BACKGROUND Studies have shown altered vitamin D metabolism in obesity. We assessed differences between obese and normal-weight subjects in total, free, and bioavailable 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D, 25(OH)DFree, and 25(OH)DBio, respectively), vitamin D binding protein (DBP), parathyroid hormone (PTH) and bone traits. METHODS 595 37-47-year-old healthy Finnish men and women stratified by BMI w...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate clinical 3.0T magnetic resonance for tracking and quantifying superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)-labeled endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in vitro and homing to liver with acute injury in vivo. METHODS The bone marrow-derived EPCs were isolated and cultured for 4 days and examined in vitro for lineage markers. Then the cultured cells were labeled with a ferumoxides-p...

INTRODUCTION Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) could be used as a surrogate marker of atherosclerosis in hemodialysis patients. Since different mechanisms are involved in the atheroma formation and arterial wall thickness, we assessed the relationship between the maximum and the mean CIMT with different cardiovascular risk factors in dialysis patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS The mean and t...

Hypersensitivity reactions are the most frequent dose-limiting adverse reactions to Escherichia coli-derived asparaginase in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients. The aim of the present study was to identify associations between sequence-based Human Leukocyte Antigen Class II region alleles and asparaginase hypersensitivity in a Hungarian ALL population. Four-digit typing of HL...

PURPOSE To elucidate vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-mediated pathogenesis of fibrovascular proliferation in diabetic retinopathy. METHODS Fibrovascular tissues were obtained at vitrectomy from 22 cases with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. The half-divided tissues were processed for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis to examine the expression of VE...

Multi-center studies are advantageous for enrolling participants of varying pathological and demographical conditions, and especially in neurological studies. Hence stability of the obtained quantitative R2* and susceptibility in multicenter studies is a key issue for their widespread applications. In this work, the stabilities of simultaneously obtained R2* and susceptibility are investigated ...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess the impact of oral water and intravenous furosemide challenges on blood oxygenation level-dependent magnetic resonance imaging measurements in the kidney and to examine the contribution of R2 (=1/T2) to changes in R2* (=1/T2*). MATERIALS AND METHODS This Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant study had institutional review ...

This study investigated the effects of maternal undernutrition during late pregnancy on lamb birth weight. 45 Mongolian ewes, synchronized for oestrus and then mated, were divided into four groups and offered 0.86 MJME/kgwd (control group; CG : ad libitum access to feed), 0.44 MJME/kgwd (Restricted Group 3; R3), 0.33 MJME/kgwd (Restricted Group 2; R2) and 0.20 MJME/kgw d (Restricted Group 1; R1...