Systemic Levels of CCL2, CCL3, CCL4 and CXCL8 Differ According to Age,Time Period and Season among Children Newly Diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes and their Healthy Siblings

The mechanisms by which antigen‐specific T cells migrate to the islets of Langerhans in type 1 diabetes (T1D) are largely unknown. Chemokines attract immune cells to sites of inflammation. The aim was to elucidate the role of inflammatory chemokines in T1D at time of diagnosis. From a population‐based registry of children diagnosed with T1D from 1997 to 2005, we studied five different inflammatory chemokines (CCL2, CCL3, CCL4, CCL5 and CXCL8). Four hundred and eighty‐two cases and 479 sibling frequencies matched on age and sample year distribution were included. Patients showed lower levels of CCL4 compared to siblings, but this result was not significant after correction for multiple testing. CCL2, CCL3, CCL4 and CXCL8 levels were highest in the most recent cohorts (P < 0.01) in both patients and siblings. A significant seasonal variation – for most of the chemokines – was demonstrated with the highest level during the summer period in both patients and siblings. In addition, there was a significant inverse relationship between CCL4 levels and age. When comparing patients and siblings, remarkably few differences were identified, but interestingly chemokine levels varied with age, season and period for the entire study population. Such variations should be taken into account when studying chemokines in paediatric populations.     

K-ras alterations in Danish ovarian tumour patients. From the Danish "Malova" Ovarian Cancer study

OBJECTIVE: Activation of ras oncogenes has been demonstrated in ovarian tumours. All the reported studies are based on a relatively small number of patients and the results therefore remain a subject of debate. METHODS: In this study, we analyzed the presence of mutations at codons 12 and 13 of the K-ras gene in 165 Danish women with ovarian tumours, including 138 invasive ovarian cancers and 27 borderline ovarian tumours, using a restriction fragment length polymorphism-polymerase chain reaction technique and evaluated whether such alterations were associated with the clinicopathological parameters of the patients and survival. RESULTS: K-ras codon 12 gene mutations were found in 8.7% of ovarian cancer patients and in 14.8% of the borderline ovarian tumour patients. A K-ras codon 13 gene mutation was found in 1.5% of ovarian cancer patients. K-ras mutations were found with a significantly higher frequency in mucinous tumours compared to serous tumours (P = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS: Mutation frequency was correlated with the histological type of tumour, but not with stage, radicality of operation, and age. Furthermore, no significant difference in survival was demonstrated between patients with or without K-ras mutation, neither in the univariate nor in the multivariate survival analyses.     

通过基因芯片筛选创伤修复差异表达基因

目的通过基因芯片筛选同真皮间充质干细胞相关的创伤修复差异表达基因。方法利用贴壁生长的特性分离大鼠真皮间充质干细胞，用Hpure提取伤口液刺激前后dMSCs和创伤前后大鼠皮肤组织中总RNA。PCR扩增已构建抑制消减杂交差异表达文库中485个克隆的插入片断，送北京博奥制作基因芯片。提取的RNA反转录后分别同芯片杂交，找出在细胞水平和组织水平同时高表达的克隆。将这些克隆测序，进行生物信息学分析。结果分离的大鼠真皮间充质干细胞呈纺锤形，在体外显示多向分化潜能。抽提伤口液刺激前后dMSCs和创伤前后大鼠皮肤组织中总RNA，反转录后和基因芯片杂交，发现可能同创伤愈合相关的13条基因，其中热休克蛋白70（HSP70），基质金属蛋白酶3（MMP3），白细胞蛋白酶抑制因子（SLPI）等可能在创伤愈合中有重要意义。结论抑制消减杂交和基因芯片结合是筛选差异表达基因的一种有效方法。伤口液刺激前后dMSCs中差异表达基因的发现能为从基因水平探讨dMSCs参与创伤愈合的分子机制提供新的研究靶点。