Liver Damage and Exposure to Toxic Concentrations of Endogenous Retinoids in the Pathogenesis of COVID-19 Disease: Hypothesis.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a marked tropism for the biliary tract; it damages the bile ducts and hepatocytes and can lead to liver decompensation, cirrhosis, and sepsis. The pathogenesis of liver damage and its association with damage to the lung, heart, and brain and to the other protean manifestations of COVID-19 disease are not fully understood. In particular, tissue damage from thinning and leaky blood vessels appears to result from an inflammatory response to the virus rather than the virus itself.

Curcumin attenuates autoimmunity and renal injury in an experimental model of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disorder with prevalent hypertension and renal disease. To avoid side effects of immunosuppressive drugs, alternative therapies are needed. Curcumin has been used in Eastern medicine for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

Human recombinant relaxin-2 does not attenuate hypertension or renal injury but exacerbates vascular dysfunction in a female mouse model of SLE.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that disproportionately affects women of reproductive age and increases their risk for developing hypertension, vascular, and renal disease. Relaxin has potential beneficial therapeutic effects in cardiovascular disease through direct actions on the vasculature. The potential therapeutic benefit of relaxin on SLE-associated cardiovascular and renal risk factors like hypertension has not previously been tested.

Hospital Management of Acute Decompensated Heart Failure.

Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of hospitalizations for elderly adults in the United States. One in 5 Americans will be >65 years of age by 2050. Because of the high prevalence of HF in this group, the number of Americans requiring hospitalization for this disorder is expected to rise significantly.

Using the laws of thermodynamics to understand how matrix metalloproteinases coordinate the myocardial response to injury.

Following myocardial infarction (MI), the left ventricle (LV) undergoes a series of molecular, cellular, and functional alterations that are both part of the wound healing response to form a scar in the infarct region and the consequence of that response. Using the laws of thermodynamics as an analogy, we present here three laws for categorizing the post-MI LV remodeling process. The first law is that the LV will attempt to maintain equilibrium and compensate as a way to maximize function, the second law is that remodeling is progressive and unidirectional, and the third law is that the final goal is (ideally, but not always achievable) a stable, equilibrated scar.

Prognostic value of cardiac-specific troponins in intracranial hemorrhage.

Background: Cardiac-specific troponin (Tn) serum concentrations have proved to be important diagnostic and prognostic markers for acute myocardial infarction. Elevated levels in the setting of noncardiac diseases such as intracerebral hemorrhage also may provide useful prognostic information regarding outcome.

Methods: A systematic review of the English-language medical literature was performed using PubMed.

Pulmonary emboli from therapeutic sodium hyaluronate.

A patient presented with shortness of breath and pleuritic pain shortly after bilateral knee synovial injections with sodium hyaluronate (HA). He was discharged after a brief hospitalization without a diagnosis when no Doppler or radiologic evidence of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary emboli was found. Radiologic studies found patchy ground glass opacities that were predominantly peripheral in disposition, with prominent septal lines in the lungs; a subsequent pulmonary function test showed a reduced diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (D(LCO)).

Hexose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-1 tissue distribution in the rat.

Intracellular concentrations of the glucocorticoids cortisol and corticosterone are modulated by the enzymes 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11beta-HSD) 1 and 2. 11beta-HSD1 is a reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-dependent microsomal reductase that converts the inactive glucocorticoids cortisone and 11-dehydrocorticosterone to their active forms, cortisol and corticosterone. Hexose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (H6PDH) is an enzyme that generates NADPH from oxidized NADP (NADP(+)) within the endoplasmic reticulum.

Physical activity assessment methods in the Jackson Heart Study.

Objectives: Physical activity measures used in exam 1 of the Jackson Heart Study (JHS), including the diet and physical activity substudy (DPASS), are described.

Design: The JHS physical activity (PAC) survey instrument was administered by interview. Accelerometer data, pedometer step counts, and additional questionnaire data were collected from volunteer subsamples of the cohort, including the DPASS.

The Fem1a gene is downregulated in Rhabdomyosarcoma.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft tissue neoplasm of children, and those metastatic at presentation have a poor prognosis. RMS development is related to defective skeletal muscle differentiation, involving a variety of cell signaling and transcriptional control pathways, including aberrant hedgehog signaling. Here we evaluate Fem1a, a gene highly expressed in skeletal muscle, as a candidate for involvement in RMS.