Hemorrhagic spinal melanotic schwannoma presenting as acute chest pain: A case report and literature review.

Background: Melanotic schwannoma (MS) is a rare variant of peripheral nerve sheath tumor. MS commonly arises along the spinal nerve sheath. Patients most often experience pain along the dermatome of the affected nerve root.

Physical activity during the school day in public primary schools in Mexico City.

Objective: To quantify the physical activity (PA) of students and describe the school environment surrounding PA.

Material And Methods: Between November 2005 and March 2006, in Mexico City, we conducted quantitative and qualitative observations to describe the PA and the school context.

Results: Recess and physical education class (PE) were the only opportunities to participate in PA.

Overweight and obesity trends in Mexican children 2 to 18 years of age from 1988 to 2006.

Objective: To describe prevalences and trends of overweight and obesity/OW&OB in Mexican children from 1988 to 2006 at the national level and by relevant subpopulations.

Material And Methods: Prevalences of OW&OB in children aged 2-18 years were estimated using body mass index data from three national surveys conducted in 1988, 1999 and 2006.

Results: Prevalences of OW&OB are high in children of all ages, particularly among school-age and adolescent groups disaggregated by regions, socioeconomic status, urban and rural areas, and ethnic groups.

IL-10 overexpression differentially affects cartilage matrix gene expression in response to TNF-alpha in human articular chondrocytes in vitro.

Cartilage-specific extracellular matrix synthesis is the prerequisite for chondrocyte survival and cartilage function, but is affected by the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha in arthritis. The aim of the present study was to characterize whether the immunoregulatory cytokine IL-10 might modulate cartilage matrix and cytokine expression in response to TNF-alpha. Primary human articular chondrocytes were treated with either recombinant IL-10, TNF-alpha or a combination of both (at 10ng/mL each) or transduced with an adenoviral vector overexpressing human IL-10 and subsequently stimulated with 10ng/ml TNF-alpha for 6 or 24h.

RNA interference-mediated gene silencing in murine T cells: in vitro and in vivo validation of proinflammatory target genes.

Background: T cells play a central role in many inflammatory diseases, hence the identification and validation of T cell-specific target genes will increase the understanding of T cell function in pathologic inflammatory situations. RNA interference (RNAi), with its ability to induce specific gene silencing in mammalian cells, represents a powerful technology to investigate and validate the function of pharmaceutical target genes in vitro and in vivo. The aim of the present study was to systematically explore RNAi-mediated gene-silencing of known T cell-specific model signaling molecules in primary murine T cells in vitro and in vivo.