Objectives of this study were to evaluate glomerular filtration rate (GFR), renal structural changes and proteinuria in aged Beagle dogs before and after hydrocortisone (HC) administration. Eleven Beagle dogs ≥10 years old were treated with either hydrocortisone (HC group, n = 6) or placebo (control group, n = 5). Urinary markers, GFR and kidney biopsies were evaluated before (T0), during (T16 ...

Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) is considered to be an organ-specific autoimmune disease. However, the pathogenesis of GO is incompletely understood at the present time. To clarify the immunological differences between newly diagnosed GO and Graves' disease (GD) without ophthalmopathy or healthy controls (HC), we examined T-cell profile and the Th1/Th2 profile cell balance in GO (n=20), GD (n=20) a...

A process was developed for production of a candidate vaccine antigen, recombinant C-terminal heavy chain fragment of the botulinum neurotoxin serotype E, rBoNTE(Hc) inPichia pastoris.P. pastoris strain GS115 was transformed with the rBoNTE(Hc) gene inserted into pHILD4 Escherichia coli—P. pastoris shuttle plasmid. The clone was characterized for genetic stability, copy number, and BoNTE(Hc) se...

Tetanus toxin (TeTx) is the protein, synthesized by the anaerobic bacteria Clostridium tetani, which causes tetanus disease. TeTx gains entry into target cells by means of its interaction with lipid rafts, which are membrane domains enriched in sphingomyelin and cholesterol. However, the exact mechanism of host membrane binding remains to be fully established. In the present study we used the r...

BACKGROUND GeneChip Expression Analysis was employed to survey the glomerular gene expression profile in a type 2 diabetes (T2D) model of KK/Ta mice fed with a high-calorie diet (HC), and we focused on the role of mindin (also called spondin 2), whose expression is upregulated by HC. METHODS Isolated glomeruli from three 20-week-old KK/Ta mice fed with HC or a standard diet (SD) were dissecte...

BACKGROUND Despite continuous research on the prevention of preterm labor, preterm delivery still occurs often. Different neonatal outcomes in association with chorioamnionitis might occur with the introduction of antenatal steroids. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of chorioamnionitis on the outcome of preterm infants and the association of antenatal steroids i...

BACKGROUND There is evidence that circulating microparticles (MPs) and annexin (+) platelet-derived MPs (PDMPs) are increased in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of our study was to characterize the abundance, origin, and annexin V binding of MPs in patients with IBD and correlate them with the disease characteristics. METHODS Case-control study of 46 IBD patients (23 Crohn's disease...

Hybrid surfactants containing both fluorocarbon (FC) and hydrocarbon (HC) chains have recently been shown to solubilize water and form elongated reversed micelles in supercritical CO2. To clarify the most effective FC and HC chain lengths, the aggregation behavior and interfacial properties of hybrid surfactants FCm-HCn (FC length m/HC length n = 4/2, 4/4, 6/2, 6/4, 6/5, 6/6, and 6/8) were exam...

BACKGROUND Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) is an endogenous competitive inhibitor of nitric oxide (NO) synthase. Because endothelial NO elaboration is impaired in hypercholesterolemia, we investigated whether plasma concentrations of ADMA are elevated in young, clinically asymptomatic hypercholesterolemic adults. We further studied whether such elevation of ADMA levels was correlated with im...