Successful excision of a giant cervical mediastinal goiter by cervical collar incision and a thoracoscopic approach: a case report.

Background: Giant cervicomediastinal goiter extending to the bifurcation of the trachea mostly requires median sternotomy in addition to a cervical collar incision for resection. Sternotomy provides a good operative field, although it is one of the most invasive thoracic approaches. We herein report a case of giant cervicomediastinal goiter resected by a less-invasive and highly effective method with a thoracoscopic and cervical approach.

Peripheral Blood Absolute Lymphocyte Count as a Predictor of Cytomegalovirus Infection in Kidney Transplant Recipients.

Background: Cytomegalovirus viremia and infection have been reported to increase the risks for acute graft rejection and mortality in kidney transplant recipients. Previous studies demonstrated that a lower absolute lymphocyte count in peripheral blood is associated with cytomegalovirus infection. The aim of this study was to investigate whether absolute lymphocyte count could predict cytomegalovirus infection in kidney transplant recipients.

A Case of Hypokalemia Caused by Left Native Renal Artery Stenosis in a Kidney Transplant Recipient.

A 39-year-old woman with end-stage renal failure of unknown origin was on peritoneal dialysis for 10 years. One year ago, she underwent ABO-incompatible living-donor kidney transplantation from her husband. After the kidney transplantation, her serum creatinine level remained around 0.

Antibodies against complement component C5 prevent antibody-mediated rejection after lung transplantation in murine orthotopic models with skin-graft-induced pre-sensitization.

Objective: Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) could induce acute or chronic graft failure during organ transplantation. Several reports have shown that anti-C5 antibodies are effective against AMR after kidney transplantation. However, few reports have assessed the efficacy of anti-C5 antibodies against AMR after lung transplantation.

[The Basic Research of Antigen-antibody Reaction in Lung Transplantation].

Lung transplantation has become popular in Japan, showing better survival rate than other countries. However, the results are still not satisfactory compared with other solid organ transplantation. One of the reasons for this might be that knowledge on donor-specific antibodies or antibody-related rejection, which has been attracting attention these days, is less than that of kidney or liver transplantation.

Cell Tracking Suggests Pathophysiological and Therapeutic Role of Bone Marrow Cells in Sugen5416/Hypoxia Rat Model of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Background: The mechanism of vascular remodelling in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) remains unclear. Hence, defining the origin of cells constituting intractable vascular lesions in PAH is expected to facilitate therapeutic progress. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the origin of intractable vascular lesions in PAH rodent models via bone marrow (BM) and orthotopic lung transplantation (LT).

Differential gene analysis during the development of obliterative bronchiolitis in a murine orthotopic lung transplantation model: A comprehensive transcriptome-based analysis.

Background: Obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) is a known issue during minor histocompatibility antigen (mHA) disparity during lung transplantation. This study evaluated gene expression in a murine orthotropic lung transplantation model using microarray analysis.

Methods: Left lungs from C57BL/10(H-2b) donor mice were transplanted into mHA-mismatched C57BL/6(H-2b) recipient mice.

The D-dimer level predicts the postoperative prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Carcinoma cells often modulate coagulation and fibrinolysis among cancer patients. Plasma dimerized plasmin fragment D (D-dimer) has been reported as a prognostic marker of various types of malignancies, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the associations between the plasma D-dimer level and peripheral small NSCLC remain unclear.

Localization of the Metastatic Site Within a Lymph Node Using Endobronchial Elastography.

Endobronchial elastography is a novel imaging technology which visualizes the relative stiffness of the targeted tissue. Endobronchial elastography can be used for differentiating malignant and benign lymph nodes during nodal staging in patients with lung cancer. Another possible utility of endobronchial elastography would be targeting high-risk area within the intrathoracic lymph node.

Sclerosing pneumocytoma diagnosed by preoperative endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA).

Background: Sclerosing pneumocytoma is a rare lung tumor that is usually recognized as a solitary nodule in the lung. Surgical removal is recommended; however, its clinical diagnosis is still an issue because it is difficult to differentiate from lung adenocarcinomas using a tiny sample obtained from biopsy.

Case Presentation: We report a case of pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma located in the upper lobe of the right lung of a 34-year-old woman, which was diagnosed before surgery by endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA).

TDP-43 dimerizes in human cells in culture.

TAR DNA-binding protein-43 (TDP-43) is a 43-kDa nuclear protein involved in regulation of gene expression. Abnormally, phosphorylated, ubiquitinated, and aggregated TDP-43 constitute a principal component of neuronal and glial cytoplasmic and nuclear inclusions in the brains of frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitin-positive inclusions (FTLD-U) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), although the molecular mechanism that triggers aggregate formation remains unknown. By Western blot analysis using anti-TDP-43 antibodies, we identified a band with an apparent molecular mass of 86-kDa in HEK293, HeLa, and SK-N-SH cells in culture.