Modulation of intracellular pH in human ovarian cancer.

To sustain tumor growth, the cancer cells need to adapt to low levels of oxygen (i.e., hypoxia) in the tumor tissue and to the tumor-associated acidic microenvironment.

The effect of vacuum frying on starch gelatinization and its in vitro digestibility in starch-gluten matrices.

Starch digestibility in a food matrix depends on processing conditions that may affect its physical state and microstructure. Starch gelatinization is one critical change that takes place during frying which could be affected during low-pressure processing. This study assessed the effect of vacuum frying on starch gelatinization and its in vitro digestibility.

A Hypothesis for the Role of RECK in Angiogenesis.

Angiogenesis is a key process by which new capillary blood vessels are formed, sustaining the supply of oxygen and other nutrients to the body allowing its growth and wound healing, among others. However, angiogenesis also associates with pathological processes, such us tumor growth. Vascular endothelial cells produce different matrix remodeling enzymes such as matrix metalloproteinases and a-disintegrin and metalloproteinases, which have both positive and negative effects on angiogenesis, regulating the cell environment and signaling.

Insulin receptor isoforms: an integrated view focused on gestational diabetes mellitus.

The human insulin receptor (IR) exists in two isoforms that differ by the absence (IR-A) or the presence (IR-B) of a 12-amino acid segment encoded by exon 11. Both isoforms are functionally distinct regarding their binding affinities and intracellular signalling. However, the underlying mechanisms related to their cellular functions in several tissues are only partially understood.

Smoking affects the oral glucose tolerance test profile and the relationship between glucose and HbA1c in gestational diabetes mellitus.

Aims: Current smokers in the general population have a lower 2 h plasma glucose after an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and a higher HbA1c than non-smokers, but the relationships between OGTT/HbA1c and smoking status have not been addressed in pregnancy. We analysed glycaemic measurements in women with gestational diabetes mellitus in relation to smoking status.

Methods: We performed a review of the prospectively collected database of the diabetes and pregnancy clinic.

When aging does not increase distraction: Evidence from pure auditory and visual oddball tasks.

Past research indicates that age increases deviance distraction in cross-modal oddball tasks, but results are few and less conclusive in purely auditory oddball tasks, with 3 studies not reporting age-related increase in deviance distraction against 1 that did (d = 1.04). This study aimed to (a) examine the effect of age on deviance distraction using the largest sample size to date to ensure adequate statistical power and (b) extend the study of same-modality deviance distraction to the visual modality.

Reorienting the mind: The impact of novel sounds on go/no-go performance.

The present study explores the link between attentional reorienting and response inhibition. Recent behavioral and neuroscience work indicates that both might rely on similar cognitive and neural mechanisms. We tested 2 popular accounts of the overlap: The "circuit breaker" account, which assumes that unexpected events produce global suppression of motor output, and the "stimulus detection" account, which assumes that attention is reoriented to unexpected events.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal lipid determination studies in pregnant women reveal an association between increased maternal LDL cholesterol concentrations and reduced human umbilical vein relaxation.

Introduction: Maternal hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia during pregnancy is correlated with fetoplacental endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerotic lesions in fetal arteries. Few studies have reported the distribution of the concentrations of maternal total cholesterol (TCh), lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides during pregnancy. Therefore, we determined maternal lipid concentration during pregnancy and established the percentiles over which fetoplacental endothelial dysfunction is observed.

Lifestyle change recommendations in major depression: Do they work?

Background: Modifying some lifestyle factors can be useful in depression, at least as an adjuvant treatment. Combining different lifestyle interventions seems to be an adequate strategy to increase their antidepressant efficacy according with preliminary studies, but this issue has not been enough investigated.

Methods: The present study is a randomized, double-blinded, multicentre, two arm-parallel clinical trials, with a 12 month follow-up.

Insulin reverses D-glucose-increased nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species generation in human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

Vascular tone is controlled by the L-arginine/nitric oxide (NO) pathway, and NO bioavailability is strongly affected by hyperglycaemia-induced oxidative stress. Insulin leads to high expression and activity of human cationic amino acid transporter 1 (hCAT-1), NO synthesis and vasodilation; thus, a protective role of insulin on high D-glucose-alterations in endothelial function is likely. Vascular reactivity to U46619 (thromboxane A2 mimetic) and calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP) was measured in KCl preconstricted human umbilical vein rings (wire myography) incubated in normal (5 mmol/L) or high (25 mmol/L) D-glucose.

Human supraphysiological gestational weight gain and fetoplacental vascular dysfunction.

Objective: Human foetal development and growth in an environment of maternal obesity associates with high risk of cardiovascular disease and adverse neonatal outcome. We studied whether supraphysiological gestational weight gain results in human fetoplacental endothelial dysfunction and altered fetoplacental vascular reactivity.

Methods: Primary cultures of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and umbilical vein rings were obtained from pregnant women (112 total of patients recruited, 7 patients dropped out) exhibiting prepregnancy normal weight that ended with a physiological (pGWG (n=67), total weight gain 11.

[Could infant euthanasia be ever acceptable?].

The recent enactment of a law that allows infant euthanasia in Belgium raises questions with varied answers. To contribute to a better understanding of the topic, euthanasia and legislation concepts are described. After a bioethical analysis, we propose as conclusion that children euthanasia could only be acceptable in very exceptional situations in which palliative measures have failed.

The proteomic 2D-DIGE approach reveals the protein voltage-dependent anion channel 2 as a potential therapeutic target in epithelial thyroid tumours.

We investigated the role of VDAC2 in human epithelial thyroid tumours using proteomic 2D-DIGE analysis and qRT-PCR. We found a significant up-regulation of VDAC2 in thyroid tumours and in thyroid tumour cell lines (TPC-1 and CAL-62). We did not detect overexpression of VDAC2 in a normal thyroid cell line (Nthy-ori 3-1).

Insulin therapy and fetoplacental vascular function in gestational diabetes mellitus.

What is the topic of this review? This review focuses on the effects of insulin therapy on fetoplacental vasculature in gestational diabetes mellitus and the potentiating effects of adenosine on this therapy. What advances does it highlight? This review highlights recent studies exploring a potential functional link between insulin receptors and their dependence on adenosine receptor activation (insulin-adenosine axis) to restore placental endothelial function in gestational diabetes mellitus. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a disease that occurs during pregnancy and is associated with maternal and fetal hyperglycaemia.

Insulin restores L-arginine transport requiring adenosine receptors activation in umbilical vein endothelium from late-onset preeclampsia.

Introduction: Preeclampsia is associated with impaired placental vasodilation and reduced endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activity in the foetoplacental circulation. Adenosine and insulin stimulate vasodilation in endothelial cells, and this activity is mediated by adenosine receptor activation in uncomplicated pregnancies; however, this activity has yet to be examined in preeclampsia. Early onset preeclampsia is associated with severe placental vasculature alterations that lead to altered foetus growth and development, but whether late-onset preeclampsia (LOPE) alters foetoplacental vascular function is unknown.

Insulin secretion in patients with latent autoimmune diabetes (LADA): half way between type 1 and type 2 diabetes: action LADA 9.

Background: The study of endogenous insulin secretion may provide relevant insight into the comparison of the natural history of adult onset latent autoimmune diabetes (LADA) with types 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to compare the results of the C-peptide response to mixed-meal stimulation in LADA patients with different disease durations and subjects with type 2 and adult-onset type 1 diabetes.

Methods: Stimulated C-peptide secretion was assessed using the mixed-meal tolerance test in patients with LADA (n = 32), type 1 diabetes mellitus (n = 33) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (n = 30).

Hypovitaminosis D in type 2 diabetes: relation with features of the metabolic syndrome and glycemic control.

Aim: To assess the association of hypovitaminosis D with clinical and biochemical characteristics of type 2 diabetic patients and to determine the effect of glycemic control optimization on 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of 63 patients with type 2 diabetes (mean age 60 ± 9.8 years, 69.

Efficacy of a brief multifactorial adherence-based intervention in reducing blood pressure: a randomized clinical trial.

Background: Lowering blood pressure (BP) by antihypertensive (AHT) drugs reduces the risks of cardiovascular events, stroke, and total mortality. However, poor adherence to AHT medications reduces their effectiveness and increases the risk of adverse events.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a multifactorial adherence-based intervention in a primary care setting in lowering BP.

Physicochemical assessment of dextran-g-poly (ɛ-caprolactone) micellar nanoaggregates as drug nanocarriers.

Self-assembling polymers in aqueous solution have attracted significant attention with recent research efforts focused on the development of new strategies to design devices useful in the field of controlled drug delivery. In this context, amphiphilic copolymers having specific structural features and self-assembling behaviors in aqueous media that would enable controlled drug release over longer time periods. In this work, we report on the synthesis and characterization of a Poly (ɛ-caprolactone)-grafted Dextran copolymer and its use in the preparation of micellar nanoaggregates.

Insulin requires normal expression and signaling of insulin receptor A to reverse gestational diabetes-reduced adenosine transport in human umbilical vein endothelium.

Reduced adenosine uptake via human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1) in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) from gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is reversed by insulin by restoring hENT1 expression. Insulin receptors A (IR-A) and B (IR-B) are expressed in HUVECs, and GDM results in higher IR-A mRNA expression vs. cells from normal pregnancies.

Distraction by deviance: comparing the effects of auditory and visual deviant stimuli on auditory and visual target processing.

We report the results of oddball experiments in which an irrelevant stimulus (standard, deviant) was presented before a target stimulus and the modality of these stimuli was manipulated orthogonally (visual/auditory). Experiment 1 showed that auditory deviants yielded distraction irrespective of the target's modality while visual deviants did not impact on performance. When participants were forced to attend the distractors in order to detect a rare target ("target-distractor"), auditory deviants yielded distraction irrespective of the target's modality and visual deviants yielded a small distraction effect when targets were auditory (Experiments 2 & 3).

Deforestation and benthic indicators: how much vegetation cover is needed to sustain healthy Andean streams?

Deforestation in the tropical Andes is affecting ecological conditions of streams, and determination of how much forest should be retained is a pressing task for conservation, restoration and management strategies. We calculated and analyzed eight benthic metrics (structural, compositional and water quality indices) and a physical-chemical composite index with gradients of vegetation cover to assess the effects of deforestation on macroinvertebrate communities and water quality of 23 streams in southern Ecuadorian Andes. Using a geographical information system (GIS), we quantified vegetation cover at three spatial scales: the entire catchment, the riparian buffer of 30 m width extending the entire stream length, and the local scale defined for a stream reach of 100 m in length and similar buffer width.

Is a low level of free thyroxine in the maternal circulation associated with altered endothelial function in gestational diabetes?

Synthesis of thyroid hormones, thyroxine (T4) and tri-iodothyronine (T3), in the human fetus starts from 17 to 19th weeks of gestation. Despite the majority of normal pregnant women reaching adequate levels of circulating thyroid hormones, in some cases, women with normal pregnancies have low level of free T4 during first trimester of pregnancy, suggesting that T4 action may be compromised in those women and their fetuses. In addition, pathological low levels of thyroid hormones are detected in isolated maternal hypothyroxemia (IMH) and clinical hypothyroidism.