Associations between dietary patterns and parameters of ovarian reserve in Polish women of reproductive age.

Objectives: Research investigating the association between reproductive health and diet has predominantly focused on the antenatal and prenatal periods, as well as childbirth in women, and semen quality in men. There is a limited amount of research addressing female fertility assessed as ovarian reserve in relation to diet. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the association between dietary patterns and the parameters of ovarian reserve, such as antral follicle count (AFC), anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and estradiol (E2) - predictors of reproductive health in women of childbearing age.

Exposure to air pollution and ovarian reserve parameters.

Exposure to air pollution is associated with many different health effects, especially cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Additionally, highly significant links between exposure to air pollution and fertility, particularly male fertility was observed, however the studies regarding exposure to selected air pollutants and female fertility assessed by ovarian reserve are rare. Hence, the main aim of the study was to analyze relationship between exposure to ambient air pollution and ovarian reserve parameters among Polish women.

[Occupational carcinogens and mutagens in Poland - occurrence and workers' exposure in the years 2018-2021 based on the data from Central register of carcinogenic or mutagenic agents].

Background: Central register of data on exposure to carcinogenic or mutagenic chemical substances, their mixtures, agents or technological processes (CRCR) conducted by Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine (NIOM) enables monitoring of such agents occurrence in working environment in Poland. The NIOM conducts CRCR based on the provisions of the Regulation of the Minister of Health of 24 July 2012 on chemical substances, their mixtures, agents or technological processes with carcinogenic or mutagenic effects in the work environment. The work summarizes the information reported to CRCR in 2018-2021.

An exposure to endocrine active persistent pollutants and endometriosis - a review of current epidemiological studies.

Widespread exposure to persistent pollutants can disrupt the bodies' natural endocrine functions and contribute to reproductive diseases like endometriosis. In this review, we focus at the relationship between endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), including metals and trace elements, organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), poly-brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated dibenzodioxin (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure and risk of endometriosis. Relevant studies from the last 10 years by November 2022 were identified by searching Pubmed, Web of Science, and Scopus.

Environmental Exposure to Non-Persistent Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Endometriosis: A Systematic Review.

Endometriosis is a disease characterized by the presence of the uterine endometrium outside of its normal location. As the etiology of endometriosis is not well known and hormonal imbalance is central to disease pathogenesis, the potential contribution of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) has been hypothesized in endometriosis. A systematic search of the literature was carried out to identify relevant studies using: PubMed, Scopus, Elsevier, Springer; EBSCO, and Web of Science.

Plasma Amino Acids May Improve Prediction Accuracy of Cerebral Vasospasm after Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Haemorrhage.

Aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhages (aSAH) account for 5% of strokes and continues to place a great burden on patients and their families. Cerebral vasospasm (CVS) is one of the main causes of death after aSAH, and is usually diagnosed between day 3 and 14 after bleeding. Its pathogenesis remains poorly understood.

Plasma amino acids indicate glioblastoma with ATRX loss.

Glioblastoma (GB) is the most common primary brain tumour in adults. The lack of molecular biomarker, non-specific symptoms and fast growth rate often result in a significant delay in diagnosis. Despite multimodal treatment, the prognosis remains poor.

Polyphenol Extract from Evening Primrose () Inhibits Invasion Properties of Human Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Cells.

Extracts from the defatted evening primrose ( Hudziok) seeds are the source of a range of stable polyphenolic compounds, including ellagic acid, gallic acid, and catechin. Our studies evaluate, for the first time, the influence of evening primrose isopropanol extract (EPE) on malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) cells. MPM is rarely diagnosed, its high aggressiveness and frequently noted chemoresistance limit its treatment schemes and it is characterized by low prognostic features.

Synthesis of 1-indanones with a broad range of biological activity.

This comprehensive review describes methods for the preparation of 1-indanones published in original and patent literature from 1926 to 2017. More than 100 synthetic methods utilizing carboxylic acids, esters, diesters, acid chlorides, ketones, alkynes, alcohols etc. as starting materials, have been performed.

Metabolomic Insight into Lipid and Protein Profile in Diabetes Using Mass Spectrometry.

In recent years, metabolomics has become a necessary tool for understanding the impact of external and pathological factors on the operation of biological systems. The first reports of metabolomics date back to the 1970s, however, the area only began to develop dynamically at the beginning of this century and has proved effective only during the present decade. The five primary tools used in this form of analysis are NMR spectrometry, HPLC, TLC-UV, GC-MS and LC-MS/MS, with MS as the most universal approach, particularly when used together with chromatographic separation and NMR.

High Cytotoxic Activity of Phosphonium Salts and Their Complementary Selectivity towards HeLa and K562 Cancer Cells: Identification of Tri-n-butyl-n-hexadecylphosphonium bromide as a Highly Potent Anti-HeLa Phosphonium Salt.

Quaternary ammonium and phosphonium salts have been screened for their toxic effect on HeLa and K562 cancer cell lines, as well as on normal HUVEC cells. Tri-n-butyl-n-hexadecylphosphonium bromide, the first phosphonium salt with a halogen anion tested against HeLa cells, was 12 times more potent (IC50 <5 μm after 24 and 48 h) than the clinically used reference compound cisplatin and 17 times more potent than tri-n-hexyltetradecylphosphonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first phosphonium salt to be evaluated in HeLa cells. However, it was inactive against K562 cells (24 and 48 h).

Assessing tear film on soft contact lenses with lateral shearing interferometry.

Objectives: Evaluating precorneal tear film is one of important clinical measurements for assessing health of anterior eye. Contact lens wear is known to influence the quality of tear film. The aim was to evaluate the applicability of lateral shearing interferometry technique in the noninvasive assessment of the effects of contact lens replacement modality and its water content on tear film stability.

Predicting dry eye using noninvasive techniques of tear film surface assessment.

Purpose: To measure tear film surface quality in healthy and dry eye subjects using three noninvasive techniques of tear film quality assessment and to establish the ability of these noninvasive techniques to predict dry eye.

Methods: Thirty-four subjects participated in the study and were classified as dry eye or normal, based on standard clinical assessments. Three noninvasive techniques were applied for measurement of tear film surface quality: dynamic-area high-speed videokeratoscopy (HSV), wavefront sensing (DWS), and lateral shearing interferometry (LSI).

Lateral shearing interferometry, dynamic wavefront sensing, and high-speed videokeratoscopy for noninvasive assessment of tear film surface characteristics: a comparative study.

There are several noninvasive techniques for assessing the kinetics of tear film, but no comparative studies have been conducted to evaluate their efficacies. Our aim is to test and compare techniques based on high-speed videokeratoscopy (HSV), dynamic wavefront sensing (DWS), and lateral shearing interferometry (LSI). Algorithms are developed to estimate the tear film build-up time T(BLD), and the average tear film surface quality in the stable phase of the interblink interval TFSQ(Av).

Lateral shearing interferometry for analysis of tear film surface kinetics.

Purpose: To date, there have been no measuring techniques available that could clearly identify all phases of tear film surface kinetics in one interblink interval.

Methods: Using a series of cases, we show that lateral shearing interferometry equipped with a set of robust parameter estimation techniques is able to characterize up to five different phases of tear film surface kinetics that include: (i) initial fast tear film build-up phase, (ii) further slower tear film build-up phase, (iii) tear film stability, (iv) tear film thinning, and (v), after a detected break-up, subsequent tear film deterioration.

Results: Several representative examples are given for estimating tear film surface kinetics in measurements in which the subjects were asked to blink and keep their eyes open as long as they could.

Robust estimation of tear film surface quality in lateral shearing interferometry.

Interferometry is a sensitive technique for recording tear film surface irregularities in a noninvasive manner. At the same time, the technique is hindered by natural eye movements resulting in measurement noise. Estimating tear film surface quality from interferograms can be reduced to a spatial-average-localized weighted estimate of the first harmonic of the interference fringes.

Examination of tear film smoothness on corneae after refractive surgeries using a noninvasive interferometric method.

A lateral shearing interferometer was used to examine the smoothness of the tear film. The information about the distribution and stability of the precorneal tear film is carried out by the wavefront reflected from the surface of tears and coded in interference fringes. Smooth and regular fringes indicate a smooth tear film surface.

Numerical analysis of interferograms for evaluation of tear film build-up time.

The lateral shearing interferometer was applied to the in vivo dynamic investigation of the external surface of the pre-corneal tear film after an eye blink. Sequences of interferograms were recorded at a sampling frequency of 25 Hz. Immediately after every eye blink, a bright pattern was observed under the interference fringes.

An interferometric method for the dynamic evaluation of the tear film.

Purpose: This study describes a non-invasive method for the in vivo assessment of precorneal tear film stability.

Methods: A lateral shearing interferometer (LSI) is used for the measurement. The interference fringes obtained from the tear film layer are analysed using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) technique.

Interferometric measurements of dynamic changes of tear film.

Tear film stability plays an important role in the quality of vision. We present an interferometric method for assessing the stability of precorneal tear film in real time. A lateral shearing technique is applied as a noninvasive and sensitive method for investigating tear film stability and the smoothness of the tear film surface by quantitative evaluation of the interference fringe pattern.

Regulatory light chains of striated muscle myosin. Structure, function and malfunction.

Striated (skeletal and cardiac) muscle is activated by the binding of Ca(2+) to troponin C and is regulated by the thin filament proteins, tropomyosin and troponin. Unlike in molluscan or smooth muscles, the myosin regulatory light chains (RLC) of striated muscles do not play a major regulatory role and their function is still not well understood. The N-terminal domain of RLC contains a 'Ca(2+)-Mg(2+)'-binding site and, analogous to that of smooth muscle myosin, also contains a phosphorylation site.

Phosphorylation of the regulatory light chains of myosin affects Ca2+ sensitivity of skeletal muscle contraction.

The role of phosphorylation of the myosin regulatory light chains (RLC) is well established in smooth muscle contraction, but in striated (skeletal and cardiac) muscle its role is still controversial. We have studied the effects of RLC phosphorylation in reconstituted myosin and in skinned skeletal muscle fibers where Ca2+ sensitivity and the kinetics of steady-state force development were measured. Skeletal muscle myosin reconstituted with phosphorylated RLC produced a much higher Ca2+ sensitivity of thin filament-regulated ATPase activity than nonphosphorylated RLC (change in -log of the Ca2+ concentration producing half-maximal activation = approximately 0.

Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutations in the regulatory light chains of myosin affect their structure, Ca2+ binding, and phosphorylation.

The effect of the familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutations, A13T, F18L, E22K, R58Q, and P95A, found in the regulatory light chains of human cardiac myosin has been investigated. The results demonstrate that E22K and R58Q, located in the immediate extension of the helices flanking the regulatory light chain Ca(2+) binding site, had dramatically altered Ca(2+) binding properties. The K(Ca) value for E22K was decreased by approximately 17-fold compared with the wild-type light chain, and the R58Q mutant did not bind Ca(2+).