[Chronic graft-versus-host disease].

Chronic graft-versus-host disease is a late complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation and leads to chronic inflammation and fibrosis in various organs due to dysregulation of donor immune cells. The disease can occur in all organs, but is most frequently seen in the skin, eyes, oral cavity, gastrointestinal tract, genitalia, lungs, muscles, fascia and joints. Chronic graft-versus-host disease is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality, and treatment requires close collaboration between different parts of the specialist health services.

A woman in her forties with unilateral blurred vision and pain upon eye movement.

Background: Toxoplasmosis is a relatively common cause of infectious papillitis and neuroretinitis, which may affect both immunocompetent and immunodeficient patients.

Case Presentation: A previously healthy woman in her mid-forties presented with subacute onset of unilateral blurred vision and retrobulbar pain exacerbated by eye movements. Ophthalmological assessment revealed decimal best-corrected visual acuity of 0.

[A teenager with acute bilateral visual loss].

Background: The diagnosis of acute optic neuropathy is made clinically. In young patients demyelinating optic neuritis is the most common cause. However, other autoimmune diseases, infections and other non-inflammatory conditions may also cause inflammation.

Effects of cod intake in pregnancy on iodine nutrition and infant development: study protocol for Mommy's Food - a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Iodine is a key component of thyroid hormones that are critical for normal development of the brain and nervous system in utero. Recent results indicate that two thirds of pregnant women in Europe have sub-optimal iodine nutrition. In Norway, milk and seafood are the most important dietary iodine sources and contributes to about 80% of the intake.

Effect of Mirasol pathogen reduction technology system on in vitro quality of MCS+ apheresis platelets.

Reducing the risk of pathogen transmission to transfusion recipients is one of the great concerns in transfusion medicine. Important among the measures suggested to minimise pathogen transmission is pathogen reduction technology (PRT) systems. The present study examined the effects of Mirasol PRT system on MCS+ apheresis platelets in vitro quality measures during a seven-day storage period at 22°C.

ZNF385B and VEGFA are strongly differentially expressed in serous ovarian carcinomas and correlate with survival.

Background: The oncogenesis of ovarian cancer is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to identify mRNAs differentially expressed between moderately and poorly differentiated (MD/PD) serous ovarian carcinomas (SC), serous ovarian borderline tumours (SBOT) and superficial scrapings from normal ovaries (SNO), and to correlate these mRNAs with clinical parameters including survival.

Methods: Differences in mRNA expression between MD/PD SC, SBOT and SNO were analyzed by global gene expression profiling (n = 23), validated by RT-qPCR (n = 41) and correlated with clinical parameters.

Mammalian target of rapamycin is a biomarker of poor survival in metastatic serous ovarian carcinoma.

The AKT signaling pathway is crucial for cancer cell survival. The objective of this study was to analyze the expression and clinical role of this pathway in serous ovarian carcinoma. Phospho-AKT and phospho-mammalian target of rapamycin protein expression was studied in 269 ovarian carcinomas (159 effusions, 38 primary carcinomas, 72 solid metastases) using immunohistochemistry.

Assessment of endoglin and calprotectin as potential biomarkers in ovarian carcinoma and borderline tumors of the ovary.

Objective: The objective of the study was to analyze circulating endoglin concentration in ovarian carcinoma and evaluate a prognostic role for calprotectin and endoglin in effusions in advanced-stage disease.

Study Design: Preoperative plasma concentration of endoglin from women with benign ovarian tumors (n = 71), borderline ovarian tumors (BOT, n = 39), and ovarian carcinomas (n = 89) was analyzed with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, as were endoglin and calprotectin concentrations in effusions from 164 women with advanced-stage ovarian carcinoma.

Results: Median endoglin plasma concentration was higher in the BOT group as compared with both control and invasive carcinoma groups (4.

Circulating calprotectin in ovarian carcinomas and borderline tumors of the ovary.

Objective: Recent studies indicate that circulating calprotectin may serve as a biomarker in some cancers. We investigated whether this is the case for ovarian neoplasms.

Study Design: Calprotectin was analyzed with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in EDTA-plasma collected prior to surgery from women with ovarian carcinomas (n = 89), borderline ovarian tumors (BOT, n = 39), and benign ovarian tumors (n = 71).

Surgery of borderline tumors of the ovary: retrospective comparison of short-term outcome after laparoscopy or laparotomy.

Background: Laparoscopic management of borderline ovarian tumors is controversial.

Objective: To retrospectively compare outcome after surgery by laparoscopy or laparotomy for borderline tumors.

Methods: Ovarian tumors from all women operated at Ullevål University Hospital during a five-year period were re-evaluated histologically.

The activated nerve growth factor receptor p-TrkA is selectively expressed in advanced-stage ovarian carcinoma.

The objective of this study was to compare the expression of the nerve growth factor (NGF) receptors TrkA and p75 in ovarian borderline tumors, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage I carcinomas and advanced-stage (FIGO stage III-IV) carcinomas, and to assess a possible association between NGF receptor expression and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation in borderline tumors and FIGO stage I carcinomas. Sections from 119 borderline tumors, 57 FIGO stage I invasive ovarian carcinomas, and 56 advanced-stage carcinomas were evaluated for expression of activated phospho-TrkA (p-TrkA) and p75 using immunohistochemistry. MAPK activation was analyzed in stage I carcinomas and borderline tumors using phospho-specific antibodies against the extracellular-regulated kinase (p-ERK), the high osmolarity glycerol response kinase (p-p38), and the c-jun amino-terminal kinase (p-JNK).

The AP-2gamma transcription factor is upregulated in advanced-stage ovarian carcinoma.

Objective: To analyze the expression of the AP-2gamma transcription factor in ovarian borderline tumors, early-stage ovarian carcinoma and advanced-stage ovarian carcinoma, and to evaluate its prognostic role in advanced-stage tumors.

Methods: Sections from 14 normal ovaries, 75 borderline tumors, 22 FIGO stage I invasive ovarian carcinomas, and 306 advanced-stage (FIGO stages II-IV) ovarian carcinomas (42 primary tumors, 62 solid metastases, 202 effusions) were evaluated for expression of the transcription factor AP-2gamma using immunohistochemistry. Sixty-three effusions and two cell lines (SKOV-3 and OVCAR-3) were additionally studied using immunoblotting.

[Intractable postpartum haemorrhage treated with selective arterial embolization].

Background: Postpartum haemorrhage is a major contributor to maternal morbidity and mortality.

Material And Methods: In this case report we present a patient with intractable postpartum haemorrhage, successfully treated with selective arterial embolisation of the uterine arteries.

Results And Interpretation: In most cases, primary postpartum haemorrhage can be managed with conservative treatment involving uterine massage, uterotonic drugs and uterine/vaginal packing.

Agravitropic behaviour of roots of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) transformed by Agrobacterium rhizogenes.

Transgenic hairy roots of Brassica napus (cv. Omega) have been developed, using Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain AR 25, for use as a model system in the investigation of physiological and morphological differences between transgenic and normal roots. The basic parameters of growth and normal or altered gravitropical behaviour of hairy roots are for the first time presented in this paper together with an ultrastructural and morphological analysis of the root statocytes.

Isolation of Ku70-binding proteins (KUBs).

DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) plays a critical role in resealing DNA double-stand breaks by non-homologous end joining. Aside from DNA-PK, XRCC4 and DNA ligase IV, other proteins which play a role(s) in this repair pathway remain unknown; DNA-PK contains a catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) and a DNA binding subunit (Ku70 and Ku80). We isolated Ku70-binding proteins (KUB1-KUB4) using yeast two-hybrid analyses.

Molecular analyses of adaptive survival responses (ASRs): role of ASRs in radiotherapy.

Adaptive survival responses (ASRs), whereby cells demonstrate a survival advantage when exposed to very low doses of ionizing radiation (IR) 4 - 24 h prior to a high dose challenge, were first reported over 15 years ago. These responses were linked to hormesis, which implied that exposure to low levels of IR may be beneficial to the cell. We postulate that increased survival does not necessarily mean that the treatment is beneficial.

DNA-dependent protein kinase does not play a role in adaptive survival responses to ionizing radiation.

We previously demonstrated that exposure of certain human tumor cells to very low chronic doses of ionizing radiation led to their enhanced survival following exposure to subsequent high doses of radiation. Survival enhancement due to these adaptive survival responses (ASRs) ranged from 1.5-fold to 2.

Cell cycle regulation of the human DNA mismatch repair genes hMSH2, hMLH1, and hPMS2.

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer is a cancer susceptibility syndrome that has been found to be caused by mutations in any of several genes involved in DNA mismatch repair, including hMSH2, hMLH1, or hPMS2. Recent reports have suggested that hMSH2 and hMLH1 have a role in the regulation of the cell cycle. To determine if these genes are cell cycle regulated, we examined their mRNA and protein levels throughout the cell cycle in IMR-90 normal human lung fibroblasts.

Damage-sensing mechanisms in human cells after ionizing radiation.

Human cells have evolved several mechanisms for responding to damage created by ionizing radiation. Some of these responses involve the activation or suppression of the transcriptional machinery. Other responses involve the downregulation of enzymes, such as topoisomerase I, which appear to be necessary for DNA repair or apoptosis.

Altered G1 checkpoint control determines adaptive survival responses to ionizing radiation.

Adaptive survival responses (ASRs) are observed when cells become more resistant to a high dose of a cytotoxic agent after repeated low dose exposures to that agent or another genotoxic agent. Confluent (G0/G1) human normal (GM2936B, GM2937A, AG2603, IMR-90), cancer-prone (XPV2359), and neoplastic (U1-Mel, HEp-2, HTB-152) cells were primed with repeated low doses of X-rays (ranging from 0.05-10 cGy/day for 4 days), then challenged with a high dose (290-450 cGy) on day 5.

The behaviour of normal and agravitropic transgenic roots of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) under microgravity conditions.

In the TRANSFORM experiment for IML-2 on the Space Shuttle Columbia, normal (wild type = WT) and genetically transformed agravitropic rapeseed roots were tested under microgravity conditions. The aim of the experiment was to determine if the wild-type roots behaved differently (growth, morphology, gravitropical sensitivity) from the transgenic roots. The appearance of the organelles and distribution of statoliths (i.