LPS-induced antitumoral effects on glioblastoma multiforme are mediated, in part, by the Tlr-4 receptor. Further understanding of this process may lead to novel treatment strategies for this uniformly fatal disease.

The increased distance between the normal pituitary gland and the residual tumor facilitates treatment of the tumor with radiosurgery or radiotherapy and effectively reduces the incidence of radiation injury to the normal pituitary gland when compared with historical controls.

Leptomeningeal dissemination (LMD), the metastatic spread of tumor cells via the cerebrospinal fluid to the brain and spinal cord, is an ominous prognostic sign for patients with the pediatric brain tumor medulloblastoma. The need to reduce the risk of LMD has driven the development of aggressive treatment regimens, which cause disabling neurotoxic side effects in long-term survivors. Transposon-mediated mutagenesis studies in mice have revealed numerous candidate metastasis genes. Understanding how these genes drive LMD will require functional assessment using in vivo and cell culture models of medulloblastoma. We analyzed two genes that were sites of frequent transposon insertion and highly expressed in human medulloblastomas: Arnt (aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator) and Gdi2 (GDP dissociation inhibitor 2). Here we show that ectopic expression of Arnt and Gdi2 promoted LMD in mice bearing Sonic hedgehog (Shh)-induced medulloblastomas. We overexpressed Arnt and Gdi2 in a human medulloblastoma cell line (DAOY) and an immortalized, nontransformed cell line derived from mouse granule neuron precursors (SHH-NPD) and quantified migration, invasiveness, and anchorage-independent growth, cell traits that are associated with metastatic competence in carcinomas. In SHH-NPD cells. Arnt and Gdi2 stimulated all three traits. In DAOY cells, Arnt had the same effects, but Gdi2 stimulated invasiveness only. These results support a mechanism whereby Arnt and Gdi2 cause cells to detach from the primary tumor mass by increasing cell motility and invasiveness. By conferring to tumor cells the ability to proliferate without surface attachment, Arnt and Gdi2 favor the formation of stable colonies of cells capable of seeding the leptomeninges.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40478-014-0085-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Object Various bibliometric indices are now commonly used to assess academic productivity in medicine. Some evidence suggests that these measures are specific to subspecialty areas. The authors' goal was to measure the h index of academic pediatric neurosurgeons and compare it with previously reported results for academic neurosurgeons in general. Methods Programs with an Accreditation Council for Pediatric Neurosurgery Fellowships–approved fellowship were identified, and the h and g indices of each of their surgeons were calculated. These were correlated with academic rank and compared with published literature on academic neurosurgical departments. Results Seventy-two pediatric neurosurgeons had a mean h index of 16.6 and a mean g index of 29.5. Both indices increased with progressive academic rank. The rank-specific mean index for academic pediatric neurosurgeons was similar to that of neurosurgeons from academic departments in general. Conclusions Overall, the authors conclude that the h index metric is a reasonable measure of academic productivity in the pediatric neurosurgery arena that provides a robust measure of an individual's contribution to the pediatric neurosurgery literature. Like its counterpart in neurosurgery in general, the h index for pediatric neurosurgeons correlates with institutional rank. The h index calculation also reveals the productivity of the pediatric neurosurgeons to be on par with the productivity of neurosurgeons in general.

Unique clinical features and radiological examination using computed tomography technology are helpful in confirming the correct cause of posterior plagiocephaly. Plagiocephaly is considered a benign condition, but with the recent increase in cases, new studies have revealed developmental problems associated with cranial vault asymmetries. Treatment of positional/deformational plagiocephaly includes conservative measures, primarily behavior modification, and, in some cases, helmet therapy, whereas lambdoid synostotic plagiocephaly requires surgical intervention, making differentiation of the cause of the asymmetry critical.