Combined p21WAF1/CIP1 and p53 overexpression predict improved survival in muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated by radical radiotherapy.

Purpose: The prognostic value of p21 and p53 expression was evaluated for patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated by radical radiotherapy.

Methods And Materials: Sixty-eight paraffin-embedded sections from surgically resected tumors taken prior to irradiation were immunostained for p21 and p53.

Results: Nuclear staining for p21 and p53 was demonstrated in 32/68 (47%) and 46/68 (68%) tumors, respectively.

How clean is the home environment?: a tool to assess home hygiene.

The role of the home environment in the transmission of infectious diseases has been well described in the developing world but has received less attention in developed countries. An increasing focus on home hygiene has emerged in debates regarding the use of antimicrobial products in the home and the potential for development of resistance and in discussions regarding "when is clean too clean" and "what is clean." Studies are clearly needed to further explicate the role of the home in the spread of infectious agents, but before these can be conducted, adequate measurement tools are essential.

Progressive systemic sclerosis (scleroderma), carcinoma breast and valvular heart disease: an unusual combination.

Systemic sclerosis is a multi system disorder characterised by fibrosis of skin and internal organs. There are reports of relation between cancer and polymyositis/dermatomyositis, but no overall association with systemic sclerosis. Reports of the coexistence of cancer and systemic sclerosis, however, emphasise a close temporal relation in their occurrence.

Neural network analysis of clinicopathological and molecular markers in bladder cancer.

Purpose: To evaluate retrospectively the ability of an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict bladder cancer recurrence within 6 months of diagnosis and stage progression in patients with Ta/T1 bladder cancer, and 12-month cancer-specific survival in patients with T2-T4 bladder cancer.

Materials And Methods: Data were analyzed using a NeuralWorks Professional II/Plus software package. The input neural data consisted of clinicopathological and molecular characteristics.

TP53 accumulation predicts improved survival in patients resistant to systemic cisplatin-based chemotherapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

To examine retrospectively the prognostic significance of TP53 immunoreactivity for both tumor response and patient survival in 83 patients with nonmetastatic muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated with a single transurethral resection (TUR) of tumor and combined cisplatin-based systemic chemotherapy followed by repeat TUR, paraffin-embedded sections of a bladder tumor obtained at TUR before chemotherapy (1 T2, 52 T3, and 30 T4) were immunostained for TP53 using monoclonal PAb1801 and DO-7 antibodies. For the entire cohort, TP53 immunopositivity (PAb1801 or DO-7) did not predict complete response (CR), complete or partial response (PR), progressive disease, or time to death from bladder cancer. There was a highly significant correlation between PAb1801 and DO-7 nuclear immunoreactivity (r = 0.

Co-activation of Gi and Gq proteins exerts synergistic effect on human platelet aggregation through activation of phospholipase C and Ca2+ signalling pathways.

Our previous studies have shown that subthreshold concentrations of two platelet agonists exert synergistic effects on platelet aggregation. Here we studied the mechanism of synergistic interaction of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and epinephrine mediated platelet aggregation. We show that 5-HT had no or little effect on aggregation but it did potentiate the aggregation response of epinephrine.

Matrix metalloproteinase-1 is induced by epidermal growth factor in human bladder tumour cell lines and is detectable in urine of patients with bladder tumours.

The matrix metalloproteinases are a family of enzymes that degrade the extracellular matrix and are considered to be important in tumour invasion and metastasis. The effect of epidermal growth factor (EGF) on matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP1) production in two human bladder tumour cell lines, RT112 and RT4, has been investigated. In the RT112 cell line, an increase in MMP1 mRNA levels was found after a 6-h incubation with EGF, and this further increased to 20-fold that of control levels at 24- and 48-h treatment with 50 ng ml(-1) of EGF.

Differential inhibition by hyperammonemia of the electron transport chain enzymes in synaptosomes and non-synaptic mitochondria in ornithine transcarbamylase-deficient spf-mice: restoration by acetyl-L-carnitine.

Sparse-fur (spf) mouse is the ideal animal model to study the neuropathology of congenital ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency. Our current hypothesis implies that an ammonia-induced depletion of energy metabolism in the spf mouse, could be due to a reduction in the activities of the enzymes of the electron transport chain and a treatment with acetyl-L-carnitine could normalize this abnormality. We also hypothesized that there might be a differential degree of inhibition in synaptosomal and non-synaptic mitochondria, for the enzymes of the electron transport chain, caused by congenital hyperammonemia.

Acute upper limb ischemia resulting from cleidocranial dysostosis.

A case is reported of a woman with an ischemic arm as a result of damage to the subclavian artery by the clavicular anomaly associated with cleidocranial dysostasis. Only one similar case has been reported previously.

Domestic smoke pollution and prevalence of chronic bronchitis/asthma in a rural area of Kashmir.

An increased prevalence of chronic bronchitis (12.21%) was observed in Gujjar females of a rural area of Kashmir valley in this study. Screening of adult population of two randomly selected village showed an overall prevalence rate of 7.