Invasive aspergillosis-on-chip: A quantitative treatment study of human Aspergillus fumigatus infection.

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is associated with a high mortality rate and poses a direct threat to immunocompromised patients. Here, we present the invasive aspergillosis-on-chip (IAC) model to investigate Aspergillus fumigatus infection in vitro. The model allows the study of the lateral growth and the invasive behaviour of fungal hyphae from the epithelium into the endothelial cell layer in an alveolus-on-chip model. We established an algorithm-based analysis pipeline for three-dimensional confocal microscopy images to visualize and quantify fungal morphology, including hyphal growth and branching. Human macrophages in the IAC model partially inhibited the growth of the fungus, contributed to the release of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-6, TNF) and chemokines (IL-8 and MCP-1) associated with an increased number of invasive hyphae. Similar to in vivo, the application of the fungistatic drug caspofungin limited the fungal growth and resulted in morphological changes of the hyphal tree previously described in other studies. The IAC infection model allows the identification and characterization of cellular infection targets and in vitro testing of antifungal drugs in clinically relevant concentrations. It thus represents a promising tool to broaden the understanding of pathogenicity and pathophysiology of invasive aspergillosis.

Label-free classification of colon cancer grading using infrared spectral histopathology.

In recent years spectral histopathology (SHP) has been established as a label-free method to identify cancer within tissue. Herein, this approach is extended. It is not only used to identify tumour tissue with a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 100%, but in addition the tumour grading is determined. Grading is a measure of how much the tumour cells differ from the healthy cells. The grading ranges from G1 (well-differentiated), to G2 (moderately differentiated), G3 (poorly differentiated) and in rare cases to G4 (anaplastic). The grading is prognostic and is needed for the therapeutic decision of the clinician. The presented results show good agreement between the annotation by SHP and by pathologists. A correlation matrix is presented, and the results show that SHP provides prognostic values in colon cancer, which are obtained in a label-free and automated manner. It might become an important automated diagnostic tool at the bedside in precision medicine.

[The asepsis problem at the office of the ENT physician]. / Beitrag zum Asepsisproblem am Arbeitsplatz des HNO-Arztes.

Microorganisms were determined in a microbiological study in the near environment of ENT working places. We found especially saprophytic flora as Micrococcus sp., Staphylococcus epidermidis and aerobic spore-forming microorganisms on 54 examination instruments of 2 outpatient and 2 inpatient treatment areas. In 22% of the instrument examinations, microbiological controls were negative. There were no pathogenic microorganisms.