Benign Orbital Tumors with Bone Destruction in Children

Purpose: To present rare benign orbital tumors with bone destruction in children who could not be diagnosed presurgically and may simulate malignant ones. Methods: A retrospective review of cases. Clinical, operative and pathological records in all children with a diagnosis of benign orbital tumors who showed remarkable bone destruction at a tertiary Ophthalmic Center in China between Jan 1, 2000 and Dec 31, 2009 were reviewed. All patients had definitive histopathologic diagnosis. Results: Eight patients with benign orbital tumors showed obvious bone destruction, including six cases of eosinophilic granuloma, one case of leiomyoma and one case of primary orbital intraosseous hemangioma. Among them, three patients were females and five patients were males. Tumors were unilateral in all cases, with both the right and left side affected equally. Age ranged from 3 to 7 years (mean 4.1 years). Symptom duration ranged from 1 to 5 weeks (mean 4.8 weeks). Eyelid swelling and palpable mass were the most common complaint. There was no evidence for multifocal involvement in cases with eosinophilic granuloma. Among six patients with eosinophilic granuloma, two were treated with low dose radiation (10 Gy), three received systemic corticosteroid and one was periodically observed only after incisional biopsy or subtotal curettage. There was no postoperative therapeutic intervention in the two patients with leiomyoma and intraosseous hemangioma. All eight patients regained normal vision without local recurrence after a mean follow-up time o

Transplantation sites for human and murine islets

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Beta cell replacement is a potential cure for type 1 diabetes. In humans, islet transplants are currently infused into the liver via the portal vein, although this site has disadvantages. Here, we investigated alternative transplantation sites for human and murine islets in recipient mice, comparing the portal vein with quadriceps muscle and kidney, liver and spleen capsules. METHODS: Murine islets were isolated from C57BL6/J mice and transplanted into syngeneic recipients. Human islets were isolated and transplanted into either severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) or recombination-activating gene 1 (RAG-1) immunodeficient recipient mice. All recipient mice were 8-12 weeks of age and had been rendered diabetic (defined as blood glucose concentrations ≥20 mmol/l on two consecutive days before transplantation) by alloxan tetrahydrate treatment. Islets were transplanted into five different sites (portal vein, quadriceps muscle, kidney, liver and spleen capsules). Blood glucose concentrations were monitored twice weekly until mice were killed. Dose-response studies were also performed to determine the minimum number of islets required to cure diabetes ('cure' is defined for this study as random fed blood glucose of <15 mmol/l). RESULTS: For transplantation of murine islets into the different sites, the kidney yielded 100% success, followed by muscle (70%), portal vein (60%), spleen capsule (29%) and liver capsule (0%). For human islets, transplantation into the kidney cured diabetes in 75-80% of recipient mice. Transplantation into muscle and portal vein had intermediate success (both 29% at 2000 islet equivalents), while transplantation into liver and spleen capsule failed (0%). With increased islet mass, success rates for muscle grafts improved to 52-56%. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: For both human and murine islets, equivalent or superior glucose lowering results were obtained for transplantation into skeletal muscle, compared with the portal vein. Unfortunately, kidney grafts are not feasible in human recipients. Skeletal muscle offers easier access and greater potential for protocol biopsies. This study suggests that human trials of muscle as a transplant site may be warranted