Clinical and preclinical evidence of sex-related differences in anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity.

Anthracyclines are very effective chemotherapeutic agents that are widely used to treat pediatric and adult cancer patients. Unfortunately, the clinical utility of anthracyclines is limited by cardiotoxicity. There are several established risk factors for anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity (AIC), including total cumulative dose, very young and very old age, concomitant use of other cardiotoxic agents, and concurrent mediastinal radiation.

Lineage selection of functional and cryopreservable human embryonic stem cell-derived neurons.

A major prerequisite for the biomedical application of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) is the derivation of defined and homogeneous somatic cell types. Here we present a human doublecortin (DCX) promoter-based lineage-selection strategy for the generation of purified hESC-derived immature neurons. After transfection of hESC-derived neural precursors with a DCX-enhanced green fluorescent protein construct, fluorescence-activated cell sorting enables the enrichment of immature human neurons at purities of up to 95%.

[Proportional assisted ventilation--clinical use of a new ventilation mode].

Background: Proportional assist ventilation (PAV), a new mode for assist ventilation, allows the patient not only to trigger the ventilator but enables him to keep his breathing pattern. The basis of PAV is a positive feed back between patient and ventilator.

Patients And Method: PAV was applied in 6 patients, who were under long-term ventilation and who were stable.

Stereoselective enhancement by (R)-HA-966 of the binding of [3H]CPP to the NMDA receptor complex.

The enantiomers of the strychnine-insensitive glycine antagonist, HA-966 (1-hydroxy-3-amino-pyrrolidone-2), stereoselectively enhance binding of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) competitive antagonist, [3H]CPP (3-(2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl)propyl-1-phosphonic acid) to rat brain synaptosomal membranes. The enhancement by the more potent (R)-HA-966 is competitively inhibited by the glycine antagonist 7-chlorokynurenic acid and noncompetitively by the polyamine spermine. Thus, (R)-HA-966, apparently at the glycine site, enhances the binding of antagonist to the NMDA receptor, possibly through a mechanism partially in common with that of spermine.