Uterine arterial blood flow and the substances of ovarian renin-angiotensin system in women with polycystic ovaries undergoing in vitro fertilization

OBJECTIVE: To find whether plasma and follicular prorenin concentrations have any effect on the uterine arterial blood flow in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) compared to those with normal menstrual cycles (NMC). STUDY DESIGN: Controlled prospective clinical study involved 55 women undergoing in vitro fertilization: 24 with PCOS and 31 with NMC. In both groups transvaginal colour Doppler assessment of uterine arterial blood flow was analysed on day 22 of the cycle, on the day of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) administration and 36 h after HCG. Plasma and follicular (in the dominant follicle containing mature oocyte, and in the pooled follicles) prorenin and active renin, and serum estradiol and androstenedione concentrations were measured at these time-points. The Student's t-test and Pearson correlation were used for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: The resistance index (RI) in the NMC group decreased from 0.84+/-0.05 on the day of HCG to 0.78+/-0.08 36 h after HCG (P < 0.05); in the PCOS group the RI did not decrease. Follicular prorenin concentrations in the dominant follicle and in the pooled follicles were lower in the PCOS than in the NMC group (20,210+/-10,831 microU/l, 16,753+/-8634 microU/l versus 42,637+/-35,400 microU/l, 33,067+/-26,200 microU/l; P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Plasma prorenin concentrations do not affect vascular impedance to the uterine artery, but follicular prorenin do by newly formed low resistant vessels in the follicles.     

A simple and effective procedure for treating burn contractures: releasing incision and quadra Z technique

Burn contractures particularly involving the joints are challenging problems which might cause severe functional impairments. Many surgical techniques have been described for use, however, an ideal method yet to be found. Releasing incision is the most common and effective way to release the wide and severe contractures but it has some drawbacks. We propose a releasing incision technique combined with four Z plasty incisions to overcome the disadvantages of traditional releasing incision technique. We successfully used our releasing incision and quadra Z technique on seven consecutive patients with burn contractures between 2003 and 2005. We modified the classical releasing incision technique by adding four Z plasties; two of them with a common base on each corner of the incision line. In this technique, limitation of the webbing following the incision is made possible by the transposed flaps and unnecessary lateral extension of the incision and the defect was avoided, i.e. maximum release gain with minimal defect was provided. Satisfactory results were achieved in seven patients treated with this technique due to significant burn contractures between 2003 and 2005 with no significant complication. We propose this technique is suitable in all patients with severe burn contractures who require releasing incision and grafting.     

Nonsurgical endodontic retreatment of geminated teeth: a case report

The purpose of this case presentation is to describe nonsurgical retreatment of anterior teeth with gemination. A 21-year-old male patient was referred for endodontic treatment of his maxillary left lateral incisor. In the clinical examination, a large crown was observed in the left maxillary incisor region when compared with the right maxillary lateral incisor. In the present case, a tooth gemination of a maxillary lateral incisor has been described. A periapical radiograph showed that the tooth had partially separated two crowns having a single root and one root canal, but the access cavity of the distal crown had not been opened, and the root canal had been obturated with single cone technique. Nonsurgical endodontic retreatment was decided for geminated lateral incisor. At the 6-month follow-up, the tooth was asymptomatic and there was no radiolucency around the apical region.     

Effects of vitamin E and sodium selenate on impaired contractile activity by bacterial lipopolysaccharide in the rat vas deferens

Triggering differentiation has been employed as a strategy to inhibit cell proliferation and accelerate apoptosis in malignant cells. To better understand the mechanisms underlying differentiation-mediated regulation of apoptosis, we have studied the effects of PKC pathway with an activator of the protein kinase C, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), during hemin-induced erythroid differentiation of K562 erythroleukemia cells. K562 cell line has been used as a model of common progenitor of erythroblasts and magakaryocytes and can be differentiated into erythroid and megakaryocytic lineages by hemin and TPA, respectively. TPA induced almost complete loss of proliferation during megakaryocytic differentiation in K562 cells. However, upon hemin-mediated erythroid differentiation, the growth rate was slightly decreased at the subtoxic concentrations. Cotreatment with TPA at the hemin-treated K562 cells produced a concentration-dependent increase in cell injuries with apoptotic changes and significantly diminished the erythroid phenotype. To better understand the events implicated, we have used the PKC inhibitors such as bisindolylmaleimide II, RO318220, and the PKCbeta inhibitor. Our data showed that TPA-potentiated apoptosis in hemin-treated K562 cells was rescued by the application of the PKC inhibitors. Taken together, our results suggested the involvement of PKC in TPA-potentiated apoptosis induction during hemin-mediated erythroid differentiation in K562 cells.     

Differences in iron deficiency anemia and mean platelet volume between children with simple and complex febrile seizures

ObjectiveThe relationship between iron deficiency anemia and febrile seizures (FSs) were examined in several studies before. The aim of our study is to find out the differences regarding iron deficiency anemia, demographic characteristics and mean platelet volume (MPV) which is an inflammatory marker between simple and complex febrile seizure groups.MethodsIn this study, the authors investigated the recordings of 493 children with a diagnosis of simple and complex febrile seizure, aged between 6 months and 6 years, followed between 2002 and 2010 retrospectively.ResultsMean age and male/female ratio were similar in two groups. There was no significant difference regarding with age, gender and family history of FS between two groups. We found significant difference statistically with respect to gestational age, consanguinity, family history of epilepsy and birth weight between two groups. The mean levels of Hb, Htc, MCV were lower and Plt and RDW levels were higher in children with CFS than SFS group, the differences were statistically significant (p: 0.001).A higher proportion of children with CFS (16.2%) had iron deficiency anemia compared to SFS group (12.1%). Mean platelet volume (MPV) of CFS (7.99 ± 0.96 fL) were significantly lower than that of SFS group (8.77 ± 0.75) (p < 0.001).ConclusionsThe results of this study suggests that iron deficiency anemia is more frequently seen among the patients with CFS than the patients with SFS. The lower levels of MPV as an inflammatory marker, supports the idea that CFS is a brain inflammatory disease and the consequence of this inflammatory mechanism is the development of the epilepsy. Further studies are necessary to highlight the relationship between iron metabolism, inflammation and seizures.     

Induction of B cell responses upon experimental infection of neonatal calves with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis

The objective of this study was to determine if experimental infection of neonatal calves with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis would invoke changes in the percentages of total B cells in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell population and of subpopulations of B cells as determined by CD5, CD25, and CD45RO markers during a 12-month period. Experimental infection groups included control (noninfected), oral (infected with M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis strain K-10), oral/DXM (pretreatment with dexamethasone before oral inoculation), i.p. (intraperitoneal inoculation), and oral/M (oral inoculation with mucosal scrapings from a cow with clinical disease) groups. Over the course of the study, the percentages of total B cells in nonstimulated and antigen-stimulated cell cultures increased for oral and i.p. group calves, with the highest percentages noted at 3 and 6 months. Oral/M group calves had increased percentages of activated B cells, as determined by CD5(dim) and CD5(bright) markers, at 9 and 12 months. Experimental infection by all methods resulted in increased expression of CD25(+) and CD45RO(+) B cells early in the study, but the most significant results were observed at 12 months for oral/DXM and oral/M group calves. Immunoblot analyses with a whole-cell sonicate of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis demonstrated the most reactivity with sera from i.p. group calves and the least reactivity with sera from oral group calves. Further evidence of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis-specific antibody responses in the i.p. group calves was demonstrated using the ethanol vortex enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (EvELISA) method. In summary, an induction of B cell responses was noted after experimental infection with M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis, with differences in responses noted according to the method of experimental inoculation.