The allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) is a complex in vitro assay of T-cell recognition and responsiveness in which interleukin-2 (IL-2) plays a central role. We have previously demonstrated that c-kit ligand (KL) can enhance IL-2-induced proliferation in a subset of human natural killer cells expressing the c-kit tyrosine kinase receptor. In the present study, we asked whether KL coul...

OBJECTIVE Klotho has an important role in development of coronary artery (CAD) disease. A functional variant of klotho gene (kl-vs) has been found as an independent risk factor for early-onset occult coronary artery disease (CAD) in previous studies. The Frequency of this variant was not known in Iranian population. We have examined the allele frequency of the kl-vs variant in a case-control st...

Localization is the first step in osteoarthritis (OA) classification. Manual classification, however, is time-consuming, tedious, and expensive. The proposed system is designed as decision support system for medical doctors to classify the severity of knee OA. A method has been proposed here to localize a joint space area for OA and then classify it in 4 steps to classify OA into KL-Grade 0, KL...

BACKGROUND The aim of our study was to evaluate the serum concentration of klotho in a cohort of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients compared to that of healthy controls and to correlate its levels with the degree and the kind of organ involvement. METHODS Blood samples obtained from both patients and controls were collected and analysed by an ELISA test for the determination of human soluble k...

Decline in cognitive abilities is a major concern in aging individuals. A potential important factor for functioning of the central nervous system in late-life stages is the KLOTHO (KL) gene. KL is expressed in various organs including the brain and is involved in multiple biological processes, for example, growth factor signaling. In the present study, 19 tagging gene variants in KL were studi...

BACKGROUND Lumbar spondylosis is more prevalent among the middle-aged and elderly, but few population-based studies have been conducted, especially in Japan. The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence of lumbar spondylosis and its associations with low back pain among community-dwelling Japanese women. METHODS Lateral radiographs of the lumbar spine were obtained from 490 Japanes...

INTRODUCTION Serum hyaluronic acid (sHA) is a serum biomarker for knee osteoarthritis (OA). Although sHA concentration is elevated in patients with knee OA, the relationship between serum concentration and disease progression remains unclear. We examined the relationship between sHA concentration and radiographic progression of knee OA in a cohort of individuals followed for 5 years. METHODS ...

A substantial body of evidence indicates that pharmacological activation of mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channels (mKATP) in the heart is protective in conditions associated with ischemia/reperfusion injury. Several mechanisms have been postulated to be responsible for cardioprotection, including the modulation of mitochondrial respiratory function. The aim of the present study was to ...

An infinite binary sequence X is Kolmogorov-Loveland (or KL) random if there is no computable non-monotonic betting strategy that succeeds on X in the sense of having an unbounded gain in the limit while betting successively on bits of X . A sequence X is KL-stochastic if there is no computable non-monotonic selection rule that selects from X an infinite, biased sequence. One of the major open ...

Supersymmetric contributions to the theoretically clean K → πνν̄, KL → π νν̄, KL → π ee and KL → π μμ decays are briefly reviewed. Particular emphasis is laid on the information one could get on the MSSM flavor sector from a combined study of the four modes. PACS. 12.60.Jv Supersymmetric models – 13.20.Eb Decays of K mesons