Clinical use of Capilen, a liposomal cream based on fresh plant extracts enriched with omega fatty acids.

The skin is the largest organ in the human body; beyond its regulatory and sensory roles, it is meant to protect and act like a barrier against foreign matter. Products intended to restore the skin health should reintegrate the structure of the stratum corneum in which the corneocytes are surrounded by the intercellular lipid lamellae that maintain both corneum integrity and skin permeability barrier. Capilen is a specific liposomal formulation based on a technology through which highly concentrated fresh plant extracts are conveyed into a jelly-like liposomal vehicle and combined with plant-derived omega-3, -6, -7, and -9 fatty acids, phospholipids, and precursors of ceramides.

A sociotechnical model of the flight crew task.

Objective: The objective of this research was to advance an improved model of Flight Crew task performance.

Background: Existing task models present a "local" description of Flight Crew task performance.

Method: Process mapping workshops, interviews, and observations were conducted with both pilots and flight operations personnel from five airlines, as part of the Human Integration into the Lifecycle of Aviation Systems (HILAS) project.

Fractals in the Neurosciences, Part I: General Principles and Basic Neurosciences.

The natural complexity of the brain, its hierarchical structure, and the sophisticated topological architecture of the neurons organized in micronetworks and macronetworks are all factors contributing to the limits of the application of Euclidean geometry and linear dynamics to the neurosciences. The introduction of fractal geometry for the quantitative analysis and description of the geometric complexity of natural systems has been a major paradigm shift in the last decades. Nowadays, modern neurosciences admit the prevalence of fractal properties such as self-similarity in the brain at various levels of observation, from the microscale to the macroscale, in molecular, anatomic, functional, and pathological perspectives.

The advancement of a new human factors report--'The Unique Report'--facilitating flight crew auditing of performance/operations as part of an airline's safety management system.

This paper presents the findings of research relating to the specification of a new human factors report, conducted as part of the work requirements for the Human Integration into the Lifecycle of Aviation Systems project, sponsored by the European Commission. Specifically, it describes the proposed concept for a unique report, which will form the basis for all operational and safety reports completed by flight crew. This includes all mandatory and optional reports.

The fractal geometry of life.

The extension of the concepts of Fractal Geometry (Mandelbrot [1983]) toward the life sciences has led to significant progress in understanding complex functional properties and architectural / morphological / structural features characterising cells and tissues during ontogenesis and both normal and pathological development processes. It has even been argued that fractal geometry could provide a coherent description of the design principles underlying living organisms (Weibel [1991]). Fractals fulfil a certain number of theoretical and methodological criteria including a high level of organization, shape irregularity, functional and morphological self-similarity, scale invariance, iterative pathways and a peculiar non-integer fractal dimension [FD].

Nuclear patterns of human breast cancer cells during apoptosis: characterisation by fractal dimension and co-occurrence matrix statistics.

An analytical strategy combining fractal geometry and grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) statistics was devised to investigate ultrastructural changes in oestrogen-insensitive SK-BR3 human breast cancer cells undergoing apoptosis in vitro. Apoptosis was induced by 1 microM calcimycin (A23187 Ca(2+) ionophore) and assessed by measuring conventional cellular parameters during the culture period. SK-BR3 cells entered the early stage of apoptosis within 24 h of treatment with calcimycin, which induced detectable changes in nuclear components, as documented by increased values of most GLCM parameters and by the general reduction of the fractal dimensions.

Fractal organization of feline oocyte cytoplasm.

The present study aimed at verifying whether immature cat oocytes with morphologic irregular cytoplasm display self-similar features which can be analytically described by fractal analysis. Original images of oocytes collected by ovariectomy were acquired at a final magnification of 400x with a CCD video camera connected to an optic microscope. After greyscale thresholding segmentation of cytoplasm, image profiles were submitted to fractal analysis using FANAL++, a program which provided an analytical standard procedure for determining the fractal dimension (FD).

Apoptosis and oxidative status in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of diabetic patients.

We have compared the concentrations of intracellular glutathione (GSH), glutathione-dependent antioxidative enzymes, the cell death rate and immunophenotype profile of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy donors and from patients with insulin-dependent type II (NIDDM) diabetes mellitus. The IDDM and NIDDM patients had above-normal absolute lymphocyte counts, whereas the percentages of CD3, CD4 adn CD8 T lymphocytes were significantly reduced. In contrast, the absolute number and percentage of B lymphocytes was higher in diabetic patients than in healthy donors.

Calcium Dobesilate protects human peripheral blood mononuclear cells from oxidation and apoptosis.

The antioxidant effects of Calcium Dobesilate (CD, Doxium) were investigated in relation to the oxidative status, apoptosis and in vitro proliferation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) isolated from healthy donors. CD alone did not modify cell growth in vitrountil 10 microM. This molecule counteracted oxidative damages generated by the high reducing sugar dR and was shown to reduce apoptosis by delaying both membrane permeability changes and DNA fragmentation.

Resveratrol modulates apoptosis and oxidation in human blood mononuclear cells.

Background: We examined the effect of resveratrol (RS), a nonflavonoid polyphenolic phytoalexin found in grapes and red wine, and RS coincubated with the oxidant 2-deoxy-D-ribose (dR), on apoptosis and on the oxidative metabolic status of normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) isolated ex vivo from healthy donors.

Material And Methods: Apoptosis was measured by changes of membrane permeability to propidium iodide (PI), plasma membrane exposure of phosphatidylserine (PS) and intracellular caspase activity. Oxidative status was assessed by recording the intracellular glutathione concentration (GSH), the activities of the enzymes y-glutamyltransferase (y-GT) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST), and intracellular lipid peroxidation (MDA).

Fractal morphometry of cell complexity.

Irregularity and self-similarity under scale changes are the main attributes of the morphological complexity of both normal and abnormal cells and tissues. In other words, the shape of a self-similar object does not change when the scale of measurement changes, because each part of it looks similar to the original object. However, the size and geometrical parameters of an irregular object do differ when it is examined at increasing resolution, which reveals more details.

Ultrastructural complexity of nuclear components during early apoptotic phases in breast cancer cells.

Fractal morphometry was used to investigate the ultrastructural features of the plasma membrane, perinuclear membrane and nuclear chromatin in SK-BR-3 human breast cancer cells undergoing apoptosis. Cells were incubated with 1 microM calcimycin (A23187) for 24 h. Cells in the early stage of apoptosis had fractal dimension (FD) values indicating that their plasma membranes were less rough (lower FD) than those of control cells, while their perinuclear membranes were unaffected.

Spontaneous apoptosis, oxidative status and immunophenotype markers in blood lymphocytes of AIDS patients.

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 251 HIV-positive drug abusers of known clinical stage and from 40 healthy donors were tested for conventional immunologic markers (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19, CD14, CD16/CD56, CD45 and HLA-DR). Additional cell parameters and the occurrence of spontaneous apoptosis (programmed cell death) were investigated on freshly isolated PBMC by flow cytometric measurement of either annexin-V bound to plasma membrane phosphatidylserine or propidium iodide uptake. The activity of gamma-glutamyltransferase (gamma-GT), an ectoenzyme contributing to the synthesis of the intracellular antioxidant glutathione (GSH) and involved in early apoptosis, was also determined in these cells.

Effects of steroid hormones on nuclear membrane and membrane-bound heterochromatin from breast cancer cells evaluated by fractal morphometry.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of steroid hormones on the ultrastructure of nuclear heterochromatin and perinuclear membranes in human MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

Study Design: MCF-7 cells were cultured briefly (five minutes) in the presence of 10(-9) M estrogen 17 beta-estradiol, a stimulator of cell proliferation and/or 10(-9) M glucocorticoid dexamethasone. Changes in the morphologic complexity of nuclear membrane-bound heterochromatin (NMBHC) and nuclear membranes (ENM) were assessed by means of the fractal capacity dimension, D, a noneuclidean geometric descriptor of complex, irregular bodies.

Prevention of Oxidation and Apoptosis in Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Exposed to Calcium Dobesilate.

The antioxidant effects of calcium dobesilate (CD) (Doxium(R)) were investigated in relation to the oxidative status, apoptosis, and in vitro proliferation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) isolated from healthy donors. Calcium dobesilate alone did not modify cell growth in vitro until it reached 10 µM. This molecule counteracted oxidative damage generated by the highly reducing sugar 2-deoxy-D-ribose (dR) and was shown to reduce apoptosis by delaying both membrane permeability changes and DNA fragmentation.

Steroid hormones modify nuclear heterochromatin structure and plasma membrane enzyme of MCF-7 cells. A combined fractal, electron microscopical and enzymatic analysis.

Ultrastructural features of the nuclear membrane envelope (ENM) and the nuclear membrane-bound heterochromatin (NMBHC) were investigated in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells by fractal morphometry. The fractal dimension D established by the box counting method proved to be effective for quantifying nuclear changes in MCF-7 cells treated with steroid hormones, namely the estrogen 17 beta-estradiol, which stimulates cell proliferation, and the glucocorticoid dexamethasone. When MCF-7 cells were briefly (5 min) cultured in the presence of 17 beta-estradiol (10(-9) M), the irregularity of the NMBHC outline was increased as documented by the increased fractal dimension D.

Apoptotic cell death and the proliferative capacity of human breast cancers.

The proliferative capacity (%S-phase fraction), DNA ploidy, apoptosis frequency (DNA fragmentation) and steroid hormone receptor status (estrogen receptor, ER; progesterone receptor, PR) of 110 samples of human breast tissues with ductal invasive carcinoma were measured using biochemical and cytofluorimetric procedures. The DNA fragmentation had a left-skewed frequency distribution and an overall median value of 1.64%, whilst the median %S-phase fraction was 8%.

Treatment of fallopian tube carcinoma with cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, and cisplatin.

Primary carcinoma of the fallopian tube is uncommon; optimal primary treatment is still not well defined, and little information is available about the efficacy of cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy. Thirty-eight patients with fallopian tube carcinoma were treated with cyclophosphamide (500 mg/m2), Adriamycin (50 mg/m2), and cisplatin (50 mg/m2) (CAP). Thirty-two patients received the combination chemotherapy as first-line treatment after cytoreductive surgery, whereas six subjects were treated for recurrent disease.

Endometrial stromal sarcoma: analysis of treatment failures and survival.

The objective of this retrospective multicenter study was to assess the rates, times, and sites of recurrences of 26 patients with low-grade endometrial stromal sarcomas (ESS) (<10 mitoses per 10 high-power fields (HPF) and 40 patients with high-grade ESS (>10 mitoses/10 HPF). Surgery was the initial therapy for all patients. Postoperative treatment was given without well-defined protocols.

Phase II study of paclitaxel as salvage treatment in advanced endometrial cancer.

Objective: To evaluate the antitumour activity of paclitaxel in patients with endometrial cancer pretreated with cisplatin, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (PAC).

Materials And Methods: Eligible patients had complete initial surgery, expected survival > or = 3 months, performance status < or = 1, measurable or evaluable disease. Paclitaxel was given over three hours at the dose of 175 mg/m2, repeated every 3 weeks.

Interferon-beta can induce progesterone receptors in human endometrial adenocarcinoma.

Background: The induction of estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER and PGR) has been reported in breast and endometrial cancer cells exposed to human fibroblast interferon-beta (hIFN-beta). Clinical verification of this finding might provide the rationale for new therapeutic approaches. This study was designed to evaluate whether clinical treatment with high doses of hIFN-beta induced ER and PGR in patients with endometrial adenocarcinoma.

Brain metastases from endometrial carcinoma.

Central nervous system (CNS) involvement by endometrial carcinoma is uncommon. Among 1069 patients registered for endometrial carcinoma at our institution between 1982 and 1994, 10 (0,9%) developed brain metastases. Median age at the time of CNS metastasis diagnosis was 59 years.

Self-similarity and fractal irregularity in pathologic tissues.

The irregularity and self-similarity under scale changes are the main attributes of the morphologic complexity of cells and tissues, either normal or pathologic. In other words, the shape of a self-similar object does not change when scales of measure change because any part of it might be similar to the original object. Size and geometric parameters of an irregular object, however, differ when inspected at increasing resolution, which reveals more details.