ABSTRACT
Purpose@#To report a rare case of primary eyelid tuberculosis treated using systemic anti-tuberculosis medications.Case summary: A 30-year-old male presented to our hospital with an upper eyelid mass in the left eye for 1 month. An atypical cystic mass, pale yellow in color with a smooth surface, was observed on the medial side of the left upper eyelid. There were no associated ophthalmic or systemic symptoms. Excisional biopsy of the mass was performed under local anesthesia and histopathological examination revealed chronic granulomatous inflammation with central Langhans-type giant cells. Acid-fast bacilli smear was negative, but polymerase chain reaction for Mycobacterium tuberculosis was positive. There were no significant findings in blood tests and chest radiographs. The patient was diagnosed with primary eyelid tuberculosis and treated with systemic anti-tuberculosis medications for 6 months. There were no complications or recurrences during 1 year of follow-up. @*Conclusions@#Although eyelid tuberculosis is rare, early diagnosis through biopsy is important when a granulomatous tuberculosis lesion is suspected. Delayed diagnosis can lead to serious cosmetic and functional complications. Appropriate systemic anti-tuberculosis medications are required to treat these cases.
ABSTRACT
Treatment options for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are currently limited; therefore, there has been significant interest in applying mesenchymal stem/stromal cell (MSC)-based therapy to treat CKD. However, MSCs harvested from CKD patients tend to show diminished viability and proliferation due to sustained exposure to uremic toxins in the CKD environment, which limits their utility for cell therapy. The application of melatonin has been demonstrated to improve the therapeutic efficacy of MSCs derived from and engrafted to tissues in patients suffering from CKD, although the underlying biological mechanism has not been elucidated. In this study, we observed overexpression of hexokinase-2 (HK2) in serum samples of CKD patients and MSCs harvested from an adenine-fed CKD mouse model (CKD-mMSCs). HK2 upregulation led to increased production levels of methylglyoxal (MG), a toxic metabolic intermediate of abnormal glycolytic processes. The overabundance of HK2 and MG was associated with impaired mitochondrial function and low cell proliferation in CKD-mMSCs. Melatonin treatment inhibited the increases in HK2 and MG levels, and further improved mitochondrial function, glycolytic metabolism, and cell proliferation. Our findings suggest that identifying and characterizing metabolic regulators such as HK2 in CKD may improve the efficacy of MSCs for treating CKD and other kidney disorders.
ABSTRACT
To investigate the effect of Orostachys (O.) japonicus, a perennial herbaceous plant of the Family Crassulaceae, on biofilm formed by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Methods: Powdered O. japonicus was extracted by 95% methanol, concentrated, and then, systematically fractionated with n-heane, dichloromethane (DCM), ethyl acetate (EtOAc), n-butanol, and H2O according to polarity. Among them, the flavonoid-rich EtOAc fraction demonstrated the highest antibacterial activity and was used in this study. Using the biofilm inhibition assay, cell-surface attachment assay, confocal laser scanning microscopy, latex agglutination assay, and real time qRT-PCR, we examined whether the EtOAc fraction inhibited the formation of MRSA biofilm. Results: The EtOAc fraction exhibited distinct activity against biofilm formation and cell-surface attachment of MRSA up to 1 mg/mL through down-regulating the expression of mecA gene and the production and agglutination of penicillin-binding protein 2a as solidly observed in biofilm inhibition assay, cell-suface attachment assay, confocal laser scanning microscopy, latex agglutination assay, and real time qRT-PCR analysis. Conclusions: These results suggest that O. japonicus could be utilized as a potential resource for the development of new antibiofilm formation of MRSA and antibacterial agents in the future.