Evaluation of cardiac remodeling in pediatric chronic kidney disease by cardiovascular magnetic resonance.

Background: Children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at high risk of cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is the reference method for assessing cardiac remodeling. To our knowledge, no study has reported a comprehensive analysis of left ventricular(LV) cardiac remodeling using CMR in different stages of pediatric CKD.

Mechanisms and targeted reversion/prevention of hepatic fibrosis caused by the non-hereditary toxicity of benzo(a)pyrene.

The effect of long term exposure to low concentrations of environmental pollutants on hepatic disorders is a major public health concern worldwide. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of persistent organic pollutants. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have focused on the deleterious effects of low concentrations of PAHs in the initiation or exacerbation of the progression of chronic liver disease.

Clinical significance of enlarged cardiophrenic lymph nodes by CT in advanced ovarian cancer.

Aim: This study aims to assess the clinical influence of enlarged cardiophrenic lymph nodes (CPLN) on staging computed tomography (CT) among patients with advanced ovarian cancer.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 320 patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer who underwent staging CT from May 2008 to January 2019. The CPLN diameter was the average of two radiologists' measurements.

Expressing a moth abcc2 gene in transgenic Drosophila causes susceptibility to Bt Cry1Ac without requiring a cadherin-like protein receptor.

Bt toxins ingested by insect pests can bind to midgut receptors and cause death, although several steps in this process remain unclear. Multiple Bt toxin receptors have been identified in Lepidoptera, including a cadherin-like protein (CaLP), which is central to several models explaining Bt toxins' mode of action. Mutations in the Plutella xylostella ATP-dependent binding cassette transporter C2 (Px-abcc2), rather than CaLP, are genetically linked with Bt Cry1Ac resistance.

DNA methylation differences between in vitro- and in vivo-conceived children are associated with ART procedures rather than infertility.

Background: We, and others, have demonstrated previously that there are differences in DNA methylation and transcript levels of a number of genes in cord blood and placenta between children conceived using assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and children conceived in vivo. The source of these differences (the effect of ART versus the underlying infertility) has never been determined in humans. In this study, we have attempted to resolve this issue by comparing placental DNA methylation levels at 37 CpG sites in 16 previously identified candidate genes in independent populations of children conceived in vivo ('fertile control' group) with ART children conceived from two groups: either autologous oocytes with infertility in one or both parents ('infertile ART' group) or donor oocytes (obtained from young fertile donors) without male infertility ('donor oocyte ART' group).

Cellular metabolic responses of the marine diatom Pseudo-nitzschia multiseries associated with cell wall formation.

In this study a comparative proteomics approach involving a mass spectrometric analysis of synchronized cells was employed to investigate the cellular-level metabolic mechanisms associated with siliceous cell wall formation in the pennate diatom Pseudo-nitzschia multiseries. Cultures of P. multiseries were synchronized using the silicate limitation method.

Over-expression of heme oxygenase-1 promotes oxidative mitochondrial damage in rat astroglia.

Glial heme oxygenase-1 is over-expressed in the CNS of subjects with Alzheimer disease (AD), Parkinson disease (PD) and multiple sclerosis (MS). Up-regulation of HO-1 in rat astroglia has been shown to facilitate iron sequestration by the mitochondrial compartment. To determine whether HO-1 induction promotes mitochondrial oxidative stress, assays for 8-epiPGF(2alpha) (ELISA), protein carbonyls (ELISA) and 8-OHdG (HPLC-EC) were used to quantify oxidative damage to lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, respectively, in mitochondrial fractions and whole-cell compartments derived from cultured rat astroglia engineered to over-express human (h) HO-1 by transient transfection.