Prenatal detection by subtelomeric FISH and MLPA of unbalanced meiotic recombinants resulting from parental pericentric inversions.

Objective: Pericentric inversion carriers are predisposed to produce unbalanced gametes that result in conceptuses having either a partial trisomy for one distal segment and a partial monosomy for the other or vice versa. Larger inversions result in smaller unbalanced distal segments and a higher likelihood of a viable fetus. In these cases the structure of the recombinant chromosome is similar to the original balanced inverted or normal ones despite the (unbalanced) genetic content.

Occurrence of diffuse, poorly differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma during pegylated interferon plus ribavirin combination therapy for chronic hepatitis C.

Interferon therapy is indicated for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C and prevention of hepatocellular carcinoma. We describe the case of a 66-year-old Italian woman who received pegylated interferon alpha-2a plus ribavirin combined therapy for HCV-related chronic liver disease. Preliminary hematochemical, ultrasound and bioptic investigations did not show liver cirrhosis or hepatocarcinoma.

[Geographical analysis of mortality in a municipality of the Veneto region, where a landfill is located, and the surrounding area. Years 1995-2003].

Objective: the study explores whether a potential source of environmental pollution (a dumping ground with different kinds of waste, in Spinea, an area adjacent to Venice, population 25,000) could have led to an excess of mortality from certain pathologies, and in particular some cancers which have been reported to be associated to the presence of dumping grounds. Besides traditional estimation techniques, Bayesian estimators (BMR) have been used, which--if based on appropriate statistical analysis techniques--allow to consider the spatial dependence of the data. The smoothed geographical distribution of mortality in the area surrounding the pollution source is then represented as a map and the presence of particular mortality patterns is verified.

Reliability of transient elastography for the diagnosis of advanced fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C.

Background: Transient elastography (TE) has received increasing attention as a means to evaluate disease progression in patients with chronic liver disease.

Aim: To assess the value of TE for predicting the stage of fibrosis.

Methods: Liver biopsy and TE were performed in 150 consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis C-related hepatitis (92 men and 58 women, age 50.

Nephrectomy modifies renal angiotensin II effects in kidney donors.

Background: Age, gender, menopausal status, a family history of hypertension, and renal vascular response to angiotensin II are involved in the progression of renal failure from its very beginning.

Methods: In order to investigate their importance on this progression, we measured effective renal plasma flow (ERPF) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR), and calculated glomerular pressure (Pglo) and afferent and efferent arteriole resistances (by means of Gomez formulae) in 26 normotensive kidney donors before and after nephrectomy.

Results: Renal reactivity to angiotensin was the only variable that affected changes in renal and glomerular hemodynamics after the loss of renal tissue: in subjects with greater angiotensin reactivity, higher afferent resistances (Ra) and lower glomerular filtration and pressure before nephrectomy change to higher efferent resistances (Re) and higher Pglo and filtration after nephrectomy.

Collective headgroup conformational transition in twisted micellar superstructures.

Predictions on amphiphilic self-assemblies traditionally rely on considerations on molecular shape and charge of the surfactant. In the case of functional surfactants a more sophisticated toolbox becomes necessary to design amphiphiles encoding chemical functionalities that provide additional responsive properties to their self-assemblies. Here we report on a comprehensive and combined structural-spectroscopic characterization of 1,2-dilauroyl-phosphatidyl-adenosine (DLPA) micelles in phosphate buffer.

Dioxin exposure, from infancy through puberty, produces endocrine disruption and affects human semen quality.

Background: Environmental toxicants are allegedly involved in decreasing semen quality in recent decades; however, definitive proof is not yet available. In 1976 an accident exposed residents in Seveso, Italy, to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD).

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate reproductive hormones and sperm quality in exposed males.

Fatigue in primary biliary cirrhosis: a possible role of comorbidities.

Background And Aims: Fatigue is considered to be a specific manifestation of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Recent reports have, however, questioned these findings. Considering the high rate of comorbidities in PBC patients and the fact that fatigue is a multifactorial symptom, we hypothesized that it might also be due to nonhepatic causes.

Human gastric epithelium produces IL-4 and IL-4delta2 isoform only upon Helicobacter pylori infection.

Recent evidence suggests that interleukin-4 (IL-4) is related to mucosal tolerance by which an injurious immune response is prevented, suppressed or shifted to a non-injurious response. We investigated the expression of IL-4 and its splice variant isoform IL-4delta2 in gastric epithelial cells of healthy subjects and gastritis patients infected with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) with or without the cag pathogenicity island (cag-PAI).

Nuclear localization of TRK-A in liver cells.

The liver represents a site of expression of neurotrophins and their receptors. We have characterized the expression and intracellular localization of the nerve growth factor (NGF) receptor, Trk-A, in liver cells in vivo and in vitro. In both normal and fibrotic liver tissue, Trk-A immunostaining was present in different cell types, including parenchymal cells and cells of the inflammatory infiltrate.

Evaluation of postnatal weight growth in very low birth weight infants.

There is general agreement about the need for longitudinal studies of very low birth weight infants (VLBWI) to evaluate their postnatal growth and to generate distance and velocity charts that allow neonatologists and pediatricians to detect earlier whether a child is not growing adequately. There are no satisfactory growth charts for VLBWI. We analyzed the weight growth of 262 VLBWIs from birth to 2 years of corrected age.

Ganglioside GM(3) is stably associated to tyrosine-phosphorylated ErbB2/EGFR receptor complexes and EGFR monomers, but not to ErbB2.

Gangliosides are known to modulate the activation of receptor tyrosine-kinases (RTKs). Recently, we demonstrated the functional relationship between ErbB2 and ganglioside GM(3) in HC11 epithelial cell line. In the present study we investigated, in the same cells, the ErbB2 activation state and its tendency to form stable molecular complexes with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and with ganglioside GM(3) upon EGF stimulation.

Unilateral posterior crossbite is not associated with TMJ clicking in young adolescents.

Unilateral posterior crossbite has been considered as a risk factor for temporomandibular joint clicking, with conflicting findings. The aim of this study was to investigate a possible association between unilateral posterior crossbite and temporomandibular disk displacement with reduction, by means of a survey carried out in young adolescents recruited from three schools. The sample included 1291 participants (708 males and 583 females) with a mean age of 12.

The emergence of the cortisol circadian rhythm in monozygotic and dizygotic twin infants: the twin-pair synchrony.

Objective: Studies on the influence of genetic factors on the ontogeny of cortisol circadian rhythm in infants are lacking. This study evaluated the influence of twinning and the heritability on the age of emergence of salivary cortisol rhythm.

Design And Subjects: A longitudinal study was performed using salivary samples obtained during morning and night, at 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 weeks of postnatal life in 34 infants, 10 monozygotic (MZ) and 7 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs.

Resistin as an intrahepatic cytokine: overexpression during chronic injury and induction of proinflammatory actions in hepatic stellate cells.

Obesity and insulin resistance accelerate the progression of fibrosis during chronic liver disease. Resistin antagonizes insulin action in rodents, but its role in humans is still controversial. The aims of this study were to investigate resistin expression in human liver and to evaluate whether resistin may affect the biology of activated human hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), key modulators of hepatic fibrogenesis.

Prevention of severe toxic liver injury and oxidative stress in MCP-1-deficient mice.

Background/aims: Administration of carbon tetrachloride determines liver injury, inflammation and oxidative stress, but the molecular mechanisms of damage are only partially understood. In this study, we investigated the development of acute toxic damage in mice lacking monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), a chemokine which recruits monocytes and activated lymphocytes.

Methods: Mice with targeted deletion of the MCP-1 gene and wild type controls were administered a single intragastric dose of carbon tetrachloride.

Acetaldehyde inhibits PPARgamma via H2O2-mediated c-Abl activation in human hepatic stellate cells.

Background & Aims: Accumulating evidence indicates that acetaldehyde (AcCHO) is one of the main mediators of fibrogenesis in alcoholic liver disease. AcCHO stimulates synthesis of fibrillar collagens in hepatic stellate cells, but the molecular events directly involved in the activation of collagen genes are debatable.

Methods: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) is a nuclear receptor that is expressed in stellate cells, and its activation by specific ligands inhibits collagen synthesis.

An induction dose of epoetin alpha of 40 000 IU daily for three consecutive days increases and maintains hemoglobin levels in anemic cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Background: This pilot study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility, activity, and safety of an induction dose of epoetin alpha in cancer patients with moderate or severe anemia who were receiving chemotherapy.

Patients And Methods: Thirty patients with solid tumors and hemoglobin (Hb) levels <11.0 g/dl were enrolled.

Italian cross-sectional growth charts for height, weight and BMI (2 to 20 yr).

The aim of this study is to extend to pre-school ages the Italian Society for Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes (SIEDP)-2002 growth charts for height, weight and body mass index (BMI), to obtain charts (SIEDP-2006) that apply to the Italian population from 2 to 20 yr of age, taken as a whole, or separately in two geographical areas (Central-North Italy and South Italy). The charts are based on a sample of about 70,000 subjects attending infant, primary and secondary schools, between 1994 and 2004. The distribution of the sample by gender, age and geographic area was roughly similar to that of Italian school population in the last decade of the 20th century.