Cocreation with Dutch patients of decision-relevant information to support shared decision-making about adjuvant treatment in breast cancer care.

Background: To support patients in shared decision-making about treatment options, patient decision aids (PtDAs) usually provide benefit/harm information and value clarification methods (VCMs). Recently, personalized risk information from prediction models is also being integrated into PtDAs. This study aimed to design decision-relevant information (i.

Development and testing of a tailored online fertility preservation decision aid for female cancer patients.

Background: Decision making regarding future fertility can be very difficult for female cancer patients. To support patients in decision making, fertility preservation decision aids (DAs) are being developed. However, to make a well-informed decision, patients need personalized information tailored to their cancer type and treatment.

Myeloid Ezh2 Deficiency Limits Atherosclerosis Development.

Macrophages define a key component of immune cells present in atherosclerotic lesions and are central regulators of the disease. Since epigenetic processes are important in controlling macrophage function, interfering with epigenetic pathways in macrophages might be a novel approach to combat atherosclerosis. Histone H3K27 trimethylation is a repressive histone mark catalyzed by polycomb repressive complex with EZH2 as the catalytic subunit.

Myeloid Kdm6b deficiency results in advanced atherosclerosis.

Background And Aims: Atherosclerosis is a lipid-driven chronic inflammatory disorder of the arteries, and monocytes and macrophages play a central role in this process. Within the atherosclerotic lesion, macrophages can scavenge modified lipids and become the so-called foam cells. We previously reported that the epigenetic enzyme Kdm6b (also known as Jmjd3) controls the pro-fibrotic transcriptional profile of peritoneal foam cells.

Mitochondrial Dysfunction Prevents Repolarization of Inflammatory Macrophages.

Macrophages are innate immune cells that adopt diverse activation states in response to their microenvironment. Editing macrophage activation to dampen inflammatory diseases by promoting the repolarization of inflammatory (M1) macrophages to anti-inflammatory (M2) macrophages is of high interest. Here, we find that mouse and human M1 macrophages fail to convert into M2 cells upon IL-4 exposure in vitro and in vivo.

Deleting myeloid IL-10 receptor signalling attenuates atherosclerosis in LDLR-/- mice by altering intestinal cholesterol fluxes.

Inflammatory responses and cholesterol homeostasis are interconnected in atherogenesis. Interleukin (IL)-10 is an important anti-inflammatory cytokine, known to suppress atherosclerosis development. However, the specific cell types responsible for the atheroprotective effects of IL-10 remain to be defined and knowledge on the actions of IL-10 in cholesterol homeostasis is scarce.

Myeloid interferon-γ receptor deficiency does not affect atherosclerosis in LDLR(-/-) mice.

Background And Aims: Atherosclerosis is a chronic lipid-driven inflammatory disease of the arterial wall. Interferon gamma (IFNγ) is an important immunomodulatory cytokine and a known pro-atherosclerotic mediator. However, cell-specific targeting of IFNγ or its signaling in atherosclerosis development has not been studied yet.

Interferon-β promotes macrophage foam cell formation by altering both cholesterol influx and efflux mechanisms.

Foam cell formation is a crucial event in atherogenesis. While interferon-β (IFNβ) is known to promote atherosclerosis in mice, studies on the role of IFNβ on foam cell formation are minimal and conflicting. We therefore extended these studies using both in vitro and in vivo approaches and examined IFNβ's function in macrophage foam cell formation.

Interferons as Essential Modulators of Atherosclerosis.

Interferons (IFNs) are key regulators of both innate and adaptive immune responses. The family of IFN cytokines can be divided into 3 main subtypes of which type I and type II IFNs are most well-defined. IFNs are known to be important mediators in atherosclerosis.

IFN-γ priming of macrophages represses a part of the inflammatory program and attenuates neutrophil recruitment.

Macrophages form a heterogeneous population of immune cells, which is critical for both the initiation and resolution of inflammation. They can be skewed to a proinflammatory subtype by the Th1 cytokine IFN-γ and further activated with TLR triggers, such as LPS. In this work, we investigated the effects of IFN-γ priming on LPS-induced gene expression in primary mouse macrophages.

Inhibiting epigenetic enzymes to improve atherogenic macrophage functions.

Macrophages determine the outcome of atherosclerosis by propagating inflammatory responses, foam cell formation and eventually necrotic core development. Yet, the pathways that regulate their atherogenic functions remain ill-defined. It is now apparent that chromatin remodeling chromatin modifying enzymes (CME) governs immune responses but it remains unclear to what extent they control atherogenic macrophage functions.

Mifepristone treatment affects the response to repeated amphetamine injections, but does not attenuate the expression of sensitization.

Unlabelled: Rationale Glucocorticoid hormones facilitate sensitization to repeated administration of psychostimulants, an effect that is mediated by glucocorticoid receptors (GRs). It is still unclear, however, at which stage of psychomotor sensitization are stress and GR-mediated effects involved.

Objectives: In the present study, we have tested the hypothesis that GR-mediated effects during the phase of repeated amphetamine injections play a crucial role in the long-term expression of sensitization.