No abstract

The objective of our study was to investigate if auriculotherapy (AT) can modulate pain threshold. In our experiments, AT consisted of placing Vaccaria seeds over the “fingers point” of one ear. Two groups of healthy volunteers were enrolled for the study. Each subject was asked to perform an autoalgometric test developed by our group on three occasions: before, 1 hour after, AT and 24 hours after AT. Participants of the first group received a 2-minute long session of AT, while participants of the second group received a 2-minute long session of sham treatment, consisting of a puncture/massage above the skin of the neck. The autoalgometric test consisted of applying an increasing pressure with the finger-tips and finger-backs of four fingers by the subjects themselves (i.e., eight sites were evaluated) against a round-shaped needle for two times: until a minimum pain sensation (first time, minimal test) or a maximally tolerable pain sensation (second time, maximal test). Our results showed a significant higher pain threshold in the maximal test at 24 hours after AT compared to sham treatment. This result indicates for the first time that AT can increase pain tolerability, rather than affecting the minimal pain threshold.

Background/Aims: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is a frequent type of nonmelanoma skin cancer, which shows a greater prevalence in kidney-transplanted (KT) patients than in the general population. The study of this tumor in KT patients may allow us to understand the influence of the tumor inflammatory microenvironment on cancer behavior, and to design new image analysis methods to determine prognosis and apply personalized medicine. The major hypothesis of the present work is that antirejection drugs, by modifying the B-cell/T-cell balance, induce measurable differences in tumoral cell microarchitecture and in the inflammatory microenvironment in KT patients compared to nontransplanted controls. Methods: In this retrospective study in an Italian cohort including 15 KT patients and 15 control subjects from the general population who developed BCC, we analyzed tissue microarchitecture and inflammatory infiltrates of BCC using state-of-the-art nonlinear image analysis techniques such as fractal dimension and sample entropy of internuclear distances. Results: KT patients showed a nonsignificant trend to a greater number of nuclei in the basal cell layer compared to non-KT controls and subtle changes in the intact skin compared to controls. Similarly, the number of mitoses per unit length was almost doubled in the patients with KT compared to controls. However, when the number of mitotic cells was normalized by the total number of cells in the basal layer (mitotic index), these differences were not significant, although a clear trend was still present. Finally, KT patients showed a nonsignificant trend to an increased density of inflammatory cells close to the tumoral cell layer. When considering the intact skin, this difference was significant, with a 70% increase in the density of inflammatory cells. Conclusion: Data comparing the microarchitecture of BCC in normal subjects and KT patients are scanty, and the present study is the first to use nonlinear image analysis techniques to this aim. The observed differences underscore the relevance of T-cell suppression in cancer behavior. These data suggest that BCC develops in treated patients with specific biological characteristics which should be further analyzed in terms of therapeutic response.pipeline image analysis strategy to evaluate and assess the histology of basal cell layers in KT patients with BCC. Previous observations showed that BCC was clinically similar in the KT and the general population [12]: BCC occurrence was increased at the level of the head and neck region at an advanced age and the level of the trunk at a younger age. Furthermore, the literature on gender prevalence is somewhat inconsistent regarding BCC in KT, but in the general population males are more often affected than females (as in our sample). Finally, BCC is reported to have poor or scanty inflammatory response in the general popu-

Background/Aim: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is highly prevalent in kidney transplant patients (KT).It is characterized by the presence of an inflammatory infiltrate. In this study, we examined the presence of similar infiltrates in intact skin, which could be regarded as a precancerous step. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed skin biopsies of 19 non-transplanted patients with a diagnosis of SCC or basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and 17 KT with either SCC or BCC. Results: KT showed increased inflammatory infiltrate in the subepithelial region, compared to non-transplanted patients. The density of basal cell nuclei was also different among the four groups with an interaction effect between tumor type and transplantation. The extent of inflammatory infiltrates did not correlate with the eGFR and proteinuria. Conclusion: KT with a non-melanoma skin cancer show increased intact skin inflammatory infiltrate and alterations in the density of the basal cell layer compared to non-transplanted patients.

The antiepileptic effect of ketogenic diets is acknowledged but its mechanism of action is poorly understood. The present work aimed to evaluate possible effects of a calorie-restricted ketogenic diet (CRKD) on brain growth and angiogenesis in normal prepubertal rats. Two groups of prepubertal rats were fed with a standard diet (group 1) or a CRKD (group 2) for ten weeks. Then, rats were sacrificed and the thickness for the following structures was evaluated by histology: (1) cerebral cortex, (2) deep cerebral white matter, and (3) substantia nigra. The capillary density was also evaluated within: (1) cerebral cortex, (2) dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, (3) periaqueductal grey matter, and (4) substantia nigra. The results showed a smaller thickness of all the areas examined and a reduced capillary density within the cerebral cortex in the CRKD-treated group compared to the control group. These findings suggest an association between reduced angiogenesis within the cerebral cortex and the antiepileptic effects of CRKD.