Aloe emodin enhances tamoxifen cytotoxicity effect on era-positive breast cancer cells, mcf-7, through downregulation of mek1 and mek2

The positive response to tamoxifen in ERa-positive breast cancer patients is usually of a short duration as many of the patients eventually develop resistance. Our preliminary results show that aloe emodin extracted from the leaves of the Aloe barbadensis Miller demonstrated a cytotoxicity that is selective to ERa-positive breast cancer cells (MCF-7), but not to ERa-negative breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) and to the control cells (MCF- 10A). The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that aloe emodin may enhance the response of MCF-7 cells to treatment with tamoxifen. MCF-7 cells were treated with aloe emodin alone, tamoxifen alone or a combination of emodin and tamoxifen, at their respective IC50 concentrations and at different time points of 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours. The respective IC50s were the concentrations of aloe emodin and tamoxifen required to achieve 50% inhibition of the cells in the study. Cell viability and apoptosis were determined using trypan blue exclusion and DNA fragmentation assays, respectively. The involvement of RAS/MEKs/ERKs genes of MAPK signalling pathways with aloe emodin was determined using QuantiGene 2.0 Plex assay. Data was evaluated using the one-way ANOVA test. Our findings showed that aloe emodin enhanced the cytotoxicity of tamoxifen on MCF-7 cells through apoptosis by downregulation of MEK1/2 genes. Our research may provide a rational basis for further in vivo studies to verify the efficacy of a combination of aloe emodin and tamoxifen on the viability of ERa-positive-breast cancer cells.

Risk factors for women attending pre-pregnancy screening in selected clinics in Selangor

Background: The Ministry of Health is committed to achieve Millenium Development Goal (MDG) MDG 4 and 5 by 2015 and include pre-pregnancy care as a strategy. This study evaluates the risk factors detected during the pre-pregnancy screening at selected public primary care clinics in Selangor. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine the proportion of women with risk factors receiving pre-pregnancy care in selected clinics in Selangor, their socio demographic features, the types of risk factors detected and their significance. Methods: A retrospective review using secondary data was carried out from the month of March until June 2013 in four public primary care clinics in Klang and Petaling districts of Selangor. Data were obtained through non-probability sampling, using the pre-pregnancy screening form utilised in 2012, which is a standard questionnaire to determine the presence of risk factors. Women with at least one defined risk factor were considered as being at risk of an adverse obstetric outcome. Data were analysed using SPSS version 16. Results: A total of 840 pre-pregnancy screening forms were collected. However only 614 (73.1%) were analysed and studied. The proportion of women with at least one risk factor was 68.8% (95% CI: 65.1, 72.5). The majority was Malays who had tertiary education and earned more than RM 1000. Most were in the reproductive age group of 18–35 years old (350, 82.9%). The mean age was 28.68 + 5.78 years. Most of the women were parous (259, 65.1%) and did not practice any form of contraception (308, 80.8%) despite having risks. The percentage of those not receiving any form of immunisation was small i.e. 9.8% but it was of importance and needed to be addressed prior to the conception. This study did not reveal any person with mental disorder or those who endured domestic abuse. Additionally, 3% (12) of them had unhealthy lifestyle habits, which include smoking, alcohol and substance abuse. Approximately one-third (212, 35.2%) of the women screened were overweight and obese, putting them at risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus, pregnancy induced hypertension or deep vein thrombosis. The mean body mass index (BMI) for those at risk was 25.36 + 5.94 compared to 21.06 ± 1.46 for those with no risk. This study also found a small percentage of women with raised blood pressure (3.9%), abnormal physical examination (1.5%) and anaemia (14.4%), which need to be investigated and treated prior to conception. Conclusion: More than half of the women who attended the pre-pregnancy screening were found to have at least one risk factor.

Morbidly Adherent Placenta at Extreme Prematurity: Can Major Haemorrhage and Hysterectomy be Prevented?

Morbidly adherent placenta with spontaneous rupture of membrane at extreme prematurity poses poor pregnancy outcome. Various issues on different management modalities still remain perplexed and individual consideration is vital. Two cases of morbidly adherent placenta with symptomatic per vaginal bleeding and spontaneous rupture of membrane at severe prematurity were reviewed and discussed. We found that, active intervention by termination of pregnancy and methotrexate therapy at early gestation can prevent the need of hysterectomy following major obstetrics haemorrhage.

Oncocytic Schneiderian Papilloma: A Rare Sinonasal Papilloma Removed via Endoscopic Medial Maxillectomy

There are three types of papilloma which arises from the Schneiderian membrane namely inverted, fungiform and oncocytic. Oncocytic papilloma is the rarest type and occurs predominantly in the older age group. Clinically, its behaviour is similar to inverted papilloma in having both local recurrence and associated malignancy. We report a rare case of oncocytic papilloma arising from the maxillary sinus, extending into the nasal cavity and nasopharynx, in a 78-year-old lady. Despite the longstanding history there was no evidence of associated malignancy in this lesion. An endoscopic medial maxillectomy was successfully utilized for approach and complete tumour excision. In conclusion, oncocytic papilloma should be considered as a differential diagnosis in patients presenting with unilateral polypoid nasal lesions especially in the elderly. In addition, endoscopic medial maxillectomy can provide an adequate approach for complete tumour removal.

Gene expression characteristic in human auricular cartilage tissue engineering

This study was to assess collagen type II and collagen type I gene expression in tissue-engineered human auricular: cartilage formed via tissue engineering technique. Large-scale culture expansions were transformed into 3D in vitro construct and were implanted subcutaneously on the dorsal of athymic mice. After 8 weeks, explanted construct was processed in the same manner of native cartilage to facilitate cells for gene expression analysis. Isolated cells from in vivo construct demonstrated expression of type II collagen gene comparable to native cartilage. This study verified that tissue-engineered auricular cartilage expressed cartilage specific gene, collagen type II after in vivo maturation.

Quality evaluation analysis of bioengineered human skin

Our objective is to determine the quality of tissue engineered human skin via immunostaining, RT-PCR and electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). Culture-expanded human keratinocytes and fibroblasts were used to construct bilayer tissue-engineered skin. The in vitro skin construct was cultured for 5 days and implanted on the dorsum of athymic mice for 30 days. Immunostaining of the in vivo skin construct appeared positive for monoclonal mouse anti-human cytokeratin, anti-human involucrin and anti-human collagen type I. RT-PCR analysis revealed loss of the expression for keratin type 1, 10 and 5 and re-expression of keratin type 14, the marker for basal keratinocytes cells in normal skin. SEM showed fibroblasts proliferating in the 5 days in vitro skin. TEM of the in vivo skin construct showed an active fibrocyte cell secreting dense collagen fibrils. We have successfully constructed bilayer tissue engineered human skin that has similar features to normal human skin.

In vitro development of autologous tissue engineered human articular neocartilage for orthopaedic surgery

Treatment of articular cartilage lesions remains a clinical challenge. The uses of prosthetic joint replace allograft and/or autograft transplant carry a risk of complications due to infection, loosening of its component, immunological rejection and morbidity at the donor site. There has been an increasing interest in the management of cartilage damages, owing to the introduction of new therapeutic options. Tissue engineering as a method for tissue restoration begins to provide a potential alternative therapy for autologous grafts transplantations. We aimed to evaluate how well a tissue engineered neocartilage implant, consist of human articular chondrocytes cultured with the presence of autologous serum and mixed in a fresh fibrin derived from patient, would perform in subcutaneous implantation in athymic mice.