International journal of clinical and experimental pathology最新文献

Salivary duct carcinoma (SDC) is a rare malignant tumor of the salivary gland and is most commonly found in the parotid gland, followed by the submandibular gland. Due to its rarity, there is no consensus on its treatment. Surgical resection is currently the only curative treatment. Considering its high degree of malignancy, extensive tumor resection and postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy are recommended. We report a rare case of SDC of the submandibular gland. A 62-year-old man presented to our hospital with complaints of swelling in the right submaxillary area for 4 months, rapidly growing, with pain for 10 days. After admission, fine needle aspiration (FNA) revealed right submandibular gland ductal carcinoma. Considering its aggressiveness, large size, and invasion of parapharyngeal and oral floor soft tissues, the patient received two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by extended surgical resection. Postoperatively, the patient received four cycles of concurrent chemoradiotherapy, followed by afatinib targeted therapy. No recurrence or metastasis was observed in a 45-month follow-up. Thus we present a comprehensive treatment for salivary duct carcinoma combining neoadjuvant chemotherapy with surgery, postoperative concurrent radiotherapy, and chemotherapy followed by afatinib targeted therapy.

Objective: Cervical cancer is one of the leading fatal diseases in women, and the role of Apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme catalytic subunit 3B (APOBEC3B) in cervical cancer is uncertain.

Methods: Four Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) mRNA microarray datasets were analyzed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between cervical cancer and normal cervical tissues. The results were validated using a The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-cervical cancer (CESC) dataset. Expression profiles and patients' clinical data were used to investigate the relationship between APOBEC3B expression and cervical cancer survival. APOBEC3B co-expressed genes were subjected to enrichment analyses, and correlations between APOBEC3B expression and immunologic infiltrates were investigated using Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER). We generated receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) curves to evaluate the performance of APOBEC3B expression in predicting cervical cancer prognosis.

Results: Fourteen overlapping DEGs were obtained, and APOBEC3B was chosen as a candidate gene. TCGA data further confirmed that APOBEC3B was significantly increased in cervical cancer, relative to normal adjacent tissues, and this expression was associated with poor clinical outcome. Results from quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and immunohistochemical staining of cervical carcinoma tissues supported these findings. Enrichment analysis showed that APOBEC3B co-expressed genes were mainly enriched in cell cycle, DNA replication and chromosomal region. Moreover, APOBEC3B expression was significantly associated with T stage, M stage, primary therapy outcome and poor clinical prognosis in cervical cancer. Similarly, APOBEC3B was closely correlated with gene markers of diverse immune cells. APOBEC3B expression was an independent indicator of cervical cancer prognosis, according to univariate Cox and ROC analyses.

Conclusion: High APOBEC3B expression is strongly related to a poor prognosis in cervical cancer patients.

Background: Coexistent malignancy and tuberculosis (TB) are rarely encountered. Cancer patients are a highly vulnerable subgroup during this Covid crisis. Delayed treatment for malignancy because of COVID-19 pandemic leads to higher chances to get infections.

Purpose: The present study aimed to present the clinicopathologic profile of the patients with coexistent carcinoma and TB during the COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary care center.

Materials and methods: This was a retrospective study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic between April 2020 to May 2021 in the Department of Pathology of our Institute. 11 patients with coexistent malignancy and caseous necrotizing granulomatous inflammation with Langhans giant cells and or acid-fast bacilli (AFB) positivity were included in the study. Cases of ill-defined granulomas coexistent malignancy were excluded. We studied varied clinical and histopathologic features of these cases.

Results: Eleven cases were reported with coexistent malignancy and tuberculosis, of which 8 were reported in 2021 and 3 cases were reported in 2020. Adenocarcinoma comprised 9 cases (81.8%) and the remaining 2 were squamous cell carcinoma (18.1%). Out of 11, 10 (90.9%) were new TB cases. Of these, 10 were extrapulmonary TB and one pulmonary TB case with cancer. Regarding chemotherapy, four patients accepted that chemotherapy was delayed because of the COVID-19 crisis.

Conclusion: In this covid pandemic, India being the 2^nd most populous country and endemic for TB, there is a higher chance of latent and active TB. The coexistence of two different pathologies is rare, even in a region with a high incidence of TB. Delayed chemotherapy in a pandemic situation leads to an increased incidence of infectious diseases such as TB.

Objective: Myocardial infarction (MI) has gained widespread interest due to its high death and disability rate worldwide. Some miRNAs are markers of heart disease. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the mechanism for repairing MI injury.

Methods: Here, we evaluated the relative expression levels of miR-199a-3p in mouse and human myocardial cell models of injury, and its effect on myocardial cells viability using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridline (EdU) assay, and flow cytometry assay as well as western blot in vitro. Furthermore, we performed bioinformatic online analysis to investigate the role that miR-199a-3p plays in cardiomyocyte injury, measured by dual-luciferase reporter assay.

Results: The results showed that miR-199a-3p significantly increased the growth rate of cardiomyocytes after treating them with hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). miR-199a-3p also acted as an inhibitor that directly targeted NACC2, resulting in a higher NACC2 expression level in the injury model of cardiomyocytes than normal myocardial cells and thus preventing miR-199a-3p-induced proliferation promotion in model cardiomyocytes.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that miR-199a-3p may be a prognostic biomarker in myocardial injury.

Objectives: Membranous nephropathy (MN), also called membranous glomerulopathy, is one of the leading causes of nephrotic syndrome in adults which is defined by the presence of subepithelial immune complex deposits with a spectrum of changes in the glomerular basement membrane (GBM). It is known that C4d is a byproduct of the classic and lectin pathway. There is deposition of C4d noted in the cases of immune complex-mediated glomerulonephritis involving the classical/lectin pathway including MN. The main objective of this study is to assess the utility C4d as an immunohistochemical (IHC) stain in MN.

Materials: A total of 43 cases of MN (primary & secondary) were taken, and 39 cases of minimal change disease (MCD)/focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) were used as the control group. All the relevant data were retrieved from the hospital database. C4d immunohistochemistry was performed in the cases as well as the control group.

Results: A diffuse continuous staining pattern in the glomeruli was observed in cases of primary MN whereas a discontinuous staining in the glomerulI favors a secondary MN. 26/29 cases of MCD showed positivity in the podocytes. Among the cases of FSGS, 7/10 cases showed positivity in the podocytes with 3 cases showing an associated mesangial blush pattern of staining.

Conclusion: Very few studies are available demonstrating the importance of C4d IHC in MN. C4d IHC can be a useful adjunct for immunofluorescence, especially in cases of early MN.

Objective: This study aims to analyze risk factors for central lymph node metastasis (CLNM) in patients with small papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Methods: The clinicopathologic data of 375 patients with small PTC admitted to the Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University from January 2017 to December 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups, namely, CLNM (n = 177) and non-CLNM (n = 198) groups. Relevant data from the two groups were analyzed using the chi-square test, logistic regression analysis, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

Results: The CLNM rate of the 375 patients with small PTC was 47.2%. The chi-square test revealed that CLNM status was correlated with a patient's gender and age as well as tumor size, number of lesions, and invasion of the thyroid capsule (P < 0.05), but not with BRAF gene mutation, Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), or nodular goiter. Multivariate analysis indicated significant differences in gender, maximum tumor diameter, multifocality, and thyroid adventitial infiltration between the two groups (all P < 0.05) but no significant difference between the two groups in regard to HT and nodular goiter. The ROC curve suggested that age ≤ 26.5 years and maximum tumor diameter ≥ 0.75 cm were thresholds for increased risk of CLNM.

Conclusions: Lymph node metastasis in the central area of small PTC is associated with multiple factors. Careful examination, analysis, and evaluation of these factors can help in developing accurate individualized treatment strategies.

Background: As a tumor suppressor gene, zinc finger protein 471 (ZNF471) has an essential role in tumor occurrence and development. Due to promoter hypermethylation, it can be underexpressed or silenced in gastric cancer (GC) cell lines. In this study, we investigated relationships between clinical characteristics and ZNF471 expression levels in tissues of patients with GC.

Methods: We used immunohistochemistry (IHC) to detect ZNF471 expression in paraffin tissue specimens, and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and western blot (WB) analysis to measure expression levels of ZNF471 in fresh tissue specimens. We analyzed relationships between ZNF471 expression levels and characteristics, such as tumor size, gender, age, TNM stage, and lymph node metastasis.

Results: Immunohistochemistry revealed the expression of ZNF471 protein from paraffin blocks of GC tissues was significantly lower than that of adjacent tissues. Expression levels of ZNF471 mRNA and protein in fresh GC tissues were markedly lower than those in adjacent tissues and in normal gastric mucosal tissues from healthy subjects. ZNF471 expression was significantly correlated with tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage (all P<0.05). There were no significant associations with gender, age, distant metastasis, or pathologic type. Expression of ZNF471 mRNA and protein was not significantly different between adjacent tissues of patients with GC and normal gastric mucosal tissue from healthy subjects.

Conclusion: ZNF471 functions as a tumor suppressor during the pathogenesis of GC. Thus, it is a promising biomarker for diagnosis and therapy of GC.

Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a non-inflammatory degenerative joint disease that mainly involves articular cartilage damage and involves the whole joint tissue. However, the relationship between CD14 and CSF1R and osteoarthritis remains unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the important role of CD14 and CSF1R in osteoarthritis and provide a new direction for its prevention and treatment.

Method: The osteoarthritis datasets GSE46750 and GSE82107 were downloaded from gene expression omnibus (GEO) database generated by GPL10558 and GPL570. R package limma was used to screen differentially expressed genes (DEDs). Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was performed. The construction and analysis of a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, functional enrichment analysis, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), and comparative toxicogenomics database (CTD) analysis were performed. TargetScan screened miRNAs that regulated central DEGs.

Results: 687 DEGs were identified. According to gene ontology (GO), they were mainly concentrated in inflammatory response, IL-17 signaling pathway, rheumatoid arthritis, exercise, and regulation of response to external stimuli. The enrichment items are similar to the GO Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genome (KEGG) enrichment items of DEGs. These were mainly concentrated in exercise, inflammatory response, defense response, collagen containing extracellular matrix, and receptor regulator activity. In an enrichment project of Metascape, GO had inflammatory response, SARS-CoV-2 signal pathway network map, PIDIL8CXCR1 pathway, regulation of bone remodeling and endochondral ossification. 20 core genes were obtained by PPI network construction and analysis. Gene expression heat map showed that core genes (C1QC, CSF1R, CD14, TYROBP, HLA-DRA, C1QB, FCER1G, S100A9, HCLS1, WAS, BTK, TREM1) were highly expressed in osteoarthritis synovial tissues and were low in normal synovial tissues. CTD analysis showed that twelve genes (C1QC, CSF1R, CD14, TYROBP, HLA-DRA, C1QB, FCER1G, S100A9, HCLS1, WAS, BTK, TREM1) were found to be associated with inflammation, necrosis, gout, acute myeloid leukemia and thrombocytopenia.

Conclusion: CD14 and CSF1R are highly expressed in osteoarthritis and may be therapeutic targets for osteoarthritis.

A 60-year-old Chinese female patient was admitted to the hospital with complaint of intermittent fever for more than seven months. The main clinical manifestations were acute kidney injury and nephrotic syndrome which developed into a hemophagocytic syndrome. The symptoms did not improve with antibiotics. Moreover, prednisone could only reduce the fever. Finally, a kidney biopsy showed many CD20-positive cells in the glomerulus and some in the peritubular capillaries. This led to a diagnosis of renal intravascular large B-cell lymphoma.

Myelofibrosis is a myeloproliferative tumor, that can be secondary to malignant hematologic or inflammatory diseases, such as chronic myeloid leukemia, polycythemia vera, primary thrombocythemia, multiple myeloma, disseminated tuberculosis, or vasculitis. However, few cases of brucellosis-associated myelofibrosis have been reported. Moreover, due to the rarity of this phenomenon, it is often overlooked by clinicians, resulting in misdiagnosis and mismanagement. Thus, brucellosis should be considered as a possible cause of myelofibrosis. In the present study, we report five cases of brucellosis, of which three had myelofibrosis. In addition, to further determine the potential link between brucellosis and myelofibrosis, we retrospectively analyzed the levels of various cytokines by collecting the clinicopathologic data of patients and using immunohistochemical staining. We found that brucellosis patients with myelofibrosis had elevated levels of cytokines such as interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-1β, basic fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), suggesting that the regulation of cytokines may play a central role in the development of myelofibrosis in patients with brucellosis.