Effect of dexamethasone on human osteoblasts in culture: involvement of β1 integrin and integrin-linked kinase.

Adhesive interactions play a critical role in cell biology, influencing vital processes from proliferation to cell death. Integrins regulate cell-ECM (extracellular matrix) adhesion and must associate with phosphorylating proteins such as ILK (integrin-linked kinase). Dysregulation of ILK expression is associated with anchorage-independent growth, cell survival and inhibition of apoptosis.

The evolution of diabetic chronic complications after pancreas transplantation.

Pancreas transplantation is an invasive procedure that can restore and maintain normoglycemic level very successfully and for a prolonged period in DM1 patients. The procedure elevates the morbimortality rates in the first few months following the surgery if compared to kidney transplants with living donors, but it offers a better quality of life to patients.Although controversial, several studies have shown the stabilization or the improvement of some of the chronic complications related to diabetes, as well as the extra number of years of life that patients submitted to a double pancreas-kidney transplantation may gain.

International Study of Wheezing in Infants (EISL): validation of written questionnaire for children aged below 3 years.

Background: The multicenter International Study of Wheezing in Infants (EISL) was developed to study the prevalence of recurrent wheezing and related risk factors in infants during the first year of life using a written questionnaire (EISL-WQ).

Objectives: To constructively validate a modified, shortened version of the EISL-WQ in children up to 36 months of age in São Paulo, Brazil, and to verify its usefulness in diagnosing probable asthma in these children.

Methods: The parents of 170 infants aged 12 to 36 months answered the shortened EISL-WQ in an emergency room and were asked if their child was currently wheezing before a diagnosis was made by a physician.

Evaluation of quality of life in children and teenagers with allergic rhinitis: adaptation and validation of the Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ).

Background: in the last decades, the study on life quality has stimulated an increasing interest among health researchers. Instruments to evaluate the chronic disease impact on patients day-by-day, have been developed and published by researchers in many countries. The objective of this study was to adapt to the Portuguese Language (Brazilian culture), the RQLQ questionnaire (Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire), destined for life quality evaluation in teenagers with allergic rhinitis.