[Effectiveness and complications of ESWL in the treatment of renal pelvis stones in the children less than 8 years of age in Sanandaj, Iran 2007-2015]

Background and Aim: Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy [ESWL] has revolutionized the treatment of kidney stones in children. However, use of this technology has several complications which cast doubt on its safety and effectiveness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and complications of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy in the treatment of renal pelvis stones in the children less than 8 years of age

Material and Method: This retrospective study included children less than 8 years of age with renal pelvis stones who had been referring to Tohid Hospital in Sanandaj, between 2007 and 2015. Data of the patients, such as age, sex, clinical status, stone free rate, days of hospitalization, response rate to treatment and complications were obtained from the patients' medical records. We used a checklist to collect data of 35 children less than 8 years of age [including 37 kidneys] with renal pelvis stones who had been treated with ESWL in Tohid Hospital. SPSS software and descriptive statistics [absolute and relative frequency, mean and standard deviation] were used for data analysis

Result: The sizes of the stones were between 8 and 25 mm. Thirty three patients [94.5%] were treated after one ESWL session and two patients [5.5%] were treated after two ESWL sessions. Six patients [16.2%] developed fever due to urinary tract infection; in two cases free stones lodged in ureter and 8 cases [21.6%] required hospitalization after ESWL. Hematuria occurred in all cases. Subcapsular hematoma was not observed in the patients. Blood transfusion was not given to the patients. The effectiveness of ESWL and stone free rate had inverse relationship with the age of the patients and sizes of the stones

Conclusion: In this study extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy was an extremely effective method for the treatment of renal pelvis stones in children and major and irreversible complications were not common. ESWL was more suitable for the treatment of the stones of less than 20 mm

[Assessment of the expression of self renewal genes [Tcl1, Tbx3, Dppa4 and Esrrb] in bladder, liver, colon and prostate cancers]

Here we examined the expression of self renewal regulatory factors such as, Esrrb, Tcl1, Tbx3 and Dppa4 in several tissue samples of cancers and cancer cell lines. These genes are required for efficient self renewal of embryonic stem cells. Caco2, HT-29, HT 1376, Ln Cap, and HepG2 cells were cultured in T25 flasks. Considering the clinical and laboratory findings, human tumor samples were obtained under direct supervision of the medical specialists. Then we evaluated expression of self renewal genes [Tbx3, Tcl1, Esrrb, Dppa4] by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCE] in the above mentioned cells and human tumor samples. To confirm the validity of the laboratory tests, we studied negative control samples and internal control genes. Our data revealed the expression of self renewal genes [TCL1, TBX3, ESRRB and DPPA4] in bladder, liver, prostate and colon cancers and also cancer cell lines. Colon, liver, prostate and bladder cancer cells can express TCL1, TBX3, ESRRB and DPPA4 genes, which are specific markers of stem cells. Therefore in malignant cells of the above mentioned cancers, some cells have the characteristics of stem cells and can play an essential role in the proliferation of malignant cells

Evaluation of the expression of self renewal genes [Oct-4, Nanog, Sox2, Nucleostemin, Bmi and Zfx] in bladder, colon and prostate cancers and in cancer cell lines [LNCaP, HepG2, HT-29, CaCo[2], HT-1376]

Uncontrolled self renewal plays a direct function in different types of carcinoma progression. Here we examined the expression of self renewal regulatory factors such as Oct4, Nanog, Sox2, Nucleostemin, Zfx, Bmi-1 in colon, prostate, bladder and liver cancers in human samples and cancer cell lines. We used RT-PCR to examine the expression of these genes in 10 tumors of bladder, 5 tumors of prostate, 5 tumors of colon, 5 normal tissues of colon, and cancer cell lines. The expression of Oct-4 and Nucleostemin at protein level was further determined by immunocytochemical [ICC] analysis in cancer cell lines. We designed specific primers to amplify a segment of Oct4, Nanog, Sox2, Nucleostemin, Bmi and Zfx. As expected DNA fragment of these genes based on designated primer was amplified in the PCR reaction. We detected the expression of these genes in almost all of the examined tumor samples and cancer cell lines that we used. Oct4 and Nucleostemin proteins were expressed in both nuclear and cytoplasmic in cancer cell lines. No immunoreactivity was observed in negative controls, which were incubated in the absence of primary antibody. Collectively, our results indicated that in a tumor population a rare subpopulation of cells within the tumor cell mass has the potential of self renewal, and suggested that their expression can be used as potential tumor markers in diagnosis and/or prognosis of tumors. These results confirm the potential value of the cancer stem-cell theory in cancer therapy