Epistatic interaction between TLR4 and NOD2 in patients with Crohn's Disease: relation with risk and phenotype in a Spanish cohort.

Crohn's Disease is one of the two major forms of the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and, although the etiology is not completely understood, the confluence of environmental and genetic factors has been demonstrated. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of TLR4 variants in a Spanish cohort of Crohn's Disease patients and their relation with phenotype and common NOD2 variants. A total of 371 Crohn's Disease (CD) patients and 636 healthy controls (HC) were included.

Modelling sustainable salt water management under deficit irrigation conditions for melon in Spain and Brazil.

Background: In water scarcity areas the use of saline water for irrigation is a common practice. In this study, experimental data from two two-year melon tests were collected for the calibration (2004 'Yellow Melon' (YeMe) type) and validation (2002 YeMe, 2005 and 2006 'Piel de Sapo' (PiSa) type) processes in melon crop simulation under deficit irrigation conditions using salt water. The simulations were carried out for Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) and Ceará (Brazil) using the MOPECO model, which includes optimized regulated deficit irrigation (ORDI) methodology.

Multiplexed methylation profiles of tumor suppressor genes in bladder cancer.

Changes in DNA methylation of tumor suppressors can occur early in carcinogenesis and are potentially important early indicators of cancer. The objective of this study was to assess the methylation of 25 tumor suppressor genes in bladder cancer using a methylation-specific (MS) multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification assay (MLPA). Initial analyses in bladder cancer cell lines (n = 14) and fresh-frozen primary bladder tumor specimens (n = 31) supported the panel of genes selected being altered in bladder cancer.