Protective role of IL-6 in vascular remodeling in Schistosoma pulmonary hypertension.

Schistosomiasis is one of the most common causes of pulmonary arterial hypertension worldwide, but the pathogenic mechanism by which the host inflammatory response contributes to vascular remodeling is unknown. We sought to identify signaling pathways that play protective or pathogenic roles in experimental Schistosoma-induced pulmonary vascular disease via whole-lung transcriptome analysis. Wild-type mice were experimentally exposed to Schistosoma mansoni ova by intraperitoneal sensitization followed by tail-vein augmentation, and the phenotype was assessed by right ventricular catheterization and tissue histology, as well as RNA and protein analysis.

Rapid and sensitive detection of 68 unique varicella zoster virus gene transcripts in five multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions.

Varicella zoster virus (VZV) becomes latent in ganglionic neurons along the entire neuraxis. Although all predicted VZV open reading frames (ORFs) have been detected by macroarray and microarray analysis in virus-infected cells in culture where virus gene expression is abundant, array technology does not detect all VZV gene transcripts in latently infected human ganglia, where the abundance of ganglionic RNA is low and VZV gene transcription is highly variable. Using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the GenomeLab Genetic Analysis System (GeXPS), transcripts mapping to all 68 predicted unique VZV ORFs were detected in VZV-infected MeWo cells.