Effect of a Three-Day Course of Dexamethasone on Acute Phase Response Following Treatment With Zoledronate: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Zoledronate is a potent intravenous bisphosphonate effective in the management of osteoporosis, Paget's disease and skeletal-related events in malignancy. Its most frequent adverse effect is the acute phase response (APR), an inflammatory reaction characterized by fever, musculoskeletal pain, headache, and nausea. This randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study investigated the efficacy of a three-day course of dexamethasone 4 mg daily in reducing incidence of APR.

Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) using sludge from different wastewater treatment processes and the potential for medical and pharmaceutical applications.

In this study, seven strains of bacteria with polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)-producing ability (i.e. Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas putida, Bacillus pumilus, Pseudomona huttiensis, Yersinia frederiksenii, Aeromonas ichthiosmia, and Sphingopyxis terrae) were isolated from various waste treatment plants in Hong Kong.

Incidental vertebral fractures on computed tomography.

Vertebral fractures are the most common osteoporotic fracture and predict subsequent fracture and mortality. We undertook an audit (Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand) to determine whether targeted assessment for incidental vertebral fractures on computed tomography (CT) examinations of the chest or abdomen in older people would detect previously unidentified vertebral fractures. In 175 consecutive patients aged >65 years, sagittal images of the spine were obtained by reformatting data from CT examinations of the chest or abdomen.

Identification of an invasion and tumor-suppressing gene, Endoglin (ENG), silenced by both epigenetic inactivation and allelic loss in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Endoglin (ENG) has been identified as a candidate tumor-suppressor gene in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Earlier microcell-mediated chromosome transfer (MMCT) studies of chromosome 9 in ESCC narrowed down a tumor-suppressive critical region to 9q33-34. ENG maps to 9q34-qter and encodes a transformation growth factor beta (TGFbeta) superfamily auxiliary receptor.

Monochromosome transfer and microarray analysis identify a critical tumor-suppressive region mapping to chromosome 13q14 and THSD1 in esophageal carcinoma.

Loss of chromosome 13q regions in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a frequent event. Monochromosome transfer approaches provide direct functional evidence for tumor suppression by chromosome 13 in SLMT-1, an ESCC cell line, and identify critical regions at 13q12.3, 13q14.

Frequent decreased expression of candidate tumor suppressor gene, DEC1, and its anchorage-independent growth properties and impact on global gene expression in esophageal carcinoma.

Previous studies showed that expression of the novel candidate tumor suppressor gene, DEC1 (Deleted in Esophageal Cancer 1), is reduced in esophageal carcinoma and suppresses cancer cell growth in vitro and tumor growth in vivo in nude mice. This study shows that DEC1 gene expression was downregulated in 100% of 16 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cell lines and 52 and 45%, respectively, of esophageal tumor specimens from Hong Kong and a high-risk ESCC region of Henan, China. Using epitope tagging, the DEC1 protein was localized to both the cytoplasm and nucleus of the cell.

Production of medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates by Pseudomonas aeruginosa with fatty acids and alternative carbon sources.

In this study, medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHAs) were produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa using different carbon sources. Decanoic acid induced the highest (9.71% [+/- 0.

Functional evidence of decreased tumorigenicity associated with monochromosome transfer of chromosome 14 in esophageal cancer and the mapping of tumor-suppressive regions to 14q32.

Despite the abundant evidence of high allelic loss of chromosome arm 14q in human cancers, tumor-suppressor genes mapped to this chromosome have yet to be identified. To narrow the search for candidate genes, we performed monochromosome transfer of chromosome 14 into an esophageal carcinoma cell line, SLMT-1 S1. Statistically significant suppression of the tumorigenic potential of microcell hybrids containing the transferred chromosome 14 provided functional evidence that tumor-suppressive regions of chromosome 14 are essential for esophageal cancer.

Two novel species of tetrodotoxin-producing bacteria isolated from toxic marine puffer fishes.

Out of eight dominant discrete bacterial colonies isolated and purified from the toxic marine puffer fishes collected in Hong Kong waters, two novel species of non-sporing, non-acid-fast and chemoorganotrophic bacteria capable of producing tetrodotoxin (TTX, a potent non-protein neurotoxin), as well as one previously reported and confirmed TTX-producing bacterium. They were identified as Microbacterium arabinogalactanolyticum, Serratia marcescens and Vibrio alginolyticus, respectively, all of which are widely distributed in soils, sewage or marine environments. Each bacterial isolate (500 ml broth medium cultured in darkness without aeration for 10 days at 25 degrees C) could produce an amount of toxicity, after extraction and purification, ranging from 78.

Construction of recombinant Escherichia coli strains for production of poly-(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate).

Plastic wastes constitute a worldwide environmental problem, and the demand for biodegradable plastics has become high. One of the most important characteristics of microbial polyesters is that they are thermoplastic with environmentally degradable properties. In this study, pUC19/PHA was cloned and transformed into three different Escherichia coli strains.