Immunohistochemical identification of nail matrix melanocytes.

BACKGROUND: No previous studies have been conducted to determine the normal number of nail matrix melanocytes in Latin American individuals. The objective of this work was to determine the number of melanocytes per linear millimetre present in the nail matrix and the nail bed in samples obtained from Colombian individuals. METHODS: Twenty-six unilateral biopsies were taken from 19 cadavers subjected to clinical and medico-legal autopsies. These biopsy samples were processed with conventional histotechnology and immunohistochemistry (IHC) with anti-HMB-45 and anti-MiTF. Three sets of photographs (HE, HMB-45 and MiTF) were taken of each biopsy sample and independently assessed by three pathologists. Each observer counted the number of melanocytes present in 1 linear mm of the nail matrix or bed. RESULTS: We found an average of 4.6 melanocytes x linear mm with H & E staining, 9.8 with HMB-45 and 12.4 with MiTF. CONCLUSIONS: The use of IHC significantly increases and facilitates the identification of melanocytes in unilateral biopsies. Our IHC counts exceed the averages found in the literature. This finding warrants new studies to verify whether the Colombian population presents higher numbers of melanocytes in the nail matrix than other populations or whether the observed increase is a result of the use of MiTF.

Infección por helicobacter pylori / Infection to helicobacter pylori

El objeto de este trabjo es determinar la incidencia de infecciones causadas por Helicobacter Pylori mediante un trabajo estadístico, retrospectivo, que investiga la incidencia y frecuencia segun sexo y edad. Realizados en colsutorio privado, basandose en la signosintomatologia y examenes complementarios (FEDA), endoscopia digestiva alta, biopsia), estudiando 182 pacientes desde junio 2000 a junio 2002.

Copper transport in the Nagase analbuminemic rat.

The copper binding components of serum and potential importance of albumin to copper transport were investigated in adult Nagase analbuminemic and Sprague-Dawley rats of both sexes. There was a sex difference in total plasma copper concentrations, which were 60 and 130% higher than in the parent strain, in male and female Nagase rats, respectively. The higher levels of plasma copper were accounted for by two- and threefold increases in ceruloplasmin, as measured by p-phenylenediamine oxidase activity and copper by atomic absorption after gel chromatography. Other nonalbumin plasma proteins were also present in higher concentrations. Albumin concentrations were one-four-thousandth that of Sprague-Dawley rats, at 15 micrograms/ml (determined by rocket immunoelectrophoresis and comparative Western blotting). The tissue distribution and rate of uptake of intravenously injected 67 Cu(II) were unaffected by the lack of circulating albumin. 67Cu entered the liver of Nagase rats at least as rapidly as in the parent strain and reemerged in the blood on ceruloplasmin at an accelerated rate. The initial binding of 67Cu(II) to plasma components was primarily to transcuprein compared with albumin in the case of Sprague-Dawley rats. In the Nagase rats, the rest of the 67Cu bound primarily to nonalbumin proteins with about the same size as albumin; in Sprague-Dawley rats, it bound primarily to transcuprein. Limited analyses of tissue copper confirmed previous reports showing no striking differences from the parent strain. We conclude that albumin is not critical to the normal distribution and metabolism of copper and that it may serve more as a reservoir for excess plasma copper than as a specific conduit for the delivery of this element to hepatocytes or other cells.