University of Milan

This video presents a case of laparoscopic left liver sectoriectomy perfomed in a 53 year old man suffering from Caroli's disease limited to segment II and III of the liver.

We describe the imaging approaches we use to investigate the distribution and mobility of the transfected fluorescent proteins resident in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) by means of the confocal imaging of living cells. We also ultrastructurally analyze the effect of their expression on the architecture of this subcellular compartment.

We describe a protocol of real time PCR to profile microRNAs in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). With the exception of RNA extraction protocols, the procedure can be extended to RNA extracted from other body fluids, cultured cells, or tissue specimens.

Spinal cord injury is a traumatic condition that causes severe morbidity and high mortality. In this work we describe in detail a contusion model of spinal cord injury in mice followed by a transplantation of neural stem cells.

We describe a high-throughput, multiplex, and targeted proteomic cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) assay developed with potential for clinical translation. The test can quantitate potential markers and risk factors for neurodegeneration, such as the apolipoprotein E variants (E2, E3 and E4), and measure their allelic expression.

This manuscript describes an experimental approach to morphologically and biochemically characterize horse oocytes. Specifically, the present work illustrates how to collect immature and mature horse oocytes by ultrasound-guided ovum pick-up (OPU) and how to investigate chromosome segregation, spindle morphology, global histone acetylation, and mRNA expression.

Protocols described here allow for the study of the electrical properties of excitable cells in the most non-invasive physiological conditions by employing zebrafish embryos in an in vivo system together with a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based genetically encoded voltage indicator (GEVI) selectively expressed in the cell type of interest.

The protein composition of the human mitral valve is still partially unknown, because its analysis is complicated by low cellularity and therefore by low protein biosynthesis. This work provides a protocol to efficiently extract protein for the analysis of the mitral valve proteome.

Heterogeneous distribution of HER2-positive cells can be observed in a subset of breast cancers and generates clinical dilemmas. Here, we introduce a reliable and cost-effective protocol to define, quantify, and compare HER2 intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity in a large series of heterogeneously processed breast cancers.

This study aims to develop a standard protocol of intra-operative neural monitoring of thyroid surgery in a porcine model. Here, we present a protocol to demonstrate general anesthesia, to compare different types of electrodes, and to investigate the electrophysiological characteristics of the normal and injured recurrent laryngeal nerves.

Lack of standardization for murine tissue processing reduces the quality of murine histopathological analysis as compared to human specimens. Here, we present a protocol to perform histopathological examination of murine inflamed and uninflamed colonic tissues to show the feasibility of robotic systems routinely used for processing and embedding human samples.

Presented here is an optimized protocol for isolating, culturing, transfecting, and differentiating human primary monocytes from HIV-infected individuals and healthy controls.

Breast cancer related lymphedema is frequent in breast cancer survivors, but there are not widely employed guidelines for its diagnosis and quantification. Here, we introduce a reliable and cost-effective protocol to define, quantify, and compare upper limb volume in breast cancer patients.

Here, we describe the implementation and interpretation of the results of an in vitro mammosphere self-renewal quantitative assay.

This is a 3T magnetic resonance imaging study aiming to investigate grey matter volume differences between cannabis-induced psychosis patients and non-psychotic chronic cannabis users.

We describe the procedures for isolation of growing oocytes from ovarian follicles at early stages of development, as well as the setup of an in vitro culture system which can support the growth and differentiation up to the fully-grown stage.  

Pancreatic juice is a precious source of biomarkers for human pancreatic cancer. We describe here a method for intraoperative collection procedure. To overcome the challenge of adopting this procedure in murine models, we suggest an alternative sample, tumor interstitial fluid, and describe here two protocols for its isolation.

This work illustrates a standard procedure and threshold determination by the R-index to assess spatial lingual tactile sensitivity using a gratings orientation test.

Challenges and Solutions For Female Fertility Preservation in Mammals

The safe application of newly developed surgical energy devices in thyroid/parathyroid surgery attracts the attention of surgeons. Animal experimental models can avoid unnecessary trials and errors in human surgery. This report aims to demonstrate electrophysiological and thermographic methods to evaluate the safety parameters of SEDs in thyroid/parathyroid surgery.

Transthoracic echocardiography is the first-line diagnostic test for post-resuscitation left ventricular dysfunction and structural changes in a pig model of cardiac arrest.

Biobanks are crucial resources for biomedical research and the Biobank for Translational and Digital Medicine Unit at the European Institute of Oncology is a model in this field. Here, we provide a detailed description of biobanks' standard operating procedures for the management of different types of human biological samples.

Current methods for analyzing the intracellular dynamics of polarized single cells are often manual and lack standardization. This manuscript introduces a novel image analysis pipeline for automating midline extraction of single polarized cells and quantifying spatiotemporal behavior from time lapses in a user-friendly online interface.

This method describes an immunofluorescence protocol and quantification pipeline for evaluating protein distribution with varied nuclear organization patterns in human T lymphocytes. This protocol provides step-by-step guidance, starting from sample preparation and continuing through the execution of semi-automated analysis in Fiji, concluding with data handling by a Google Colab notebook.