Identification of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by measurement of plasma biomarkers.

Introduction: Inflammation is an important constituent of the pathology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), leading to alveolar destruction and airway remodelling.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the difference in plasma biomarkers of inflammation between asymptomatic smokers and patients with COPD.

Methods: We used commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits to measure the plasma levels of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-8 (IL-8), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-2 (TIMP-2) on two occasions with a 2-week interval in patients with COPD (n = 20), asymptomatic smokers (n = 10) and healthy lifelong non-smokers (n = 10).

Design of a fast multileaf collimator for radiobiological optimized IMRT with scanned beams of photons, electrons, and light ions.

Intensity modulated radiation therapy is rapidly becoming the treatment of choice for most tumors with respect to minimizing damage to the normal tissues and maximizing tumor control. Today, intensity modulated beams are most commonly delivered using segmental multileaf collimation, although an increasing number of radiation therapy departments are employing dynamic multileaf collimation. The irradiation time using dynamic multileaf collimation depends strongly on the nature of the desired dose distribution, and it is difficult to reduce this time to less than the sum of the irradiation times for all individual peak heights using dynamic leaf collimation [Svensson et al.

Radiation transport calculations for 50 MV photon therapy beam using the Monte Carlo code GEANT4.

A new thin transmission target technique for fast dose delivery using narrow scanned photon beams has been developed. High-energy, 50-100 MeV, electron beams of low emittance incident on thin low-Z targets produce narrow and intense high-energy bremsstrahlung beams. However, electrons transmitted through the target are bent from the therapeutic beam by a purging magnet and have to be effectively absorbed in a dedicated electron collector.

Evidence for a protein transported through the secretory pathway en route to the higher plant chloroplast.

In contrast to animal and fungal cells, green plant cells contain one or multiple chloroplasts, the organelle(s) in which photosynthetic reactions take place. Chloroplasts are believed to have originated from an endosymbiotic event and contain DNA that codes for some of their proteins. Most chloroplast proteins are encoded by the nuclear genome and imported with the help of sorting signals that are intrinsic parts of the polypeptides.

Inhibition of lipopolysaccharide-mediated human monocyte activation, in vitro, by alpha1-antitrypsin.

alpha1-Antitrypsin (AAT) is a major circulating and tissue inhibitor of serine proteinases. As such AAT is thought to play an important role in limiting host tissue injury at sites of inflammation. There is now increasing evidence, however, that AAT may exhibit biological activity independent of its protease inhibitor function.

Natural allergen exposure does not diminish the sensitivity of cytokine production to glucocorticosteroids in blood cells of seasonal allergic asthma and rhinitis patients.

Glucocorticosteroid (GCS) inhibition of cytokine production is a major anti-inflammatory mechanism. However, increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines during allergic airway inflammation has been proposed to reduce GCS effects. This study aimed to investigate whether allergic airway inflammation due to natural allergen exposure might decrease the sensitivity of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) production to GCS in blood cells.