Immunohistochemical profile of neurotrophins and MIB-1 in jugulotympanic paragangliomas: prognostic value and review of the literature.

Jugulo-tympanic paragangliomas are the most common primary neoplasm of the middle ear, but little is still known about the histological features differentiating the benign and malignant forms. We investigated, with an immunohistochemical procedure, the expression of neurotrophins with their receptors, in fifteen samples of paragangliomas, and MIB-1 in order to consider them as prognostic factors of malignancy. We observed a general positivity for NGF - TrKA - NT4 - TrKC in the cytoplasm, and a strong expression for BDNF in the extracellular space.

Neurotrophins, their receptors and KI-67 in human GH-secreting pituitary adenomas: an immunohistochemical analysis.

Pituitary adenomas are a diverse group of tumors arising from the pituitary gland. Typically, they are small, slow-growing, hormonally inactive lesions that come to light as incidental findings on radiologic or postmortem examinations, although some small, slow-growing lesions with excessive hormonal activity may manifest with a clinical syndrome. The family of neurotrophins plays a key role in the development and maintenance of the pituitary endocrine cell function and in the regulation of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity.

Talking about end-of-life preferences with advanced cancer patients: factors influencing feasibility.

Context: The End-of-Life Preferences Interview (ELPI) was developed with the purpose of supporting physicians in communicating with advanced cancer patients.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate ELPI feasibility and compare home care/hospice (HC-H) vs. outpatient (OU) care settings.

Giant cell ependymoma of the thoracic spinal cord.

We report a new case of giant cell ependymoma (GCE) of the thoracic spinal cord. Ependymomas predominate in children and young adults and are frequently intracranial and infra-tentorial. However, a second age peak at 30-40 years is reported for spinal tumours.

The glucagon receptor is involved in mediating the body weight-lowering effects of oxyntomodulin.

Oxyntomodulin (OXM) is a peptide secreted postprandially from the L-cells of the gut that has a weak affinity for both the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP1R) and the glucagon receptor (GCGR). Peripheral administration of OXM in humans and rodents causes weight loss reducing food intake and increasing energy expenditure. It has been suggested that OXM modulates energy intake solely through GLP1R agonism.

Deletion of β-adrenergic receptor 1, 2, or both leads to different bone phenotypes and response to mechanical stimulation.

As they age, mice deficient for the β2-adrenergic receptor (Adrb2(-/-) ) maintain greater trabecular bone microarchitecture, as a result of lower bone resorption and increased bone formation. The role of β1-adrenergic receptor signaling and its interaction with β2-adrenergic receptor on bone mass regulation, however, remains poorly understood. We first investigated the skeletal response to mechanical stimulation in mice deficient for β1-adrenergic receptors and/or β2-adrenergic receptors.

Italian validation of the Purpose In Life (PIL) test and the Seeking Of Noetic Goals (SONG) test in a population of cancer patients.

Objective: The first instruments developed to evaluate specific logotherapeutic dimensions were the Purpose In Life (PIL) and the Seeking Of Noetic Goals (SONG) tests, designed to reflect Frankl's concepts of, respectively, meaning in life attainment and will to meaning. This study aims to perform the Italian cultural adaptation and the psychometric validation of the PIL and SONG questionnaires.

Methods: We administered the PIL and SONG, culturally adapted into the Italian language, to 266 cancer patients.

Role of RanBP9 on amyloidogenic processing of APP and synaptic protein levels in the mouse brain.

We previously reported that RanBP9 binds low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP), amyloid precursor protein (APP), and BACE1 and robustly increased Aβ generation in a variety of cell lines and primary neuronal cultures. To confirm the physiological/ pathological significance of this phenotype in vivo, we successfully generated transgenic mice overexpressing RanBP9 as well as RanBP9-null mice. Here we show that RanBP9 overexpression resulted in >2-fold increase in Aβ40 levels as early as 4 mo of age.

Venous compressions of the nerves in the lower limbs.

Objective: The lower limbs are frequently involved in neurovascular compression syndromes, owing to their anatomical, vascular and muscular characteristics and to the orthostatic position. These syndromes were identified by exclusion, using neuroimaging techniques and treated by microsurgical techniques.

Methods: Eight patients with a neurovascular compression syndrome due to venous vascular lesions in the lower limbs (popliteal fossa, proximal and medial third of the inferior limb, tarsal tunnel) were selected.

Localization of endogenous morphine-like compounds in the mouse spinal cord.

Morphine, codeine, morphine-6-glucuronide, and morphine-3-glucuronide are synthesized de novo in mammalian cells and in the central nervous system. Knowledge on endogenous morphine-like compound distribution in the adult mouse brain has been recently improved, and new hypotheses have been suggested about the potential implications in brain physiology. Endogenous morphine-like compounds have been shown to be synthesized in the spinal cord, but their localization is unknown.

Purinergic signaling inhibits human acute myeloblastic leukemia cell proliferation, migration, and engraftment in immunodeficient mice.

Extracellular ATP and UTP nucleotides increase the proliferation and engraftment potential of normal human hematopoietic stem cells via the engagement of purinergic receptors (P2Rs). In the present study, we show that ATP and UTP have strikingly opposite effects on human acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) cells. Leukemic cells express P2Rs.

Experience of an information aid for newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis patients: a qualitative study on the SIMS-Trial.

Background: The SIMS-Trial (ISRCTN81072971) proved the effectiveness, in terms of patient's knowledge and care satisfaction, of an add-on information aid (personal interview with a physician using a navigable CD and take-home booklet) in 120 newly diagnosed patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) from five Italian centres.

Objective: To scrutinize the experience of SIMS-Trial participants in order to gain better understanding of the effectiveness of the information aid and its components.

Design: We performed (i) nine individual semi-structured interviews with a purposeful sample of SIMS-Trial patients who received the information aid, (ii) focus group meeting (FGM) with the physicians who conducted the personal interview, and (iii) FGM with patients' caring neurologists.

Contribution of G inhibitory protein alpha subunits in paradoxical hyperalgesia elicited by exceedingly low doses of morphine in mice.

Aims: Although morphine, at higher doses, induces analgesia, it may also enhance sensitivity to pain at extremely low doses as shown in studies for testing an animal's sensitivity to pain. We used an antisense approach capable of selectively down-regulating in vivo G(i)(G inhibitory protein),G(o) and G(s) members of the G(α) sub-family protein subunits in order to establish if these proteins might be implicated in the effects induced by extremely low morphine doses on acute thermonociception.

Main Methods: Mice pretreated with a morphine hyperalgesic dose (1μg/kg) were submitted to hot plate test after pre-treatment with antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (aODNs) targeting G(iα), G(oα) and G(sα) regulatory proteins.

Discreteness of the volume of space from Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization.

A major challenge for any theory of quantum gravity is to quantize general relativity while retaining some part of its geometrical character. We present new evidence for the idea that this can be achieved by directly quantizing space itself. We compute the Bohr-Sommerfeld volume spectrum of a tetrahedron and show that it reproduces the quantization of a grain of space found in loop gravity.

[New inter-activity cooperation providing an improved healthcare offer].

The Authorities aim to establish new cooperation between the various healthcare activities. This recommendation can be practically applied in the field of primary care within the psychiatric and addiction treatment sectors. This development involves implementing advanced nursing practices.

FLASH is essential during early embryogenesis and cooperates with p73 to regulate histone gene transcription.

Replication-dependent histone gene expression is a fundamental process occurring in S-phase under the control of the cyclin-E/CDK2 complex. This process is regulated by a number of proteins, including Flice-Associated Huge Protein (FLASH) (CASP8AP2), concentrated in specific nuclear organelles known as HLBs. FLASH regulates both histone gene transcription and mRNA maturation, and its downregulation in vitro results in the depletion of the histone pull and cell-cycle arrest in S-phase.

Patterns of postoperative radiotherapy for head and neck cancer in Italy: a prospective, observational study by the head and neck group of the Italian Association for Radiation Oncology (AIRO).

Aims And Background: Our previous survey showed that the patterns of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) for head and neck cancer (HNC) in Italy might be suboptimal. A prospective observational study was therefore designed to evaluate this issue in greater detail.

Methods: All radiotherapy centers involved in the HNC Working Group of the Italian Radiation Oncology Association were asked to enter into the study all patients treated with PORT during a 6-month period.

Self-assembly scenarios of patchy colloidal particles in two dimensions.

We have investigated the self-assembly scenario of patchy colloidal particles in a two-dimensional system. The energetically most favourable ordered particle arrangements have been identified via an optimization tool that is based on genetic algorithms. Assuming different simple models for patchy colloidal particles, which include binary mixtures as well as attraction and repulsion between the patches, we could identify a broad variety of highly non-trivial ordered structures.

Npn-1 contributes to axon-axon interactions that differentially control sensory and motor innervation of the limb.

The initiation, execution, and completion of complex locomotor behaviors are depending on precisely integrated neural circuitries consisting of motor pathways that activate muscles in the extremities and sensory afferents that deliver feedback to motoneurons. These projections form in tight temporal and spatial vicinities during development, yet the molecular mechanisms and cues coordinating these processes are not well understood. Using cell-type specific ablation of the axon guidance receptor Neuropilin-1 (Npn-1) in spinal motoneurons or in sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG), we have explored the contribution of this signaling pathway to correct innervation of the limb.

Integrated analysis of microRNA and mRNA expression profiles in physiological myelopoiesis: role of hsa-mir-299-5p in CD34+ progenitor cells commitment.

Hematopoiesis entails a series of hierarchically organized events that proceed throughout cell specification and terminates with cell differentiation. Commitment needs the transcription factors' effort, which, in concert with microRNAs, drives cell fate and responds to promiscuous patterns of gene expression by turning on lineage-specific genes and repressing alternate lineage transcripts. We obtained microRNA profiles from human CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells and in vitro differentiated erythroblasts, megakaryoblasts, monoblasts and myeloblast precursors that we analyzed together with their gene expression profiles.

[Stressor experienced by family members in the process of organ and tissue donation for transplant].

The purpose of the present study is to identify the stressors experienced by family members during the process of organ donation, evince the most distressful moment of the process and verify the association of variable with the family members' experience. The sample consisted of 16 family members that were making the donation through a Organ Search Organization, in São Paulo, in 2007. A structured instrument was used, containing question addressing the family members' experience and their evaluation of the donation process.

Patchy colloids: state of the art and perspectives.

Recently, an increasing experimental effort has been devoted to the synthesis of complex colloidal particles with chemically or physically patterned surfaces and possible specific shapes that are far from spherical. These new colloidal particles with anisotropic interactions are commonly named patchy particles. In this Perspective article, we focus on patchy systems characterized by spherical neutral particles with patchy surfaces.

DPP-IV-resistant, long-acting oxyntomodulin derivatives.

Obesity is one of the major risk factors for type 2 diabetes, and the development of agents, that can simultaneously achieve glucose control and weight loss, is being actively pursued. Therapies based on peptide mimetics of the gut hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) are rapidly gaining favor, due to their ability to increase insulin secretion in a strictly glucose-dependent manner, with little or no risk of hypoglycemia, and to their additional benefit of causing a modest, but durable weight loss. Oxyntomodulin (OXM), a 37-amino acid peptide hormone of the glucagon (GCG) family with dual agonistic activity on both the GLP-1 (GLP1R) and the GCG (GCGR) receptors, has been shown to reduce food intake and body weight in humans, with a lower incidence of treatment-associated nausea than GLP-1 mimetics.

Protective role of parnaparin in reducing systemic inflammation and atherosclerotic plaque formation in ApoE-/- mice.

Atherosclerosis is a degenerative disease whose role in the onset and development of cardiovascular pathologies and complications is of importance. Due to its silent but progressive development, and considering the endothelial, immunological and inflammatory processes that are involved in its clinical course, this still relatively unknown pathological condition has been and continues to be a matter of investigation worldwide. Our experience with previous studies on atherosclerosis led us to investigate the possible influence of a low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) - Parnaparin® on the development and clinical course of atherosclerosis in double knock-out laboratory animals (ApoE-/- mice).

Post-transcriptional control of gene expression in mouse early embryo development: a view from the tip of the iceberg.

Fertilization is a very complex biological process that requires the perfect cooperation between two highly specialized cells: the male and female gametes. The oocyte provides the physical space where this process takes place, most of the energetic need, and half of the genetic contribution. The spermatozoon mostly contributes the other half of the chromosomes and it is specialized to reach and to penetrate the oocyte.