High glucose increases lysyl oxidase expression and activity in retinal endothelial cells: mechanism for compromised extracellular matrix barrier function.

Objective: In diabetes, retinal vascular basement membrane (BM) undergoes significant thickening and compromises vessel function including increased vascular permeability, a prominent lesion of early diabetic retinopathy. In this study we determined whether altered expression and activity of lysyl oxidase (LOX), a cross-linking enzyme, may compromise vascular basement membrane functional integrity under high-glucose (HG) conditions.

Research Design And Methods: Rat retinal endothelial cells (RRECs) grown in normal (5 mmol/l) or HG (30 mmol/l glucose) medium for 7 days were assessed for expression of LOX and proLOX by Western blot analysis and LOX enzyme activity.

Mu (mu) opioid receptor regulation of ethanol-induced dopamine response in the ventral striatum: evidence of genotype specific sexual dimorphic epistasis.

Background: Ethanol stimulates the dopaminergic mesoaccumbal pathway, which is thought to play a role in ethanol reinforcement. Mu (mu)-opioid (MOP) receptors modulate accumbal dopamine activity, but it is not clear whether MOP receptors are involved in the mechanism of ethanol-stimulated accumbal dopamine release.

Methods: We investigated the role that MOP receptors play in ethanol (2.

A randomized phase III study of doxorubicin versus cisplatin/interferon alpha-2b/doxorubicin/fluorouracil (PIAF) combination chemotherapy for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Single-agent doxorubicin has been widely used to treat unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the response rate is low (< 20%) and there is no convincing evidence for improved survival. Cisplatin, interferon, doxorubicin, and fluorouracil (PIAF) used in combination, by contrast, has shown promise in a phase II study. We compared doxorubicin to PIAF in patients with unresectable HCC in a phase III trial.

Ethanol increases extracellular dopamine concentration in the ventral striatum in C57BL/6 mice.

Background: Mesolimbic dopamine is thought to play a role in the reinforcing properties of ethanol, but ethanol-induced changes in extracellular dopamine in the ventral striatum have not been well characterized in mouse models.

Methods: Two experiments were used to characterize the pharmacodynamic response of ethanol in the ventral striatum in C57BL/6 mice. The first experiment determined the effect of ethanol on ventral striatal dopamine in male and female mice after intraperitoneal injection of either 2.

Characterization of probe and tissue factors that influence interpretation of quantitative microdialysis experiments for dopamine.

Two quantitative methods, the Lönnroth (no-net-flux) and variation of perfusion flow rate methods, were used to investigate the influence of the probe and tissue on dopamine microdialysis measurements. In vivo measurements were made in the nucleus accumbens of awake, freely moving rats on two consecutive days of dialysis. The results of the no-net-flux study showed that there was no statistically significant difference in extraction fraction at a perfusion flow rate of 2.

Construction of the Chinese University Prognostic Index for hepatocellular carcinoma and comparison with the TNM staging system, the Okuda staging system, and the Cancer of the Liver Italian Program staging system: a study based on 926 patients.

Background: The current TNM staging system for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) does not include liver function parameters and does not provide a precise prognosis for patients in different risk groups. The objectives of this study were to construct a new prognostic index for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the Chinese University Prognostic Index (CUPI), and to compare it with existing staging systems in terms of their ability to classify patients into different risk group.

Methods: From 1996 to 1998, 926 ethnic Chinese patients who were diagnosed with HCC (mainly hepatitis B-associated) at a single institution were recruited prospectively into this study.

Factors predicting response and survival in 149 patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma treated by combination cisplatin, interferon-alpha, doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy.

Background: The objective of the current study was to identify patient and disease related factors that influence response and survival for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who received a systemic combination chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin, alpha-interferon, doxorubicin, and 5-fluorouracil (PIAF).

Methods: From July 1996 to February 1999, 149 patients with unresectable HCC were treated with PIAF: cisplatin (20mg/m2 intravenously, Days 1-4), doxorubicin (40mg/m2 intravenously, Day 1), 5-fluorouracil (400mg/m2 intravenously, Days 1-4), and alpha-interferon (5MU/m2 subcutaneously, Days 1-4), once every 3 weeks up to a maximum of six cycles. Univariate and multivariate analyses of patient and disease characteristics were used to identify factors predicting response and survival.