Telomere length, c-myc and mad-1 expression could represent prognosis markers of myelodysplastic syndrome.

Telomere dysfunction might generate genomic instability leading to the progression of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) into acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We investigated telomere length (TL), telomerase activity (TA) and hTERT, c-myc, mad1, and p53 expression in the bone marrow of patients with MDS (n=109), AML (n=47) and in controls (n=24). TL was lower in MDS patients than in controls (p<0.

Prognostic role of immunohistochemical analysis of 5 mc in myelodysplastic syndromes.

Background: Aberrant DNA methylation at CpG islands within promoters is increasingly recognised as a common event in human cancers and has been associated with the silencing of important tumour suppressor genes. Epigenetic therapy using hypomethylating agents has demonstrated clinical effectiveness; the drugs azacitidine and decitabine have been approved for the treatment of MDS.

Method: We investigated the association between global DNA methylation and clinical outcome in MDS.

Molecular and functional characterization of human bone marrow adipocytes.

Adipocytes are a cell population largely located in the human bone marrow cavity. In this specific microenvironment where adipocytes can interact with a variety of different cells, the role of fat is mainly unknown. To our knowledge, this report is the first to characterize mature adipocytes isolated from human bone marrow (BM-A) molecularly and functionally to better understand their roles into the hematopoietic microenvironment.

Human dedifferentiated adipocytes show similar properties to bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells.

Mature adipocytes are generally considered terminally differentiated because they have lost their proliferative abilities. Here, we studied the gene expression and functional properties of mature adipocytes isolated from human omental and subcutaneous fat tissues. We also focused on dedifferentiated adipocytes in culture and their morphologies and functional changes with respect to mature adipocytes, stromal-vascular fraction (SVF)-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and bone marrow (BM)-derived MSCs.

Gene expression profile of cytokines in patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with reduced conditioning.

There are no reliable markers useful to predict the onset or the evolution of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), although several candidate biomarkers have been identified from limited hypothesis-driven studies. In this study we evaluated 14 patients who received a reduced intensity conditioning HSCT. Seven patients had cGVHD, whereas 7 never developed cGVHD during the period of observation.

Human mesenchymal stem cells from chorionic villi and amniotic fluid are not susceptible to transformation after extensive in vitro expansion.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are promising candidates for cell therapy and tissue engineering. Increasing evidence suggests that MSCs isolated from fetal tissues are more plastic and grow faster than adult MSCs. In this study, we characterized human mesenchymal progenitor cells from chorionic villi (CV) and amniotic fluid (AF) isolated during the first and second trimesters, respectively, and compared them with adult bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM).

Hansenula polymorpha NMR2 and NMR4, two new loci involved in nitrogen metabolite repression.

In the yeast Hansenula polymorpha (Pichia angusta) nitrate assimilation is tightly regulated and subject to a dual control: nitrogen metabolite repression (NMR), triggered by reduced nitrogen compounds, and induction, elicited by nitrate itself. In a previous paper [Serrani, F., Rossi, B.

The NII2 gene of Hansenula polymorpha is involved in nitrite assimilation.

To establish a basis for genetic and molecular studies of nitrite assimilation in the methylotrophic yeast Hansenula polymorpha, we isolated and characterised six nitrite-negative mutants still capable of growing on nitrate. Gene isolation work yielded the NII2 gene, encoding a membrane protein homologous to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pho86p. Sequence analysis revealed an ORF of 860 bp encoding a 286-amino-acid protein with a predicted molecular mass of 32.