BACKGROUND Microcystic/reticular schwannoma is a recently described, rare, distinctive histological variant of schwannoma with a predilection for the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). The authors experienced the first case of a microcystic/reticular schwannoma occurring in the esophagus. CASE PRESENTATION A 39-year-old male presented for an obstructive sensation during swallowing of several month...

We have investigated whether mast cells are associated with bronchodilator responsiveness and airway vascular changes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) airways. We have previously shown that the reticular basement membrane is hypervascular and the lamina propria is hypovascular in COPD. Bronchial biopsies from 32 COPD subjects, 15 smokers with normal lung function and 17 controls,...

Increased dermal mucin is a feature of lupus erythematosus (LE); however, its amount and distribution have not been well characterized. The differentiation of LE from other forms of dermatitis can be challenging when other features of LE are subtle or equivocal. One hundred and thirty-five skin specimens showing LE, graft vs. host disease, erythema multiforme/fixed drug eruption, lichen planus,...

Epidermoid cyst of ovary represents 1% of all surface epithelial tumors. Though we commonly see follicular cyst, simple serous cyst, hemorrhagic cysts in hysterectomy specimens of post menopausal females, epidermoid cyst is an incidental finding. It is necessary to differentiate epidermoid cyst from dermoid cyst and immature teratoma because of different line of treatment. We here report a case...

Thymic epithelial reticular cells together with lymphocytes constitute the thymic parenchyma. Morphologically they are characterized by the stellate aspect forming a cytoreticulum, a large and vesicular nucleus, a tonofilament-rich cytoplasm, and abundance of desmosomes. Besides the role of providing a structural support for lymphocytes, epithelial reticular cells are responsible for the secret...

Schwannoma comprises a group of nerve sheath tumors. Morphologic variants of schwannoma have no distinct relationship to clinical behavior, but unawareness of rare variants may lead to diagnostic pitfall and risk of mistreatment. Microcystic/reticular schwannoma is a recently described rare variant of schwannoma. We report a case of a 61-year-old female with a 5.0 cm × 3.5 cm × 3.0 cm mass in t...

The chronic decerebrate rat preparation was used to study electrical activity in the reticular formation during development of the classically conditioned eyeblink reflex to a tone. With persistent training a conditioned blink reflex was established in 8 out of 11 rats. A control group of four rats received unpaired presentations of the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli and served as a cont...

All visual signals the cortex receives are influenced by the perigeniculate sector (PGN) of the thalamic reticular nucleus, which receives input from relay cells in the lateral geniculate and provides feedback inhibition in return. Relay cells have been studied in quantitative depth; they behave in a roughly linear fashion and have receptive fields with a stereotyped center-surround structure. ...

Cyclic shedding of the endometrium is unique to menstruating species. The status of the decidua in mouse menstrual-like models seems to differ from that of the predecidua in humans before endometrial breakdown. The aim of this study was to determine how this difference in decidual status is related to endometrial breakdown. A mouse menstrual-like model was generated by pharmacological progester...

We do not have an estimate of how much tissue is needed for a reliable measure of bronchial epithelial reticular basement membrane (RBM) thickness or for counts of inflammatory cells. An assessment of the frequency distribution and variance of data from repeat measurements of RBM thickness and biopsy section inflammatory cell counts in cases with asthma (n=6), chronic obstructive pulmonary dise...