Estimating seroprevalence of vaccine-preventable infections: is it worth standardizing the serological outcomes to adjust for different assays and laboratories?

The aim of the European Sero-Epidemiology Network 2 (ESEN2) project was to estimate age-specific seroprevalence for a number of vaccine-preventable diseases in Europe. To achieve this serosurveys were collected by 22 national laboratories. To adjust for a variety of laboratory methods and assays, all quantitative results were transformed to a reference laboratory's units and were then classified as positive or negative to obtain age-specific seroprevalence.

Angiogenesis and remodelling in human thoracic aortic aneurysms.

Aims: Human thoracic aneurysm of the ascending aorta (TAA) is a chronic disease characterized by dilatation of the aortic wall, which can progress to vessel dissection and rupture. TAA has several aetiologies, but all forms present common features, including tissue remodelling. Here, we determined and characterized the angiogenic process associated with TAA and its relation with wall remodelling.

Modifications of chromatin dynamics control Smad2 pathway activation in aneurysmal smooth muscle cells.

Rationale: The activation of the Smad2 signaling pathway is thought to play an important role in human aneurysmal diseases as described by an important body of research. We previously showed that constitutive Smad2 activation is associated with Smad2 mRNA overexpression in aneurysmal vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), which is dependent on epigenetic regulation of the SMAD2 promoter involving histone modifications. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms controlling Smad2 overexpression are currently unknown.

Smad2-dependent protease nexin-1 overexpression differentiates chronic aneurysms from acute dissections of human ascending aorta.

Objective: Tissue activation of proteolysis is involved in acute intramural rupture (dissections, acute ascending aortic dissection) and in progressive dilation (aneurysms, thoracic aneurysm of the ascending aorta) of human ascending aorta. The translational aim of this study was to characterize the regulation of antiproteolytic serpin expression in normal, aneurysmal, and dissecting aorta.

Approach And Results: We explored expression of protease nexin-1 (PN-1) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 and their regulation by the Smad2 signaling pathway in human tissue and cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) of aneurysms (thoracic aneurysm of the ascending aorta; n=46) and acute dissections (acute ascending aortic dissection; n=10) of the ascending aorta compared with healthy aortas (n=10).

Comparative hepatitis A seroepidemiology in 10 European countries.

The WHO recommends hepatitis A virus (HAV) immunization according to level of transmission and disease burden. We aimed to identify susceptible age groups by standardized serosurveys to inform HAV vaccination policy in participating countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, England, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, and Slovakia. Each country tested national serum banks (n = 1854-6748), collected during 1996-2004, for anti-HAV antibodies.