Clinical outcome following multisegmental cervical spinal fixation in patients who recovered partially following injury.

Objective: The clinical outcome following multilevel stabilization in patients who suffered cervical spinal injury and developed severe neurological deficits and then gradually partially recovered is evaluated. The basis of the surgical concept was that cervical spinal degeneration is a result of single or multilevel spinal instability and that spinal trauma exaggerates the instability.

Materials And Methods: During the period 2015-2020, 14 patients who suffered severe cervical spinal injury and could be included in the classification of spinal cord injury without computed tomography evidence of trauma were surgically treated.

"Flow Reversal" and Cure in a Case of Giant Intracranial Aneurysm: A Case Report.

We describe the case of an 11-year-old girl having a giant anterior circulation aneurysm. The ipsilateral internal carotid artery was entirely blocked and the aneurysm was supplied by posterior circulation. Following a high-flow bypass that connected the external carotid artery to the middle cerebral artery, the giant aneurysm thrombosed spontaneously.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors increase human sebum production.

Sebum production is key in the pathophysiology of acne, an extremely common condition, which when severe, may require treatment with isotretinoin, a known teratogen. Apart from isotretinoin and hormonal therapy, no agents are available to reduce sebum. Increasing our understanding of the regulation of sebum production is a milestone in identifying alternative therapeutic targets.

Gene array expression profiling in acne lesions reveals marked upregulation of genes involved in inflammation and matrix remodeling.

The pathogenesis of acne has been linked to multiple factors such as increased sebum production, inflammation, follicular hyperkeratinization, and the action of Propionibacterium acnes within the follicle. In an attempt to understand the specific genes involved in inflammatory acne, we performed gene expression profiling in acne patients. Skin biopsies were obtained from an inflammatory papule and from normal skin in six patients with acne.

Mutant V599EB-Raf regulates growth and vascular development of malignant melanoma tumors.

Activating mutations of the B-RAF gene are observed in >60% of human melanomas. Approximately 90% of these mutations occur in the activation segment of the kinase domain as a single-base substitution that converts a valine to glutamic acid at codon 599 (V599E) in exon 15. This mutation causes activation of the kinase as well as downstream effectors of the mitogen-activated protein kinase-signaling cascade, leading to melanoma tumor development by an as yet unknown mechanism.

Loss of PTEN promotes tumor development in malignant melanoma.

Loss of tumor suppressor genes on chromosome 10 plays an important role in the development of 30-60% of melanomas; however, the identity of these genes and the mechanisms by which loss of these genes leads to tumor formation remain uncertain. The phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted from chromosome 10 (PTEN) is one of the genes on chromosome 10 whose of which the loss or inactivation may play an important role in melanoma tumorigenesis, but functional studies directly demonstrating PTEN involvement in melanomas are necessary to confirm this role. To determine the biological importance of PTEN loss in melanomas, we established a novel model in which an intact chromosome 10 was transferred into melanoma cells lacking PTEN protein to express the protein at normal physiological levels and to measure the consequent effects on melanoma tumorigenesis.