Postprandial blood glucose clearance is mediated by GLUT4 (glucose transporter 4) which is translocated from an intracellular storage pool to the plasma membrane in response to insulin. The nature of the intracellular storage pool of GLUT4 is not well understood. Immunofluorescence staining shows that, under basal conditions, the major population of GLUT4 resides in the perinuclear compartment....

Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) is an eosinophil-associated, small vessel granulomatous vaculitis, characterized by late onset asthma, upper airways disease, eosinophilia, and clinical manifestations of systemic vasculitis. [1,11-13] Diagnosis is mainly clinical with findings of asthma, eosinophilia, rhino sinusitis and signs of vasculitis in major organs. So far to the best of our knowledge repor...

hydatid cyst is a zoonotic disease that is common in the mediterranean region. thoracic wall, rib or extrapulmonary intrathoracic localization of the cysts is very rare. giant extrapulmonary intrathoracic hydatid cysts can lead to both diagnostic and treatment difficulties and can be confused with tumor. we present a case of a hydatid cyst with thoracic wall involvement mimicking tumor. we conf...

OBJECTIVE To describe a novel iatrogenic immunological reaction produced by minocycline. CASE REPORTS The clinical course and laboratory results of three women who presented with similar rheumatological manifestations after a prolonged exposure to minocycline are described. All three presented a unique reaction manifested by fever, arthritis/arthralgia and livedo reticularis during treatment ...

Sera can produce nuclear or perinuclear immunofluorescence staining in neutrophils which may be caused by antibodies with differing antigenic specificities. These include perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (P-ANCA), granulocyte specific antinuclear antibody (GS-ANA), and antinuclear antibody (ANA). There is controversy over the value of formalin fixation of neutrophils in differe...

PURPOSE To describe an unusual case of idiopathic retinal vasculitis, aneurysms, and neuroretinitis syndrome associated with a positive perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody test. METHODS This is an interventional case report. A 22-year-old man with decreased vision underwent ophthalmoscopic, angiographic, and laboratory evaluation. The left eye underwent laser therapy due to circin...

In live cells, autoactivation of matriptase, a membrane-bound serine protease, can be induced by lysophospholipids, androgens, and the polyanionic compound suramin. These structurally distinct chemicals induce different signaling pathways and cellular events that somehow, in a cell type-specific manner, lead to activation of matriptase immediately followed by inhibition of matriptase by hepatoc...

BACKGROUND Alport syndrome and ANCA-associated vasculitis are both rare diseases. The co-existence of these two conditions has never been reported. There is no obvious pathogenic link between these two glomerular diseases. The management of this case highlights the importance of a systematic approach when investigating the unexpected unfavourable evolution of a known glomerulopathy. CASE PRES...

BACKGROUND This article reviews the published clinical experience with atypical neuroleptics in children and adolescents. METHOD A computerized literature search was conducted (MEDLINE, 1974-1998) to retrieve all reports on the use of atypical neuroleptics in children and adolescents. A hand search was performed as well. All relevant clinical data were collated by type of drug. RESULTS We f...

Megakaryocytes are the bone marrow cells that generate platelets. They are relatively rare cells, comprising between 0.03 and 0.06% of all nucleated marrow cells (R. L. Berkow et al., J. Lab. Clin. Med., 103: 811-818, 1984). The study of human megakaryocyte differentiation and function has been hampered by the small number of these cells available for study. Recently we have established a human...