Gingival leiomyosarcoma in a young woman: case report and literature review

Leiomyosarcoma [LMS] is a rare mesenchymal malignancy, of which 3-10% of cases occur in the head and neck region. We report a 22-year-old woman who was referred to the University Hospital of Siena, Italy, in 2016 with an ostensibly benign asymptomatic lump on the mandibular gingiva. The lesion grew rapidly, causing otalgia in the right ear. An excisional biopsy was performed and primary LMS was diagnosed histologically. Subsequently, the patient underwent radical re-excision of the perilesional mucosa, a partial bone resection and the extraction of four teeth. No recurrences or metastases were detectable at a 20-month follow-up. This report discusses the differential diagnosis of LMS with regards to other benign and malignant lesions and reviews the recent literature on primary and secondary oral LMS. Due to its innocuous clinical features-including its asymptomatic nature and presentation at a young age-this aggressive malignancy can go undetected; therefore, an early histopathological diagnosis is crucial

Effect of combined mulberry leaf and fruit extract on liver and skin cholesterol transporters in high fat diet-induced obese mice

Obesity is an epidemic disease characterized by an increased inflammatory state and chronic oxidative stress with high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and lipid peroxidation. Moreover, obesity alters cholesterol metabolism with increases in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterols and triglycerides and decreases in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterols. It has been shown that mulberry leaf and fruit ameliorated hyperglycemic and hyperlipidemic conditions in obese and diabetic subjects. We hypothesized that supplementation with mulberry leaf combined with mulberry fruit (MLFE) ameliorate cholesterol transfer proteins accompanied by reduction of oxidative stress in the high fat diet induced obesity. Mice were fed control diet (CON) or high fat diet (HF) for 9 weeks. After obesity was induced, the mice were administered either the HF or the HF with combination of equal amount of mulberry leaf and fruit extract (MLFE) at 500mg/kg/day by gavage for 12 weeks. MLFE treatment ameliorated HF induced oxidative stress demonstrated by 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) and modulated the expression of 2 key proteins involved in cholesterol transfer such as scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SR-B1) and ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) in the HF treated animals. This effect was mainly noted in liver tissue rather than in cutaneous tissue. Collectively, this study demonstrated that MLFE treatment has beneficial effects on the modulation of high fat diet-induced oxidative stress and on the regulation of cholesterol transporters. These results suggest that MLFE might be a beneficial substance for conventional therapies to treat obesity and its complications.