Paraganglioma of the Urinary Bladder: A Rare Cause of Hypertension and Urinary Tract Infections.

Pheochromocytoma is a neoplasm, which develops from cells of the chromaffin tissues that are derived from the ectodermic neural system and mostly situated within the adrenal medulla. Approximately 15% of pheochromocytoma cases arise from extra-adrenal chromaffin tissue. Pheochromocytoma of the bladder is rare and accounts for less than 0.06% of all bladder neoplasms and less than 1% of all pheochromocytomas. We report a case of a young woman who presented with uncontrolled hypertension, recurrent urinary tract infections and micturition attacks and was found to have a metastatic bladder paraganglioma. In addition, we provide a summary table of the clinical manifestations of paragangliomas based on anatomic locations.

In vitro replication of scrapie agent in a neuronal model: infection of PC12 cells.

A rat phaeochromocytoma cell line, termed PC12, was used to study scrapie replication. These cells, in response to the addition of nerve growth factor (NGF), exhibit a number of neuronal properties including morphological differentiation, electrophysiological responsiveness, and neurotransmitter synthesis. Cultures were exposed to scrapie brain homogenate (strain 139A), harvested every week for up to 6 weeks, and assayed for scrapie infectivity. Scrapie replication in vitro was monitored by injecting scrapie agent-exposed NGF-treated PC12 cells into mice and measuring time intervals from injection to onset of clinical symptoms. Mouse incubation periods vary inversely with the amount of scrapie infectivity present. Cells harvested at 7 and 14 days after exposure to scrapie agent showed a decrease in the level of infectivity followed by an increase at subsequent time points. The increase in scrapie infectivity from early to late time intervals after agent exposure clearly indicated replication in vitro. A fusion agent was not necessary to establish infection, and the addition of mouse peritoneal macrophages caused a reduction in the yield of infectivity per culture. Examination of cells by phase-contrast microscopy failed to reveal any cytopathology.

Morphological study of virus-like particles in two transplantable tumours from BDX rats.

Virus-like particles were found in two transplantable tumours, Sp56 and Sp6, from BDX rats. Sp56, a neurogenic sarcoma, contains abundant C-type particles in all stadia nof morphogeneis. This tumour reacts with anti-Friend leukaemia virus gp70 and anti-Rauscher leukaemia virus p30 sera. Sp6, a fibrosarcoma, has abundant virus-like particles in the cytoplasm, very often associated with centrioles or basal bodies of a cilium. These particles consist of two concentric shells with a diam. of 60 to 65 nm. Released particles were found outside the cell with a diam. of 85 to 100 nm characterized by an envelope and an eccentrically located electron-dense nucleoid, surrounded by an intermediate layer. These virus-like particles show no cross-reaction with antisera against murine C- or B-type particles, but show ultrastructural similarity with virus particles recently described in Chinese hamster cells and in mouse cell lines infected with two retrovirus isolates from South-East Asian mice.