A Rare Case Of Retroperitoneal Mature Cystic Teratoma In A Young Male Patient

Retroperitoneal mature cystic teratomas are exceedingly uncommon in young male. They are more common in infants and in young females. We report an unusual case of 27 year old male presented with abdominal distension, abdominal fullness and vomiting. Patient underwent ultrasonography and contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT) scan of abdomen which were suggestive of large mature cystic lesion. Patient was planned for surgery and laprotomy was done. A huge retroperitoneal mass was observed and was totally excised. Onhisto-pathological examination (HPE) stratified squamous epithelium with keratin flakes, underlying fibromuscular tissue reveal hair shaft & sebaceous glands and mature cystic teratomawas diagnosed. Retroperitoneal mature cystic teratoma in an older maleis extremely rare. Primary gonadal teratoma with retroperitoneal metastasis should be excluded first. Evaluation of age and location of tumor are critical for its prognosis.

Refolding of recombinant human granulocyte colony stimulating factor: Effect of cysteine/cystine redox system.

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is a multi-functional cytokine which is widely used for treating neutropenia in humans. Evaluation of alternative to expensive components of redox buffer (reduced and oxidized glutathione) is an important step in reducing the cost of production of human biotherapeutic proteins. In the present study, refolding of recombinant human G-CSF expressed as inclusion bodies (IBs) in E. coli was optimized using cysteine and cystine redox agents. The refolding to correct native form of G-CSF was assessed by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The optimized concentrations of cysteine and cystine for correct refolding of G-CSF were found to be 2 mM and 1 mM, respectively. The correctly refolded G-CSF was detected as early as 4 h of incubation in renaturation buffer containing optimized concentrations of cysteine (2 mM) and cystine (1 mM) redox agents. Refolding of G-CSF in optimized redox system increased with increase in shuffling time. Overall, the results suggested the use of cysteine/cystine redox pair could be an alternative to the costlier redox pairs for successful refolding of G-CSF and possibly other human biotherapeutic proteins of importance.

Pregnancy in a rudimentary uterine horn.

A case of pregnancy reaching term in a rudimentary non-communicating horn of the uterus is presented. The pregnancy resulted in the delivery of a live child by cesarian section. The case is being reported for the rarity with which the foetus survives in this condition.