0404, Wilcoxon p=0.0280; progression-free survival: Log-Rank p=0.0225; Wilcoxon p=0.0136). In vitro assays revealed increased proliferation and migration of medulloblastoma cell lines after PAX8 siRNA knockdown. In summary, high PAX8 expression is linked to better prognosis in

medulloblastomas potentially by suppressing both proliferative and migratory properties of MB cells. The distinct spatio-temporal expression pattern of PAX8 during brain development might contribute to the understanding of distinct MB subtype histogenesis. “
“Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) represents the deposition of amyloid β protein (Aβ) in the meningeal and intracerebral Selleckchem Caspase inhibitor vessels. It is often observed as an accompanying lesion of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or in the brain of elderly individuals even in the absence of dementia. CAA is largely age-dependent. In subjects with severe CAA a higher frequency of CT99021 datasheet vascular lesions has been reported. The goal of our study was to define the frequency and distribution of CAA in a 1-year autopsy population (91 cases) from the Department of Internal Medicine, Rehabilitation, and Geriatrics, Geneva. Five brain

regions were examined, including the hippocampus, and the inferior temporal, frontal, parietal and occipital cortex, using an antibody against Aβ, and simultaneously assessing the severity of AD-type pathology with Braak stages for neurofibrillary tangles identified with an anti-tau antibody. In parallel, the relationships of CAA with vascular brain Thymidylate synthase lesions were established. CAA was present in 53.8% of the studied population, even in cases without AD (50.6%). The strongest correlation was seen between CAA and age,

followed by the severity of amyloid plaques deposition. Microinfarcts were more frequent in cases with CAA; however, our results did not confirm a correlation between these parameters. The present data show that CAA plays a role in the development of microvascular lesions in the ageing brain, but cannot be considered as the most important factor in this vascular pathology, suggesting that other mechanisms also contribute importantly to the pathogenesis of microvascular changes. “
“Glioblastomas display marked phenotypic and molecular heterogeneity. The expression of the PTEN protein in glioblastomas also shows great intratumour heterogeneity, but the significance of this heterogeneity has so far received little attention. We conducted a comparative study on paraffin and frozen samples from 60 glioblastomas. Based on PTEN immunostaining, paraffin glioblastomas were divided into positive (homogeneous staining) and both positive and negative (heterogeneous staining) tumours. DNA was extracted from manually microdissected samples from representative areas, and from frozen samples taken randomly from the same tumours.