Wound healing occurred with serial coordinated processes via coagulation-fibrinolysis, inflammation following to immune-activation, angiogenesis, granulation, and the final re-epithelization. Since the dermis forms critical physical and biological barriers, the repair system should be rapidly and accurately functioned to keep homeostasis in our body. The wound healing is impaired or dysregulated via an inappropriate microenvironment, which is easy to lead to several diseases, including fibrosis in multiple organs and psoriasis. Such a disease led to the dysregulation of several types of cells: immune cells, fibroblasts, mural cells, and endothelial cells. Moreover, recent progress in medical studies uncovers the significant concept. The calcium signaling, typically the following calcineurin-NFAT signaling, essentially regulates not only immune cell activations, but also various healing steps via coagulation, inflammation, and angiogenesis. In this review, we summarize the role of the NFAT activation pathway in wound healing and discuss its overall impact on future therapeutic ways.

Barium peritonitis is a serious and life-threatening disease requiring intensive care. Residual barium in the intraperitoneal cavity can cause persistent inflammation, postoperatively. An 80-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of abdominal pain and vomiting after barium meal examination. Physical and radiographic examination showed sigmoid colon perforation. Barium sulfate extravasation was noted in the intraperitoneal cavity. We diagnosed the patient with barium peritonitis, and performed Hartmann's procedure and thorough lavage of the intraperitoneal cavity with 20-L saline. Postoperative blood examination results were not readily improved because of the residual barium in the intraperitoneal and retroperitoneal cavities. We excluded the presence of any other inflammation origin, except that from residual barium. Methylprednisolone 500mg/body/day was administered for 3days and the dose was gradually decreased thereafter. The white blood cell count and serum C-reactive protein levels immediately improved to normal levels. Barium peritonitis is associated with high mortality. Residual barium in the intraperitoneal cavity can cause chemical peritonitis, leading to granuloma formation and ileus, postoperatively. Therefore, complete removal of barium in the abdominal cavity with aggressive drainage and large quantity of saline is necessary to prevent postoperative inflammatory reaction. The use of steroids improves the persistent inflammation caused by residual barium, unless any infectious origins are present, which can worsen with steroid-use. Residual barium in the intraperitoneal cavity causes persistent inflammatory reaction in patients with barium peritonitis. The use of steroids is effective for postoperative persistent inflammation due to the residual barium.

Background/Objectives: Appropriate biomarkers are necessary for early diagnosis and multidisciplinary treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). In recent years, the clinical utility of circulating tumor cells (CTC) as biomarkers for various can-cers has been reported; however, their detection rate in PDAC remains low, and clinical evidence is not yet established. CTC detection methods with high reliability and per-formance are essential for clarifying the importance of CTC in patients with PDAC. Methods: A total of 5 mL peripheral blood samples were collected from 38 patients newly diagnosed with PDAC and 17 healthy controls. Negatively enriched cells were immunofluorescently stained with EpCAM-phycoerythrin and cell surface vi-mentin-fluorescein isothiocyanate (CSV). Images were automatically captured using an all-in-one fluorescence microscope. Cellular regions were detected from these images, and the average luminance of the cellular regions was calculated. A total of 9086 and 1071 cell images were obtained from patients with PDAC and healthy controls, respec-tively. Results: In the EpCAM assay, a threshold that included 95% of healthy individuals was optimal for distinguishing patients with PDAC from healthy controls, with a sensi-tivity, specificity, and area under the curve of 0.74, 0.76, and 0.84, respectively. At this threshold, the CTC-positivity rate in patients with PDAC was 76.3%. Conversely, the CSV assay failed to demonstrate a valid threshold to distinguish patients with PDAC from healthy controls. No significant differences were found between CTC and clini-copathological features among patients with PDAC. Conclusions: The method using high-resolution image scanning has the potential to identify CTC with greater objectiv-ity by quantifying cell luminance values.