A retrospective review was performed on 11 patients who had undergone the transcolumellar transsphenoidal hypophysectomy in our center. There were eight females and three males with age ranging from 17 to 72 years (mean 50 years). Ten patients had pituitary macroadenomas and one had suprasellar cyst. The mean follow up duration for these 11 patients post surgery was 7.2 months. Complications included two cerebrospinal leaks, one postoperative sphenopalatine bleed, one septal perforation and one patient developed numbness of the tip of the nose. We found that this approach is a preferred alternative technique especially in smaller Oriental noses with lower complication rate and better aesthetic result.
Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) due to internal auditory canal (IAC) stenosis with hypoplasia of the cochleovestibular nerve is a rare disorder. The diagnosis of the IAC stenosis requires both high resolution computed tomography scan (HRCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The in vivo and in vitro mechanistic anti-inflammatory actions of cucurbitacin E (CE) (Citrullus lanatus var. citroides) were examined. The results showed that LPS/INF-γ increased NO production in RAW264.7 macrophages, whereas L-NAME and CE curtailed it. CE did not reveal any cytotoxicity on RAW264.7 and WRL-68 cells. CE inhibited both COX enzymes with more selectivity toward COX-2. Intraperitoneal injection of CE significantly suppressed carrageenan-induced rat's paw edema. ORAC and FRAP assays showed that CE is not a potent ROS scavenger. It could be concluded that CE is potentially useful in treating inflammation through the inhibition of COX and RNS but not ROS.
Emerging evidence suggests that reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen (RNS) species can contribute to diverse signalling pathways of inflammatory and tumour cells. Cucurbitacins are a group of highly oxygenated triterpenes. Many plants used in folk medicine to treat cancer have been found to contain cucurbitacins displaying potentially important anti-inflammatory actions. The current study was designed to investigate the anti-ROS and -RNS effects of cucurbitacin L 2-O-β-glucoside (CLG) and the role of these signaling factors in the apoptogenic effects of CLG on human colon cancer cells (HT-29). This natural cucurbitacin was isolated purely from Citrullus lanatus var. citroides (Cucurbitaceae). The results revealed that CLG was cytotoxic to HT-29. CLG increased significantly (P < 0.05) RNA and protein levels of caspase-3 in HT-29 cells when verified using a colorimetric assay and realtime qPCR, respectively. The results showed that lipopolysaccharide/interferon-gamma (LPS/INF-γ) increased nitrous oxide (NO) production inR AW264.7macrophages, whereas N(G)-nitro-L-argininemethyl ester (L-NAME) and CLG curtailed it. This compound did not reveal any cytotoxicity on RAW264.7 macrophages and human normal liver cells (WRL-68) when tested using the MTT assay. Findings of ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and oxygen radical absorption capacity (ORAC) assays demonstrate the antioxidant properties of CLG. The apoptogenic property of CLG on HT-29 cells is thus related to inhibition of reactive nitrogen and oxygen reactive species and the triggering of caspase-3-regulated apoptosis.