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The Chagos Archipelago was designated a no-take marine protected area (MPA) in 2010; it covers 550 000km2, with more than 60 000km2 shallow limestone platform and reefs. This has doubled the global cover of such MPAs. It contains 25-50% of the Indian Ocean reef area remaining in excellent condition, as well as the world's largest contiguous undamaged reef area. It has suffered from warming episodes, but after the most severe mortality event of 1998, coral cover was restored after 10years. Coral reef fishes are orders of magnitude more abundant than in other Indian Ocean locations, regardless of whether the latter are fished or protected. Coral diseases are extremely low, and no invasive marine species are known. Genetically, Chagos marine species are part of the Western Indian Ocean, and Chagos serves as a 'stepping-stone' in the ocean. The no-take MPA extends to the 200nm boundary, and. includes 86 unfished seamounts and 243 deep knolls as well as encompassing important pelagic species. On the larger islands, native plants, coconut crabs, bird and turtle colonies were largely destroyed in plantation times, but several smaller islands are in relatively undamaged state. There are now 10 'important bird areas', coconut crab density is high and numbers of green and hawksbill turtles are recovering. Diego Garcia atoll contains a military facility; this atoll contains one Ramsar site and several 'strict nature reserves'. Pollutant monitoring shows it to be the least polluted inhabited atoll in the world. Today, strict environmental regulations are enforced. Shoreline erosion is significant in many places. Its economic cost in the inhabited part of Diego Garcia is very high, but all islands are vulnerable. Chagos is ideally situated for several monitoring programmes, and use is increasingly being made of the archipelago for this purpose. © 2012 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

The Chagos Archipelago was designated a no-take marine protected area (MPA) in 2010; it covers 550 000km2, with more than 60 000km2 shallow limestone platform and reefs. This has doubled the global cover of such MPAs. It contains 25-50% of the Indian Ocean reef area remaining in excellent condition, as well as the world's largest contiguous undamaged reef area. It has suffered from warming episodes, but after the most severe mortality event of 1998, coral cover was restored after 10years. Coral reef fishes are orders of magnitude more abundant than in other Indian Ocean locations, regardless of whether the latter are fished or protected. Coral diseases are extremely low, and no invasive marine species are known. Genetically, Chagos marine species are part of the Western Indian Ocean, and Chagos serves as a 'stepping-stone' in the ocean. The no-take MPA extends to the 200nm boundary, and. includes 86 unfished seamounts and 243 deep knolls as well as encompassing important pelagic species. On the larger islands, native plants, coconut crabs, bird and turtle colonies were largely destroyed in plantation times, but several smaller islands are in relatively undamaged state. There are now 10 'important bird areas', coconut crab density is high and numbers of green and hawksbill turtles are recovering. Diego Garcia atoll contains a military facility; this atoll contains one Ramsar site and several 'strict nature reserves'. Pollutant monitoring shows it to be the least polluted inhabited atoll in the world. Today, strict environmental regulations are enforced. Shoreline erosion is significant in many places. Its economic cost in the inhabited part of Diego Garcia is very high, but all islands are vulnerable. Chagos is ideally situated for several monitoring programmes, and use is increasingly being made of the archipelago for this purpose. © 2012 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

During the last 30 years many advances have been made in kidney tumor pathology. In 1981, 9 entities were recognized in the WHO Classification. In the latest classification of 2004, 50 different types have been recognized. Additional tumor entities have been described since and a wide variety of prognostic parameters have been investigated with variable success; however, much attention has centered upon the importance of features relating to both stage and grade. The International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) recommends after consensus conferences the development of reporting guidelines, which have been adopted worldwide ISUP undertook to review all aspects of the pathology of adult renal malignancy through an international consensus conference to be held in 2012. As in the past, participation in this consensus conference was restricted to acknowledged experts in the field.

The C-type lectin-like receptor CLEC-2 signals via phosphorylation of a single cytoplasmic YXXL sequence known as a hem-immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (hemITAM). In this study, we show that phosphorylation of CLEC-2 by the snake toxin rhodocytin is abolished in the absence of the tyrosine kinase Syk but is not altered in the absence of the major platelet Src family kinases, Fyn, Lyn, and Src, or the tyrosine phosphatase CD148, which regulates the basal activity of Src family kinases. Further, phosphorylation of CLEC-2 by rhodocytin is not altered in the presence of the Src family kinase inhibitor PP2, even though PLCγ2 phosphorylation and platelet activation are abolished. A similar dependence of phosphorylation of CLEC-2 on Syk is also seen in response to stimulation by an IgG mAb to CLEC-2, although interestingly CLEC-2 phosphorylation is also reduced in the absence of Lyn. These results provide the first definitive evidence that Syk mediates phosphorylation of the CLEC-2 hemITAM receptor with Src family kinases playing a critical role further downstream through the regulation of Syk and other effector proteins, providing a new paradigm in signaling by YXXL-containing receptors.

Abnormalities of the locus chromosome 3p and the entire chromosome 3 are involved in the cancerogenesis of clear cell renal carcinoma and may be detected by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (interphase FISH). We observed a variable detection rate of chromosome 3p/3 abnormalities in different series of clear cell renal carcinoma. Therefore, we focused on problematic issues when performing analysis on routinely available formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded tissue. A group of studies encountered a single approach to chromosome 3p detection, by using probe/s to map different codes of the short arm 3p without a control of the entire chromosome 3. Deletion of chromosome 3p and monosomy of chromosome 3 ranged from 38% to 100% in clear cell renal carcinoma. Cut-off values for the threshold were chosen randomly or obtained by calculation of the mean value plus 1 or 2 or 3 standard deviations. Loss of chromosome 3p was assessed either as the percentage of single signals on the total number of nuclei, or applying a double approach with corrections of control chromosome 3. Moreover, cut off values were sometimes arbitrarily corrected with the findings from normal adjacent renal parenchyma. A consensus of experts in the field is needed in order to define the best methodological approach and the appropriate threshold in assessment 3p deletion when interphase FISH is performed in clear cell renal carcinoma. This harbours relevant diagnostic and therapeutic implications, at light also of targeted therapies recently available to clear cell renal carcinoma.

We investigated the usefulness of interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis to differentiate between 11 chromophobe renal carcinomas and 12 renal oncocytomas, showing different clinical outcomes, when compared with conventional metaphase cytogenetics by karyotyping. Karyotypically, 3 chromophobe renal cell carcinomas showed losses of chromosomes, 3 were polyploid, 1 was normal, and 4 failed to grow. Of 12 oncocytomas, 5 showed a normal numeric karyotype and 6 additional structural rearrangements. FISH on chromophobe renal cell carcinomas showed a high percentage of cases (10/11 [91%]) with multiple numeric losses among chromosomes 1, 2, 6, 10, and 17; this interphase pattern was observed irrespective of the 3 different metaphase karyotypes. Of 12 oncocytomas, 11 (92%) revealed a normal numeric chromosomal status showing at least 2 chromosomes without aneusomy by interphase FISH. The study demonstrates that indeed FISH performed on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue can provide clinically useful information more reliably than karyotyping of most of these tumors.