Recruitment and retention of participants in randomised controlled trials: a review of trials funded and published by the United Kingdom Health Technology Assessment Programme.

Background: Substantial amounts of public funds are invested in health research worldwide. Publicly funded randomised controlled trials (RCTs) often recruit participants at a slower than anticipated rate. Many trials fail to reach their planned sample size within the envisaged trial timescale and trial funding envelope.

Retinoic acid reduces migration of human breast cancer cells: role of retinoic acid receptor beta.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women and the appearance of distant metastases produces the death in 98% of cases. The retinoic acid receptor β (RARβ) is not expressed in 50% of invasive breast carcinoma compared with normal tissue and it has been associated with lymph node metastasis. Our hypothesis is that RARβ protein participates in the metastatic process.

A new TASK for Dipeptidyl Peptidase-like Protein 6.

Dipeptidyl Peptidase-like Protein 6 (DPP6) is widely expressed in the brain where it co-assembles with Kv4 channels and KChIP auxiliary subunits to regulate the amplitude and functional properties of the somatodendritic A-current, ISA. Here we show that in cerebellar granule (CG) cells DPP6 also regulates resting membrane potential and input resistance by increasing the amplitude of the IK(SO) resting membrane current. Pharmacological analysis shows that DPP6 acts through the control of a channel with properties matching the K2P channel TASK-3.

Dipeptidyl peptidase-like protein 6 is required for normal electrophysiological properties of cerebellar granule cells.

In cerebellar granule (CG) cells and many other neurons, A-type potassium currents play an important role in regulating neuronal excitability, firing patterns, and activity-dependent plasticity. Protein biochemistry has identified dipeptidyl peptidase-like protein 6 (DPP6) as an auxiliary subunit of Kv4-based A-type channels and thus a potentially important regulator of neuronal excitability. In this study, we used an RNA interference (RNAi) strategy to examine the role DPP6 plays in forming and shaping the electrophysiological properties of CG cells.

Manipulating Kv4.2 identifies a specific component of hippocampal pyramidal neuron A-current that depends upon Kv4.2 expression.

The somatodendritic A-current, I(SA), in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons regulates the processing of synaptic inputs and the amplitude of back propagating action potentials into the dendritic tree, as well as the action potential firing properties at the soma. In this study, we have used RNA interference and over-expression to show that expression of the Kv4.2 gene specifically regulates the I(SA) component of A-current in these neurons.