Adhesion molecule P-selectin and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 in enhanced heart allograft arteriosclerosis in the rat.

Background: The increase of P-selectin on endothelial cells (EC) overlying human atherosclerotic plaques in classic atherosclerosis was recently established. We have previously shown that vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is extensively expressed on EC of occluded arteries during accelerated transplant arteriosclerosis. In the present study, with the use of rat heart allografts under different doses of cyclosporine A (CsA), we investigated whether the expression of P-selectin is increased during chronic rejection and possibly coexpressed with VCAM-1 on EC.

A dose-dependent inhibitory effect of cyclosporine A on obliterative bronchiolitis of rat tracheal allografts.

Inbred DA and WF rats were used as donors and recipients of heterotopic tracheal allografts. To investigate cellular and molecular mechanisms as well as inhibitory effects of differently acting immunosuppressive drugs on the development of obliterative bronchiolitis (OB), the recipient rats received either cyclosporine A (CsA; 1, 2, or 5 mg/kg/d), 15-deoxyspergualin (DSG; 1 or 2 mg/kg/d), or mycophenolate mofetil (MMF; 20 or 40 mg/kg/d), or were left without immunosuppression. The grafts were removed at various time points for histology and immunohistochemistry.

Cytomegalovirus infection associated accelerated heart allograft arteriosclerosis may impair the late function of the graft.

Cardiac allograft arteriosclerosis is the most important limiting factor of long-term survival of heart transplant recipients. Several clinical studies have suggested the association between CMV infection and heart allograft arteriosclerosis, chronic rejection. To determine the temporal impact of CMV infection on the development of heart allograft arteriosclerosis we quantitated coronary angiograms obtained from 72 heart transplant recipients followed for 1-6 yr post-transplantation.

Blood ketone bodies in congestive heart failure.

Objectives: The present study was designed to assess whether blood ketone bodies are elevated in congestive heart failure (CHF) and whether ketonemia is related to the hemodynamic and neurohumoral abnormalities of CHF.

Background: In CHF, consumption of the body's fat stores may become abnormally high, contributing to the development of cardiac cachexia. Increased mobilization of free fatty acids could, in theory, augment ketogenesis, but whether patients with CHF are prone to ketosis remains unknown.

Cytomegalovirus infection-enhanced chronic kidney allograft rejection is linked with intercellular adhesion molecule-1 expression.

In human kidney allografts, association of acute rejection and glomerulopathy with cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection has been demonstrated. To investigate the effect of CMV infection on the development of experimental chronic kidney allograft rejection, heterotopic kidney allografts from DA (Ag-B4, RT1a1) rat donors to WF (Ag-B2, RT1u) rat recipients were used. The animals received cyclosporine A (CsA) 5 mg/kg/day s.

Biochemical and clinical assessment of histamine blockade.

The effects of antihistamines on biochemical stress indicators and on psychomotor and physiological functions were studied in 60 healthy patients receiving in a randomized, double-blind study either 25 mg promethazine, 150 mg ranitidine, both drugs or placebo (n = 15 in each group). Different aspects of the premedications were evaluated by determining various hormone, neurotransmitter and neurotransmitter metabolite levels in blood and cerebrospinal fluid, and subjectively using questionnaires concerning the quality of the preoperative night's sleep and visual analogue scales, and objectively by measuring changes in blood pressure and heart rate, impairment of vigilance with the Maddox wing apparatus and the critical flicker fusion threshold test. The relationships between the subjective assessments and the biochemical stress indicators were also investigated.

Acute heavy alcohol intake increases silent myocardial ischaemia in patients with stable angina pectoris.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of acute alcohol ingestion on myocardial ischaemia in patients with coronary heart disease and stable angina.

Design: Randomised crossover study using fruit juice with and without ethanol.

Setting: Division of cardiology in a university hospital.

Chronic rejection.

The pathogenesis of chronic rejection is a complex network of immunological, metabolic and haemodynamic events leading to a cascade of cellular and molecular events with a subsequent remodelling of the graft. Evidence suggests that the frequency and intensity of acute rejection episodes strongly correlate with graft loss as a result of chronic rejection. The most characteristic feature of chronic rejection, shared by all organs, is concentric generalized arteriosclerosis with low-grade perivasculitis affecting all intragraft arteries of the transplant.

Evolution of heart rate variability in cardiac transplant recipients: a clinical study.

Objectives: To investigate in cardiac transplant patients whether post-transplantation time, graft arteriosclerosis, allograft rejection, or earlier cytomegalovirus infection affect the neural regulatory mechanisms of the donor heart.

Design: A consecutive series of heart transplant patients during a 12-month period.

Setting: A university hospital in Finland.

Triple drug immunosuppression significantly reduces aortic allograft arteriosclerosis in the rat.

We evaluated the effect of triple drug immunosuppression (cyclosporine A 10 mg . kg(-1) . d(-1), methylprednisolone 0.

Optimal use of hormone determinations in the biochemical diagnosis of the polycystic ovary syndrome.

Objective: To investigate, using logistic regression analysis and receiver operator characteristic analysis, the biochemical diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and if it could be improved by using an array of hormone measurements chosen to yield optimal and cost-effective discrimination between women with PCOS and healthy women.

Design: Retrospective clinical study.

Setting: Outpatient clinic of reproductive endocrinology at Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, Finland.

Immunohistochemical labelling for prostate specific antigen in non-prostatic tissues.

Immunohistochemical detection of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in metastases of adenocarcinomas is widely used as an aid to identify the prostatic origin of metastatic cells. However, on the one hand, PSA may not be expressed in some poorly differentiated prostatic carcinomas, while on the other, PSA immunoreactivity has been found in small amounts in non-prostatic tissues. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the prevalence of PSA immunoreactivity in normal non-prostatic tissues and in breast carcinoma.

Cytomegalovirus infection accelerates obliterative bronchiolitis of rat tracheal allografts.

A cascade of inflammation and injury of the airway wall followed by a fibroproliferative process that results in airway obstruction has been suggested as the explanation of the process of obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) in lung allograft recipients. To determine the impact of rat cytomegalovirus (RCMV) infection on the development of OB, heterotopic rat tracheal allografts were transplanted from DA donors to WF recipients immunosuppressed with 2 mg/kg per day cyclosporine A. Chronic RCMV infection was similarly established 8 weeks before transplantation in donors alone (D+/R-), recipients alone (D-/R+), and both donors and recipients (D+/R+).

Rat cytomegalovirus infection and chronic kidney allograft rejection.

To investigate the effect of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection on the development of experimental chronic kidney allograft rejection, orthotopic kidney allografts from DA donors (Ag-B4, RT1a1) to WF (Ag-B2, RT1u) recipients were used. The rats received cyclosporine A (CsA) for 12 weeks. A group of recipients was infected with 10(5) plaque-forming units of rat CMV (RCMV), and another group was left non-infected and used as controls.

Serum free testosterone in polycystic ovary syndrome measured with a new reference method.

Objective: To quantify the actual serum free T with a specific new reference method in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and to analyze the effects of serum free T, total T, and the T:sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) ratio on the diagnosis of PCOS.

Setting: Outpatient clinic of reproductive endocrinology at Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, Finland.

Patients: Forty-four oligomenorrheic women with PCOS and 26 weight-matched control women with regular menstrual cycles.

Molecular mechanisms of chronic renal allograft rejection.

The etiology of chronic rejection is most likely multifactorial. Taking into account the two major histological manifestations of chronic rejection--inflammation and arteriosclerosis--we have formulated the following working hypothesis: the immune response characterized by the perivascular inflammation induces a persistent low-grade damage to vascular endothelium, which in turn begins to secrete growth factors to repair the damage. This results in smooth muscle cell replication in the vascular wall and the influx of myocytes from the media into the intima and generation of an arteriosclerotic lesion, and in glomeruli mesangial cell proliferation and glomerular sclerosis.

Mad3 and Mad4: novel Max-interacting transcriptional repressors that suppress c-myc dependent transformation and are expressed during neural and epidermal differentiation.

The basic helix-loop-helix-leucine zipper (bHLHZip) protein Max associates with members of the Myc family, as well as with the related proteins Mad (Mad1) and Mxi1. Whereas both Myc:Max and Mad:Max heterodimers bind related E-box sequences, Myc:Max activates transcription and promotes proliferation while Mad:Max represses transcription and suppresses Myc dependent transformation. Here we report the identification and characterization of two novel Mad1- and Mxi1-related proteins, Mad3 and Mad4.

Cytomegalovirus antigen expression, endothelial cell proliferation, and intimal thickening in rat cardiac allografts after cytomegalovirus infection.

Background: Cardiac allograft arteriosclerosis is the primary cause of late death in heart transplant recipients. Clinical studies have suggested that humoral and cellular immune response, hyperlipidemia, and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection may amplify the disease. In this study, the role of CMV infection in the development of rat cardiac allograft arteriosclerosis is investigated.

Elevated serum total renin is insensitive in detecting incipient diabetic nephropathy.

Objective: To assess the influence of incipient diabetic nephropathy on the levels of total renin in serum.

Research Design And Methods: Fifty-five adult patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) were examined in a cross-sectional study. The main outcome measures were serum total renin concentration and urinary albumin excretion rate.

Heart rate and blood pressure variability and baroreflex sensitivity in hypercholesterolaemia.

To evaluate cardiovascular autonomic function in hypercholesterolaemia, we studied 16 age-matched pairs of healthy males with elevated serum cholesterol and normocholesterolaemic control subjects (altogether 37 men, aged 27-56 years). We used power spectral analysis to measure short-term heart rate and blood pressure variability, and the phenylephrine method to determine baroreceptor reflex sensitivity. The mean (SD) serum cholesterol concentration was 6.