Pediatric tectal glioma presented with acute hydrocephalus and ventriculomegaly. Two case reports

Tectal gliomas represent a subset of low-grade tumors that arise in the tectal region at the roof of the brainstem. Symptoms of tectal glioma include those caused by increased intracranial pressure due to obstructive hydrocephalus. Headache, blurred vision, double vision, nausea and vomiting are common symptoms. In the treatment, ETV (endoscopic third ventriculostomy) or VP-shunt (ventriculoperitoneal) can be applied to treat hydrocephalus. Tectal gliomas are usually diagnosed in childhood and often occur in adults. They are often benign, slowly progressing lesions; outpatient clinical and radiological follow- up is sufficient. We present two cases of pediatric patients with mesencephalic tectal plate tumors. An 11-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl applied to the Emergency Department with different complaints. The 11 year-old-boy was treated with VP-shunt due to acute hydrocephalus.

Calsyntenins Are Expressed in a Dynamic and Partially Overlapping Manner during Neural Development

Calsyntenins form a family of linker proteins between distinct populations of vesicles and kinesin motors for axonal transport. They were implicated in synapse formation and synaptic plasticity by findings in worms, mice and humans. These findings were in accordance with the postsynaptic localization of the Calsyntenins in the adult brain. However, they also affect the formation of neural circuits, as loss of Calsyntenin-1 (Clstn1) was shown to interfere with axonal branching and axon guidance. Despite the fact that Calsyntenins were discovered originally in embryonic chicken motoneurons, their distribution in the developing nervous system has not been analyzed in detail so far. Here, we summarize our analysis of the temporal and spatial expression patterns of the cargo-docking proteins Clstn1, Clstn2 and Clstn3 during neural development by comparing the dynamic distribution of their mRNAs by in situ hybridization in the spinal cord, the cerebellum, the retina and the tectum, as well as in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG).