoxicity is mediated by preserving mitochondrial function.

The central nervous system is one of the main target organs in cyanide toxicity. In this study, primary cultures of chick embryonic neurons were used to characterize sodium cyanide (NaCN)-induced cell death and to investigate the mechanism of NaCN-mediated preconditioning. After treatment of the cells with 1mM NaCN for 1h followed by a NaCN-free incubation period of 23 h, we observed features of apoptosis such as a reduction in nuclear size, chromatin condensation and nuclear fragmentation as evaluated by nuclear staining with Hoechst 33258 and electron microscopy.