Sympathomimetic Effects of Acute E-Cigarette Use: Role of Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Constituents.

Background: Chronic electronic (e) cigarette users have increased resting cardiac sympathetic nerve activity and increased susceptibility to oxidative stress. The purpose of the present study is to determine the role of nicotine versus non-nicotine constituents in e-cigarette emissions in causing these pathologies in otherwise healthy humans.

Methods And Results: Thirty-three healthy volunteers who were not current e-cigarette or tobacco cigarette smokers were studied.

Radical perineal prostatectomy for treatment of localized prostate cancer in obese and nonobese patients: a matched control study.

Objectives: To compare the perioperative outcomes of severely obese and nonobese patients undergoing radical perineal prostatectomy (RPP).

Methods: A cohort of 71 severely obese patients, as defined by a body mass index of 35 kg/m2 or more, who underwent RPP between 1992 and 2003 was retrospectively identified. These patients were matched by age, American Society of Anesthesiologists class, and year of surgery to a cohort of 71 nonobese patients (body mass index less than 25 kg/m2).

Enhancement of vaccine-mediated antitumor immunity in cancer patients after depletion of regulatory T cells.

In this study, we investigated whether elimination of CD4+/CD25+ Tregs using the recombinant IL-2 diphtheria toxin conjugate DAB(389)IL-2 (also known as denileukin diftitox and ONTAK) is capable of enhancing the immunostimulatory efficacy of tumor RNA-transfected DC vaccines. We show that DAB(389)IL-2 is capable of selectively eliminating CD25-expressing Tregs from the PBMCs of cancer patients without inducing toxicity on other cellular subsets with intermediate or low expression of CD25. DAB(389)IL-2-mediated Treg depletion resulted in enhanced stimulation of proliferative and cytotoxic T cell responses in vitro but only when DAB(389)IL-2 was omitted during T cell priming.

Radical perineal prostatectomy for the treatment of localized prostate cancer in morbidly obese patients.

Purpose: We assessed the feasibility of radical perineal prostatectomy (RPP) in morbidly obese patients with clinically organ confined prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: Of 1,265 consecutive patients who underwent RPP at our institution from 1992 to 2003 we identified 18 with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 kg/m or greater. Demographic and clinical patient characteristics were obtained from the medical records, which were further reviewed to identify the perioperative incidence of surgical and anesthesia related complications.

Telomerase mRNA-transfected dendritic cells stimulate antigen-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cell responses in patients with metastatic prostate cancer.

Telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) represents an attractive target for cancer immunotherapy because hTERT is reactivated in most human tumors. A clinical trial was initiated in which hTERT mRNA-transfected dendritic cells (DC) were administered to 20 patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Nine of these subjects received DC transfected with mRNA encoding a chimeric lysosome-associated membrane protein-1 (LAMP) hTERT protein, allowing for concomitant induction of hTERT-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cell responses.

Cross-sectional survey of long-term quality of life after radical perineal prostatectomy.

Objectives: To evaluate the late health-related quality of life (HRQOL) after radical perineal prostatectomy (RPP) and identify the predictors of outcome.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of 266 consecutive patients who underwent RPP for clinically localized prostate cancer between July 1998 and December 2000. Of the 236 patients successfully contacted, 187 (79.

Prospective and longitudinal patient self-assessment of health-related quality of life following radical perineal prostatectomy.

Purpose: We provide a comprehensive, longitudinal assessment of health related quality of life (HRQOL) following radical perineal prostatectomy (RPP).

Materials And Methods: We report the results of a prospective cohort study of 109 patients with at least 3 months of followup who underwent RPP between January 2001 and July 2003. A validated patient self-assessment questionnaire, the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite, was administered preoperatively, and 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 18 months postoperatively.

Nitrite reduction to nitric oxide by deoxyhemoglobin vasodilates the human circulation.

Nitrite anions comprise the largest vascular storage pool of nitric oxide (NO), provided that physiological mechanisms exist to reduce nitrite to NO. We evaluated the vasodilator properties and mechanisms for bioactivation of nitrite in the human forearm. Nitrite infusions of 36 and 0.

S-Nitrosohemoglobin is unstable in the reductive erythrocyte environment and lacks O2/NO-linked allosteric function.

Our previous results run counter to the hypothesis that S-nitrosohemoglobin (SNO-Hb) serves as an in vivo reservoir for NO from which NO release is allosterically linked to oxygen release. We show here that SNO-Hb undergoes reductive decomposition in erythrocytes, whereas it is stable in purified solutions and in erythrocyte lysates treated with an oxidant such as ferricyanide. Using an extensively validated methodology that eliminates background nitrite and stabilizes erythrocyte S-nitrosothiols, we find the levels of SNO-Hb in the basal human circulation, including red cell membrane fractions, were 46 +/- 17 nm in human arterial erythrocytes and 69 +/- 11 nm in venous erythrocytes, incompatible with the postulated reservoir function of SNO-Hb.