Evaluation of the presence and distribution of leptomeningeal inflammation in SIDS/SUDI cases and comparison with a hospital-based cohort.

Introduction: Prior research demonstrates that leptomeninges of infants and late-term fetuses derived from a non-traumatic, hospital-based cohort contain a surprisingly large number of inflammatory cells and stainable iron. These were present irrespective of the findings from the general autopsy, the neuropathologic examination, and the mode of delivery.

Materials And Methods: We applied a similar methodology to a sudden infant death syndrome/sudden unexpected death in infancy (SIDS/SUDI) cohort.

The inflammatory cellular constituents of foetal and infant leptomeninges: a survey of hospital-based autopsies without trauma.

Objectives: Notwithstanding the lack of definitive evidence from studies conducted to date, inflammatory infiltrates and iron deposition in the leptomeninges are routinely used as forensic markers of traumatic brain injury. We investigated the presence of these forensic markers of trauma in neonates and infants, with the objective of determining their suitability for use in forensic cases.

Methods: Leptomeninges derived from non-traumatic deaths were studied.

Hedgehog-responsive candidate cell of origin for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.

Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) are highly aggressive tumors of childhood that are almost universally fatal. Our understanding of this devastating cancer is limited by a dearth of available tissue for study and by the lack of a faithful animal model. Intriguingly, DIPGs are restricted to the ventral pons and occur during a narrow window of middle childhood, suggesting dysregulation of a postnatal neurodevelopmental process.

Burden of neurodegenerative diseases in a cohort of medical examiner subjects.

Here we report studies of the burden of neurodegenerative neuropathologies in a cohort of Medical Examiner (ME) subjects from the County of Santa Clara (California) to determine if this unique population of decedents manifested evidence of neurodegeneration that might underlie causes of death seen in an ME practice. We found that 13% of the brains from ME cases showed significant tau pathology, including 55% of those 65 years old and older and 63% of those 70 years old and older. The histochemical and immunohistochemical findings were consistent with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in 7 subjects and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) tauopathy type in six cases.