To date, no studies have documented the conduction characteristics of the atrioventricular conduction system in the transplanted human heart. Three patients who had undergone cardiac transplantation 1—2 years previously formed the basis of this study. All were functional class I symptomatically and had normal hemodynamics and coronary arteriograms at the time of study. Each patient was in sinus...

To date, no studies have documented the conduction characteristics of the atrioventricular conduction system in the transplanted human heart. Three patients who had undergone cardiac transplantation 1—2 years previously formed the basis of this study. All were functional class I symptomatically and had normal hemodynamics and coronary arteriograms at the time of study. Each patient was in sinus...

PURPOSE Posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy (PPCD) is characterized by abnormal proliferation of corneal endothelial cells. It was shown that TGF-β2 present in aqueous humor (AH) could help maintaining the corneal endothelium in a G1-phase-arrest state. We wanted to determine whether the levels of this protein are changed in AH of PPCD patients. METHODS We determined the concentrations o...

We investigated the properties of platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) derived from Trichoderma harzianum. The enzyme, comprised of 572 amino acids, shares high homology with PAF-AH proteins from T. koningii and other microbial species. The optimum enzymatic activity of PAF-AH occurred at pH 6 in the absence of Ca2+ and it localized in the cytoplasm, and we observed the upregulat...

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have been identified in every compartment of the environment and biota due to their widespread use as flame retardants. There is debate over their potential to threaten environmental and human health due to insufficient toxicological information. The weak to moderate binding affinity of PBDE congeners to the Ah receptor (AhR) and the weak induction of EROD...

BACKGROUND Atherosclerosis is a complex, chronic disease that usually arises from the converging action of several pathogenic processes, including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity, and the accumulation of oxidized LDL. Platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) is a LDL- and HDL-bound enzyme that hydrolyzes and inactivates PAF and prevents LDL-cholesterol oxidation, thus delaying ...

Obstructive sleep apnea/hypopnea syndrome (OSA/HS) is the basis of the spectrum of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and is a condition characterized by the presence of snoring, repetitive partial upper airway obstruction (hypopnea) and/or intermittent complete obstruction (apnea), long enough to cause reduce the level of oxygen in the blood (desaturation), fragmented sleep and excessive daytime...

Emerging evidence suggests that assisted hatching (AH) techniques may improve clinical pregnancy rates, particularly in poor prognosis patients; however, there still remains considerable uncertainty. We conducted a meta-analysis to verify the effect of AH on pregnancy outcomes. We searched for related studies published in PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane library databases from start dates t...