Serial Vascular Responses of Balloon-Expandable Stent With Biodegradable Film-Type Graft in a Rabbit Iliac Artery Dissection Model (BioGard Study).

Background And Objectives: Arterial dissection during endovascular therapy rarely occurs but can be lethal. A fabric-based covered graft stents yield poor clinical outcomes. A novel balloon-expandable stent with biodegradable film graft for overcoming these issues was evaluated in a rabbit iliac artery model.

KRAS and PIK3CA mutations in colorectal adenocarcinomas correlate with aggressive histological features and behavior.

Tumor budding (TB) in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is related to epithelial-mesenchymal transition and has been recently characterized as an indicator of poor prognosis along with lymphovascular tumor emboli, perineural invasion, and an infiltrative growth pattern. Mutations in the genes of the Ras-mitogen-activated protein kinase and phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase pathways are associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition and an aggressive CRC phenotype and have been used in patient stratification for anti-epidermal growth factor receptor therapies; however, the impact of these mutations on CRC morphology and behavior remains unclear. In this study, using a multigene panel, we detected KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, PIK3CA, TP53, and POLE mutations in 90 CRCs and investigated their associations with clinicopathological parameters, including TB.

Clinical Evaluation of Rapid Diagnostic Test Kit for Scrub Typhus with Improved Performance.

Diagnosis of scrub typhus is challenging due to its more than twenty serotypes and the similar clinical symptoms with other acute febrile illnesses including leptospirosis, murine typhus and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Accuracy and rapidity of a diagnostic test to Orientia tsutsugamushi is an important step to diagnose this disease. To discriminate scrub typhus from other diseases, the improved ImmuneMed Scrub Typhus Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) was evaluated in Korea and Sri Lanka.

The effect of depression on serum VEGF level in Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: Growing evidence suggests that angiogenesis might represent a new pathogenic mechanism involved in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Among angiogenic cytokines, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in AD patients have been evaluated, but the results are controversial among studies. We investigated serum levels of VEGF in AD patients with depression, AD patients without depression, and the controls, respectively.

Therapeutic effect of a TM4SF5-specific monoclonal antibody against colon cancer in a mouse model.

Transmembrane 4 superfamily member 5 protein (TM4SF5) is presumed to serve as a molecular target to prevent or treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and colon cancer in a mouse model. Previously, we reported the efficacy of anti-cancer peptide vaccine targeting TM4SF5. In addition, we reported an anti-proliferative effect of anti-TM4SF5 monoclonal antibody in HCC.

Monoclonal antibody targeting of the cell surface molecule TM4SF5 inhibits the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma.

The cell surface transmembrane receptor TM4SF5 has been implicated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but its candidacy as a therapeutic target has not been evaluated. Building on findings that immunization with a peptide vaccine targeting human TM4SF5 can exert prophylactic and therapeutic effects in a murine model of HCC, we developed a monoclonal antibody to characterize expression of TM4SF5 in HCC and to target its function there as an anticancer strategy. We found that the antibody modulated cell signaling in HCC cells in vitro, reducing cell motility, modulating E-cadherin expression, altering p27(kip1) localization, and increasing RhoA activity.

Prevention and therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma by vaccination with TM4SF5 epitope-CpG-DNA-liposome complex without carriers.

Although peptide vaccines have been actively studied in various animal models, their efficacy in treatment is limited. To improve the efficacy of peptide vaccines, we previously formulated an efficacious peptide vaccine without carriers using the natural phosphodiester bond CpG-DNA and a special liposome complex (Lipoplex(O)). Here, we show that immunization of mice with a complex consisting of peptide and Lipoplex(O) without carriers significantly induces peptide-specific IgG2a production in a CD4(+) cells- and Th1 differentiation-dependent manner.

Decrease in dystrophin expression prior to disruption of brain-blood barrier within the rat piriform cortex following status epilepticus.

Increased permeability of the brain-blood barrier (BBB) in the piriform cortex (PC) has been reported in various animal models of temporal lobe epilepsy. Since BBB disruption induced by epileptogenic insult has not fully clarified, we attempted to determine whether changes in BBB-related molecules are associated with vasogenic edema in the PC. One day after status epilepticus (SE), PC neurons and astrocytes showed a pyknotic nucleus and shrunken cytoplasm accompanied by vasogenic edema.

Involvement of peptidylarginine deiminase-mediated post-translational citrullination in pathogenesis of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs)-mediated post-translational citrullination processes play key roles in protein functions and structural stability through the conversion of arginine to citrulline in the presence of excessive calcium concentrations. In brain, PAD2 is abundantly expressed and can be involved in citrullination in disease. Recently, we have reported pathological characterization of PAD2 and citrullinated proteins in scrapie-infected mice, but the implication of protein citrullination in the pathophysiology in human prion disease is not clear.

Enhanced glial fibrillary acidic protein-delta expression in human astrocytic tumor.

Astrocytic tumor is one of the most common primary tumors of the adult brain. Although there are several biochemical markers for the categorization of astrocytic tumor, few markers are used for histopathological diagnosis. Therefore, we evaluated glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-delta, a product of alternative splicing variants of GFAP-alpha, as a diagnostic marker.

Spatiotemporal characteristics of astroglial death in the rat hippocampo-entorhinal complex following pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus.

Recently we reported that astroglial loss and subsequent gliogenesis in the dentate gyrus play a role in epileptogenesis following pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (SE). In the present study we investigated whether astroglial damages in the hippocampo-entorhinal complex following SE are relevant to pathological or electrophysiological properties of temporal lobe epilepsy. Astroglial loss/damage was observed in the entorhinal cortex and the CA1 region at 4 weeks and 8 weeks after SE, respectively.

Clinical manifestations of cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation.

To explore the clinical effects of inflammation associated with vascular deposits of the amyloid beta peptide (A beta), we analyzed 42 consecutive patients with pathologically diagnosed cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) for evidence of an inflammatory response. Inflammation with giant-cell reaction surrounding amyloid-laden vessels was identified in 7 of the 42 cases. The clinical symptoms in each of the seven were subacute cognitive decline or seizure rather than hemorrhagic stroke, the primary clinical presentation in 33 of 35 patients with noninflammatory CAA (p < 0.