Instrumentation for Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography.

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a molecular imaging modality that provides information at the molecular level. This system is composed of radiation detectors to detect incoming coincident annihilation gamma photons emitted from the radiopharmaceutical injected into a patient's body and uses these data to reconstruct images. A major trend in PET instrumentation is the development of time-of-flight positron emission tomography (ToF-PET).

Emodin inhibits TNF alpha-induced MMP-1 expression through suppression of activator protein-1 (AP-1).

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are the proteases involved in the degradation of the extracellular matrix. MMP-1 is thought to be one of the key enzymes acting in fibrolysis, a process closely related to tissue remodeling. In this study, we found that emodin, an anthraquinone which has been isolated from the rhizome of Rheum palmatum, significantly inhibited TNF alpha-induced MMP-1 gene expression in a concentration-dependent manner.