Evaluation of Lipopolysaccharide and Interleukin-6 as Useful Screening Tool for Chronic Endometritis.

Universal diagnostic criteria for chronic endometritis (CE) have not been established due to differences in study design among researchers and a lack of typical clinical cases. Lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) have been reported to cause inflammation in the reproductive systems of several animals. This study aimed to elucidate the influence of LPS in the pathogenesis of CE in humans. We investigated whether LPS affected cytokine production and cell proliferation in the endometrium using in vivo and in vitro experiments. LPS concentrations were analyzed between control and CE patients using endometrial tissues. LPS administration stimulated the proliferation of EM-E6/E7 cells derived from human endometrial cells. High LPS concentrations were detected in CE patients. LPS concentration was found to correlate with IL-6 gene expression in the endometrium. Inflammation signaling evoked by LPS led to the onset of CE, since LPS stimulates inflammatory responses and cell cycles in the endometrium. We identified LPS and IL-6 as suitable candidate markers for the diagnosis of CE.

A case of urothelial carcinoma, lipid cell variant.

The lipid cell variant of urothelial carcinoma is a rare variant of urinary bladder cancer, comprised of lipoblast-like cells. In this report, we describe a case of the lipid cell variant of aggressive urothelial carcinoma. A 78-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of gross hematuria. On cystoscopy, an ulcerative lesion, non-papillary architecture, was observed in the lateral wall of the bladder. Transurethral resection was performed. Histopathological findings of the bladder tumor indicated neoplastic cells forming irregular solid nests and sheets. Lipoblast-like neoplastic cells that had eccentric nuclei and cytoplasmic vacuoles were observed, not only in the resected specimen, but also in urine samples. On mucin histochemistry, the tumor cell cytoplasm contained no neutral or acidic mucus. The lipoblast-like cells were positive for cytokeratins (AE1/AE3, CK7) and adipophilin, known as a protein associated with neutral lipid synthesis. In general, it is difficult to prove the existence of intracytoplasmic lipid in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded materials. This is the first report in which the presence of lipid in vacuoles of the lipid cell variant has been verified by immunohistochemistry.

Histopathological study of specimens obtained by left ventricular biopsy during ventriculoplasty for idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

OBJECTIVE: Pathological changes in the myocardium in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) are usually studied using endomyocardial biopsy specimens, but the relationship between pathological changes in the myocardium and clinical findings is unclear. The goal of the study was to examine correlations between clinical findings and histopathological findings in specimens of the left ventricular myocardium collected during left ventriculoplasty in DCM patients. METHODS: The subjects were 20 DCM patients (17 males and 3 females; mean age: 59 ± 14 years old) who underwent left ventriculoplasty, including 16 cases of overlapping ventriculoplasty (OLVP) and 4 of papillary muscle approximation (PMA) with left ventricular incision. Preoperative age, sex, The New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification, the brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level, cardiothoracic ratio (CTR), echocardiographic data, history of diabetes mellitus, drug history of spironolactone, ACE inhibitor, ARB, and ß-blocker were used as clinical findings. Histopathological scores were determined for each patient and semi-quantitative data for hypertrophy, attenuation, vacuolation and fibrosis were obtained. RESULTS: A significant correlation was found between age and interstitial fibrosis. A significant inverse correlation was found between left ventricular diastolic diameter (LVDd) in echocardiographic data and interstitial fibrosis. There were no other significant relation between histopathological scores and clinical findings. CONCLUSION: From this study, we found that interstitial fibrous increased with aging and more dilated LVDd had less interstitial fibrosis. It is concluded that the kinetics of myocardial fibrosis with remodeling might be variable and histopathological findings does not reflect the clinical and hemodynamic changes in DCM patients. Further morphological data are needed to verify this result.

Bromocriptine-induced reversible lysosomal change and reduction of prolactin and growth hormone messenger RNA in cultured GH3 cell lines.

We examined the effects of bromocriptine on the ultrastructure and on the levelsof messenger RNA (mRNA) of prolactin and growth hormone (GH) in a cultured GH3 cell line. Prolactin and GH concentrations measured by radioimmunoassay in the incubation medium as well as the cell number of the GH3 cells were significantly decreased by treatment with 10-4M bromocriptine for 24 hours. Electron microscopy of bromocriptine-treated GH3 cells demonstrated accumulation of cytoplasmic vacuoles containing cytoplasmic components including secretory granules (crinophagy) which were positive for acid phosphatase staining. The remarkable morphological changes in GH3 cells, induced by treatment with 10-4M bromocriptine for 24 hours, disappeared 48 hours after substitution with bromocriptine-free medium. An immunoelectron-microscopic study demonstrated gold particles binding with antiprolactin antibodies not only In the cytoplasm but also inside vacuoles of GH3 cells after incubation with bromocriptine for 24 hours. Treatment with 10-4M bromocriptine for 24 hours caused the reduction both of mRNAs of prolactin measured by dot-blot hybridization and the Northern-blotting method and of GH measured by the Northern-blotting method. In conclusion, bromocriptine induces a reversible lysosomal change and could inhibit gene transcription of prolactin and GH in GH3 cells.Endocr Pathol 4:28-33, 1993.