Resuscitation of preterm infants with reduced oxygen results in less oxidative stress than resuscitation with 100% oxygen.

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of the level of inhaled oxygen during resuscitation on the levels of free radicals and anti-oxidative capacity in the heparinized venous blood of preterm infants. Forty four preterm infants <35 weeks of gestation with mild to moderate neonatal asphyxia were randomized into two groups. The first group of infants were resuscitated with 100% oxygen (100% O(2) group), while in the other group (reduced O(2) group), the oxygen concentration was titrated according to pulse oximeter readings.

Syntheses and doxorubicin-inclusion abilities of beta-cyclodextrin derivatives with a hydroquinone alpha-glycoside residue attached at the primary side.

This paper describes syntheses and doxorubicin-inclusion abilities of beta-cyclodextrin (CyD) derivatives with a hydroquinone alpha-glycoside residue attached at the primary side. The hydroquinone glycoside having an alpha-D-glucosidic or 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-alpha-D-glucosidic linkage became a useful component for providing an alpha-D-glucose- or 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-alpha-D-glucose-beta-CyD conjugate. The surface plasmon resonance analyses of these beta-CyD derivatives for the anticancer agent, doxorubicin, indicated that they had excellent inclusion associations on the order of 10(5 m)-1 for the immobilized doxorubicin.

Levels of catecholamines, arginine vasopressin and atrial natriuretic peptide in hypotensive extremely low birth weight infants in the first 24 hours after birth.

Background: Extremely low birth weight infants (ELBWI) often suffer from severe hypotension in the early neonatal period. However, few previous studies have ever revealed plasma levels of vasoactive substances which regulate the cardiovascular system in ELBWI.

Objective: To study plasma levels of vasoactive substances in ELBWI with hypotension during the first 24 h of life.

Syntaxin 2 and endobrevin are required for the terminal step of cytokinesis in mammalian cells.

The terminal step of cytokinesis in animal cells is the abscission of the midbody, a cytoplasmic bridge that connects the two prospective daughter cells. Here we show that two members of the SNARE membrane fusion machinery, syntaxin 2 and endobrevin/VAMP-8, specifically localize to the midbody during cytokinesis in mammalian cells. Inhibition of their function by overexpression of nonmembrane-anchored mutants causes failure of cytokinesis leading to the formation of binucleated cells.

Matrix metalloproteinase activity in urine of patients with renal cell carcinoma leads to degradation of extracellular matrix proteins: possible use as a screening assay.

Purpose: Localized renal cell carcinoma is usually curable by nephrectomy. However, a large fraction of patients already present with metastatic disease, which results in a poor outcome. Currently no clinically relevant screening assay is available to detect early stage renal cell carcinoma.

Retinal pigment epithelial cells exhibit unique expression and localization of plasma membrane syntaxins which may contribute to their trafficking phenotype.

The SNARE membrane fusion machinery controls the fusion of transport vesicles with the apical and basolateral plasma-membrane domains of epithelial cells and is implicated in the specificity of polarized trafficking. To test the hypothesis that differential expression and localization of SNAREs may be a mechanism that contributes to cell-type-specific polarity of different proteins, we studied the expression and distribution of plasma-membrane SNAREs in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), an epithelium in which the targeting and steady-state polarity of several plasma membrane proteins differs from most other epithelia. We show here that retinal pigment epithelial cells both in vitro and in vivo differ significantly from MDCK cells and other epithelial cells in their complement of expressed t-SNAREs that are known - or suggested - to be involved in plasma membrane trafficking.

SNARE expression and localization in renal epithelial cells suggest mechanism for variability of trafficking phenotypes.

The apical- and basolateral-specific distribution of target soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (t-SNAREs) of the syntaxin family appear to be critical for polarity in epithelial cells. To test whether differential SNARE expression and/or subcellular localization may contribute to the known diversity of trafficking phenotypes of epithelial cell types in vivo, we have investigated the distribution of syntaxins 2, 3, and 4 in epithelial cells along the renal tubule. Syntaxins 3 and 4 are restricted to the apical and basolateral domains, respectively, in all cell types, indicating that their mutually exclusive localizations are important for cell polarity.