Glucose control with insulin results in reduction of NF-kappaB-binding activity in mononuclear blood cells of patients with recently manifested type 1 diabetes.

Aim: Chronic elevated blood glucose levels are associated with the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Hyperglycaemia and AGEs have been shown to induce activation of the redox-sensitive transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB). To validate the hypothesis that the maintenance of normal glucose levels results in the reduction of NF-kappaB-binding activity in vivo, the redox-sensitive transcription factor NF-kappaB was used as marker of hyperglycaemia-induced mononuclear cell activation in patients who recently developed type 1 diabetes.

Microarray analysis of Akt1 activation in transgenic mouse hearts reveals transcript expression profiles associated with compensatory hypertrophy and failure.

To investigate molecular mechanisms involved in the development of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure, we developed a tetracycline-regulated transgenic system to conditionally switch a constitutively active form of the Akt1 protein kinase on or off in the adult heart. Short-term activation (2 wk) of Akt1 resulted in completely reversible hypertrophy with maintained contractility. In contrast, chronic Akt1 activation (6 wk) induced extensive cardiac hypertrophy, severe contractile dysfunction, and massive interstitial fibrosis.

[Diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in patients with Billroth II gastrectomy].

Background: Diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is more difficult in patients with Billroth II gastrectomy.

Methods: Personal experience in the last 28 months with 38 ERCP regarding 33 Billroth II patients representing the 5.4% of total number of ERCP performed in the same period is reported.

Impaired angiogenesis in glutathione peroxidase-1-deficient mice is associated with endothelial progenitor cell dysfunction.

Several vascular disease are characterized by elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Vascular endothelium is protected from oxidant stress by expressing enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase type 1 (GPx-1). In this study, we investigated the effect of vascular oxidant stress on ischemia-induced neovascularization in a murine model of homozygous deficiency of GPx-1.

Surgical treatment of varicocele by a subinguinal approach combined with antegrade intraoperative sclerotherapy of venous vessels.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy, in terms of recurrences, complications and operative duration, of a new technique for treating varicocele.

Patients And Methods: Between September 1999 and December 2002 we evaluated 307 men aged 17-51 years with varicocele. In all of the men the clinical diagnosis was confirmed by ultrasonography.

Ischemic neoangiogenesis enhanced by beta2-adrenergic receptor overexpression: a novel role for the endothelial adrenergic system.

Beta2-adrenergic receptors (beta2ARs) are widely expressed, although their physiological relevance in many tissues is not yet fully understood. In vascular endothelial cells, they regulate NO release and vessel tone. Here we provide novel evidence that beta2ARs can regulate neoangiogenesis in response to chronic ischemia.

Akt1/protein kinase Balpha is critical for ischemic and VEGF-mediated angiogenesis.

Akt, or protein kinase B, is a multifunctional serine-threonine protein kinase implicated in a diverse range of cellular functions including cell metabolism, survival, migration, and gene expression. However, the in vivo roles and effectors of individual Akt isoforms in signaling are not explicitly clear. Here we show that the genetic loss of Akt1, but not Akt2, in mice results in defective ischemia and VEGF-induced angiogenesis as well as severe peripheral vascular disease.

Impaired revascularization in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes is associated with dysregulation of a complex angiogenic-regulatory network.

Objective: Diabetes is a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases associated with impaired angiogenesis or increased endothelial cell apoptosis.

Methods And Results: Here it is shown that angiogenic repair of ischemic hindlimbs was impaired in Lepr(db/db) mice, a leptin receptor-deficient model of diabetes, compared with wild-type (WT) C57BL/6 mice, as evaluated by laser Doppler flow and capillary density analyses. To identify molecular targets associated with this disease process, hindlimb cDNA expression profiles were created from adductor muscle of Lepr(db/db) and WT mice before and after hindlimb ischemia using Affymetrix GeneChip Mouse Expression Set microarrays.

Late reopening of an occluded infarct related artery improves left ventricular function and long term clinical outcome.

Objective: To assess effects on left ventricular (LV) function and on long term clinical outcome of late percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) of a chronically occluded infarct related artery.

Methods: 65 patients who underwent PTCA a mean (SD) of 6.0 (1.

Role of beta2 adrenergic receptors in human atherosclerotic coronary arteries.

Background: Adrenergic regulation of coronary vasomotion is balanced between alpha1-adrenergic-mediated (alpha1-AR) constriction and beta2-adrenergic-mediated (beta2-AR) relaxation. This study aimed at assessing the role of beta2-ARs in normal, mildly atherosclerotic, and stenotic human coronary arteries.

Methods And Results: During intracoronary (IC) infusion of increasing doses of the beta2-AR agonist salbutamol (0.

Estimation of coronary flow reserve by Tc-99m sestamibi imaging in patients with coronary artery disease: comparison with the results of intracoronary Doppler technique.

Background: This study compared coronary flow reserve (CFR) estimated by technetium 99m sestamibi imaging with the results obtained with intracoronary Doppler in patients with coronary artery disease. Intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility of the radionuclide-estimated CFR was also assessed.

Methods And Results: Fourteen consecutive patients (mean age, 54 +/- 7 years) with documented coronary artery disease in whom percutaneous coronary intervention was planned underwent dipyridamole (0.

A survey of genetic diversity and reproductive biology of Puya raimondii (Bromeliaceae), the endangered queen of the Andes.

Puya raimondii Harms is an outstanding giant rosette bromeliad found solely around 4000 m above sea level in the Andes. It flowers at the end of an 80 - 100-year or even longer life cycle and yields an enormous (4 - 6 m tall) spike composed of from 15,000 to 20,000 flowers. It is endemic and currently endangered, with populations distributed from Peru to the north of Bolivia.

Increased inflammatory status and higher prevalence of three-vessel coronary artery disease in patients with concomitant coronary and peripheral atherosclerosis.

The aim of this study was to determine whether patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and concomitant peripheral arterial disease (PAD) have a greater inflammatory status than those with CAD alone. To this aim, we evaluated PAD (ankle/brachial pressure index <0.9), and measured plasma levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the soluble forms of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) in 234 patients who underwent coronary angiography.

Relationship between contractile reserve, Tl-201 uptake, and collateral angiographic circulation in collateral-dependent myocardium: implications regarding the evaluation of myocardial viability.

Background: The aim of this study was to compare collateral angiographic circulation (CC), thallium 201 single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), low-dose dobutamine echocardiography (LDDE), and their combination in identifying viable myocardium beyond a chronic occlusion.

Methods And Results: We studied 33 consecutive patients with a chronic occluded coronary artery and regional ventricular dysfunction who underwent dobutamine infusion (5-10 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1)), Tl-201 SPECT, and coronary revascularization (15 patients underwent coronary artery bypass grafting and 18 patients percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty). Echocardiography and Tl-201 SPECT at rest were repeated 90 +/- 48 days after revascularization.

Immediate and long-term outcome of recanalization of chronic total coronary occlusions.

Eighty-three consecutive patients with 85 coronary total occlusions undergoing coronary angioplasty were retrospectively studied. Patients were divided into two groups according to the occlusion age that was < 30 days (subacute total occlusion [STO]: 25 patients; range 1-30 days) or > 30 days (chronic total occlusion [CTO]: 58 patients; range 3-144 months). All procedures were carried out using a hydrophilic guidewire.

[Diabetes and ischemic cardiopathy].

Diabetes represents an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD), and the prognosis in terms of survival rates is worse for diabetic patients who have CAD with respect to those with CAD but no diabetes. An acute coronary event represents a cause of death in more than 30% of diabetics. Experimental studies suggested that the increased incidence of myocardial infarction in diabetics is due to an increased risk of developing atherosclerotic plaque with subsequent ulceration and intracoronary thrombus formation.