In vitro propagation of Indonesian stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) genotype using axenic nodal segments.

Objective: The high industrial demand for Stevia cultivation (Stevia rebaudiana) has increased due to its high stevioside content derived from the leaves. However, the low germination rate makes the cultivation of the plant become the main obstacle. Therefore, an efficient cultivation technique is required.

Clinical utility and diagnostic value of tumor-educated platelets in lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The review addresses the knowledge gap concerning the diagnostic value and clinical utility of tumor-educated platelets (TEPs) in adult patients with lung cancer.

Methods: We searched twelve databases: PubMed, CENTRAL, EMBASE, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Scopus, ProQuest, MedRxiv, BioRxiv, SSRN, Clinicaltrials.gov, and CNKI up to 24 March 2023, to include any diagnostic study regarding TEPs and LC.

Plastid DNA Barcoding and cDNA Fragment Isolation of : A Promising Bioresource for Biodiesel Production.

belonging to the family is currently used for biodiesel production, and rapid development in plant-based biofuel production has led to its increasing demand. However, massive utilization of bio-industrial plants has led to conservation issues. Moreover, genetic information on is still limited, which is crucial for developmental, physiological, and molecular studies.

Measurement of Intervertebral Disc Heights in the Lumbar Spine. Comparison of X-Ray and Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Method of Measurement and Determination of Inter-observer Reliability.

Purpose: Retrospective radiological examination (X-ray and MRI) aims to investigate the diagnostic value of various methods of measurement with regard to the determination of the intervertebral disc heights of the lumbar spine.

Methods: Of 130 patients without detectable damage to the intervertebral discs, the X-ray and MRI images of the lumbar spine were evaluated. The measurements were made either in the center line (Hurxthal) or in the 2-point method according to Dabbs or in the 3-point method according to Fyllos.

Prenatal Secondhand Smoke Exposure: Correlation Between Nicotine in Umbilical Cord Blood and Neonatal Anthropometry.

Objectives: Nicotine narrows uterine blood vessels reducing the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the developing fetus. This study examined the effects of fetal exposure to secondhand smoke on neonatal anthropometry.

Methods: This cross sectional study recruited 128 pregnant women in the third trimester of single pregnancies who had no chronic illness, were not active or ex-smokers, and who were willing to participate in the study.

Air pollution in pristina, influence on cardiovascular hospital morbidity.

Introduction: Numerous studies observed health effects of particulate air pollution. Ambient air quality is particularly bad in Pristina. The principal sources of contaminants are sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides NO and NO2 (NOx), ozone (O3), lead (Pb), carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter (PM or dust).

The tobacco carcinogen NNK is stereoselectively reduced by human pancreatic microsomes and cytosols.

Background/aims: Cigarette smoking increases the risk of cancer of the pancreas. The tobacco-specific nitrosamine 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) is the only known environmental compound that induces pancreatic cancer in laboratory animals. Concentrations of NNK are significantly higher in the pancreatic juice of smokers than in that of nonsmokers.

The clinical efficacy of adjuvant systemic chemotherapy with gemcitabine and NSC-631570 in advanced pancreatic cancer.

Background/aims: Recently we have shown that NSC-631570 (Ukrain) is a safe and effective drug in the treatment of unresectable pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the combined treatment with Gemcitabine and NSC-631570 in the adjuvant treatment of resected advanced pancreatic cancer.

Methodology: 30 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy following surgical resection for pancreatic cancer.

Detection of disseminated tumor cells in the lymph nodes of colorectal cancer patients using a real-time polymerase chain reaction assay.

Introduction: Postoperative treatment for colorectal cancer depends on tumor stage as defined by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC). Adjuvant chemotherapy is not recommended in patients without lymph node involvement (UICC stages I and II). As many as 20-30% of these patients, however, will develop recurrence.

Systemic immune dysfunction in pancreatic cancer patients.

Background And Aims: We investigated the immune status in 32 pancreatic cancer patients (PC) in comparison with healthy controls (HC).

Materials And Methods: Using flow cytometry, peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) were characterized by the expression of surface markers for T helper cells (CD4), T suppressor cells (CD8), B cells (CD19) and NK cells (CD56). The blastogenic response of PBL was analyzed after stimulation with concavalin A (ConA), phytohemagglutinin (PHA), pokeweed mitogen (PWM) and anti-CD3 antibodies.

Pancreatic carcinoma cells induce fibrosis by stimulating proliferation and matrix synthesis of stellate cells.

Background & Aims: Tumor desmoplasia is one of the representative histopathologic findings in ductal pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The aims of this study were to examine the cellular and molecular mechanisms of fibrogenesis associated with pancreatic adenocarcinomas.

Methods: Immunostainings were performed with human pancreatic adenocarcinomas (n = 27) and tumors induced in nude mice (n = 36) by subcutaneously injecting MiaPaCa2, Panc1, and SW850 with and without pancreatic stellate cells.

Down-regulation of BRCA1 in chronic pancreatitis and sporadic pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Purpose: BRCA1 and BRCA2 are considered to be breast cancer susceptibility genes that may also contribute to pancreatic cancer development because family studies revealed mutation carriers to have an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer. However, as demonstrated for breast and ovarian cancer, inactivation of BRCA in sporadic diseases is based on alteration in gene expression or functional alteration.

Experimental Design: To study a potential correlation of BRCA1 and BRCA2 to chronic pancreatitis and development of sporadic pancreatic adenocarcinoma, we have analyzed the expression of these genes by quantitative PCR and performed immunohistochemical analyses in normal pancreatic tissues, chronic pancreatitis, and pancreatic cancer specimens.

Comparative analysis of extracellular matrix proteins in chronic pancreatitis: differences between pancreatic head and tail.

Objectives: In patients with chronic pancreatitis (cP) with an inflammatory mass in the pancreatic head, the degree of fibrosis in the pancreatic head compared with the tail should be determined and differences in the expression pattern of collagen types I, III, and IV; laminin; vitronectin; and fibronectin should be evaluated.

Methods: From 12 patients with alcohol-induced and idiopathic cP who underwent surgery due to local complications, 24 corresponding cP tissue samples from the pancreatic head and the resection margin were obtained. The degree of fibrosis was calculated using a computer-assisted method (Adobe Photo Shop).

Overexpression of Caspase-1 in adenocarcinoma of pancreas and chronic pancreatitis.

Aim: To identify the expression of Caspase-1(interleukin-1beta converting enzyme) and its role in adenoma of the pancreas and chronic pancreatitis.

Methods: The expression of Caspase-1 was assessed in 42 pancreatic cancer tissue samples, 38 chronic pancreatitis specimens, and 9 normal pancreatic tissues by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis.

Results: Overexpression of Caspase-1 was observed in both disorders, but there were differences in the expression patterns in distinct morphologic compartments.

Cyclooxygenase-2 is overexpressed in chronic pancreatitis.

Introduction: Cyclooxygenase enzymes catalyze a critical step in the conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins, which are important mediators of acute and chronic inflammation. The constitutively expressed cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) appears to regulate many normal physiologic functions in several cell types, whereas the inducible cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme mediates the inflammatory response.

Aims And Methodology: We investigated the expression of COX-2 in tissues of 35 patients with chronic pancreatitis, 6 patients with pancreatic cancer, and 5 control patients by immunohistochemical analysis and correlations to clinicopathologic features.

Identification of tobacco-derived compounds in human pancreatic juice.

Cancer of the pancreas is the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality in the USA with an estimated 28 900 deaths in 2001. Several factors have been implicated in the etiology of this disease. However, at present, only cigarette smoking has been positively associated with pancreatic cancer.

Overexpression of caspase-1 in pancreatic disorders: implications for a function besides apoptosis.

The caspases are known to play a crucial role in the triggering and execution of apoptosis in a variety of cell types. We assessed the expression of caspase-1 in 42 pancreatic cancer tissue samples, 38 chronic pancreatitis specimens, and nine normal pancreatic tissues by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. We found a clear overexpression of caspase-1 in both disorders, but differences in the expression patterns in distinct morphologic compartments.

NSC-631570 (Ukrain) in the palliative treatment of pancreatic cancer. Results of a phase II trial.

Background: NSC-631570 (Ukrain) is a semisynthetic compound of thiophosphoric acid and the alkaloid chelidonine from the plant Chelidonium majus. It has been used in complementary herbal medicine for more than 20 years for the treatment of benign and malignant tumors.

Patients/methods: Between August 1999 and June 2001, 90 patients with histologically proven unresectable pancreatic cancer were randomized in a monocentric, controlled, randomized study.

Epidermal growth factor induces cyclin D1 in human pancreatic carcinoma: evidence for a cyclin D1-dependent cell cycle progression.

Introduction: We recently showed that cyclin D1 is overexpressed in human pancreatic carcinoma cells, and that this overexpression correlates significantly with a poor prognosis.

Aims: To assess the interrelations of epidermal growth factor (EGF), EGF receptor (EGFR), and cyclin D1 in human pancreatic carcinoma.

Methodology And Results: In pancreatic carcinoma cell lines (BxPC-3, AsPC-1), cell cycle analysis revealed an increase in cells in the S/G1 phase between 18 and 30 hours after stimulation with 50 ng/mL EGF.

Overexpression of caspase-1 (interleukin-1beta converting enzyme) in chronic pancreatitis and its participation in apoptosis and proliferation.

Caspase-1, formerly designated interleukin-1beta converting enzyme, was the first described member of a group of cysteine proteases called caspases. It is suggested that caspases play an important role in apoptosis, but recent observations could show that caspase-1 might also be involved in cellular proliferation. We investigated the expression of caspase-1 in 38 chronic pancreatitis tissues, six pancreatitis tissues from patients with pancreatic carcinoma and nine normal pancreatic tissues by immunohistochemistry.

Reduced membranous and ectopic cytoplasmic expression of beta -catenin correlate with cyclin D1 overexpression and poor prognosis in pancreatic cancer.

Beta-catenin is a component of the E-cadherin-catenin cell adhesion complex. It plays also a role in intracellular signaling and can function as an oncogene when it binds to the T-cell factor 4 (Tcf4)-binding site in the promoter region of cyclin D1 and transactivates genes after translocation to the nucleus. We evaluated the immunohistochemical expression pattern of beta-catenin in relationship with cyclin D1 overexpression, tumor grade, clinicopathologic parameters and patients' survival in 43 ductal adenocarcinomas of the pancreas and 5 normal pancreatic tissues.

Inhibition of caspase-1 induces cell death in pancreatic carcinoma cells and potentially modulates expression levels of bcl-2 family proteins.

Caspase-1 (interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme) is reported to play an important role in the regulation of apoptosis. We investigated the inhibition of caspase-1 by the cell permeable caspase-1 inhibitor Ac-AAVALLPAVLLALLAP-YVAD.CHO in pancreatic carcinoma cells.

Distributional and functional alterations of immunocompetent peripheral blood lymphocytes in patients with chronic pancreatitis.

Objective: To investigate whether the chronic inflammatory process in patients with chronic pancreatitis affects their immune function.

Summary Background Data: Chronic pancreatitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the exocrine pancreas. In approximately 30% of patients, an inflammatory mass of the pancreatic head is found, representing an indication for surgery.

CD44v6 cell surface expression is a common feature of macrophages and macrophage-like cells - implication for a natural macrophage extravasation mechanism mimicked by tumor cells.

Soluble CD44standard (sCD44s) and CD44v6 (sCD44v6) cannot only be detected in sera of patients with pancreatic carcinoma but also of healthy blood donors. To investigate whether sCD44s and sCD44v6 are derived from white blood cells, we stimulated whole blood with phytohemagglutinin and interleukin-2, which induced expression of CD44v6 only on monocytes. For further investigations, we used the promyelocytic leukemia cell line Hl-60.