Novel correlations between the genotype and the phenotype of hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy: results from the German Competence Network Heart Failure.

Aims: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) can both be due to mutations in the genes encoding β-myosin heavy chain (MYH7) or cardiac myosin-binding protein C (MYBPC3). The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence and spectrum of mutations in both genes in German HCM and DCM patients and to establish novel genotype-to-phenotype correlations.

Methods And Results: Coding exons and intron flanks of the two genes MYH7 and MYBPC3 of 236 patients with HCM and 652 patients with DCM were sequenced by conventional and array-based means.

Paclitaxel (Taxol)-induced apoptosis in human epithelioid sarcoma cell lines is enhanced by upregulation of CD95 ligand (FasL/Apo-1L).

Purpose: Metastasizing epithelioid sarcoma (ES) is an extremely aggressive tumor, because conventional chemotherapy and irradiation are largely ineffective. Here, we analyzed the impact of the CD95-mediated drug-induced apoptosis in ES cell lines.

Methods: The effects of paclitaxel (Taxol) and 5-FU were determined by MTT assay.