"Trivalent influenza vaccination of healthy adults 3 years after the onset of swine-origin H1N1 pandemic: restricted immunogenicity of the new A/H1N1v constituent?".

Influenza vaccination is advised annually to reduce the burden of influenza disease. For sufficient vaccine campaigns also a continuous adoption of influenza vaccines are necessary, due to particularly high genetic variability of influenza A virus. Therefore, we evaluate the effectiveness of the trivalent influenza vaccine 2010/2011, against influenza A (H1N1, H3N2) and influenza B.

Parkinson's disease: lesions in dorsal horn layer I, involvement of parasympathetic and sympathetic pre- and postganglionic neurons.

Clinical signs frequently recognized in early phases of sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD) may include autonomic dysfunctions and the experience of pain. Early disease-related lesions that may account for these symptoms are presently unknown or incompletely known. In this study, immunocytochemistry for alpha-synuclein was used to investigate the first relay stations of the pain system as well as parasympathetic and sympathetic pre- and postganglionic nerve cells in the lower brainstem, spinal cord, and coeliac ganglion in 100 microm polyethylene glycol embedded sections from six autopsy individuals, whose brains were staged for PD-associated synucleinopathy.

Staging of Alzheimer disease-associated neurofibrillary pathology using paraffin sections and immunocytochemistry.

Assessment of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related neurofibrillary pathology requires a procedure that permits a sufficient differentiation between initial, intermediate, and late stages. The gradual deposition of a hyperphosphorylated tau protein within select neuronal types in specific nuclei or areas is central to the disease process. The staging of AD-related neurofibrillary pathology originally described in 1991 was performed on unconventionally thick sections (100 mum) using a modern silver technique and reflected the progress of the disease process based chiefly on the topographic expansion of the lesions.

Cognitive decline correlates with neuropathological stage in Parkinson's disease.

Recently, the relationship between cognitive status and the neuropathological stages of a newly proposed staging procedure for Parkinson's disease (PD) was assessed in a cohort of 88 individuals. None of the patients had received the clinical diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies. The topographic distribution pattern of the cerebral Lewy body pathology was evaluated semiquantitatively in alpha-synuclein immunoreactions.

Gastric alpha-synuclein immunoreactive inclusions in Meissner's and Auerbach's plexuses in cases staged for Parkinson's disease-related brain pathology.

The progressive degenerative process associated with sporadic Parkinson's disease (sPD) is characterized by formation of alpha-synuclein-containing inclusion bodies in a few types of projection neurons in both the enteric and central nervous systems (ENS and CNS). In the brain, the process apparently begins in the brainstem (dorsal motor nucleus of the vagal nerve) and advances through susceptible regions of the basal mid-and forebrain until it reaches the cerebral cortex. Anatomically, all of the vulnerable brain regions are closely interconnected.

Staging of sporadic Parkinson disease-related alpha-synuclein pathology: inter- and intra-rater reliability.

Sporadic Parkinson disease (sPD) is characterized by alpha-synuclein (alpha-syn) inclusions. The distribution of such inclusions appears to relate to disease progression and severity. We propose and test a simple staging protocol based on the presence of alpha-syn immunoreactivity in 5 paraffin sections that, taken together, contain up to 8 vulnerable brain regions.

Expression of hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha and Von Hippel Lindau protein in human middle ear cholesteatoma.

Objective: To evaluate the role of hypoxia in cholesteatoma progression.

Study Design: Immunohistochemical analysis of paraffin-embedded human specimens.

Methods: Thirteen middle ear cholesteatomas and 10 samples of normal human external ear canal skin were stained immunohistochemically for the presence of hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF 1 alpha) and Von Hippel Lindau protein.

High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of nitric oxide synthase-related arginine derivatives in vitro and in vivo.

In this paper we present a sensitive and reproducible method for the extraction and quantification of the nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS)-related basic amino acids L-hydroxyarginine (L-NHA), L-arginine (L-Arg), L-monomethylarginine (L-NMA), and L-dimethylarginine (L-NDA) in human serum samples by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. We demonstrate that the serum level of L-NHA can be used as a sensitive and highly specific index of a systemic increase in NOS activity in vivo whose serum concentration, unlike that of the NO degradation products nitrite and/or nitrate, is not influenced by dietary intake. First, we measured L-NHA formation by a recombinant NOS preparation and by lipopolysaccharide-stimulated alveolar macrophages to demonstrate that this amino acid is produced by NOS in vitro.

Induction by staurosporine of nitric oxide synthase expression in vascular smooth muscle cells: role of NF-kappa B, CREB and C/EBP beta.

1. The effect of different protein kinase inhibitors on the expression of the inducible isoform of nitric oxide (NO) synthase (iNOS) was investigated in cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) isolated from the rat aorta. 2.

Ethics and reproductive medicine.

This article surveys relevant moral and ethical implications of reproductive medicine, excluding any aspects of contraception. To maintain the methodological priority of a moral perspective, it focuses on moral theory and ethics in general before looking at the impact of ethics on the different techniques applied in reproductive medicine. We suggest that discourse ethics should be centre-stage among the moral perspectives, since it has a unique capacity to synthesize, gauge and emulate other moral perspectives without necessarily replacing them.

Potentiation of the biological efficacy of bradykinin by ACE inhibitors: a shift in the affinity of the B2 receptor?

We have recently demonstrated that the angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor ramiprilat augments the endothelium-dependent dilator response to bradykinin in the isolated perfused rat heart by an interaction at the B2 receptor level. We have now investigated whether this is an effect of the ACE inhibitor class of compounds by studying the bradykinin-induced vasoconstriction in isolated segments of the rabbit jugular vein. Among five different ACE inhibitors, moexiprilat and ramiprilat proved to be the most effective in potentiating the constrictor response to bradykinin.

Distribution of marker-Y chromosome containing cells in different tissues of a Turner mosaic patient with mixed gonadal dysgenesis.

We here describe a 12-year-old girl with numerous Turner stigmata and virilized external genitalia. Chromosome analysis of PHA stimulated lymphocytes using different banding techniques revealed a 45,X/46,X,+mar Turner mosaicism with the prominent marker present in about 90% of the blood cells. A PCR-based analysis using a set of 9 STS from different regions of the human Y chromosome indicated the presence of Y chromosomal material with a deletion breakpoint most likely within deletion interval 6.

Increase in serum NG-hydroxy-L-arginine in rats treated with bacterial lipopolysaccharide.

Aortic rings isolated from rats 4 h after an injection i.p. of 30 mg/kg Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide showed a marked hyporeactivity to noradrenaline.

Kinin-mediated activation of endothelial no formation: possible role during myocardial ischemia.

Endothelial cells produce a variety of factors involved in the control of vascular tone, platelet activation and cell growth, one of the most important being nitric oxide (NO). Although continuously produced in response to fluid shear stress, the release of NO from these cells can be enhanced further by humoral stimuli, such as bradykinin. This is the result of a chain of complex intracellular events involving changes in Ca2+, pH and protein phosphorylation.

Mechanisms involved in the angiotensin II-independent hypotensive action of ACE inhibitors.

1. The blood pressure-lowering and cardioprotective actions of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are thought to be based primarily on a reduction in vascular angiotensin II (Ang-II) formation. However, since ACE also degrades the potent endothelium-dependent vasodilator bradykinin, it has been proposed that the local accumulation of this peptide represents an additional mechanism by which ACE inhibitors exert their cardiovascular effects.

Influence of videofilm-induced emotional stress on the flow properties of blood.

The hemorheologic effects of emotional stress induced by a videofilm were investigated in 10 healthy volunteers. Blood samples were obtained from the antecubital vein before, during, and after the end of the videofilm. Blood pressure and heart rate were simultaneously measured.