Increased leptin-b expression and metalloprotease expression contributed to the pyridoxine-associated toxicity in zebrafish larvae displaying seizure-like behavior.

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder affecting people of all ages, races and ethnic backgrounds world-wide. Vitamin B6 supplementation has been widely used as an adjuvant for treating epilepsy. However, the adverse effects, including nausea and peripheral sensory neuropathy, caused by long-term and high-dose consumption of vitamin B6 have undermined the usefulness of vitamin B6 supplementation, justifying additional experimental scrutiny of vitamin B6-associated toxicity.

Prognostic impact of renin-angiotensin system blockade in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Introduction: The aim of this study is to evaluate whether the administration of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors, angiotensin-I converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), is associated with treatment outcome in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Materials And Methods: A total of 141 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients receiving esophagectomy were identified, and were divided into two groups: an ACEI/ARB group (n=20), and a non-ACEI/ARB group (n=121). The effect of ACEIs or ARBs on cell proliferation and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) secretion of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines, CE81T/VGH and TE2, were investigated by 3-(4.

Heme oxygenase-1 plays a pro-life role in experimental brain stem death via nitric oxide synthase I/protein kinase G signaling at rostral ventrolateral medulla.

Background: Despite its clinical importance, a dearth of information exists on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underpin brain stem death. A suitable neural substrate for mechanistic delineation on brain stem death resides in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) because it is the origin of a life-and-death signal that sequentially increases (pro-life) and decreases (pro-death) to reflect the advancing central cardiovascular regulatory dysfunction during the progression towards brain stem death in critically ill patients. The present study evaluated the hypothesis that heme oxygnase-1 (HO-1) may play a pro-life role as an interposing signal between hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) and nitric oxide synthase I (NOS I)/protein kinase G (PKG) cascade in RVLM, which sustains central cardiovascular regulatory functions during brain stem death.