[Solitary distal femoral osteosarcoma in 89-year-old woman. Case report].

The authors describe the case of an 89-year-old patient with a one-month history of pain in the right knee and a pathological fracture of the distal femur. Excisional biopsy showed a classical osteogenic sarcoma. The patient died after six months of palliative surgical and oncological therapy; her primary disease generalised and progressed with numerous metastases.

Protection of the vascular endothelium in experimental situations.

One of the factors proposed as mediators of vascular dysfunction observed in diabetes is the increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This provides support for the use of antioxidants as early and appropriate pharmacological intervention in the development of late diabetic complications. In streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes in rats we observed endothelial dysfuction manifested by reduced endothelium-dependent response to acetylcholine of the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and aorta, as well as by increased endothelaemia.

Role of inflammatory cytokines and chemoattractants in the rat model of streptozotocin-induced diabetic heart failure.

Objective: It is not yet clear how oxidative stress, free radicals, inflammatory cytokines and chemoattractants produced in the heart induce chronic heart failure. The myocardial damage caused by chronic diabetes results either from the persistence of inflammatory signaling directly in the heart or from the dysregulation of anti-inflammatory signaling systems. In the rat model of streptozotocin-induced diabetes (STZD) we investigated 1/ the concentration of free radicals (FR), 2/ reduced glutathione (GSH), 3/ lysozomal enzymes, 4/ inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-? (TNF-?) and interleukin-6 (IL-6)), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (mcp-1) in the myocardium.

Distinct lethal arrhythmias susceptibility is associated with sex-related difference in myocardial connexin-43 expression.

Objectives: To elucidate gender-related differences in occurrence of sudden cardiac death the myocardial connexin-43 (Cx43) and the susceptibility of male and female rat hearts to ventricular fibrillation (VF) were investigated.

Methods And Results: Ventricular tissues taken from male and female normotensive Wistar and spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rats were processed for immuno-fluorescence and immuno-blotting of Cx43. Susceptibility to ventricular fibrillation was examined in isolated heart preparation using either electrical stimulation or low K+ perfusion.

Enhanced early after-myocardial infarction concentration of TNF-alpha subsequently increased circulating and myocardial adrenomedullin in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Both inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and the cardiac protective peptide adrenomedullin (AM) are increased in cardiac tissues and plasma in patients with myocardial infarction (MI) and chronic heart failure. Recently they have been increasingly recognized as important factors in the pathophysiology of MI and resultant congestive heart failure. Compared with sham-operated spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), we investigated myocardial immunoreactivity of TNF-alpha and AM and also their mutual relations in vivo in SHR+MI.