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The osseous nasal septum (NS) consists of the perpendicular plate of the ethmoid bone (PPE) and the vomer bone. Few studies evaluated the possibilities of septal pneumatization of the PPE, or adjacent to it. We aimed to observe the anatomical possibilities of NS pneumatizations. A retrospective lot of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) files was used. One hundred seventy-one CBCT files from 51 males and 120 females were documented. There were found 46 files that were null for septal pneumatization. The other cases (73.1%) had different septal pneumatizations extended from neighboring air spaces. Pneumatized crista galli (CG) exclusively extended from a frontal sinus was found in 7.01% of cases. The frontal sinuses had minor extensions anterior to the PPE in 7.6% of cases. Unique or double pneumatizations of the sphenoidal rostrum extending within the posterior part of the PPE were detected in 71.34% of cases. In six cases were found ethmoidal pneumatizations of the PPE, either from an anterior ethmoid cell, or from a posterior one, or from a pneumatized CG. In this last case was found a sinus septi nasi of 25.37 mm sagittal size. The supra-septal recesses of the ethmoid air cells were roofing the respective nasal fossa. As all the morphological possibilities of NS pneumatization involve the upper part of the PPE, they should be adequately discriminated anatomically, as well as when the NS and the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone are approached surgically.

Developmental theories regarding the premaxillary (incisive) suture commonly overlook it separates the premaxillary and maxillary parts of the frontal process of maxilla. Thus, one would expect that neurovascular structures within this transitory mesenchymal zone to appear embedded within the adult frontal process of maxilla. The sutura notha (false suture, Weber's sutura longitudinalis imperfecta) is a poorly described, although constantly present, shallow groove in front of the anterior lacrimal crest, being perforated by a row of holes first described, to our knowledge, by Macalister, in 1884. Macalister's foramina should be discriminated anatomically from the accessory infraorbital foramina. Macalister's foramina lead into canals, usually described as vascular, within the frontal process. We demonstrate in cone-beam computed tomography that these canals, which correspond topographically to Parinaud's vascular canal, are connected, usually through a delicate intraosseous network, with Wood Jones' canalis sinuosus (i.e., the ampullar angle of this canal located above the upper canine tooth). As this later carries the anterior superior alveolar nerve and artery, it is reasonable to consider that the canalar network within the frontal process of maxilla could serve for an accessory distribution of that nerve to the nasolacrimal duct, the atrium of the middle nasal meatus, the agger nasi cell, as well as to the infraorbital (prelacrimal) recess of the maxillary sinus.

Usual descriptions indicate three or maximum four nasal turbinates (conchae) attached to the lateral nasal wall. The middle, superior and, occasionally, supreme ones belong to the ethmoid bone. Few authors include in descriptions the concha that Zuckerkandl described as the fourth or supreme ethmoidal turbinate. Despite some inconsistencies in Zuckerkandl's description, the concha bearing his name lies above Santorini's supreme concha, which, in turn, is above Morgagni's superior concha. Few other authors preferred to name Santorini's concha as the first supreme one and Zuckerkandl's concha as the second supreme one.We retrospectively documented, with various purposes, the archived cone-beam computed tomography files of 350 patients.We found in just one case a unilateral sequence of five nasal turbinates. On the opposite side, only four turbinates were detected. Three-dimensional renderizations confirmed that when two supreme turbinates are found, they are joined in a common posterior tail, which, in turn, joins the tail of the superior turbinate.Co-existence of two supreme conchae could either indicate their origin from different ethmoturbinals, or from the split of a commonly unique supreme one. Zuckerkandl's concha deserves therefore to be considered when anatomical descriptions, or studies, are delivered.

Uterine leiomyomas, also known as uterine fibroids (UFs), are benign smooth muscle cells tumors, the most frequent tumors in women. Even though UFs are monoclonal tumors, they contain a heterogeneous and versatile cells population. There are scarce proofs about the processes of transdifferentiation that might occur in UFs, modify the tumor microenvironment and support blood and lymph vessels formation. The stromal niches of the UFs harbor cells with angiogenic∕lymphangiogenic, as well as with vasculogenic∕lymphvasculogenic potential, which belong to a phenotypic continuum between the endothelial and mesenchymal lineages. Within these niches, the expressions of CD44 and podoplanin were less investigated and regarded as markers of such processes of transdifferentiation.

Telocytes (TCs) are stromal cells with characteristic long, thin and moniliform prolongations termed telopodes. They were formerly termed interstitial Cajal-like cells. A characteristic set of markers to identify TCs in light microscopy has not been established until now. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a better tool for identifying TCs. Telocytes display caveolae and can express caveolin-1. On the other hand, endothelial cells (ECs) as well as endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have caveolae. Recent evidence suggests that a subset of TCs are in fact EPCs. The distinction of this progenitor subset of TCs can be easily made by a specific set of ultrastructure markers, as follows. Caveolae of endothelial cells present stomatal diaphragms (SDs). The plasmalemma vesicle-associated protein-1 (PV-1), which is identical with the Pathologische Anatomie Leiden endothelium (PAL-E), is specifically identifying the ECs SDs of caveolae. We therefore raise the reasonable hypothesis that the EPCs subset of caveolae-presenting TCs could be accurately identified, without exploration in TEM, by the positive expression of PV-1 or PAL-E in the SDs.

Establishing the postmortem interval (PMI) is vital in legal medicine as it allows to retrospectively estimate the hour of death, which is essential for the police as a starting point for their inquiries (especially in violent deaths). Ultrastructure studies aimed specifically to detect autolytic changes are scarcely identified in the scientific literature. Moreover, they are performed in a variety of conditions (different temperatures, species, in vitro ÷ in situ, and so on), making the results difficult to interpret for legal medicine purposes. The main aim of this review is to determine the potential usefulness of ultrastructure studies for the estimation of the postmortem interval and to provide a summary of relevant scientific literature in the area, which might be useful as a starting point for more specific and detailed studies in the field. We performed a search on the ISI Thomson Web of Knowledge database using a series of predefined keywords; the articles fulfilling the inclusion criteria were systematically analyzed to identify ultrastructure changes associated with autolysis. Our investigation revealed 20 relevant articles, which detailed ultrastructure changes in the brain, heart, liver, pancreas, kidney, bone, sweat glands, thyroid, skeletal muscle, cartilage and sweat glands. For each organ, we arranged systematically postmortem ultrastructure changes that were described by various authors. Ultrastructure changes appear early and may be useful in determining the time since death in the early postmortem interval. However, most studies published in this area followed methodologies that could not allow a proper reproducibility in forensic circumstances. Therefore, before using ultrastructure for estimating the PMI in practical environments, further studies are needed. They should be performed ideally on human samples, obtained at regular intervals after death, at variable, decreasing temperatures.

Telocytes (TCs) are cells defined by their long and moniliform processes termed telopodes. They were previously identified in the endocardium and express neural markers, such as nestin and neuron-specific enolase (NSE). Previous studies found a positive expression of neuro-filaments in endocardial endothelial cells, and a positive expression of nestin in cardiac side population (CSP) progenitor cells, which allowed us to hypothesize that TCs in the endocardial stem niche could be in fact progenitors that express nestin.We used cardiac samples from 10 human adult donor cadavers. Endocardial endothelial cells expressed CD146, alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), smooth muscle myosin (SMM), nestin and, scarcely, neurofilaments. Within atrial and ventricular samples, we found an endocardial discontinuous smooth muscle layer expressing, similar to pericytes and vascular smooth muscle cells, α-SMA, nestin, SMM, and CD146. We assessed a similar phenotype in the subendocardial muscle layer, which also expressed neuron-specific enolase. The expression of nestin and CD146 strongly indicates a progenitor phenotype, which, in turn, supports the hypothesis that, in humans, an endocardial stem niche supplied by an endothelial-mesenchymal transition should be considered, although it mimics a primitive supply from the cardiac neural crest with dormant cardiac side population progenitor cells. Nevertheless, the endocardial niche could indeed harbor precursor cells that are morphologically similar to TCs.

The discovery of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) able to renew the pool of cardiomyocyte raised the question of how these cells can be recognized and directed towards cardiac reconstruction after severe ischemic injury. The functional studies demonstrated that the differentiation of adult cardiac stem cells reproduce the stages observed in the embryonic development. Each stage is characterized by a complex molecular signature, which can be used for identification and molecular targeting. Three major markers have been used to isolate CSCs: c-kit, Sca-1, and Isl1 and different progenitor populations have been described: side-population (SP), cardiosphere-derived, epicardial-derived. Combinations between the main three markers and other transcription factors, cell surface proteins and regulatory RNAs may delimit even further the cardiac precursors. Accumulation of data leads to the idea that a single, yet unidentified unique cardiac stem cell is at the origin of those observed variants. In this review, we intended to summarize the actual knowledge about the main molecular markers of cardiac stem cells.

Multiple anatomical variants were encountered during a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) study of the nasal cavity of a 43-year-old male patient. These were mostly related to the nasal turbinates, suggestive for an unusual development of ethmoturbinals. Pneumatized turbinates were observed: bilateral supreme, superior, and middle concha bullosa. There were bilateral paradoxically curved superior turbinates, as well as a unilateral paradoxically curved inferior turbinate. There was also found a unilateral accessory middle turbinate, presenting as a medially bent uncinate process. Due to the presence of the Santorini's concha, the natural ostium of the sphenoidal sinus was medial to it, and was not directly related to the superior turbinate. Such variants, alone or in combination, should be documented prior to surgical procedures, endoscopic or microscopic, by rhinologists and neurosurgeons, prior to various sinonasal or skull base approaches. Patients should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, as the Vesalian anatomy could not apply to all.

Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MMSCs) are plastic-adherent cells with a well-established phenotype. Equine, but not human, adipose MMSCs have been characterized ultrastructurally. The purpose of our study was to evaluate ultrastructurally the adipose-derived human MMSCs. Cell cultures were prepared from human lipoaspirate. The flow cytometry evaluation of surface markers of cultured cells confirmed the expected profile of MMSCs, that were positive for CD73, CD90 and CD105, and negative for CD34 and CD45. We examined these human adipose-derived MMSCs in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) by Epon en-face embedding the fixed MMSCs. The main ultrastructural features of MMSCs were the extremely rich content of endosomal/vesicular elements, long mitochondria, dilated RER (rough endoplasmic reticulum) cisternae, and abundant intermediate filaments and microtubules. We found two types of MMSCS prolongations: (a) thick processes, with opposite, vesicular and filaments-rich, sides and (b) slender processes (pseudopodes and filopodes), with occasional proximal dilated segments housing mitochondria, vesicles and secretory granules. These TEM features of MMSCs characterized an in vitro cell population and could use to distinguish between different cell types in culture.

In a case of choroidal melanoma (CM) in a 70-year-old male patient, was firstly aimed at studying the processes of angiogenesis by use of nestin and CD34 antibodies. Anti-CD117÷c-kit antibodies were further considered for their progenitor cells specificity. Choroidal melanoma was histopathologically confirmed. Nestin-positive endothelia were found in the CM and the adjacent retina, but not in endothelia elsewhere in that eye. Nestin-positive non-pigmentary cells were found within the CM. Filopodia-projecting endothelial tip cells (ETCs), nestin- and CD34-positive were found in the CM. CD34-positive ETCs were also found in the iridial stroma. There were found two different immune patterns of the retinal Müller cells (MCs). They were nestin-positive in the retina adjacent to the tumor, but negative in any other part of retina. On the other hand, CD117÷c-kit antibodies labeled MCs as follows: (a) discontinuously, or continuously, in the retina adjacent to the CM; (b) only the inner segments of the MCs were labeled in the retina unrelated to the CM. While nestin could be a reliable marker for retinal damage, the CD117÷c-kit phenotype of MCs still needs further investigations. Antiangiogenic therapy appears as a good choice for tumor therapy.

Interstitial Cajal Cells (ICCs) were only proven in human adult hepatic tissue. The immune phenotypes of various cell types in the human embryonic liver (HEL) are scarcely described. It was hypothesized that in HEL ICCs are present and distinctive to the precursor/progenitor cells populations. It was aimed and performed a qualitative study of HEL by use of antibodies against CD117/c-kit, CD31, CD34, CD90, CD105, DOG1, Ki67, and adiponectin. Five human embryos of 23-29 mm were used. Blasts and hematopoietic cells were comprising the two major cell populations in late stage embryos. The general population of blasts in the HEL was CD34-/CD105, although scarce CD117/c-kit+ and CD90+ such cells were found. Hematopoietic precursors were Ki67+. Adiponectin-positive plasmalemmas were found mostly in blasts. Endothelia were CD31+/CD34+. Interstitial cells with moniliform prolongations were found; such cells were scarcely CD117/c-kit+ but consistently DOG1+. They were diagnosed as ICCs but based on the morphology of their prolongations they can be equally viewed as being telocytes (TCs). Further studies should better correlate the precursor cell-types and immune phenotypes during human liver organogenesis. Liver ICCs and/or TCs should be also investigated in the human fetal liver.