Engineered three-dimensional rabbit oral epithelial–mesenchymal–muscular hybrid sheets

Regenerative muscles are required for swallowing and mastication, and are important for functional recovery from diseases involving oral muscular defects. Therefore, we generated three-layer hybrid sheets, similar to oral mucosal structures containing submucosal muscles, using rabbit oral mucosa epithelial, mesenchymal, and myoblastic progenitor cells, and examined the structural proteins. Each cell type was obtained from rabbit oral mucosa using enzymatic digestion. Isolated mesenchymal and myoblastic cells were multi-differentiated into osteoblasts, adipocytes, and chondrocytes or myotubes. Isolated epithelial cells were cultured on collagen gels containing isolated mesenchymal cells for 2 weeks, and these epithelial-mesenchymal cell sheets were laminated onto myoblastic cell sheets. The engineered hybrid sheets were multi-stratified in the epithelial and myoblastic layers in a time-dependent manner, expressing intermediate cytoskeletal filament proteins of epithelium and muscle. Hybrid sheets also expressed extracellular matrix basement membrane proteins. Immature cell markers for epithelial and myoblastic cells were observed continuously in hybrid sheet cultures. We established engineered three-dimensional rabbit oral mucosa hybrid sheets containing each immature cell type in vitro.

Outcomes of patients older than 75 years with non-metastatic prostate cancer

Objective:Prostate cancer in elderly patients was formerly treated with androgen deprivation therapy.Since the latter of the 1990s new technologies were introduced into treatments,then strategies have varied.We aimed to observe the outcomes of elderly patients treated during transition period and compare each stage with others.Methods:During 2008 and 2010,255 patients with prostate cancer older than 75 years were sequentially treated.With exception of patients with bone and/or visceral metastasis,outcomes of 199 patients with localized and locally advanced stages were examined.Complete records were obtained by the end of 2015.Results:In total,122(61%),28(14%),37(19%)and 12(6%)of patients were in stages T1c-T2a,T2b-c,T3 and T4,respectively.Patients generally presented with abnormal screening or lower urinary tract symptom.Seventy-one percent of patients received androgen deprivation therapy as monotherapy and 22% of the radiation-treated patients added androgen deprivation therapy.Patients in stage T1c-T2a and T2b-c showed a favorable prognosis.Some cancer death appeared in patients with T3 and T4 during observation periods.Twenty-seven percent of patients died from prostate cancer-independent complications:pneumonia,heart disease,and brain vascular disease.Tendency is similar to that of Japanese elderly male population.No remarkable side effects from androgen deprivation therapy were noticed.