Immunoglobulin E-specific allergens against leaf in serum of dogs with clinical features of grass leaf allergy.

Background: Grass leaf has been suspected of causing immunoglobulin (Ig)E-mediated immediate hypersensitivity reactions in humans and dogs. However, most studies in this area are case-control studies without in vitro data showing the involvement of IgE in the reaction. Laboratory studies have demonstrated the reactivity to a 50-55 kDa protein with clinical signs immediately after contact with grass leaf material.

Canine dermatitis on contacting grass leaf: A case series.

Background: Pruritus is a common clinical sign in dogs for which owners seek veterinary attention. Its diagnosis and treatment are often a source of frustration for the owner and veterinarian. Contact dermatitis is rarely considered, even when lesions are located only on the skin.

17β-estradiol and progesterone effect on human papillomavirus 16 positive cells grown as spheroid co-cultures.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the key epidemiologic factor of cervical cancer, but additional cofactors are mandatory. Estrogen has been considered as one of those. Here, the aim was to study the effects of steroid hormones on HPV16 E6-E7, estradiol receptors ERα and ERβ, and progesterone receptor (PR) in HPV16-positive cervical carcinoma cell lines SiHa and CaSki grown as epithelial and fibroblast spheroid co-cultures.

ZAP-70 genotype disrupts the relationship between microbiota and host, leading to spondyloarthritis and ileitis in SKG mice.

Objective: The spondyloarthritides share genetic susceptibility, interleukin-23 (IL-23) dependence, and the involvement of microbiota. The aim of the current study was to elucidate how host genetics influence gut microbiota and the relationship between microbiota and organ inflammation in spondyloarthritides.

Methods: BALB/c ZAP-70(W163C) -mutant (SKG) mice, Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4)-deficient SKG mice, and wild-type BALB/c mice were housed under specific pathogen-free conditions.

Smokeless tobacco increases aneuploidy in oral HPV16 E6/E7-transformed keratinocytes in vitro.

Background: The scope of this work was to study synergism between human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and tobacco in vitro, both known to be independent risk factors for oral cancer.

Methods: HPV-positive and HPV-negative oral keratinocytes and oral HPV-negative fibroblasts were exposed to smokeless tobacco extract (STE) prepared from the Scandinavian (STE1) and US-type (STE2) snuff. Cell cycle profiles were determined with flow cytometry, and HPV E6/E7 mRNA expression in HPV-positive cells was assayed using RT-qPCR.

Interleukin-23 mediates the intestinal response to microbial β-1,3-glucan and the development of spondyloarthritis pathology in SKG mice.

Objective: Spondyloarthritides (SpA) occur in 1% of the population and include ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and arthropathy of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with characteristic spondylitis, arthritis, enthesitis, and IBD. Genetic studies implicate interleukin-23 (IL-23) receptor signaling in the development of SpA and IBD, and IL-23 overexpression in mice is sufficient for enthesitis, driven by entheseal-resident T cells. However, in genetically prone individuals, it is not clear where IL-23 is produced and how it drives the SpA syndrome, including IBD or subclinical gut inflammation of AS.

Role of visual internal urethrotomy in pediatric urethral strictures.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficiency of visual internal urethrotomies (VIUs) in pediatric patients.

Patients And Methods: Thirty-four patients aged 0.2-16.

Effects of prostate cancer screening on health-related quality of life: results of the Finnish arm of the European randomized screening trial (ERSPC).

Background: As prostate cancer (PC) mortality reduction results are not unequivocal, a special emphasis has to be put on other aspects of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, including effects on quality of life. In the present study we describe the short-term effects of various phases of PC screening on health-related quality of life (HRQL).

Material And Methods: The study participants were randomized into the screening arm within the Finnish component of the European Randomized Study on Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC).

Renal tumour invasion index as a novel anatomical classification predicting urological complications after partial nephrectomy.

Objective: The goal of anatomical classification systems (ACSs) is to assess renal tumour complexity and predict surgical complications. However, the present ACSs may include some relatively unimportant components and may be complicated to use. This study introduces the invasion depth of the renal tumour divided by the parenchymal thickness, called the renal tumour invasion index (RTII), as a novel ACS and compares it with previous ACSs in predicting urological complications after partial nephrectomy.

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in prostate cancer patients on active surveillance one year after diagnosis and before repeat biopsy.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate prospectively whether diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI), interpreted in a routine clinical setting, can serve as a diagnostic and prognostic tool for prostate carcinoma patients on active surveillance (AS).

Material And Methods: Eighty men enrolled in the Finnish arm of the PRIAS (Prostate Cancer Research International: Active Surveillance) study were followed for at least 1 year and had DW-MRI scans taken in addition to repeat biopsy. Spearman's correlations were analysed between tumour appearance on DW-MRI and clinical variables [age, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), free PSA, PSA doubling time, prostate volume, percentage of cancer at diagnostic biopsy].

Active surveillance for small renal tumors: have clinical concerns been addressed so far?

The incidence of small renal masses is increasing, as a result of the wide adoption of imaging exams. Their management, however, is complicated, especially in patients with decreased life expectancy or comorbidities. Approximately 20% of small renal masses are benign and, even if malignant, just 10% show aggressive pathological features.

β-glucan triggers spondylarthritis and Crohn's disease-like ileitis in SKG mice.

Objective: The spondylarthritides (SpA), including ankylosing spondylitis (AS), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), reactive arthritis, and arthritis associated with inflammatory bowel disease, cause chronic inflammation of the large peripheral and axial joints, eyes, skin, ileum, and colon. Genetic studies reveal common candidate genes for AS, PsA, and Crohn's disease, including IL23R, IL12B, STAT3, and CARD9, all of which are associated with interleukin-23 (IL-23) signaling downstream of the dectin 1 β-glucan receptor. In autoimmune-prone SKG mice with mutated ZAP-70, which attenuates T cell receptor signaling and increases the autoreactivity of T cells in the peripheral repertoire, IL-17-dependent inflammatory arthritis developed after dectin 1-mediated fungal infection.

The impact of interscreening interval and age on prostate cancer screening with prostate-specific antigen.

Background: Population-based screening for prostate cancer (PCa) has used serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) since the early 1990s. However, the efficacy could be affected by screening interval, age ranges of screening, attendance, and contamination of the control group in randomised controlled trials.

Objective: Assess the impact of the above-mentioned factors on screening efficacy.

Contrasting DNA damage checkpoint responses in epithelium of the human seminal vesicle and prostate.

Background: Prostate and seminal vesicle are two similar hormone responsive human organs that differ dramatically in their cancer incidence. DNA damage response (DDR) is required for maintenance of genomic integrity.

Methods: In this study we investigated the DDR and cell cycle checkpoint activation of these organs using orthotopic cultures of human surgery-derived tissues and primary cultures of isolated prostate and seminal vesicle cells.

Prostate cancer active surveillance and health-related quality of life: results of the Finnish arm of the prospective trial.

Unlabelled: Study Type - Therapy (case series) Level of Evidence 4 What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? Active surveillance is a management option in patients with localized prostate cancer. One concern is the possible psychological burden and quality-of-life effects caused by consciousness of living with untreated cancer. Previous studies have reported controversial results about the impact of active surveillance on patient's health-related quality of life.

Long-term quality-of-life outcomes after radical prostatectomy or watchful waiting: the Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group-4 randomised trial.

Background: For men with localised prostate cancer, surgery provides a survival benefit compared with watchful waiting. Treatments are associated with morbidity. Results for functional outcome and quality of life are rarely reported beyond 10 years and are lacking from randomised settings.

Radical prostatectomy versus watchful waiting in early prostate cancer.

Background: In 2008, we reported that radical prostatectomy, as compared with watchful waiting, reduces the rate of death from prostate cancer. After an additional 3 years of follow-up, we now report estimated 15-year results.

Methods: From October 1989 through February 1999, we randomly assigned 695 men with early prostate cancer to watchful waiting or radical prostatectomy.

Prostate cancer screening: a survey of attitudes and practices among Finnish physicians in 1999 and 2007.

Objective: To evaluate the attitudes and practices related to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer (PC) among Finnish physicians in 1999 and 2007.

Materials And Methods: The first questionnaire survey was conducted in 1999 with a mailing to 102 urologists, 679 community physicians and 684 occupational health physicians identified from the membership files of three medical associations. The area of residence was divided into the study area of the Finnish PC screening trial and the rest of Finland.

[Active surveillance of prostatic cancer].

Overdiagnosis of prostatic cancer easily leads to overtreatment, whereby the patients are also exposed to the adverse effects of the treatments. Active surveillance has been raised as an alternative to the treatments of prostatic cancer with a good prognosis. Active surveillance means that instead of immediate curative treatment, a patient suited for radical treatments by his age and condition is under careful monitoring.

Increasing mechanical stimulus induces migration of Langerhans cells and impairs the immune response to intracutaneously delivered antigen.

Skin is subjected regularly to mechanical stimulus. Surprisingly, when studying the use of microneedle arrays to introduce antigen into skin, we observed that mechanical stimulus to skin achieved by application of the arrays or a flat metal plate resulted in temporary depletion of Langerhans cells, with the degree of depletion related to the applied stress, whereas no depletion was seen in the interspersed dendritic epidermal T cell population. Further, a significantly impaired immune response to intracutaneous antigen administration was observed in skin recently subjected to mechanical stimulus.

DNA damage recognition via activated ATM and p53 pathway in nonproliferating human prostate tissue.

DNA damage response (DDR) pathways have been extensively studied in cancer cell lines and mouse models, but little is known about how DNA damage is recognized by different cell types in nonmalignant, slowly replicating human tissues. Here, we assess, using ex vivo cultures of human prostate tissue, DDR caused by cytotoxic drugs (camptothecin, doxorubicin, etoposide, and cisplatin) and ionizing radiation (IR) in the context of normal tissue architecture. Using specific markers for basal and luminal epithelial cells, we determine and quantify cell compartment-specific damage recognition.

Inguinal hernia after radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer: results from a randomized setting and a nonrandomized setting.

Background: Observational data indicate that retropubic radical prostatectomy (RRP) for prostate cancer (PCa) may induce inguinal hernia (IH) formation. Little is known about the influence of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RALP) on IH risk.

Objective: To compare the incidence of IH after RRP and RALP to that of nonoperated patients with PCa and to a population control.

Nanopatch-targeted skin vaccination against West Nile Virus and Chikungunya virus in mice.

The 'Nanopatch' (NP) comprises arrays of densely packed projections with a defined geometry and distribution designed to physically target vaccines directly to thousands of epidermal and dermal antigen presenting cells (APCs). These miniaturized arrays are two orders of magnitude smaller than standard needles-which deliver most vaccines-and are also much smaller than current microneedle arrays. The NP is dry-coated with antigen, adjuvant, and/or DNA payloads.

Results of the three rounds of the Finnish Prostate Cancer Screening Trial--the incidence of advanced cancer is decreased by screening.

Screening for prostate cancer (PC) remains a controversial issue despite some new evidence on the mortality benefits of PC screening. We conducted a prospective, randomized screening trial in Finland to investigate whether screening decreases PC incidence. Here, we report the incidence results from three screening rounds during a 12-year period.