BACKGROUND Cytokines are and may be used as therapeutic targets in cancer therapy. In breast cancer, interleukin (IL)-6 is associated with different features of tumor biology like metastasis, certain stages, and decreased survival. It is now an established fact that signaling via the soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R) («transsignaling») is an important process in the IL-6 machinery. METHODS AND R...

OBJECTIVE The objective was to investigate the way that various surface treatments could influence the bond strength of the repair of methacrylate (MC) and silorane (SIL) composites. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 160 MC and SIL cylindrical specimens were polymerized and aged in artificial saliva solution for 7 days. Depending on the following surface treatment (diamond bur or air abrasion)...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a pleiotropic cytokine which increases bcl-2 levels and protects cells from steroid or doxorubicin-induced apoptosis. Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells bear functional IL-10 receptors. Thus serum IL-10 (sIL-10) might inhibit apoptosis in HRS cells, which could occur as a result of either chemotherapy or the crippled immunoglobulin genes. ...

To investigate soluble IL-2 receptor (sIL-2R) levels in nasal allergy, the sera and nasal secretions from patients with nasal allergy and from healthy subjects were subjected to a double-epitope enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Significant elevation of sIL-2R concentrations in the sera and nasal secretions was observed in the allergy patients (n = 26) compared with those of healthy subjects (...

Neuronal expression of cytokines is an area of active investigation in the contexts of development, disease, and normal neural function. Although cultured rat sympathetic neurons respond very weakly to exogenous interleukin 6 (IL-6), we find that addition of soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R) and IL-6 enhances neuronal survival in the absence of nerve growth factor. Neutralizing monoclonal antibodi...

Hairy cell leukemia is a chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of B-cell lineage, whose malignant cells express the interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor. A soluble form of the IL-2 receptor is released by these cells in culture, and the sera of patients with hairy cell leukemia contain elevated levels of this soluble receptor. Four hundred twenty-seven serum samples from 101 patients were analyzed for ...

The soluble interleukin 6 receptor (sIL-6R) circulates at elevated levels in various diseases. This suggests that inflammatory mediators control sIL-6R release. Through examination of human neutrophils, it was found that the acute phase reactant C-reactive protein (CRP) activates a threefold increase in sIL-6R production. Maximal release occurred after 30-60 min exposure to CRP (50 micrograms/m...

As a physically binding protein of GLI1 transcription factor, Suppressor-of-Fused (SUFU) has been placed in the center of negative regulation of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling. SUFU tethers GLI1 in cytoplasm, and in some circumstances, it moves into the nucleus in association with GLI1, leading to the suppression of GLI1 target gene expression by recruiting a corepressor complex. The activated transcr...

We assessed the influence of hormonal (oral, injectable, or levonorgestrel [Norplant, Wyeth-Ayerst, Philadelphia, PA]) and barrier methods of contraception on the risk of cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL), while adjusting for high-risk (HR) HPV infection. Subjects were women receiving family planning services through the state health department clinics from 1995 to 1998. We select...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) recurrence after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) remains a serious problem in the clinical management of post-oLT patients. Recently, two case reports have described successful prevention of HCV liver graft reinfection with intravenous silibinin (SIL) monotherapy in two carriers of genotype 3a and 1a/4 HCV. Based on these findings, we decided to offer s...