Superior mesenteric artery (SMA) syndrome is a mechanical duodenal obstruction by the SMA. The traditional approach to SMA syndrome was open bypass surgery. Nowadays, a conventional approach has been replaced by laparoscopic surgery. But single incision laparoscopic approach for SMA syndrome is rare. Herein, we report the first case of SMA syndrome patient who was treated by single incision lap...

IS INSOMNIA A DISORDER OF AROUSAL? Prevalence of Insomnia Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. Its prevalence varies according to the definition. One-fourth to one-third of the general population reports complaints of difficulty with falling and/or staying asleep whereas ten percent seek medical help for insomnia. Insomnia occurs more frequently with increasing age, in women, in patients...

TGF-beta signaling in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans plays multiple roles in the development of the animal. The Sma/Mab pathway controls body size, male tail sensory ray identity and spicule formation. Three Smad genes, sma-2, sma-3 and sma-4, are all required for signal transduction, suggesting that the functional complex could be a heterotrimer. Because the C termini of Smads play import...

stanford type a acute aortic dissection (aad) is a very rare complication, with potentially lethal consequences in pregnancy. in fact, pregnancy has been regularly associated with the possibility of aortic. dissection in almost half of young women. herein, we present the case of a 38-year-old woman in her 37th week of pregnancy. the patient’s medical history was indicative of g4l2ab1(4 gestaiti...

Smooth muscle alpha-actin (SMA) is a marker for the contractile, non-proliferative phenotype of adult smooth muscle cells (SMCs). Upon arterial injury, expression of SMA and other structural proteins decreases and SMCs acquire a pro-migratory and proliferative phenotype. To what extent SMA regulates migration and proliferation of SMCs is unclear and putative signaling pathways involved remain t...

In C. elegans, a TGFbeta-related signaling pathway regulates body size. Loss of function of the signaling ligand (dbl-1), receptors (daf-4 and sma-6) or Smads (sma-2, sma-3 and sma-4) results in viable, but smaller animals because of a reduction in postembryonic growth. We have investigated the tissue specificity of this pathway in body size regulation. We show that different tissues are reduce...