s-Ethyl Cysteine and s-Methyl Cysteine Protect Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells Against Hydrogen Peroxide Induced Injury.

Protective effects and actions from s-ethyl cysteine (SEC) and s-methyl cysteine (SMC) for BEAS-2B cells were examined. BEAS-2B cells were pretreated with SEC or SMC at 4, 8, or 16 μmol/L, and followed by hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) treatment. Data showed that H2 O2 enhanced Bax, caspase-3 and caspase-8 expression, and declined Bcl-2 expression.

How to be good at being bad: centrosome amplification and mitotic propensity drive intratumoral heterogeneity.

Cancer is truly an iconic disease--a tour de force whose multiple formidable strengths can be attributed to the bewildering heterogeneity that a tumor can manifest both spatially and temporally. A Darwinian evolutionary process is believed to undergird, at least in part, the generation of this heterogeneity that contributes to poor clinical outcomes. Risk assessment in clinical oncology is currently based on a small number of clinicopathologic factors (like stage, histological grade, receptor status, and serum tumor markers) and offers limited accuracy in predicting disease course as evidenced by the prognostic heterogeneity that persists in risk segments produced by present-day models.

Endothelial-specific deficiency of Junctional Adhesion Molecule-C promotes vessel normalisation in proliferative retinopathy.

In proliferative retinopathies, like proliferative diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), the hypoxia response is sustained by the failure of the retina to revascularise its ischaemic areas. Non-resolving retina ischaemia/hypoxia results in upregulation of pro-angiogenic factors and pathologic neovascularisation with ectopic, fragile neovessels. Promoting revascularisation of the retinal avascular area could interfere with this vicious cycle and lead to vessel normalisation.

Higher busulfan dose intensity appears to improve leukemia-free and overall survival in AML allografted in CR2: An analysis from the Acute Leukemia Working Party of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation is a potentially curative treatment in patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Recent advances in the field of hematopoietic cell allografting have resulted in a practice shift, favoring less intense preparative regimens. We present results of a retrospective comparative analysis of two preparative regimens, namely FB2 (IV fludarabine plus IV busulfan 6.

Surgery or implantable hearing devices in children with congenital aural atresia: 25 years of our experience.

Objectives: Congenital aural atresia and ear deformities have been the subject of serious discussions for centuries. These malformations are associated with significant aesthetic and functional problems. Outcome of the surgical solution is rarely optimal.

End-stage renal disease and thrombophilia.

Chronic kidney disease is an established risk factor for arterial and venous thromboembolism (TE). Whereas the overall risk of TE in moderately decreased kidney function is approximately 2.5-fold higher compared to patients with normal renal function, the risk increase is 5.

Role of protein S deficiency in children with venous thromboembolism. An observational international cohort study.

Venous thromboembolism [TE] is a multifactorial disease, and protein S deficiency [PSD] constitutes a major risk factor. In the present study the prevalence of PSD and the clinical presentation at TE onset in a cohort of children is reported. In 367 unselected paediatric patients with TE (age 0.

The Durban World Congress Ethics Round Table Conference Report: II. Withholding or withdrawing of treatment in elderly patients admitted to the intensive care unit.

Introduction: Life-sustaining treatment (LST) limitation for elderly patients is highly controversial. In that context, it is useful to evaluate the attitudes to LST in the elderly among experienced intensive care unit (ICU) physicians with different backgrounds and cultures.

Methods: A panel of 22 international ICU physicians from 13 countries responded to a questionnaire related to withholding (WH) and withdrawing (WD) LST in elderly patients using a semi-Likert scale.

Translational genomics.

The term "Translational Genomics" reflects both title and mission of this new journal. "Translational" has traditionally been understood as "applied research" or "development", different from or even opposed to "basic research". Recent scientific and societal developments have triggered a re-assessment of the connotation that "translational" and "basic" are either/or activities: translational research nowadays aims at feeding the best science into applications and solutions for human society.

The use of biomarkers for the etiologic diagnosis of MCI in Europe: an EADC survey.

We investigated the use of Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers in European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium centers and assessed their perceived usefulness for the etiologic diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We surveyed availability, frequency of use, and confidence in diagnostic usefulness of markers of brain amyloidosis (amyloid positron emission tomography [PET], cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] Aβ42) and neurodegeneration (medial temporal atrophy [MTA] on MR, fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography [FDG-PET], CSF tau). The most frequently used biomarker is visually rated MTA (75% of the 37 responders reported using it "always/frequently") followed by CSF markers (22%), FDG-PET (16%), and amyloid-PET (3%).

Recent recreational physical activity and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women in the E3N cohort.

Background: Physical activity probably protects against the risk of breast cancer after menopause, but questions remain about how rapidly and for how long this protective effect exists.

Methods: We analyzed data from 59,308 postmenopausal women (2,155 incident invasive breast cancers) followed between 1993 and 2005 (8.5 years postmenopause on average) through biennial questionnaires.

Clinical and laboratory characteristics of paediatric and adolescent index cases with venous thromboembolism and antithrombin deficiency. An observational multicentre cohort study.

Venous thromboembolism [TE] is a multifactorial disease and antithrombin deficiency [ATD] constitutes a major risk factor. In the present study the prevalence of ATD and the clinical presentation at TE onset in a cohort of paediatric index cases are reported. In 319 unselected paediatric patients (0.

Placement of hemoparin-coated stents in the iliac arteries: early experience and midterm results in 28 patients.

Purpose: Aim was to determine immediate results and mid-term outcome of the hemoparin-coated (HC) stainless-steel stent (camouflage coating) in the treatment of occlusive lesions of the iliac arteries.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-eight patients were prospectively treated with the use of a HC stent between January 2007 and March 2010. Clinical examination and color-doppler ultrasound were performed at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months, CT angiography (CTA) or MR angiography (MRA) at 12 months.

Severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction is independently associated with high on-clopidogrel platelet reactivity.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the association between left ventricular systolic function and the response to clopidogrel.

Methods: The efficacy of clopidogrel was measured by the vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein phosphorylation 20 ± 4 h after 600 mg of clopidogrel. High on-clopidogrel platelet reactivity (HCPR) was defined as a platelet reactivity index (PRI) ≥50%.

A distributed two-pore model: theoretical implications and practical application to the glomerular sieving of Ficoll.

In the present study, an extended two-pore theory is presented where the porous pathways are continuously distributed according to small- and large-pore mean radii and SDs. Experimental glomerular sieving data for Ficoll were analyzed using the model. In addition, several theoretical findings are presented along with analytic solutions to many of the equations used in distributed pore modeling.

Influence of factor 5 rs6025 and factor 2 rs1799963 mutation on inhibitor development in patients with hemophilia A--an Israeli-German multicenter database study.

Objective: The present cohort study was performed to investigate the impact of the factor 5 rs6025 [F5] and the factor 2 rs1799963 [F2] mutations on high-titer inhibitor development [HRI] in patients with severe/moderate-severe hemophilia A [HA].

Patients And Methods: 216 patients with F8<2% born between 1980 and 2011 were followed after initial HA diagnosis over the first 200 exposure days. The first HA patient per family who presented for diagnosis was included in the present study.

Extracellular fetal hemoglobin induces increases in glomerular permeability: inhibition with α1-microglobulin and tempol.

Extracellular fetal hemoglobin (HbF) and adult hemoglobin (HbA) are proinflammatory and generate ROS. Increased plasma levels of extracellular HbF have recently been reported to occur in early preeclampsia. α1-Microglobulin (A1M) is a physiological heme-binding protein and radical scavenger that has been shown to counteract vascular permeability increases induced by HbA in the perfused placenta.

Susceptibility of podocytes to palmitic acid is regulated by fatty acid oxidation and inversely depends on acetyl-CoA carboxylases 1 and 2.

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by dyslipidemia with elevated free fatty acids (FFAs). Loss of podocytes is a hallmark of diabetic nephropathy, and podocytes are susceptible to saturated FFAs, which induce endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and podocyte death. Genome-wide association studies indicate that expression of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) 2, a key enzyme of fatty acid oxidation (FAO), is associated with proteinuria in type 2 diabetes.

Microclimate next to the skin: influence on percutaneous absorption of caffeine (ex-vivo study).

Background/purpose: Contact between skin surface and external environment induces a microclimate at the skin surface. That microclimate affects skin interaction with xenobiotics substances. We have developed a new device to explore the influence of environmental parameters, on percutaneous absorption.