Background & Objectives: Trisomy 21 is the most common chromosomal aneuploidy in live born infants. Recently, the over expression of chromosome 21-derived microRNAs (miR-99a, let-7c, miR-125b-2, miR-155 and miR-802) in human fetal hippocampus and heart samples from individuals with Down syndrome was observed. Therefore, concentrations and expression profile of extracellular chromosome 21-derived microRNAs were studied to verify their ability to distinguish noninvasively between pregnancies bearing euploid fetuses and those affected with Down syndrome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Autoreactive T cells have a crucial role in type 1 diabetes (T1D) pathogenesis.
Objectives: The aim of our study was to monitor the in vitro production of cytokines by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) after stimulation with diabetogenic autoantigens.
Subjects: Ten T1D patients (tested at the time of diagnosis and 6 and 12 months later), 10 first-degree relatives of the T1D patients, and 10 controls underwent the study.
Objective: A role of autoreactive T cells for type 1 diabetes pathogenesis is considered crucial. In our pilot study we addressed if autoreactive mononuclear cells are present also in peripheral blood of patients with other specific forms of diabetes as cystic fibrosis related diabetes (CFRD).
Methods: Cellular immune responses to a known beta-cell autoantigen (GAD65 and GAD65 derived peptides) were analysed by ELISPOT (IFN-gamma) and by protein microarray analysis in four patients suffering from CFRD, in four cystic fibrosis (CF) patients without diabetes, in eight type 1 diabetes patients (without CF) and in four healthy controls.