The beneficial effect of plasmapheresis in mixed connective tissue disease with coexisting antiphospholipid syndrome.

The authors report a rare case of a female patient with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) with coexisting antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Five years after the diagnosis of MCTD high concentrations of anticardiolipin (anti-CL) and anti-β2-glycoprotein (anti-β2GPI) autoantibodies were present in the patient's serum without thrombotic events. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation provoked APS, with the clinical manifestations of livedo reticularis, digital gangrene and leg ulcers.

Infarct density distribution by MRI in the porcine model of acute and chronic myocardial infarction as a potential method transferable to the clinic.

To study the feasibility of a myocardial infarct (MI) quantification method [signal intensity-based percent infarct mapping (SI-PIM)] that is able to evaluate not only the size, but also the density distribution of the MI. In 14 male swine, MI was generated by 90 min of closed-chest balloon occlusion followed by reperfusion. Seven (n = 7) or 56 (n = 7) days after reperfusion, Gd-DTPA-bolus and continuous-infusion enhanced late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) MRI, and R1-mapping were carried out and post mortem triphenyl-tetrazolium-chloride (TTC) staining was performed.

Various-sourced pectin and polyethylene oxide electrospun fibers.

Pectin, a naturally occurring and biorenewable polysaccharide, is derived from plant cell wall tissue and used in applications ranging from food processing to biomedical engineering. Due to extraction methods and source variation, there is currently no consensus in literature as to the exact structure of pectin. Here, we have studied key material properties of electrospun pectin blends with polyethylene oxide (PEO) (1:1, v/v) in order to demonstrate the fabrication of a fibrous and less toxic material system, as well as to understand the effects of source variability on the resulting fibrous mats.

Mapping complex traits using families of recombinant inbred strains: an overview and example of mapping susceptibility to Candida albicans induced illness phenotypes.

This overview and data-based example indicate how large families of recombinant inbred (RI) strains can be used to identify genetic loci and genes that underlie complex phenotypic differences among inbred mice. The RI approach requires no a priori expectations or assumptions about mechanisms that influence the phenotype, other than that variability is partly heritable. RI strains, which are produced by inbreeding the F2 progeny of two parental strains for at least 20 generations, have two major advantages.

Effects of sleep fragmentation on sleep and markers of inflammation in mice.

Many people in our society experience curtailment and disruption of sleep due to work responsibilities, care-giving, or life style choice. Delineating the health effect of acute and chronic disruptions in sleep is essential to raising awareness of and creating interventions to manage these prevalent concerns. To provide a platform for studying the health impact and underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms associated with inadequate sleep, we developed and characterized an approach to creating chronic disruption of sleep in laboratory mice.

Sealing of hard CrN and DLC coatings with atomic layer deposition.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a thin film deposition technique that is based on alternating and saturating surface reactions of two or more gaseous precursors. The excellent conformality of ALD thin films can be exploited for sealing defects in coatings made by other techniques. Here the corrosion protection properties of hard CrN and diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings on low alloy steel were improved by ALD sealing with 50 nm thick layers consisting of Al2O3 and Ta2O5 nanolaminates or mixtures.

Effects of housing condition and cage change on characteristics of sleep in mice.

Although human subjects are widely used to study sleep and sleep disorders, animals have been invaluable in developing our understanding of the physiology of sleep and underlying mechanisms of sleep disorders. Environmental stimuli are likely to modify sleep in both animals and people, suggesting that environmental stability must be controlled carefully by both husbandry and research staff to allow collection of valid results with minimal numbers of animals. However, few studies have measured the effects of cage condition on sleep parameters in mice.

Factors associated with pelvic fracture-related arterial bleeding during trauma resuscitation: a prospective clinical study.

Objectives: To determine predictors of pelvic fracture-related arterial bleeding (PFRAB) from the information available in the Emergency Department (ED).

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Single level-1 Trauma Center.

Autologous dendritic cell based adoptive immunotherapy of patients with colorectal cancer-A phase I-II study.

Dendritic cell-based active immunotherapies of cancer patients are aimed to provoke the proliferation and differentiation of tumor-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-lymphocytes towards protective effector cells. Isolation and in vitro differentiation of circulating blood monocytes has been established a reasonable platform for adoptively transferred DC-based immunotherapies. In the present study the safety and tolerability of vaccination by autologous tumor cell lysates (oncolysate)- or carcinoembriogenic antigen (CEA)-loaded DCs in patients with colorectal cancer was investigated in a phase I-II trial.

Occurrence of bladder metastasis 10 years after surgical removal of a primary gastric cancer: a case report and review of the literature.

Introduction: Secondary bladder neoplasms are uncommon and they represent only 2% of all malignant bladder tumors.

Case Presentation: The authors present a case of a 59-year-old Caucasian man with a primary gastric adenocarcinoma that had been surgically removed 10 years before he developed bladder metastasis. He presented with low abdominal pain after 10 years without any symptoms.

Evaluation of experimental myocardial infarction models via electromechanical mapping and magnetic resonance imaging.

The diagnostic characteristics of electromechanical mapping (EMM) were evaluated in porcine myocardial infarction (MI) models with the parallel application of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) from the aspect of different pathophysiology and localization. Balloon occlusion in the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD balloon group) or coil deployment in the LAD (LAD coil group) or circumflex artery (Cx coil group) was applied percutaneously in 16 domestic pigs. Regional left ventricular viability data were captured via cMRI and EMM.

Alternatives for the intensive follow-up after curative resection of colorectal cancer. Potential novel biomarkers for the recommendations.

Early diagnosis of recurrence and metastasis of colorectal cancer following surgery of curative intent is of vital importance in terms of survival and quality of life. The consistent implementation of appropriate patient follow-up strategy is therefore essential. Debates over the methodology, evaluation and strategy of follow-up have been known for many years, and continue today.

Environmental perturbation, inflammation and behavior in healthy and virus-infected mice.

The development of so-called "sickness behaviors" (e.g., anorexia, anhedonia, reduced social interaction, fatigue) during infectious and inflammatory disease has been linked to facets of the immune response.

Animal care practices in experiments on biological rhythms and sleep: report of the Joint Task Force of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms and the Sleep Research Society.

Many physiological and molecular processes are strongly rhythmic and profoundly influenced by sleep. The continuing effort of biological, medical, and veterinary science to understand the temporal organization of cellular, physiological, behavioral and cognitive function holds great promise for the improvement of the welfare of animals and human beings. As a result, attending veterinarians and IACUC are often charged with the responsibility of evaluating experiments on such rhythms or the effects of sleep (or its deprivation) in vertebrate animals.

Does the result of completion axillary lymph node dissection influence the recommendation for adjuvant treatment in sentinel lymph node-positive patients?

Objective: The Hungarian National Institute of Oncology has just closed a single-center randomized clinical study. The Optimal Treatment of the Axilla-Surgery or Radiotherapy (OTOASOR) trial compares completion axillary lymph node dissection (cALND) with regional nodal irradiation (RNI) in patients with sentinel lymph node-positive (SLN+) primary invasive breast cancer. In the investigational treatment arm, patients received 50 Gy RNI instead of cALND.

Cytokine and chemokine responses of lung exposed to surrogate viral and bacterial infections.

The use of in vitro models of complex in vivo systems has yielded many insights into the molecular mechanisms that underlie normal and pathologic physiology. However although the reduced complexity of these models is advantageous with regard to some research questions, the simplification may obscure or eliminate key influences that occur in vivo. We sought to examine this possibility with regard to the lung's response to infection, which may be inherent to resident lung cells or related to the systemic response to pulmonary infection.

Animal models of sleep disorders.

Problems with sleep affect a large part of the general population, with more than half of all people in the United States reporting difficulties with sleep or insufficient sleep at various times and about 40 million affected chronically. Sleep is a complex physiologic process that is influenced by many internal and environmental factors, and problems with sleep are often related to specific personal circumstances or are based on subjective reports from the affected person. Although human subjects are used widely in the study of sleep and sleep disorders, the study of animals has been invaluable in developing our understanding about the physiology of sleep and the underlying mechanisms of sleep disorders.

[Splenic vein aneurysm -- a case report].

Authors report a very rare case of splenic vein aneurysm in a 34-year-old female patient. She underwent investigation for upper abdominal pain which was not related to eating. Diagnostic workup revealed a thin wall saccular splenic vein aneurysm of 40 mm in diameter which caused an indentation of the posterior wall of the pancreas.

Mechanism of the irreversible inhibition of human cyclooxygenase-1 by aspirin as predicted by QM/MM calculations.

Acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) suppresses the generation of prostaglandin H2, which is the precursor of thromboxane A2. Aspirin acts as an acetylating agent in which its acetyl group is covalently attached to a serine residue (S530) in the active site of the cyclooxygenase-1 enzyme. The exact reaction mechanism has not been revealed by experimental methods.

Testicular ischemia-reperfusion may alter micro-rheological parameters in laboratory rats.

Ischemia-reperfusion-caused hemorheological alterations have been widely studied but the effect of testicular ischemia-reperfusion has not so far. In this study 14 Sprague-Dawley rats were involved. In the ischemia-reperfusion group under general anaesthesia the left testis was explored by opening the scrotum then the deferent duct and vasculature were clamped for 30 minutes.