Sarcoidosis in native and transplanted kidneys: incidence, pathologic findings, and clinical course.

Unlabelled: Renal involvement by sarcoidosis in native and transplanted kidneys classically presents as non caseating granulomatous interstitial nephritis. However, the incidence of sarcoidosis in native and transplant kidney biopsies, its frequency as a cause of end stage renal disease and its recurrence in renal allograft are not well defined, which prompted this study. The electronic medical records and the pathology findings in native and transplant kidney biopsies reviewed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1/1/2000 to 6/30/2011 were searched.

Utility of birefringent crystal identification by polarized light microscopy in distinguishing thyroid from parathyroid tissue on intraoperative frozen sections.

Differentiating parathyroid with pseudofollicular architecture from thyroid tissue can be challenging on intraoperative frozen sections. Birefringent calcium oxalate crystals are present in colloid of normal thyroid follicles, whereas crystals are rare in parathyroid tissue. It has been suggested that crystal identification using polarized microscopy could aid in distinguishing thyroid from parathyroid tissue on frozen sections when other ancillary studies are not available.

Usual and unusual histologic patterns of high Gleason score 8 to 10 adenocarcinoma of the prostate in needle biopsy tissue.

High Gleason score 8 to 10 adenocarcinoma is the most aggressive and potentially lethal form of prostate cancer. The 2005 International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP)-modified Gleason grading scheme defines several gland arrangements of high Gleason grade patterns 4 and 5. The aim of this investigation was to quantitate the frequency of the ISUP-defined high Gleason grade patterns in needle biopsy tissue, to determine the common admixtures and to characterize patterns not presented in the 2005 ISUP report.

Mitochondrial superoxide dismutase activation with 17 beta-estradiol-treated human lens epithelial cells.

Purpose: 17 beta-estradiol (17beta-E(2)) protects human lens epithelial cells against oxidative stress by preserving mitochondrial function in part via the non-genomic rapid activation of prosurvival signal transduction pathways. The study described herein examined whether 17beta-E(2) also elicits genomic protection by influencing the expression (and activity) of mitochondrial-associated manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) as a possible parallel mechanism by which 17beta-E(2) protects against oxidative stress.

Methods: Virally-transformed human lens epithelial cells (HLE-B3) were pre-incubated with 17beta-E(2), and mRNA or protein lysates were collected over a time course ranging from 90 min to 24 h.

Differential expression and comparative subcellular localization of estrogen receptor beta isoforms in virally transformed and normal cultured human lens epithelial cells.

A number of variants of the wild-type (wt) estrogen receptor beta (ERbeta-1) coexist in a wide range of tissues. In the human these include, together with others, the expression of several isoforms (ERbeta-2-ERbeta-5) due to alternative splicing of exons encoding the carboxy terminus. In this study, we determined whether virally transformed cell cultures of human lens epithelial cells (HLE-B3) express both full length (or wt) and variant isoforms of ERbeta in comparison to normal secondary cultures of human lens epithelial cells (nHLE) and furthermore, identify the subcellular localization of the wtERbeta-1 and ERbeta isoform variants in HLE-B3 and nHLE cells, as well as from human breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7) which provided a positive control.

17beta-estradiol stimulates MAPK signaling pathway in human lens epithelial cell cultures preventing collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential during acute oxidative stress.

17beta-estradiol (17beta-E2) protects against H2O2-mediated depletion of intracellular ATP and lessens the degree of depolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential (DeltaPsi(m)) in cultured lens epithelial cells consequential to oxidative insult. We now report that 17beta-E2 acts as a positive regulator of the survival signal transduction pathway, MAPK which, in turn, acts to stabilize DeltaPsi(m) in effect, attenuating the extent of depolarization of mitochondrial membrane potential in the face of acute oxidative stress. The SV-40 viral transformed human cell line, HLE-B3 was treated with 17beta-E2 over a time course of 60 min and phosphorylation of ERK1/2 was analyzed by Western blot.

A putative mitochondrial mechanism for antioxidative cytoprotection by 17beta-estradiol.

It has been demonstrated that estrogens are potent antioxidants and protect against H2O2-mediated depletion of intracellular ATP in human lens epithelial cells (HLE-B3) [Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis.