The gene encoding neurotoxin (BmK Mm2) from the scorpion Buthus martensii Karsch was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) at a level of 1.6 mg/L using expression plasmid pExSecI system. SDS-PAGE analysis of the cell lysate confirmed that gene BmK Mm2 was expressed in soluble form and the expressed production was secreted into Luria-Bertani (LB) culture medium from Escherichia coli. Accordin...

Using serial intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), we evaluated the natural evolution of non-culprit/non-target lesion ruptured coronary plaques and assessed the impact of statin therapy. Twenty-eight patients with non-stenotic ruptured plaques underwent baseline and 12-month follow-up IVUS studies; half were treated with statins. Standard IVUS analyses were performed. Complete healing of ruptured p...

The effect of flow on the adhesion of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) to vascular endothelium was investigated using a parallel plate chamber with a well-defined flow field. Washed PMNL were perfused over a monolayer of primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) pretreated with formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP, 1 X 10(-7) mol/L) for five minutes. In other experiments ...

BACKGROUND Mitotic rate is routinely assessed in breast cancer cases and based on the assessment of 10 high power fields (HPF), a non-standard sample area, as per the College of American Pathologists cancer checklist. The effect of sample area variation has not been assessed. METHODS A computer model making use of the binomial distribution was developed to calculate the misclassification rate...

OBJECTIVES We attempted to determine the accuracy and pitfalls of calculating the mitral regurgitant orifice area with the proximal isovelocity surface area method in a clinical series that included patients with valvular prolapse and eccentric jets. BACKGROUND The effective regurgitant orifice area, a measure of lesion severity of mitral regurgitation, can be calculated by the proximal isove...

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic value of diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) in assessment of metastases in axillary lymph nodes (ALNs) in a sample of Iranian women with breast cancer. Methods: A total of 50 axillary lymph nodes from 30 female patients with histologically verified breast cancer were assessed by 1.5 T MRI. DWI was implemented at b-values of 50, 400 and 8...

Introduction: In radiotherapy, methods of treatment planning are becoming increasingly more complicated. This requires verification of the doses delivered to increasingly smaller and more precise regions. Radiotherapy techniques are continuously employing smaller and smaller field sizes to deliver tighter radiation doses with higher therapeutic ratios, generating interest among researchers to p...

MM creatine kinase purified from tissue exists as a single form but upon release into the plasma exhibits three forms which, based on increasing anodal migration on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, are referred to as MM1, MM2, and MM3. The three forms were isolated in pure form from plasma in sufficient quantities for biochemical and physiological studies. Chromatofocusing results show that ...