Taste-strip gustometry in cochlear implanted patients.

Objective: Investigation of the gustatory function in a large cohort of cochlear implanted patients using lateralized taste-strip tests.

Patients And Methods: One hundred and seven unilaterally or bilaterally profoundly hearing impaired or deaf patients who received cochlear implants (n = 113) were included in this study. Data on gustometry, subjective gustatory dysfunction, and the detailed surgical procedure were acquired retrospectively.

Upregulation of AKR1C1 and AKR1C3 expression in OPSCC with integrated HPV16 and HPV-negative tumors is an indicator of poor prognosis.

Different studies have shown that HPV16-positive OPSCC can be subdivided based on integration status (integrated, episomal and mixed forms). Because we showed that integration neither affects the levels of viral genes, nor those of virally disrupted human genes, a genome-wide screen was performed to identify human genes which expression is influenced by viral integration and have clinical relevance. Thirty-three fresh-frozen HPV-16 positive OPSCC samples with known integration status were analyzed by mRNA expression profiling.

Downregulation of the α- and β-subunit of sGC in Arterial Smooth Muscle Cells of OPSCC Is HPV-Independent.

The nitric oxide (NO)-sensitive soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) is a heterodimeric enzyme with an α and β subunit. NO binds to heme of the β-subunit of sGC, activates the enzyme in the reduced heme iron state in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), and generates cGMP-inducing vasodilatation and suppression of VSMC proliferation. In the complex tumor milieu with higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), sGC heme iron may become oxidized and insensitive to NO.

The relevance of the lymph node ratio as predictor of prognosis is higher in HPV-negative than in HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Objectives: Lymph node ratio (LNR) is an established predictor in different entities of carcinoma, including head and neck malignancies. In oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), lymph node involvement differs between human papilloma virus (HPV)-positive and HPV-negative tumours. Herein, we evaluate the impact of HPV association on the concept of LNR.

Cascading host-associated genetic differentiation in parasitoids of phytophagous insects.

The extraordinary diversity of phytophagous insects may be attributable to their narrow specialization as parasites of plants, with selective tradeoffs associated with alternate host plants driving genetic divergence of host-associated forms via ecological speciation. Most phytophagous insects in turn are attacked by parasitoid insects, which are similarly specialized and may also undergo host-associated differentiation (HAD). A particularly interesting possibility is that HAD by phytophagous insects might lead to HAD in parasitoids, as parasitoids evolve divergent lineages on the new host plant-specific lineages of their phytophagous hosts.