conclusions we observed acceptable results regarding both efficacy and safety with 62.5 mg of bosentan, twice daily in this group of patients. further clinical trials investigating pah with lower dosages of bosentan may be warranted. results no adverse drug reaction was observed during the follow-up. clinical worsening occurred in six (14%) patients, at least one year after treatment, two of th...

abstract the gnrh analogue (agonist and antagonist gnrh) changed ovarian stimulation. on the one hand, it improved chances of pregnancy to obtain more oocytes and better embryos. this leads to an ovarian hyper-response, which can be complicated by the ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (ohss). on the other hand, the gnrh analogue can prevent the incidence of ohss: gnrh antagonist protocols, gnrh...

BACKGROUND Calcium antagonists normalize endothelial dysfunction in many cardiovascular diseases. There is no known receptor, however, for calcium antagonists in endothelial cells (ECs). We hypothesized that vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are involved in the mechanism underlying the normalization of endothelial dysfunction by calcium antagonists. METHODS AND RESULTS Coculture studies wi...

Natural peptide agonists of corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) receptors bind to the receptor by a two-site mechanism as follows: the carboxyl end of the ligand binds the N-terminal extracellular domain (ECD) of the receptor and the amino portion of the ligand binds the extracellular face of the seven transmembrane region. Recently, peptide antagonists homologous to the 12 C-terminal residue...

OBJECTIVES The objective of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist in improving clinical pregnancy rate in gonadotropin-stimulated intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycles in patients of unexplained infertility. STUDY DESIGN This was a prospective, randomized case-controlled study. SETTINGS The study was conducted in the infertility clinic of...

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are important for body patterning and morphogenesis, whereas several BMP antagonists regulate the functions of BMPs during embryonic development and tissue differentiation. Protein related to DAN and cerberus (PRDC) is a secreted protein with a cystine knot structure identified by gene trapping in embryonic stem cells. Although PRDC shows sequence homology wit...

IL-1 is a major proinflammatory cytokine which interacts with the IL-1 receptor I (IL-1RI) complex, composed of IL-1RI and IL-1R accessory protein subunits. Currently available strategies to counter pathological IL-1 signaling rely on a recombinant IL-1 receptor antagonist, which directly competes with IL-1 for its binding site. Presently, there are no small antagonists of the IL-1RI complex. G...

A chicken gene orthologous to human leptin receptor (LEPR) has been characterized and found to be active in leptin signaling in vitro in response to a variety of recombinant leptins and leptin-containing blood samples. However, the endogenous ligand of chicken LEPR (cLEPR) - the putative chicken leptin - has been reported by us and others to be undetectable at the DNA, mRNA, protein and activit...

BACKGROUND Adjuvant/neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients may be associated with amenorrhea and a marked reduction in ovarian reserve. OBJECTIVES To assess the use of letrozole with follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) in gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogue protocols, based on reported attempts to avoid the estradiol (E2) increase during controlled ovarian hyperstimulati...

BACKGROUND Highly purified hMG (hp-hMG) has recently shown better cycle outcome than the recombinant FSH (rFSH) when compared in GnRH agonist long protocol cycles. However, they have not yet been compared in GnRH antagonist cycles. METHODS A RCT comparing the ongoing pregnancy rate (primary end-point) in 280 patients undergoing IVF/ICSI after stimulation with hp-hMG or rFSH controlled with a ...