[Morphological characteristics of paravertebral muscles in patients with scoliosis caused by primaryprogressive muscular dystrophies]. / Morfologicheskaia kharakteristika paravertebral'nykh myshts patsientov so skoliozom, obuslovlennym pervichnymi progressiruiushchimi miodistrofiiami.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the morphological features of paraspinal muscles in patients with spinal pathology caused by progressive muscular dystrophy. SUBJECT AND METHODS: The Traumatologic-and-Orthopedic Department of Axial Skeleton Pathology examined patients with scoliotic spinal deformity due to muscular dystrophy: 1) severe Duchenne X-linked muscular dystrophy (n=7); 2) Erb-Roth's autosomal recessive muscular dystrophy (n=2); 3) Landouzy-Dejerine facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (n=2). For histopathological analysis of paraspinal muscles, an excisional biopsy was performed in the region of the apex of the strain angle (the convex side), and the specimens were fixed with 10% neutral formalin. Paraffin sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin according to the Van Gieson and Masson trichrome staining methods. The preparations were examined using an AxioScope.A1 stereo microscope and an AxioCam digital camera ('Carl Zeiss MicroImaging GmbH', Germany). RESULTS: Sluggish moderate paraparesis and grade IV progressive neurogenic thoracolumbar scoliosis were predominant in the clinical picture of the disease. The muscle biopsy specimens were established to have muscle fiber profiles with lost polygonality, increased diameter variability, and centrally positioned or numerous internal nuclei (myophagy) and to be characterized by fiber contractures, fatty degeneration fields, interstitial fibrosis, and signs of axonopathy of intramuscular nerve conductors. The arterial blood vessels were spastic with fibrotic t. media and t. adventicia; the venous bed vessels were dilated, thin-walled, full-blooded, which causes blood corpuscle transudation and numerous hemorrhages. CONCLUSION: The identified morphopathological characteristics of muscle tissue in patients with progressive muscular dystrophy are very similar. However, Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most severe pathology, in which fatty degeneration and sclerotization of muscle tissue and perimysial vessels are most pronounced. To solve this problem, there is a need for the integration of geneticists, biochemists, molecular biologists, pharmacologists, and histologists.

Bone Formation and Adaptive Morphology of the Anterior Tibial Muscle in 3-mm Daily Lengthening Using High-Fractional Automated Distraction and Osteosynthesis with the Ilizarov Apparatus Combined with Intramedullary Hydroxyapatite-Coated Wire.

PURPOSE: We studied osteogenesis and morphofunctional features of the anterior tibial muscle using 3-mm high-frequency automated lengthening with the Ilizarov apparatus alone and in combination with intramedullary nailing. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Tibia was lengthened with a round-the-clock automated distractor at a 3-mm daily rate for 10 days in 16 mongrel dogs. In group 1 (n = 8), a 1.8-mm intramedullary titanium wire coated with hydroxyapatite was introduced into the tibial canal followed by Ilizarov frame mounting and transverse osteotomy of the diaphysis. Distraction mode was 0.025 mm x 120 increments a day. In group 2 (n = 8), distraction mode was the same but nailing was not used. Bone formation and the anterior tibial muscle were studied at two time points: (1) upon distraction completion; (2) three months after the apparatus removal. Bone formation was studied radiographically. Muscle preparations were examined histologically and stereomicroscopically. RESULTS: There was a threefold reduction in the distraction time in both groups. Consolidation took 13.83±4.02 days in group 1 and 33.7±2.4 days in group 2. Muscle macropreparations of the experimental limb in group 1 at study time points did not show significant differences from intact tissues. Muscle histostructure in both groups was characterized by activation of angiogenesis and myohistogenesis, but the volumetric density of microvessels in the lengthening phase was three times higher in group 1. CONCLUSION: Combined technology significantly reduces the total lengthening procedure and does not compromise limb functions. Intramedullary HA-coated wires promote faster bone formation. The muscle was able to exhibit structural adaptation and plasticity of a restitution type.

[Computer karyometry of the thyroid thyrocytes in the conditions of modeling acute radiation injury in animals].

The influence of gamma-radiation on the thyroid gland was studied in the experiments on male rats (4 month old), divided into 6 groups (n = 3). Acute radiation sickness of medullary type was modeled using radial therapeutic unit AGAT-R1 with 60Co radiation source and single total uniform exposure with gamma-quanti at the dose of 7.0 Gy, the dose power--0.78 Gr/min. The first group consisted of intact animals, the second one--the animals, withdrawn out of the experiment 2 days after the exposure with gamma-quanti, the third--after 5 days, the fourth---after 10 days, the fifth--after 15 days and the sixth--after 30 days. Morphometry of the diameter and area of the nucleus of 1500-2000 tyrocytes was made for every period of studying using "VideoTest-Master" program. The samples were ranked with the step of 5.0 microm2, and karyograms were obtained, which had normal distribution in all the cases. In I and II groups the maximal number of the nuclei was noted within the range of 11-15 microm2, as for all the rest period of the experiment, the nuclei of the area of 21-35 microm2 predominated. In the groups III-VI dome-shaped histograms were observed, that is characteristic of follicular and papillary struma maligna. The results obtained show the perspectiveness of using this experimental model combined with computer karyometry for studying the diseases of the neuro-endocrine system, induced by a radiogenic factor.