Serum cystatin C levels are associated with coronary artery disease and its severity.

Objectives: Serum cystatin C has been established as a predictor of cardiovascular events. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of cystatin C in determining the presence and the severity of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).

Design And Methods: A total of 936 subjects without overt renal disease were included in this cross-sectional study.

Effects of miR-19b overexpression on proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in P19 cell model of cardiac differentiation in vitro.

MicroRNA (miR)-19b is part of the miR-17-92 cluster associated with cardiac development. Here, we investigated the effects of overexpressing miR-19b on proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and regulation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in the multipotent murine P19 cell line that can be induced to undergo cardiogenesis. P19 cells were transfected with the miR-19b plasmid or empty vector, and miR-19b overexpression was verified by Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qPCR).

Effect of organic matter on the performance of granular anammox process.

The presence of organic matter (OM) is considered to affect anammox process adversely, while practically wastewaters containing ammonia are not free from OM. In this study, the performance of anammox granules in presence of OM was evaluated under different COD to N ratios. Low OM concentration did not affect ammonia and nitrite removal significantly but improved the total nitrogen removal via denitrifiers.

Differential expression of microRNAs in cardiac myocytes compared to undifferentiated P19 cells.

microRNA (miRNA) expression is tightly controlled in a tissue-specific and developmental stage-specific manner; some are highly and specifically expressed in cardiovascular tissues. miRNA expression profiling, using miRNA microarrays facilitates studying the biological function of miRNAs. We investigated changes in miRNA expression profiles during differentiation of P19 cells into cardiac myocytes in order to elucidate the mechanisms of heart development.

LYRM1, a gene that promotes proliferation and inhibits apoptosis during heart development.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect, but its underlying molecular mechanisms remain unidentified. Previous studies determined that Homo sapiens LYR motif containing 1 (LYRM1) is a novel nucleoprotein expressed at the highest level in adipose tissue and in high levels in heart tissue. The LYRM1 gene may play an important role in the development of the human heart.

GATA-4 promotes the differentiation of P19 cells into cardiac myocytes.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of GATA-4 on the differentiation of P19 cells into cardiomyocytes and to examine the relationship between GATA-4 and cardiomyocytes. We constructed vectors to overexpress and silence GATA-4. These vectors, as well as empty ones were transfected into P19 cells.