Co-Culture of alpha TC-6 Cells and beta TC-1 Cells: Morphology and Function

BACKGROUND: In vitro experiments using only beta-cell lines instead of islets are limited because pancreatic islets are composed of four different types of endocrine cells. Several recent studies have focused on cellular interactions among these cell types, especially alpha- and beta-cells. Because islet isolation needs time and experience, we tested a simple co-culture system with alpha- and beta-cells. Their morphology and function were assessed by comparison to each single cell culture and pancreatic islets. METHODS: alpha TC-6 cells and beta TC-1 cells were maintained in Dulbecco's Minimal Essential Medium containing 5 mM glucose and 10% fetal bovine serum. Cells were mixed at a 1:1 ratio (5x10(5)) in 6-well plates and cultured for 24, 48, and 72 hours. After culture, cells were used for insulin and glucagon immunoassays and tested for glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). RESULTS: alpha TC-6 and beta TC-1 cells became condensed by 24 hours and were more strongly compacted after 48 hours. beta TC-1 cells showed both beta-beta and beta-alpha cell contacts. GSIS increased with increasing glucose concentration in co-cultured cells, which showed lower secreted insulin levels than beta TC-1 cells alone. The increase in the secreted insulin/insulin content ratio was significantly lower for co-cultured cells than for beta-cells alone (P=0.04). Compared to islets, the alpha-/beta-cell co-culture showed a higher ratio of GSIS to insulin content, but the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.09). CONCLUSION: alpha TC-6 and beta TC-1 cells in the co-culture system showed cell-to-cell contacts and a similar stimulated insulin secretion pattern to islets. The co-culture system may be used to better mimic pancreatic islets in in vitro assessments.

Risk Factors Associated with Hemodynamic Instability during Stent Implantation in Unprotected Left Main Lesions without Routine IABP: Identification of the High Risk Patients

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of unprotected left main coronary artery (LMCA) stenosis is a promising approach during this era of drug-eluting stents. However, there is no available hemodynamic data on these type patients during the performance of LMCA stenting. The purpose of this study was to determine the risk factors affecting hemodynamic stability during LMCA stenting, and to evaluate whether hemodynamic support such as inotropics or intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) is needed, based on the risk factors. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: From July 2003 to January 2006, we enrolled 92 study patients (Male=55) who had visited Yeungnam University Hospital, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital and InJe University Baik Hospital in Busan and they were all were diagnosed with angiographically detected unprotected LMCA stenosis. Group 1 (n=69) included those patients who did not need hemodynamic support during PCI. Group 2 (n=23) included patients who needed hemodynamic support during PCI. All patients had stents deployed in the LMCA lesions without hemodynamic support; the clinical, angiographic and procedural outcomes were compared between the two groups after the procedure. RESULTS: The baseline patient characteristics were not statistically different between the two groups. On univariate analysis, Group 2 had more patients diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) than Group 1 (40% vs. 15%, respectively, p=0.014). Group 1 had a greater frequency of an increased left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction than Group 2 (60+/-10 vs. 47+/-11, respectively, p=0.01). Regarding the lesion location in the LMCA, Group 2 had relatively more lesions at bifurcated locations than Group 1 (44% vs. 78%, respectively, p=0.004). Group 2 required more complex techniques to repair lesions, such as kissing or crush stenting, than did Group 1 (19% vs. 48%, respectively, p=0.006). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the presence of AMI (Odds Ratio (OR)=3.74, p=0.014), a complex stenting procedure such as kissing or crushing (OR=3.99, p=0.006), a bifurcated lesion (OR=4.58, p=0.004) and poor LV function (OR=9.95, p=0.0001) were independent risk factors for hemodynamic instability during LMCA stenting. CONCLUSION: The most important risk factor for hemodynamic instability during LMCA stenting was LV function. Therefore, preparation for hemodynamic support, including IABP before the procedure, is necessary for the high risk patients.

Lesion Location: Its Impacts on the Procedural and Postprocedural Outcomes of Unprotected Left Main Coronary Stenting

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for unprotected left main coronary artery (LMCA) stenosis is a promising technique in the drug-eluting stent era. However, there is a lack of data as to the impact of the lesion location in the LMCA on the procedural and postprocedural outcomes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of lesion location on the procedural and postprocedural outcomes. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: From July 2003 to January 2006, we enrolled 82 patients (Males: n=49), who underwent PCI for unprotected LMCA stenosis at Yeungnam University Medical Center, Keimyung University Dong-san Hospital and In-je University Baik Hospital in Busan. The patients were divided into two groups according to the lesion location. Group 1 (n=38) was defined as those patients who had a significant stenosis in the ostium and/or body. Group 2 (n=44) was defined as those patients had a left main coronary lesion involving a bifurcation. All the patients had a sirolimus eluting stent (Cypher, Cordis) deployed into the LMCA stenosis. Stenting techniques such as the T, crush and kissing stent techniques for treating the LMCA were used at the discretion of the operator and according to the characteristics of the lesion location. The in-hospital outcomes were compared between the two groups and follow-up coronary angiography was performed after 6 months; the major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and restenosis were analyzed between the two groups. RESULTS: The baseline characteristics between the two groups were not statistically different. The procedural outcomes showed that for the stenting methods, the conventional stent technique was the only one used in all cases of Group 1, but the kissing, T stenting and Crush techniques were also used in Group 2 (p=0.001). The clinical outcomes showed that that there was no statistical difference for the in-hospital MACEs between the two groups, but for the out-of hospital MACEs at 6 month, the target lesion revascularizatin rates, including PCI or bypass graft operation, in Group 1 were higher than those in Group 2 (0% vs 13.6%, respectively p=0.043). Both groups had one cardiac death each (2.3% vs 2.6% respectively) and there was 1 MACE in Group 1 and 7 MACEs in Group 2 (2.6% vs 16%, respectively, p=0.045). The angiographic outcomes at 6 month showed that all 8 significant restenosis cases were included in Group 2 (18%, 9.7% in the total population); the restenosis site was the left circumflex artery in all cases. CONCLUSION: PCI with using drug eluting stents in the left main lesion showed favorable short term outcomes in selected patients. The lesion location is also an important factor for the clinical and angiographical outcomes.

Three Cases of Ventricular Septal Rupture after Acute Myocardial Infarction

Rupture of the interventricular septum is a serious complication of acute myocardial infarction, accounting for 5% of death due to acute myocardial infarction. The mortality with medical therapy alone exceeds 90%. Accurate diagnosis, urgent management, and early operative correction are necessary for survival. We report cases of 3 patients with ventricular septal rupture after acute myocardial infarction.

Echocardiographic Assessment of LV Geometric Pattern and Function in Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Chronic hypertension induces changes in the cardiac structure and function; however, the effects of transient hypertension are unclear. Pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) offers a natural and spontaneous model of this condition. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: 20 women, aged 30.3+/-5.1 years, with pregnancy-induced hypertension, defined as a blood pressure higher than 140/90 mmHg in the third trimester of pregnancy, with no prior history of hypertension, were studied. 20 normal pregnant women (NPW), aged 30.9+/-3.7 years, were used as the controls. The cardiac chamber dimensions, interventricular septal thickness (IVST), posterior wall thickness (PWT), left ventricular mass index (LVMI), relative wall thickness (RWT), E velocity, A velocity, E/A ratio, isovolumetric relaxation time (IRT), isovolumetric contraction time (ICT), ejection time (ET) and the combined index of myocardial performance (Tei index=IRT+ICT/ET) were calculated by echocardiography. Subjects were considered to have: normal geometry (NG) if both the LVMI and RWT were normal; concentric hypertrophy (CH) if both were elevated; eccentric hypertrophy (EH) if the LVMI was elevated and the RWT normal; and concentric remodeling (CR) if the LVMI was normal and the RWT elevated. RESULTS: There were significant differences between the 2 groups in the following parameters; IVST: 10.5+/-1.3 mm in PIH vs. 8.6+/-1.0 mm in NPW (p<0.0001), PWT: 10.0+/-1.4 mm in PIH vs. 8.9+/-0.9 mm in NPW (p<0.005), LVMI: 113.1+/-20.3 g/m2 in PIH vs. 85.9+/-14.5 g/m2 in NPW (p<0.0001), RWT: 0.41+/-0.08 in PIH vs. 0.35+/-0.03 in NPW (p<0.005), E/A ratio: 0.95+/-0.29 in PIH vs. 1.56+/-0.27 in NPW (p<0.0001), IRT: 118.8+/-19.5 msec in PIH vs. 83.1+/-12.4 msec in NPW (p<0.0001) and the Tei index: 0.51+/-0.09 in PIH vs. 0.31+/-0.06 in NPW (p<0.0001). The geometric patterns of PIH women were NG in 4 (20%) and abnormal geometry in 16 (80%), of which 10 (50%) had EH. The geometric patterns of NPW were NG in 19 (95%) and abnormal geometry in 1 (5%), which also had EH. CONCLUSION: PIH increases the LVMI due to an increase in the IVST and PWT; the most frequent abnormal geometric pattern was EH. The dimensions of the left ventricle, left atrium and aortic root were unchanged. PIH showed left ventricular dysfunction, mainly diastolic. The IRT and Tei index are the most useful echocardiographic parameters to reveal left ventricular dysfunction in PIH.

Influence of Obesity on Left ventricular filling patterns in Hypertensives / 대한내과학회지

BACKGROUND: Left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction has often been described in arterial hypertension in either the presence or the absence of LV hypertrophy. Impairment of LV relaxation have been recently described in obese normotensive individuals, and the prevalence of overweight to frank obesity in hypertensive populations is very high, obesity might well be an important confounder for the evaluation of LV diastolic dysfunction in the patients with hypertension. Accordingly, we designed this study to assess the effect of obesity on LV relaxation and filling in arterial hypertension. METHODS: We assessed the relations of left ventricular filling to load and geometry by Doppler echocardiography in 73 normotensive subjects (40 normal-weight [50 +/- 11 years, 22 women] and 33 obese [57 +/- 11 years, 27 women]) and 81 hypertensive subjects without silent coronary heart disease (23 normal-weight [59 +/- 7 years, 13 women] and 58 obese [54 +/- 13 years, 30 women]). RESULTS: Isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT) was prolonged in hypertensive subjects and normotensive obese subjects compared with normotensive normal-weight subjects (all p<0.01). After controlling for age, height, blood pressure, LV mass index, body mass index, between-group differences in IVRT, peak early transmitral flow velocity, the deceleration time (DT) of early filling velocity, and the ratio of early to late left ventricular filling were disappeared. CONCLUSION: Isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT) is prolonged in both arterial hypertension and obesity, and the presence of obesity does not significantly increase isovolumic relaxation time in hypertension, and abnormalities of left ventricular filling in arterial hypertension are offset after controlling for left ventricular mass.

Two Cases of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Ovary Arising in Mature Cystic Teratoma / 대한산부인과학회잡지

Between 1 and 2% of benign cystic teratomas undergo malignant transformation. This occurs most frequently in postmenopausal women, who account for only 10% of benign cystic teratoma. A wide variety of neoplasms arise in the mature tissues of otherwise benign teratomas. Of the malignancies arising in teratomas, squamous carcinoma is the most common (83%) with sarcomas accounting for 7%, adenocarcinoma and carcinoid tumors make up most of the others. The presentation in Stage I disease does not differ from that of benign cystic teratoma, except that ascites is occasionally present. In the more advanced neoplasms, the symptoms are those of epithelial ovarian cancer of the same stage. Differential diagnosis between squamous cell carcinoma and benign mature teratoma is difficult but seems to be related to age, size, serum tumor marker (SCC, CA125, CEA). Prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma in mature cystic teratoma was reported much poorer than other epithelial ovarian cancers In the early stages, treatment is possible through surgical intervention alone, but when advanced, 5 year survival rate shows less than 15 percent. We experienced two cases of squamous cell carcinoma of ovary arising in mature teratoma and present with a brief review of literature.