A systematic study of the effects of polymer surface properties on the interaction with human endothelial cells (HEC) may lead to the development of small-diameter vascular grafts. HEC, suspended in culture medium containing 20% serum adhered and spread onto moderately wettable polymers such as TCPS (tissue culture polystyrene). Reduced or no adhesion of HEC was observed upon the hydrophobic po...

Leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is a pleiotropic cytokine which has been found to be expressed in the human endometrium and to play an important role in human reproduction. In the present study we investigated expression and regulation of the human LIF promoter in HEC-1B endometrial adenocarcinoma cells using a luciferase reporter plasmid bearing a 666 bp promoter fragment (h666LIF-Luc) in tr...

OBJECTIVE Preferential IGF-1Ec expression has been firmly associated with skeletal muscle repair mechanisms, post-infarction remodeling of the myocardium, the pathophysiology of endometriosis and prostate cancer biology. Therefore, we have studied the possible biological significance of synthetic Ec peptide, a putative cleavage product of IGF-1Ec in PC-3 cells and C2C12 myoblasts. DESIGN We h...

Retinoids exhibit chemotherapeutic and chemopreventive activities, possibly due to their ability to modulate cell growth, differentiation, and apoptosis. These effects are thought to be mediated by nuclear retinoic acid (RA) receptors (RARs) and retinoid X receptors, each of which includes three subtypes (a, b, and g) that act as transcription factors. To determine whether RARs play a role in m...

To deliver and retain viable repair cells in a surgically prepared cartilage lesion, we previously developed an adhesive in situ-gelling cell carrier by suspending cells in a solution of hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), which was then mixed with chitosan-glycerol phosphate to form a chitosan-GP/HEC gel. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the mechanism of gelation to maximally control gel t...

Retinoids exhibit chemotherapeutic and chemopreventive activities, possibly due to their ability to modulate cell growth, differentiation, and apoptosis. These effects are thought to be mediated by nuclear retinoic acid (RA) receptors (RARs) and retinoid X receptors, each of which includes three subtypes (a, b, and g) that act as transcription factors. To determine whether RARs play a role in m...

Widespread flooding occurred across northwest Europe during the winter of 2013/14, resulting in large socioeconomic damages. In the historical record, extreme hydrological events have been connected with intense water vapour transport. Here we show that water vapour transport has higher medium-range predictability compared with precipitation in the winter 2013/14 forecasts from the European Cen...

Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 229 D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany, Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malchei Israel St, Jerusalem, Israel 95501, Department of Geolog...

Digital surface models, land use and rainfall data were used to simulate water areas using Hydrologic Engineering Centres River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) software. Multi-temporal synthetic aperture radar (SAR) was for the detection of flood prone area calibrate HEC-RAS, due lack validation in New Cairo City, Egypt. The thresholding method applied two Sentinel-1 images, one pre- post-flash event...