Laparoscopic uncontained power morcellation-induced dissemination of ovarian endodermal sinus tumors:A case report

BACKGROUND Endodermal sinus tumors(ESTs),which arise primarily in children and adolescents,account for 20%of malignant ovarian germ cell tumors,but constitute only 1%of all ovarian malignancies.Treatment of ESTs consists of surgical staging with fertility-sparing surgery and chemotherapy.CASE SUMMARY A 15-year-old nulliparous patient was diagnosed with disseminated ovarian ESTs after laparoscopic unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy using uncontained power morcellation for treatment of a ruptured solid adnexal mass in another hospital.Exploratory laparotomy;total abdominal hysterectomy,right salpingooophorectomy,and lymphadenectomy were performed with optimal debulking,and surgical stage 3C was assigned to the patient.CONCLUSION In 2014,the Food and Drug Administration noted that power morcellation was probably associated with a risk of disseminating suspected cancerous tissue.Furthermore,the use of power morcellation to remove solid adnexal mass is considered a contraindication because of the potential for a malignant tumor.This case report aims to warn of the dangers of using uncontained power morcellation to treat solid adnexal masses.

Modeling endodermal organ development and diseases using human pluripotent stem cell-derived organoids

Recent advances in development of protocols for directed differentiation from human pluripotent stem cells(hPSCs)to defined lineages,in combination with 3D organoid technology,have facilitated the generation of various endoderm-derived organoids for in vitro modeling of human gastrointestinal development and associated diseases.In this review,we discuss current state-ofthe-art strategies for generating hPSC-derived endodermal organoids including stomach,liver,pancreatic,small intestine,and colonic organoids.We also review the advantages of using this system to model various human diseases and evaluate the shortcomings of this technology.Finally,we emphasize how other technologies,such as genome editing and bioengineering,can be incorporated into the 3D hPSC-organoid models to generate even more robust and powerful platforms for understanding human organ development and disease modeling.

Tonsil-derived stem cells as a new source of adult stem cells

Located near the oropharynx, the tonsils are the primary mucosal immune organ. Tonsil tissue is a promising alternative source for the high-yield isolation of adult stem cells, and recent studies have reported the identification and isolation of tonsil-derived stem cells (T-SCs) from waste surgical tissue following tonsillectomies in relatively young donors (i.e., under 10 years old). As such, TSCs offer several advantages, including superior proliferation and a shorter doubling time compared to bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). T-SCs also exhibit multi-lineage differentiation, including mesodermal, endodermal (e.g., hepatocytes and parathyroid-like cells), and even ectodermal cells (e.g., Schwann cells). To this end, numbers of researchers have evaluated the practical use of T-SCs as an alternative source of autologous or allogenic MSCs. In this review, we summarize the details of T-SC isolation and identification and provide an overview of their application in cell therapy and regenerative medicine.

Bilineage embryo-like structure from EPS cells can produce live mice with tetraploid trophectoderm

Self-organized blastoids from extended pluripotent stem(EPs)cells possess enormous potential for investigating postimplantation embryo development and related diseases.However,the limited ability of postimplantation development of Eps-blastoids hinders its further application.In this study,single-cell transcriptomic analysis indicated that the“trophectoderm(TE)-like structure”of EPSblastoids was primarily composed of primitive endoderm(PrE)-related cells instead of TE-related cells.We further identified PrE-like cells in EPS cell culture that contribute to the blastoid formation with TE-like structure.Inhibition of PrE cell differentiation by inhibiting MEK signaling or knockout of Gata6 in EPS cells markedly suppressed EPS-blastoid formation.Furthermore,we demonstrated that blastocyst-like structures reconstituted by combining the EPs-derived bilineage embryo-like structure(BLEs)with either tetraploid embryos or tetraploid TE cells could implant normally and develop into live fetuses.In summary,our study reveals that TE improvement is critical for constructing a functional embryo using stem cells in vitro.

Liver development in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Liver is one of the largest internal organs in the body and its importance for metabolism, detoxification and homeostasis has been well established. In this review, we summarized recent progresses in studying liver initiation and development during embryogenesis using zebrafish as a model system. We mainly focused on topics related to the specification of hepatoblasts from endoderm, the formation and growth of liver bud, the differentiation of hepatocytes and bile duct cells from hepatoblasts, and finally the role of mesodermal signals in controlling liver development in zebrafish.