Crohn's disease or histoplasmosis? A case of severe disseminated histoplasmosis mimicking Crohn's disease and literature review.

Disseminated histoplasmosis (DH) often mimics other diseases, leading to misdiagnosis and delays in treatment. We present a patient who developed DH after treatment with immunosuppressants for an initial diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Upon diagnosing her with DH, liposomal amphotericin B was started, and she eventually recovered after a prolonged hospitalization.

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans Causing Empyema Necessitans and Pyomyositis in an Immunocompetent Patient.

Empyema necessitans is a relatively rare clinical entity in which the empyema extends through the parietal pleura into the adjacent soft tissue and musculature of the chest wall. It usually occurs due to inadequate treatment of a primary lung infection. Aggregatibacter (formerly Actinobacillus) actinomycetemcomitans is a facultative anaerobic gram-negative coccobacillus that is part of the normal oral flora.

Breast cancer stem cells.

Breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) constitute a subpopulation of tumor cells that express stem cell-associated markers and have a high capacity for tumor generation in vivo. Identification of BCSCs from tumor samples or breast cancer cell lines has been based mainly on CD44(+)/CD24(-/low) or ALDH(+) phenotypes. BCSCs isolation has allowed the analysis of the molecular mechanisms involved in their origin, self-renewal, differentiation into tumor cells, resistance to radiation therapy and chemotherapy, and invasiveness and metastatic ability.

Examining the role of cyclin D1 in breast cancer.

Cyclin D1 overexpression is found in more than 50% of human breast cancers and causes mammary cancer in transgenic mice. Dysregulation of cyclin D1 gene expression or function contributes to the loss of normal cell cycle control during tumorigenesis. Recent studies have demonstrated that cyclin D1 conducts additional specific functions to regulate gene expression in the context of local chromatin, promote cellular migration and inhibit mitochondrial metabolism.