BACKGROUND: In order to delineate the involvement of apoptotic death in post-ischemic cerebral infarction, the temporal expressions of some apoptosis-regulating genes (BCL-2, BAX and ICE) were studied in the parietofrontal cortex of a rat following focal cerebral ischemia using a Northern blot analysis and RT-PCR. METHODS: Animals were decapitated at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 24 hours following a middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). RESULTS: With the use of Northern blotting, the expression of proto-oncogene BCL-2, the apoptosis-repressor gene, increased up to 4 hours after a MCAO and then recovered to the control level. In a RT-PCR analysis, the expression of BCL-2 increased up to 8 hours after the MCAO and then recovered to the control level at 24 hours. The expression of BAX, the apoptosis-effec-tor gene, was not altered by a MCAO in a Northern blot analysis. The expression of ICE, an cysteine protease gene, markedly decreased at 1 and 2 hours after the MCAO and then recovered to the control level. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that ischemic insults by a MCAO alter the expression of the apoptosis-regulating genes and support the notion that the apoptosis may have occurred in the post-ischemic cerebral infarction.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; Blotting, Northern ; Brain Ischemia ; Cerebral Infarction ; Cysteine Proteases ; Ice* ; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery* ; Middle Cerebral Artery* ; Proto-Oncogenes ; Rats ; RNA, Messenger*

Papillary thyroid carcinoma(PTC), the commonest thyroid malignancy, has a good prognosis and low incidence of distant metastasis. Brain metastasis from PTC are extremely rare. The frequency of it reported as 0.1% to 5% in several reported series. A 24 year-old man noted a mass in his neck at 19 years of age. The diagnosis of PTC was made by the biopsy of the mass. Total thyroidectomy, postoperative internal radiation and daily 400w thyroxine therapy was done. The tonic contraction of the right leg evolving to secondary generalized seizure was noted at the age of 24 years old. A brain MRI showed Ix1cm enhancing mass in the left frontal lobe without perilesional edema. The brain mass was removed by the CRW-guided stereotactic surgery. The brain metastasis of PTC was confirmed histopathologically.
Biopsy ; Brain* ; Diagnosis ; Edema ; Frontal Lobe ; Humans ; Incidence ; Leg ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Neck ; Neoplasm Metastasis* ; Prognosis ; Seizures ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms* ; Thyroidectomy ; Thyroxine ; Young Adult