MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the present study, the exosomes from the cell culture supernatants of an invasive colon cancer cell line SW480-7 were characterised. The effect on tube formation and expression of angiogenic genes in a microvascular endothelial cell, telomerase-immortalised microvascular endothelial cell (TIME) was examined after co-cultured with exosomes secreted from SW480-7.
RESULTS: Zetasizer result showed average diameter of exosomes derived from SW480-7 was 246.2 nm and morphological analysis showed the size of majority of exosomes were less than 200 nm. Results showed that exosomes derived from SW480-7 increased tube formation and up-regulated FGFR3 mRNA expression in TIME.
CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that exosomes derived from SW480-7 increased tube formation and up-regulated expression of FGFR3 mRNA in TIME.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 110 nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) were collected from children aged one month to 12 years old who were admitted with ARI in UKMMC during a one-year period. The two qPCR assays were conducted in parallel.
RESULTS: Ninety-seven samples (88.2%) were positive by QIAstat-Dx RP and 86 (78.2%) by RespiFinder assay. The overall agreement on both assays was substantial (kappa value: 0.769) with excellent concordance rate of 96.95%. Using both assays, hRV/EV, INF A/H1N1 and RSV were the most common pathogens detected. Influenza A/H1N1 infection was significantly seen higher in older children (age group > 60 months old) (53.3%, p-value < 0.05). Meanwhile, RSV and hRV/EV infection were seen among below one-year-old children. Co-infections by two to four pathogens were detected in 17 (17.5%) samples by QIAstat-Dx RP and 12 (14%) samples by RespiFinder, mainly involving hRV/EV. Bacterial detection was observed only in 5 (4.5%) and 6 (5.4%) samples by QIAstat-Dx RP and RespiFinder, respectively, with Mycoplasma pneumoniae the most common detected.
CONCLUSION: The overall performance of the two qPCR assays was comparable and showed excellent agreement. Both detected various clinically important respiratory pathogens in a single test with simultaneous multiple infection detection. The use of qPCR as a routine diagnostic test can improve diagnosis and management.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Peripheral blood samples was collected from 63 AML patients to study their morphological, cytogenetic and molecular features. PCR was used to determine the prevalence of FLT3 mutations; internal tandem duplication (ITD) and tyrosine kinase domain (TKD) in AML patients.
RESULTS: Among 63 AML patients, 42 were males and 21 were females with male to female ratio 2:1 with median age of 32 years. AML-M2 was the predominant French-American-British (FAB) subtype (42%) followed by M4 (27%), M3 (8%), M1 (8%), M0 (8%) and M5 (7%) respectively. Cytogenetic analysis of 60 patients showed 58% as cytogenetically normal (CN) whereas 42% had aberrant karyotype.The most frequent aberrations were trisomy8, t(8;21), t(15;17) (8.3%) each, inversion16 (5%), and different deletions (12%) respectively. FAB-M4 subtype showed most of the chromosomal anomalies. Among 63 AML patients, 22% showed FLT3/ITD while 6.4% had D835 mutation after molecular analysis. FLT3 mutations were found in most of the FAB subtypes and cytogenetic groups. FLT3/ITD mutations were more common in patients with normal karyotype (26%) and usually present with hyperleukocytosis but association between two was not significant.
CONCLUSION: The cytogenetic data of adult AML from Pakistan showed presence of favourable prognostic karyotype with comparable prevalence as reported in international data. Moreover, FLT3/ITD mutations are commonly found in our patients as determined by molecular analysis. Therefore, inclusion of this unfavourable prognostic marker should be routine in molecular diagnostic testing of AML.
OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the in vitro growth inhibition of genetically engineered human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hUCMSC) expressing IL-12 on H1975 human lung adenocarcinoma cells.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Both adenoviral method and electroporation which used to generate hUCMSC-IL12 were compared. The method with better outcome was selected to generate hUCMSC-IL12 for the co-culture experiment with H1975 or MRC-5 cells. Characterisation of hUCMSC and hUCMSC-IL12 was performed.
RESULTS: Adenoviral method showed superior results in transfection efficiency (63.6%), post-transfection cell viability (82.6%) and hIL-12 protein expression (1.2 x 107 pg/ml) and thus was selected for the downstream experiments. Subsequently, hUCMSC-IL12 showed significant inhibition effect on H1975 cells after 5 days of co-culture. No significant difference was observed for all other co-culture groups, indicating that the inhibition effect was because of hIL-12. Lastly, the integrity of hUCMSC-IL12 remained unaffected by the transduction through examination of their surface markers and differentiation properties.
CONCLUSION: This study provided proof of concept that hUCMSC can be genetically engineered to express hIL-12 which exerts direct growth inhibition effect on human lung adenocarcinoma cells.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The validated exam developed by the BEST collaborative group was used to assess TM knowledge of doctors, from junior residents up to senior specialists. Scores of 42%, 62%, and 82%, corresponding to basic, intermediate, and expert levels of knowledge, respectively. Convenience sampling was done from eight blood-using departments at University Malaya Medical Centre. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the candidates' exam scores between different variables.
RESULTS: A total of 184 doctors were assessed. The overall mean score was 40.1% (SD 12.7%). The most senior doctors had a significantly lower mean score compared with resident trainees and specialists. Doctors from haematology, anesthesiology, and internal medicine had significantly higher scores (51%, 47.4%, and 46.4% respectively, p<0.05). No correlations were found between the exam scores and the self-reported amount, or quality of prior TM teaching, nor with the year of postgraduate training. Participants did poorly on questions related to transfusion reactions, especially the question on transfusion-related acute lung injury.
CONCLUSION: Inadequate transfusion medicine knowledge was found across all the departments and levels of appointment. It is concerning that the most senior decision-making doctors had especially poor knowledge. TM training is needed by all residents, and regular updates should be given to established specialists.
CASE REPORT: A 33-year-old man presented with 2 months history of feeling of foreign body sensation in the throat. Examination revealed a nodular red coloured polyp on the left tonsil. Histologically, the polyp was covered by squamous epithelium and is composed of numerous vascular channels containing lymphocytes and eosinophilic material, in a fibrous stroma. Immunohistochemically, the endothelial cells were positive toward CD31 and D2-40.
DISCUSSION: The characteristic histological features of a lymphangiomatous polyp are benign vascular proliferation with variable fibrous, adipose and lymphoid stromal components. Nested intraepithelial epidermotropism of lymphocytes can be observed. The vascular channels are typically thin-walled and contain eosinophilic proteinaceous material and lymphocytes. There is no reported incidence of recurrent or malignant transformation.
OBJECTIVE: This study investigated UTX and JMJD3 protein expression patterns in UC and assess their clinical significance.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) method was performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) of UC tissues and compared to the normal bladder tissues from the autopsy specimen. The staining intensity of FFPE tissues were captured with the nuclear and overall positive pixels quantified using Aperio ImageScope software.
RESULTS: JMJD3 protein uptake was present in both nucleus and cytoplasm but UTX protein was predominantly seen in the cytoplasm of UC tissue. UTX was under expressed whereas JMJD3 was over expressed in UC compared to normal bladder. UTX and JMJD3 were not related to clinical stage and grade. However, significant association between JMJD3 expression and invasiveness of tumour (p<0.05) was noted, especially in MIBC group (88.9%). UTX and JMJD3 did not yield any significance as prognostic factors for diseasespecific survival.
CONCLUSIONS: Low expression of UTX protein in UC may indicate possible loss of its tumour suppressor activity and higher JMJD3 protein expression may indicate oncogenic activity. Hence, JMJD3 protein could be a potential diagnostic biomarker in detecting bladder UC of higher stages. Further investigation needed to study the dysregulation of this protein expression with associated gene expression.
AIM: To evaluate CD117 expression in ovarian surface epithelial tumours.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 30 ovarian epithelial borderline, low and highly malignant tumours' formalin-fixed paraffin-blocks (FFPE) tissue blocks. Tissue sections were subjected to the routine haematoxylin-eosin stain and with the anti-CD117 immunohistochemically.
RESULTS: There is a high significant difference in CD117 expression between borderline and malignant groups (P = 0.001). Additionally, there was significant difference in expression in relation to histopathological type (serous versus non-serous) in low-grade and the high-grade ovarian surface epithelial tumours (p=0.04, p=0.035 respectively). Tumour grade and stage strongly correlates with CD117 expression (p=0.014, p=0.019 respectively).
CONCLUSION: We concluded that CD117 expression was significantly correlated with higher ovarian tumour grade and stage.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a 20-year retrospective study aimed to investigate the prevalence, demographic characteristics, clinical presentations, and the association of oral candidiasis with clinical parameters in oral candidiasis cases reported in the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Malaya from 1999 until 2019. A total of 12,964 histopathological records from the Oral Pathology Diagnostic and Research Laboratory (OPDRL) between 1999 to 2019 were retrieved. Oral candidiasis cases were selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Information of interest was obtained and analysed.
RESULTS: From the total records retrieved, 378 oral candidiasis cases were recorded and 82.8% were diagnosed from smear test. This study showed that oral candidiasis was predominantly reported in female (64.2%) and Indian population (64.2%). The peak incidence was in the sixth decades of life (27.0%). The most commonly affected site was tongue and coated tongue was the most common clinical presentation. More than 50% of the cases had comorbidity and 10.6% were associated with dentures. Ethnicity and site of occurrence were significantly associated (p<0.05) with oral candidiasis.
CONCLUSION: This is the first large-scale study of oral candidiasis cases in Malaysia. The findings of this study are useful for clinical assessment of patients suspected of oral candidiasis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Formalin-fixed paraffinembedded (FFPE) blocks of muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients receiving cisplatin-based chemotherapy between January 2010 to December 2020 were traced. Immunohistochemistry staining was performed on traced blocks using antibodies to e-cadherin, vimentin and actin, and p53.
RESULTS: p53 and e-cadherin were stained positive in most cases (p=0.515 and 0.242 respectively), although e-cadherin showed stronger positive expression in pre-cisplatin receiving MIBC cases. All the cases stained negative for actin and vimentin except for faint staining observed in one pre-cisplatin case.
CONCLUSION: Although this study does not show a significant correlation between EMT markers and p53 with cisplatin-responsiveness in MIBC patients, the results serve as preliminary findings on the heterogeneous outcomes of molecular staining in the Malaysian MIBC patient cohort.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, 38 samples of patients undergoing radical prostatectomy were used. Among 38 samples; 20 patients were with prostatic adenocarcinoma, 18 patients were with high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and adjacent normal prostatic tissue areas. The immunolocalisation of apelin and apelin receptor in these tissues were determined immunohistochemically.
RESULTS: Apelin and apelin receptor expressions were higher in prostatic adenocarcinoma than normal prostate tissue and high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia. Apelin receptor expression was also increased in high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia compared to normal tissue.
CONCLUSION: Apelin and apelin receptor are increase in the process of prostate carcinogenesis. This increase may adversely affect the clinical course of prostate cancer patients by stimulating angiogenesis, which is important for invasion and metastasis in prostate cancer.