Publications by authors named "Iwona Urbanowicz"

Obesity and diabetes are a problem of modern medicine. Although the environmental factors contributing to the development of these diseases are widely known, research into genetic factors is still ongoing. At the same time, the role of inflammation in the pathophysiology of obesity and diabetes is increasingly emphasized.

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Background: Ion channel inhibition may offer protection against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Inflammation and reduced platelet count occur during COVID-19 but precise quantification of risk thresholds is unclear. The Recov ery-SIRIO study aimed to assess clinical effects of amiodarone and verapamil and to relate patient phenotypes to outcomes.

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Background: NF-κB is an essential player in cancer biology, especially in tumor development, due to its constitutive activation, and because a four-base deletion (ATTG) in the NF-κB1 promoter region at site -94, alters mRNA stability and regulates translation efficiency. This polymorphism is a good candidate risk marker and modulator of clinical course in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). As the effect of this NF-κB1 gene polymorphism has not been studied in patients with CLL so far, the present study was undertaken to find out whether the NF-κB1 promoter -94 ins/del ATTG polymorphism might be an essential genetic risk factor and/or modulatory disease player associated with CLL.

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The alterations in concentration/activity of superoxide dismutase isozymes in the context of type 2 diabetes or obesity are well-described. Moreover, many hereditary factors, including single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of genes for coding insulin, insulin receptors, or insulin receptor substrates (INS, INSR, IRS1, IRS2) or superoxide dismutase isozymes (SOD1, SOD2, SOD3), have been linked with the incidence of obesity and diabetes. However, the underlying changes in the plasma concentration/activity of superoxide dismutase isozymes and their potential connection with the said hereditary factors remain unexplored.

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Aplastic anemia (AA) is a rare, life-threatening syndrome of bone marrow failure resulted from bone marrow hypoplasia or aplasia, leading to pancytopenia (not only anemia). The most common cause is an autoimmune reaction of T lymphocytes against hematopoietic stem cells or, less frequently, a congenital defect or acquired damage to these cells, which leads to inhibition of their division and differentiation. AA can develop quickly (within a few days) or slowly (several weeks or months).

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Background: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common form of adult leukemia in Caucasian populations, is characterized by a decrease in anti-infective immunity. Clinical evidence of antiviral immunity decrease is the reactivation of herpes virus in the form of skin lesions. In Europe, rubella infection is common and creates lifelong persistence of IgG antibodies.

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Telomerase is essential for telomere maintenance, and its activation is thought to be a critical step in cellular immortalization and tumorigenesis. Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is a major component of telomerase activity. We show here that hTERT is expressed soon after lymphocyte activation and that its expression is inhibited by rapamycin, wortmannin, and FK506, which was the most potent inhibitor.

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The pathogenesis of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) has been linked with the production and activity of certain growth factors. However a significant proportion of CLL patients display immune abnormalities suggestive of aberrant cytokine secretion and/or response. In contrast to B lymphocytes, T cells of B-CLL patients characterise with the increased production of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and this cytokine has been indicated to prevent malignant cells from entering apoptosis including the slowly expanding population of CD5+ B cells that characterizes chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

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Normal lymphocytes represent examples of somatic cells that are able to induce telomerase activity when stimulated. As previously reported, we showed that, during lymphocyte long-term culture and repeated stimulations, the appearance of senescent cells is associated with telomere shortening and a progressive drop in telomerase activity. We further showed that this shortening preferentially occured at long telomeres and was interrupted at each stimulation by a transitory increase in telomere length.

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As autophagic inclusions accumulate in senescent fibroblasts, we wondered whether an increase in cellular fragility during in vitro lymphocyte aging may be related to an autolysosome accumulation. We established that, during long-term cultures, repeatedly stimulated T-lymphocytes acquired characteristics of replicative senescence and became progressively intolerant to activation. Cell death following stimulations: (i) corresponded to apoptosis, associated with necrosis at the end of the culture; (ii) was not, for its main part, mediated through CD95/CD178 or TNFRII/TNF alpha interactions; and (iii) occurred in spite of bcl-2 increased expression.

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