Patients who sustain ankle fractures can be expected to be still experiencing functional difficulties two years post-treatment.

MUC1 is a transmembrane glycoprotein expressed by normal breast epithelium and virtually all breast cancers. MUC1 is normally restricted to the apical surface of epithelia and loss of this polarized distribution in breast carcinomas is associated with lymph node metastasis. Our previous work found that MUC1 can bind intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), mediating adhesion of breast cancer cells to a simulated blood vessel wall, and also triggering a calcium-based signal in the MUC1-bearing cells. It is possible that the depolarized membrane distribution of MUC1 in breast carcinomas may facilitate interactions with stromal/endothelial ICAM-1 leading to adhesion and subsequent migration through the vessel wall. In the current study, we provide evidence that ICAM-1 can influence the migration of cells that express endogenous or transfected MUC1. Migration across a gelatin-coated Transwell membrane could be increased in a step-wise manner by the sequential addition of ICAM-1-expressing cells (endothelial cells and fibroblasts), and ICAM-1-inducing inflammatory cytokines (tumour necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1 beta). Antibodies against MUC1 or ICAM-1, but not a control antibody, could abrogate migratory increases. Cells that did not express MUC1 were unresponsive to ICAM-1. Our current findings build on our earlier work, by suggesting that the end result of the MUC1/ICAM-1-mediated cell-cell adhesion and calcium-based signal is migration. This has implications for the exit of circulating tumour cells from the vasculature, as well as tumour cell migration through fibroblast-containing stroma underlying the endothelial wall.

Background: Escherichia coli causes over one third of the bacteraemia cases in England each year, and the incidence of these infections is increasing.

Gastric duplication cysts are rare congenital anomalies that are mostly discovered in children but can remain asymptomatic and undetected into adulthood. Malignant transformation in gastric duplications is extremely rare, with most reported cases being adenocarcinomas. Herein, the authors report the first case of a high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma arising in a gastric duplication cyst in a 40-year-old Asian male. This case highlights that duplication cysts should be included in the differential diagnosis of cystic masses of the gastrointestinal tract in adult, as well as pediatric, patients and emphasizes the importance of complete surgical resection and meticulous pathologic examination of these congenital anomalies.