Simultaneous Morphological Analysis Research Articles

Three-dimensional reconstruction of systematic histological sections: application to observations on palatal shelf elevation

Normal mammalian secondary palate development undergoes a series of processes, including palatal shelf (PS) growth, elevation, adhesion and fusion, and palatal bone formation. It has been estimated that more than 90% of isolated cleft palate is caused by defects associated with the elevation process. However, because of the rapidly completed elevation process, the entire process of elevation will never be easy to clarify. In this article, we present a novel method for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of thick tissue blocks from two-dimensional (2D) histological sections. We established multiplanar sections of the palate and tongue in coronal and sagittal directions, and further performed 3D reconstruction to observe the morphological interaction and connection between the two components prior to and during elevation. The method completes an imaging system for simultaneous morphological analysis of thick tissue samples using both synthetic and real data. The new method will provide a comprehensive picture of reorientation morphology and gene expression pattern during the palatal elevation process.

Fossil evidence from South America for the diversification of Cunoniaceae by the earliest Palaeocene.

Cunoniaceae are woody plants with a distribution that suggests a complex history of Gondwanan vicariance, long-distance dispersal, diversification and extinction. Only four out of ~27 genera in Cunoniaceae are native to South America today, but the discovery of extinct species from Argentine Patagonia is providing new information about the history of this family in South America. We describe fossil flowers collected from early Danian (early Palaeocene, ~64 Mya) deposits of the Salamanca Formation. We compare them with similar flowers from extant and extinct species using published literature and herbarium specimens. We used simultaneous analysis of morphology and available chloroplast DNA sequences (trnL-F, rbcL, matK, trnH-psbA) to determine the probable relationship of these fossils to living Cunoniaceae and the co-occurring fossil species Lacinipetalum spectabilum. Cunoniantha bicarpellata gen. et sp. nov. is the second species of Cunoniaceae to be recognized among the flowers preserved in the Salamanca Formation. Cunoniantha flowers are pentamerous and complete, the anthers contain in situ pollen, and the gynoecium is bicarpellate and syncarpous with two free styles. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that Cunoniantha belongs to crown-group Cunoniaceae among the core Cunoniaceae clade, although it does not have obvious affinity with any tribe. Lacinipetalum spectabilum, also from the Salamanca Formation, belongs to the Cunoniaceae crown group as well, but close to tribe Schizomerieae. Our findings highlight the importance of West Gondwana in the evolution of Cunoniaceae during the early Palaeogene. The co-occurrence of C. bicarpellata and L. spectabilum, belonging to different clades within Cunoniaceae, indicates that the diversification of crown-group Cunoniaceae was under way by 64 Mya.

Combined simultaneous analysis of morphology and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) as novel sensitive non-invasive method for early detection of aneuploid cells in premalignant and malignant oral and laryngeal lesions

1. Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 2. Department of Pediatric Hemato-oncology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 3. Department of Pathology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 4. Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Combined simultaneous analysis of morphology and fluorescence in situ hybridization as a novel sensitive method for detecting small populations of malignant cells in patients with a high risk of cancer, premalignant lesions, and minimal residual disease

Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) is a valuable tool for detection of chromosome aberrations in clinical practice of malignancies. However, the relatively high false positive and false negative rates of this method complicate its application to analysis of small populations of pathological cells. Combined simultaneous analysis of morphology and FISH using a Duet™ multiparametric cell scanning system (Bio-View, Rehovot, Israel) has been developed and introduced into clinical practice. The novel method has been demonstrated to increase the specificity of identification of pathological cells in patients with various hematological malignancies and, hence, estimate the efficiency of treatment. Studies on different premalignant disorders of the oral cavity mucosa have demonstrated that the combined method allows the identification of individual pathological cells and, hence, early detection of malignant and premalignant cells that may be overlooked by traditional histomorphological methods.

Relación entre la amplificación del oncogén C-erbB-2 y parámetros histológicos con sobrevida libre de enfermedad en pacientes con cáncer de mama

Proto-oncogene c-erbB-2 is located in chromosome 17 region q21 and codifies a 185 Kd protein, with tyrosine kinase activity. The amplification of this gene is associated with relapse and lower survival in breast cancer. Overexpression of this gene can be detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). However, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) allow the simultaneous analysis of morphology and overexpression of the gene. To evaluate the relationship of c-erbB-2 oncogene amplification measured by FISH with histological graduation, presence of positive Iymph nodes and evolution of breast cancer. One hundred and ten tissue samples of invasive ductal or lobulillar breast cancer, positive for c-erbB-2 oncogene by IHC were analysed. The presence of c-erbB-2 oncogene amplification was subsequently analyzed by FISH. There was a significant association of c-erbB-2 amplification by FISH with pathological graduation of the tumor, number of regional Iymph nodes involved and disease free survival. Proto-oncogene c-erbB-2 amplification is a good indicator of bad prognosis in invasive breast cancer.

Simultaneous analysis of 16S, 28S, COI and morphology in the Hymenoptera: Apocrita – evolutionary transitions among parasitic wasps

Simultaneous analysis of morphological and molecular characters from the 16S rDNA, 28S rDNA and cytochrome oxidase 1 genes was employed to resolve phylogenetic relationships among the apocritan (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apocrita) wasps. Parsimony analyses, employing a broad range of models, consistently recovered the Proctotrupomorpha as a natural group, the Megalyridae and Trigonalidae as sister groups, a clade comprising the Monomachidae, Diapriidae, and Maamingidae, the Vanhorniidae and Proctotrupidae as sister groups, the Proctotrupoidea as polyphyletic, and the Evaniomorpha as a grade (but including the Ichneumonoidea, Aculeata, and Stephanidae). The Proctotrupomorpha, containing virtually all of the wholly endoparasitic lineages, was consistently recovered as an apical clade, with the remaining groups forming a paraphyletic grade below them. Although the relative placement of the groups forming this basal grade varied among analyses, the most commonly recovered arrangement is consistent with the ancestral biology being ectoparasitism of coleopteran, wood-boring larvae. Furthermore, the recovery of the ectoparasitic-containing proctotrupomorphs (Chalcidoidea and, in some analyses, Ceraphronoidea) as apical lineages argues that these biologies are reversals.