Influence of physiologic 17 beta-estradiol concentrations on gene E6 expression in HVP type 18 in vitro

Many recent studies indicate that long term use of contraceptives is a strong risk factor in the development of cervical cancer. Steroid hormones, in persistent papilloma virus infection act on various levels, one of them is enhancing transforming activity of the virus. The aim of the study was to estimate if physiological concentrations of 17 beta-estradiol could influence expression of viral transforming genes. HeLa cell lines were incubated with three different physiological concentrations and and on the third day of incubation the level of E6 gene expression was determined. Results show no differences in expression between the control culter, and cultures incubated with physiological concentrations. It indicates that normal levels of 17 beta-estradiol don't play role in transforming process but it also shows need to analyse higher levels of hormones by quantitative analyses in prospective studies.     

Total antioxidative activity measured by ABTS method in pregnant women treated with L-arginine for IUGR

Elevated concentration of free radicals is observed in IUG and it is connected with high rate of prematurity and perinatal mortality too. The total antioxidative serum activity is one of the oxidative stress defence system parameter. The main aim of the study was to find the correlation between the L-arginine therapy and total antioxidative concentration. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was done in Dep. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Medical University in Lodz in 2000-20003 y. The study group consist of 45 women with ultrasound diagnosed IUGR, the control group consist of 30 healthy pregnant women at the same gestational age. The IUGR therapy consist of L-arginine 3 x 1 g oral dose daily. The total antioxidative activity was measured in maternal blood on first and 20-th day of treatment. The Wayner method was used to measure total antioxidative activity by reduction of ABTS. The results were expressed in microM of serum. RESULTS: The value of the total antioxidative activity at the first day of observation in women with IUGR was 225.9 microM and after 20 days increased to 231.8 microM. In women in normal pregnancy at the first day the value was 249.6 ng/ml microM and after 20 days of observation 247.8 microM. CONCLUSIONS: The total antioxidative activity in blood serum decreased in pregnancy connected with IUGR. The L-arginine treatment decreased the oxidative stress risk.     

Ultrasound assessment of uterine myomas in pregnancy

OBJECTIVE: Visualisation of myomas in pregnancy and evaluation of their dimension, localisation and echogenic structure are essential to establish the proper diagnosis and further therapeutic management. DESIGN: Our goal was to define a diagnostic value of ultrasound examinations for uterine myomas assessment during pregnancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study group included 53 women with uterine myomas which were visualised in ultrasound examination before pregnancy or during first and second trimester. RESULTS: During third trimester the presence of uterine myomas were observed in 40 cases what is 75.5% of all examined women. The difference of 6.1 mm in the mean values of measured diameters was obtained in comparison of ultrasound examination and intraoperative evaluation (7.6% of mean value diameter). It was found a statistically significant correlation between ultrasonic and intraoperative myomas diameters evaluation (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: 1. The accuracy of ultrasonic measurements completes the knowledge about presence and size of uterine myomas what is of great importance to establish proper diagnosis and mode of delivery. 2. Difficulties in ultrasound visualisation of myomas situated on the posterior uterine wall were noticed during third trimester. Limited role of ultrasound examination was observed in assessment of uterine myomas during third trimester.     

Synaptosomal susceptibility on global ischaemia caused by cardiac arrest correlated with early and late times after recirculation in rats

The aim of the study was to assess the sensitivity of brain synaptosomes and their mitochondria to the effects of global cerebral ischaemia caused by temporary cardiac arrest and the early and late consequences. The effects of 10 min of global ischaemia were measured immediately and after 1 h, 24 h and 7 days post-resuscitation. Ischaemia caused a reduction in oxygen consumption by synaptosomes of about 20%, a drop in ATP/ADP ratio of about 40%, a decrease in CrP/Cr ratio at about 45% and a reduction of synaptic vesicles and disturbances in the mitochondrial structure in isolated synaptosomes and in nerve endings of brain specimens. Morphometric analysis showed that ischaemic conditions caused a decrease in synaptic vesicles by about 61% and an increase of mitochondrial damage to 58 and 50% after 1 and 24 h postreperfusion time, respectively. Seven days postresuscitation, all the observed changes returned to normal but small numbers (about 2%) of neurones which were destroyed neurons appeared at that time. It is concluded that global ischaemia with early resuscitation after cardiac arrest may lead to damage of synaptosomes and synaptic mitochondria. This, in turn, modifies substrate oxidation, synthesis of energy variables and affects neurotransmitter function. The observed disturbances return to normal later after resuscitation but the ischaemic events and reoxygenation caused selective morphological injury of certain neurones and this may form the basis for irreversible brain damage.     

Thermal glycation of proteins by D-glucose and D-fructose

The dry thermal glycation method was used to conjugate D-glucose and D-fructose with bovine serum albumin. Reactions were conducted at 50-104 degrees C for 30 min. Depending on temperature, different levels of substitution were achieved. In the case of D-glucose, average substitution levels of up to 53 mol glucose/mol bovine serum albumin were obtained. D-fructose turned out to be less reactive than D-glucose. The pH of the reaction mixture was also found to affect the efficiency of the glycation reaction. The levels of substitution were estimated using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Glycated molecules, and a process of glycation itself are implicated in diabetes complications. Hypothetically bovine spongiform encephelopathy (BSE) was also derived from glycation.     

Cytotoxic effects,alkylating properties and molecular modelling of coumarin derivatives and their phosphonic analogues

The cytotoxic effects and alkylating activity of a series of 3-[1-(alkylamino)-ethylidene]-chroman-2,4-dione (4a-4c), 2-methoxy-3-[1-(alkylamino)-ethylidene]-2,3-dihydro-2,4-dioxo-2lambda(5)-benzo[e][1,2] oxaphosphinane (5a-5c) and [2-oxo-4-phenyl(alkyl)-2H-chromen-3-yl]-phosphonic acids dimethyl ester (6a-6c) on the two leukemia cell lines HL-60 and NALM-6 have been determined. The test compounds are much more toxic to NALM-6 cells than to HL-60 cells. IC(50) data are up to nine times lower for the NALM-6 than for the HL-60 cell lines. As determined in an in vitro Preussmann test phosphonic derivatives 6a-6c possess very high (+++) alkylating activity, phosphoric derivatives 5a-5c are less active (++) while the derivatives 4a-4c can be included in the group of low activity (+) alkylating agents. Using regression analysis QSAR we found a relationship between biological activity and the physicochemical properties of the test compounds. Their cytotoxic effect increases with an increase of the hydrophobic parameters in the region of the substituents at the 2-, 3- and 4-positions of the benzopyrone skeleton of 4-6.     

Identifying Smokers with a Medical Extraction System

The Clinical Language Understanding group at Nuance Communications has developed a medical information extraction system that combines a rule-based extraction engine with machine learning algorithms to identify and categorize references to patient smoking in clinical reports. The extraction engine identifies smoking references; documents that contain no smoking references are classified as UNKNOWN. For the remaining documents, the extraction engine uses linguistic analysis to associate features such as status and time to smoking mentions. Machine learning is used to classify the documents based on these features. This approach shows overall accuracy in the 90s on all data sets used. Classification using engine-generated and word-based features outperforms classification using only word-based features for all data sets, although the difference gets smaller as the data set size increases. These techniques could be applied to identify other risk factors, such as drug and alcohol use, or a family history of a disease.     

Fully Parametric Sleep Staging Compatible with the Classical Criteria

We present an open system for sleep staging, based explicitly on the criteria used in visual EEG analysis. Slow waves, theta and alpha waves, sleep spindles and K-complexes are parameterized in terms of time duration, amplitude, and frequency of each waveform by means of the matching pursuit algorithm. It allows the detection of these structures using mostly the criteria from visual EEG analysis. For example, within this framework for the first time we compute directly the relative duration of slow waves, which is a basic parameter in recognition of deep sleep stages. Performance of the system is evaluated on 20 polysomnographic recordings, scored by experienced encephalographers. Seven recordings were scored by more than one expert. Proposed system gives concordance with visual staging close to the inter-expert concordance. The algorithm is implemented in a user-friendly software system for display and analysis of polysomnographic recordings, freely available with complete source code from .     

Effects of voluntary wheel running on goserelin acetate-induced bone degeneration

A common treatment option for many breast and prostate cancer patients is the use of a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist such as goserelin acetate (GA) which reduces sex hormone levels. This treatment, however, is associated with bone degeneration, and exercise has been suggested as a means of preventing this side effect. Little is known about the effects of low intensity, low volume exercise on GA-induced bone loss. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the effects of voluntary wheel running on bone architecture in growing male (M) and female (F) rats receiving GA treatment. Rats received an 8-week GA treatment or placebo (CON) and were either housed in cages equipped with voluntary running wheels (WR) or remained sedentary (SED) in standard cages throughout the experimental period. Following treatments, tibiae were excised and analyzed for cortical bone (cross-sectional volume, cortical volume, marrow volume, cortical thickness) and cancellous bone (bone volume/total volume, trabecular number, trabecular thickness, trabecular spacing) using micro-computed tomography. Treatment with GA resulted in a significant reduction in running wheel distances in both sexes throughout the study period (P < 0.05). GA treatment had no effect on cortical bone architecture in neither sex (P > 0.05). Cancellous bone degeneration, however, was observed in M and F SED + GA (P < 0.05). No significant differences were observed in M WR + GA animals in bone volume/total volume, trabecular number and trabecular spacing when compared to M SED + CON (P > 0.05). In F WR + GA, trabecular thickness did not differ from that of F SED + CON (P > 0.05), and trabecular spacing was found to be significantly lower than F SED + GA (P < 0.05). The current report indicates that 8 weeks of GA treatment promotes cancellous bone degeneration, and voluntary wheel running provides no clear osteoprotection in growing male and female rats.