Aberrant tissue repair and persistent inflammation following oxidant-mediated acute lung injury (ALI) can lead to the development and progression of various pulmonary diseases, but the mechanisms underlying these processes remain unclear. Hyperoxia is widely used in the treatment of pulmonary diseases, but the effects of this oxidant exposure in patients undergoing recovery from ALI are not cle...

P AMAGED CELLS or “smudge cells” are a common feature of bone marrow smears, although in clinical reports only rarely is any attention payed to them. In smears of normal marrow at least 10-15 per cent of all cells are unidentifiable because of damage. This represents the greatest source of error in all quantitative estimations of cell populations which are based on counts in fixed smears. The n...

Chytridiomycosis, the amphibian disease caused by the pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is fatal to adults of many species. Bd is largely sublethal to amphibian larvae; however, it is known to reduce larval (i.e. tadpole) growth rates, with possible long-term effects on population dynamics and fitness. We conducted an experiment to test how Bd altered southern leopard frog ...

PURPOSE Subthreshold retinal phototherapy demonstrated clinical efficacy for the treatment of diabetic macular edema without visible signs of retinal damage. To assess the range of cellular responses to sublethal hyperthermia, expression of the gene encoding a 70 kDa heat shock protein (HSP70) was evaluated after laser irradiation using a transgenic reporter mouse. METHODS One hundred millise...

Inactivating effects caused by vincristine alone or in combination with another mitotic inhibitor, 1-propargyl-5-chloropyrimidin-2-one, were studied as loss of colony-forming ability in exponentially growing or synchronized populations of the human cell line NHIK 3025. Treatment with 4 ng vincristine per ml(4.3 nM) in G2 led to irreversible mitotic arrest. Both mitotic arrest and lethal damage ...

RNA in a cell is subject to many of the same insults as DNA. RNA damage can induce apoptosis and may be exploited for anti-cancer chemotherapy. It is a surprise, however, to learn that cells may repair RNA damage, suggesting a far greater significance of RNA in genotoxic stress.

Marine sponges are important members of coral reef ecosystems. Thus, their responses to changes in ocean chemistry and environmental conditions, particularly to higher seawater temperatures, will have potential impacts on the future of these reefs. To better understand the sponge thermal stress response, we investigated gene expression dynamics in the shallow water sponge, Haliclona tubifera (o...

Generation of new cardiomyocytes is critical for cardiac repair following myocardial injury, but which kind of stimuli is most important for cardiomyocyte regeneration is still unclear. Here we explore if apoptotic stimuli, manifested through caspase activation, influences cardiac progenitor up-regulation and cardiomyocyte differentiation. Using mouse embryonic stem cells as a cellular model, w...

P AMAGED CELLS or “smudge cells” are a common feature of bone marrow smears, although in clinical reports only rarely is any attention payed to them. In smears of normal marrow at least 10-15 per cent of all cells are unidentifiable because of damage. This represents the greatest source of error in all quantitative estimations of cell populations which are based on counts in fixed smears. The n...