The endostyle is a pharyngeal organ of urochordates, cephalochordates and primitive vertebrates. This organ has iodine concentrating and iodinemetabolism activities, and therefore the endostyle is considered to be homologous to the follicle of the thyroid gland. In higher vertebrates, both the TTF-1 (thyroid transcription factor-1) and TPO (thyroid peroxidase) genes are expressed in the thyroid...

Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) is present in the platelet alpha-granule and is released on activation. However, there is some debate as to whether the megakaryocyte and platelet synthesize PAI-1, take it up from plasma, or both. We examined the expression of PAI-1 in differentiating megakaryocytic progenitor cells (UT-7) and in CD34(+)/CD41(-) cells from cord blood. UT-7 cells differ...

In this issue of Blood, Liu et al show that response to thrombopoietin receptor agonist (TPO-RA) therapy in immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is associated with restoration of monocyte Fcg receptor (FcgR) balance toward inhibitory FcgRIIb and with correction of the enhanced phagocytic capacity of macrophages. These data suggest that TPO-RA can increase platelet counts not only by increasing platele...

Background: Anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody (anti-TPO antibody) is a member of thyroid autoantibodies which are important in inducing and also diagnosing autoimmune thyroid diseases. Thyroid autoimmunity can cause several forms of thyroiditis and abnormal thyroid functions, ranging from hypothyroidism to hyperthyroidism. Objective: To evaluate the relationship between serum levels of anti-TPO ...

It has been well established that the growth of spontaneous, induced, or transplanted tumors in several species is associated with alterations in the enzymatic activity of nontumorous organs. The decrease in liver catalase during tumor growth has been particularly well documented (7). As yet there is no precise understanding of the mecha nisms responsible for these changes, nor of their physiol...

BACKGROUND Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is defined as two or more consecutive pregnancy losses before twenty weeks of gestation. It is caused by a variety of genetics and non-genetics factors. Thyroid autoimmunity could associate with pregnancy loss. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effectiveness of Levothyroxine in treatment of RPL in women with high auto-thyroid antibodies. MATERIALS AND ME...

Primary myelofibrosis (PMF) is the most serious myeloproliferative disorder, characterized by clonal myeloproliferation associated with cytokine-mediated bone marrow stromal reaction including fibrosis and osteosclerosis. Current drug therapy remains mainly palliative. Because the NF-kappaB pathway is implicated in the abnormal release of cytokines in PMF, the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib mi...

Glycoprotein VI (GPVI) is an essential platelet receptor for collagens that is exclusively expressed in the megakaryocytic lineage. Transcription of the human gene GP6 is driven largely by GATA-binding protein 1 (GATA-1), specificity protein 1 (Sp1), and Friend leukemia integration 1 (Fli-1). In this report, we show that GPVI expression during megakaryocytic differentiation is dependent on cyto...