Abstract Background In Crohn’s disease (CD) Smad7 is overexpressed in the intestinal mucosa, where it contributes to a sustained production of inflammatory cytokines, increased matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity and chronic inflammation through inhibition anti-inflammatory actions TGF-beta. GED-0301, an anti-sense oligodeoxynucleaotide complementary mRNA Smad7, inhibits translation synthes...

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-II/mannose 6-phosphate (Man-6-P) receptor present in mammalian tissues as an apparent molecular mass = 250 kDa glycoprotein has recently been detected in fetal rat serum in a lower molecular mass form (240 kDa). In the present studies the serum receptor was affinity labeled with 125I-IGF-II after its adsorption onto pentamannosyl 6-phosphate-Sepharose, demon...

introduction: depression is a mental disorder that highly associated with immune system. therefore, this study compares the serum concentrations of il-21, il-17, and transforming growth factor β (tgf-β) between patients with major depressive disorder and healthy controls. methods: blood samples were collected from 41 patients with major depressive disorder and 40 healthy age-matched controls wi...

The activity of dipeptidyl peptidase IV (EC 3.4.14.5) in human sera from normal controls and osteoporotic patients was assayed with Gly-Pro-4-methylcoumaryl-7-amide (Gly-Pro-MCA) as substrate, at pH 8.7. The mean normal value for the activity in serum of 120 healthy subjects (ages 20-86 y) was 54.0 (SE 0.9, range 34.3-81.6) U/L at 37 degrees C and differed slightly but significantly between the...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of pleural fluid brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), N-terminal pro-BNP (NT-pro-BNP) and ST2, which are biomarkers of myocyte stress, for diagnosing pleural effusions due to heart failure (HF). BNP and ST2 have not been previously evaluated in pleural fluid. METHODS The three biomarkers were measured in the pleural flu...

The L10P single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is located in the signal sequence of the transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) gene. The proline-encoding (Pro-) allele of this SNP has been associated with an increased breast cancer risk, which has been attributed to the elevated secretion of this TGFβ1 variant observed in vitro and in male subjects. Here we investigated the association of the L10...

BACKGROUND Pro-alphaC inhibins are luteal derived analytes peaking in the maternal serum as early as Day 16 after conception. We set out to verify a previous post hoc analysis which suggested that pro-alphaC levels measured this early are extremely sensitive in predicting clinical pregnancy success after unstimulated IVF with ovulatory cycles. METHODS Prospective observational study of 246 wo...

BACKGROUND  Most patients with surgically corrected tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) are faced with multiple residua and sequelae such as pulmonary regurgitation (PR), resulting in reoperation for pulmonary valve replacement (PVR). Plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level and serum N-terminal pro-BNP (NT-pro-BNP) level are useful as diagnostic objective markers of chronic heart failure (CHF). The ...

Introduction: Nowadays one of the most important problems of Thalassemia major patients is the additional load of iron and hemosiderosis, the most important consequence of which is deposited iron in myocardial tissue and the incidence of cardiomyopathy caused by hemochromatosis. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of concurrent (resistance-endurance) exercise on NT-pro BNP and...

Background: Ghrelin is a peptide with attenuating effect on inflammatory pain. Both anti- and pro-inflammatory mediators have a role in the nociception and development of pain and hyperalgesia. IL-10 and TGF-β are anti-inflammatory cytokines and inhibit the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines related to peripheral and central inflammatory pain. In this study, the effects of i.p. injec...