Development, implementation and evaluation of a multinational FLS mentorship programme in Latin America.

Unlabelled: Realising the benefits of systematic secondary fracture prevention requires supporting local sites to get started and becoming effective. We here describe the development, implementation and impact of a regional fracture liaison service (FLS) mentorship programme in Latin America that led to 64 FLS getting started and coverage of 17,205 patients.

Introduction: Despite treatments and service models to deliver effective secondary fracture prevention, most patients are left untreated after a fragility fracture.

High-throughput behavioral phenotyping of tiny arthropods: Chemosensory traits in a mesostigmatic hematophagous mite.

Pest management using attractive and/or repellent semiochemicals is a key alternative to synthetic insecticides. Its implementation requires a good understanding of the intra- and interspecific chemical interactions of arthropod pests, their interactions with their abiotic environment, as well as their evolutionary dynamics. Although mites include many pest species and biocontrol agents of economic importance in agriculture, their chemical ecology is largely understudied compared to insects.

Population dynamics of a poultry hematophagous mite: characterization of the population growth and identification of factors of its slowdown using closed mesocosms.

Background: A thorough knowledge of the population dynamics of pests and of the main factors affecting population growth is an important prerequisite for the development of effective control strategies. Failures of various treatments aimed at regulating populations of Dermanyssus gallinae are regularly reported in poultry farms and pullulations occur very quickly after first detection. To finely characterize population dynamics of D.

Population-level impact of native arthropod predators on the poultry red mite Dermanyssus gallinae.

Stimulating the regulation of pests by their natural enemies is a way to improve the sustainability of agriculture and respect for the environment. However, the presence of natural enemies does not guarantee the existence of a pest control service. To what extent are predatory mites commonly found in henhouses actually able to regulate a major egg industry pest mite, Dermanyssus gallinae? To answer this question, we have experimentally recreated portions of a poultry house ecosystem allowing the development of the pest over several generations in the presence of a chick and detritivorous mites (Astigmata) that are ubiquitous and abundant in layer farms.

Clusters of Oxygen Interstitials in UO and α-UO: Structure and Arrangements.

We use the Second Moment Tight Binding with charge eQuilibration (SMTB-Q) advanced empirical potential to study clusters of oxygen interstitials in hyperstoichiometric UO. This potential reproduces the trends obtained from density functional theory calculations. We exhibit a new form of cuboctahedron that proves to be the most stable oxygen cluster in UO.

Localization of the NRAS:BCL-2 complex determines anti-apoptotic features associated with progressive disease in myelodysplastic syndromes.

We have previously demonstrated that two prognostic features of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), mutant NRAS and over-expressing BCL-2, cooperate physically and functionally in vivo. Screening of MDS patient bone marrow (BM) identified NRAS:BCL-2 co-localization in 64% cases, correlating with percentage BM blasts, apoptotic features and disease status (p<0.0001).

BCL-2 and mutant NRAS interact physically and functionally in a mouse model of progressive myelodysplasia.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clonal stem cell hematologic disorders that evolve to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and thus model multistep leukemogenesis. Activating RAS mutations and overexpression of BCL-2 are prognostic features of MDS/AML transformation. Using NRASD12 and BCL-2, we created two distinct models of MDS and AML, where human (h)BCL-2 is conditionally or constitutively expressed.

Epigenetic patterns of the retinoic acid receptor beta2 promoter in retinoic acid-resistant thyroid cancer cells.

Treatment with retinoic acid (RA) is effective to restore radioactive iodine uptake in metastases of a small fraction of thyroid cancer patients. In order to find predictive markers of response, we took advantage of two thyroid cancer cell lines, FTC133 and FTC238, with low RA-receptor (RAR)beta expression but differing in their response to RA. We report that in both cell lines, RA signalling pathways are functional, as transactivation of an exogenous RARbeta2 promoter is effective in the presence of pharmacological concentrations of all-trans RA, and enhanced in RA-resistant FTC238 cells after ectopical expression of RARbeta, suggesting a defective endogenous RARbeta2 promoter in these cells.

Glycoprotein 170 induces platelet-activating factor receptor membrane expression and confers tumor cell hypersensitivity to NK-dependent cell lysis.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) confers resistance to anticancer drugs and reduces therapeutic efficiency. It is often characterized by the expression of the MDR1 gene product P-glycoprotein (or gp170) at the membrane of tumor cells. To further propose a potential complementary tool in cancer treatment, the sensitivity of gp170 tumor cells to NK-dependent lysis was investigated.

Evolution of scoliosis in six children treated with growth hormone.

During a period of 6 years to 11 years, the authors have been following six girls with scoliosis and treated with growth hormone (GH) for a growth insufficiency. The treatment with GH started after the discovery of the scoliosis for five patients. Three curve progressions have been observed, but always in the puberty period.

Interferon-gamma-induced membrane PAF-receptor expression confers tumor cell susceptibility to NK perforin-dependent lysis.

Perforin is known to display a membranolytic activity on tumor cells. Nevertheless, perforin release during natural killer (NK)-cell activation is not sufficient to induce membrane target-cell damage. On the basis of the ability of perforin to interact with phospholipids containing a choline phosphate headgroup, we identify the platelet-activating factor (PAF) and its membrane receptor as crucial components in tumor cell killing activity of human resting NK cells.

Perforin and granzyme B lytic protein expression during chronic viral and autoimmune hepatitis.

Background: Cytotoxic T lymphocytes and Kupffer cells are essential components of the immune response during liver diseases. Recent studies have highlighted the role of cytotoxic T lymphocytes using Fas and its ligand in induced hepatocyte death during acute and chronic hepatitis.

Methods: In the present work, the main purpose was to investigate perforin and granzyme B expression in liver biopsies of patients with chronic hepatitis (10 HBV, 14 HCV and 10 autoimmune hepatitis) using immunohistochemistry.

Acquisition of granzyme B and Fas ligand proteins by human keratinocytes contributes to epidermal cell defense.

In vertebrate tissues, cell integrity is maintained by at least three mechanisms. During an immune response, injured cells are eliminated by cytotoxic lymphoid cells that produce perforin, granzyme B, and Fas ligand (FasL). Second, epithelial cells can produce FasL as an immunosuppressive protein, probably to protect the tissue against immune-mediated damage.

Granzyme B and perforin lytic proteins are expressed in CD34+ peripheral blood progenitor cells mobilized by chemotherapy and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor.

Granzyme B and perforin are cytoplasmic granule-associated proteins used by cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells to kill their targets. However, granzyme B gene expression has also been detected in a non-cytotoxic hematopoietic murine multipotent stem cell line, FDCP-Mix. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether granzyme B and perforin could be expressed in human hematopoietic CD34+ cells and if present, discover what their physiologic relevance could be.

[Palliative celioscopic gastrojejunal anastomosis in the treatment of neoplastic duodenal stenoses].

Gastroenterostomy procedure is actually the best palliative treatment for malignant duodenal obstruction, unresectable or with hepatic metastases. The authors reported a technique by laparoscopic way. This technique has been performed in 30d patients with good results.

Cord blood T lymphocytes lack constitutive perforin expression in contrast to adult peripheral blood T lymphocytes.

Perforin is the cytolytic pore-forming protein, which alone can be responsible for the lethal hit in one of the killing mechanisms used by natural killer (NK) cells or cytotoxic T lymphocytes. In this study, perforin expression was investigated in cord blood (CB) lymphocytes to determine their killing potential in vivo. The majority of CB CD3- NK cells had the protein.

[Protruding dermatofibrosarcoma. An unusual cutaneous tumor].

Local reoccurrence of protuberant dermatofibrosarcoma was seen in a female patient 3 years after exeresis. We reviewed the data in the literature on the physical examination, outcome, histology and therapeutic approach. The Darier and Ferrand dermatofibroma is a very unusual skin tumour which develops in the dermal layer.

Perforin and granzyme B expression is associated with severe acute rejection. Evidence for in situ localization in alveolar lymphocytes of lung-transplanted patients.

To evaluate rejection episodes in lung-transplanted patients, we analyzed 31 bronchoalveolar lavage specimens for lymphocyte levels and lymphocyte expression of two intracytoplasmic activation markers, perforin, the pore-forming lytic protein, and granzyme B, a member of the serine esterase family. Using anti-human granzyme B and perforin mAbs, we show that their expression in alveolar lymphocytes is correlated with the severity of rejection as assessed by histological parameters and the patients' clinical status. The presence of these molecules may provide a prognostic parameter that will facilitate the patients' monitoring, particularly in cases with minimal acute lung rejection susceptible to rapid progression to severe rejection.

Granzyme B and perforin can be used as predictive markers of acute rejection in heart transplantation.

We have investigated perforin and granzyme B expression in graft-infiltrating lymphocytes of patients who underwent heart transplantation. Those proteins are commonly present in the cytoplasmic granules of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and are released upon effector-target cell interaction. From 28 patients 103 endomyocardial biopsies were obtained and examined by histology and immunocytochemical analysis using relevant monoclonal antibodies.

Dissociation of natural killer and lymphocyte-activated killer cell lytic activities in human CD3- large granular lymphocytes.

CD3- large granular lymphocytes (LGL) are known to display natural killer cell (NK) activity without prior sensitization or restriction by major histocompatibility antigens. Upon short-term exposure to interleukin-2, NK cells were shown to acquire lymphocyte-activated killer cell (LAK) activity. The aim of this study was to analyze the characteristics of these lytic activities.