Anesthesia and Circulating Tumor Cells in Primary Breast Cancer Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: The effect of anesthetic drugs on cancer outcomes remains unclear. This trial aimed to assess postoperative circulating tumor cell counts-an independent prognostic factor for breast cancer-to determine how anesthesia may indirectly affect prognosis. It was hypothesized that patients receiving sevoflurane would have higher postoperative tumor cell counts.

Hypoxia of the growing liver accelerates regeneration.

Background: After portal vein ligation of 1 side of the liver, the other side regenerates at a slow rate. This slow growth may be accelerated to rapid growth by adding a transection between the 2 sides, i.e.

Propofol increases morbidity and mortality in a rat model of sepsis.

Introduction: Severe sepsis is associated with approximately 50% mortality and accounts for tremendous healthcare costs. Most patients require ventilatory support and propofol is commonly used to sedate mechanically ventilated patients. Volatile anesthetics have been shown to attenuate inflammation in a variety of different settings.

Inflammatory response of lung macrophages and epithelial cells after exposure to redox active nanoparticles: effect of solubility and antioxidant treatment.

The effects of an exposure to three mass-produced metal oxide nanoparticles-similar in size and specific surface area but different in redox activity and solubility-were studied in rat alveolar macrophages (MAC) and epithelial cells (AEC). We hypothesized that the cell response depends on the particle redox activity and solubility determining the amount of reactive oxygen species formation (ROS) and subsequent inflammatory response. MAC and AEC were exposed to different amounts of Mn3O4 (soluble, redox-active), CeO2 (insoluble, redox-active), and TiO2 (insoluble, redox-inert) up to 24 h.

Acute lung injury: apoptosis in effector and target cells of the upper and lower airway compartment.

Apoptotic cell death has been considered an underlying mechanism in acute lung injury. To evaluate the evidence of this process, apoptosis rate was determined in effector cells (alveolar macrophages, neutrophils) and target cells (tracheobronchial and alveolar epithelial cells) of the respiratory compartment upon exposure to hypoxia and endotoxin stimulation in vitro. Cells were exposed to 5% oxygen or incubated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 4, 8 and 24 h, and activity of caspase-3, -8 and -9 was determined.

The effect of hydroxyethyl starches (HES 130/0.42 and HES 200/0.5) on activated renal tubular epithelial cells.

Background: Acute renal failure is a frequent complication of sepsis. Hydroxyethyl starch (HES) is widely used in the treatment of such patients. However, the effect of HES on renal function during sepsis remains controversial.

The volatile anaesthetic sevoflurane attenuates lipopolysaccharide-induced injury in alveolar macrophages.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a well-defined inflammation whereby alveolar macrophages play a crucial role as effector cells. As shown previously in numerous experimental approaches, volatile anaesthetics might reduce the degree of injury in pre- or post-conditioning set-ups. Therefore, we were interested to evaluate the effect of the application of the volatile anaesthetic sevoflurane on alveolar macrophages regarding the expression of inflammatory mediators upon lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation in vitro.

Hypoxia attenuates effector-target cell interaction in the airway and pulmonary vascular compartment.

Leucocyte infiltration is known to play an important role in hypoxia-induced tissue damage. However, little information is available about hypoxia and interaction of effector (neutrophils) with target cells (alveolar epithelial cells, AEC; rat pulmonary artery endothelial cells, RPAEC). The goal of this study was to elucidate hypoxia-induced changes of effector-target cell interaction.

The immunomodulatory effect of sevoflurane in endotoxin-injured alveolar epithelial cells.

Background: Endotoxin-induced lung injury is a useful experimental system for the characterization of immunopathologic mechanisms in acute lung injury. Although alveolar epithelial cells (AEC) are directly exposed to volatile anesthetics, there is limited information about the effect of anesthetics on these cells. In this study we investigated the effect of pretreatment with the inhaled anesthetic sevoflurane on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-injured AEC.

The heat-sensitive Escherichia coli grpE280 phenotype: impaired interaction of GrpE(G122D) with DnaK.

GrpE is the nucleotide-exchange factor of the DnaK chaperone system. Escherichia coli cells with the classical temperature-sensitive grpE280 phenotype do not grow under heat-shock conditions and have been found to carry the G122D point mutation in GrpE. To date, the molecular mechanism of this defect has not been investigated in detail.

Inflammatory response of tracheobronchial epithelial cells to endotoxin.

Respiratory epithelial cells play a crucial role in the inflammatory response in endotoxin-induced lung injury, an experimental model for acute lung injury. To determine the role of epithelial cells in the upper respiratory compartment in the inflammatory response to endotoxin, we exposed tracheobronchial epithelial cells (TBEC) to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Expression of inflammatory mediators was analyzed, and the biological implications were assessed using chemotaxis and adherence assays.