Salivary cotinine concentrations in daily smokers in Barcelona, Spain: a cross-sectional study

Background: Characterizing and comparing the determinant of cotinine concentrations in different populations should facilitate a better understanding of smoking patterns and addiction. This study describes and characterizes determinants of salivary cotinine concentration in a sample of Spanish adult daily smoker men and women. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out between March 2004 and December 2005 in a representative sample of 1245 people from the general population of Barcelona, Spain. A standard questionnaire was used to gather information on active tobacco smoking and passive exposure, and a saliva specimen was obtained to determine salivary cotinine concentration. Two hundred and eleven adult smokers (>16 years old) with complete data were included in the analysis. Determinants of cotinine concentrations were assessed using linear regression models. Results: Salivary cotinine concentration was associated with the reported number of cigarettes smoked in the previous 24 hours (R2 = 0.339; p < 0.05). The inclusion of a quadratic component for number of cigarettes smoked in the regression analyses resulted in an improvement of the fit (R2 = 0.386; p < 0.05). Cotinine concentration differed significantly by sex, with men having higher levels. Conclusion: This study shows that salivary cotinine concentration is significantly associated with the number of cigarettes smoked and sex, but not with other smoking-related variables

Appraisal of progenitor markers in the context of molecular classification of breast cancers

Clinical management of breast cancer relies on case stratification, which increasingly employs molecular markers. The motivation behind delineating breast epithelial differentiation is to better target cancer cases through innate sensitivities bequeathed to the cancer from its normal progenitor state. A combination of histopathological and molecular classification of breast cancer cases suggests a role for progenitors in particular breast cancer cases. Although a remarkable fraction of the real tissue repertoire is maintained within a population of independent cell line cultures, some steps that are closer to the terminal differentiation state and that form a majority of primary human breast tissues are missing in the cell line cultures. This raises concerns about current breast cancer models

Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence (SCORE)

Assessing the credibility of research claims is a central, continuous, and laborious part of the scientific process. Credibility assessment strategies range from expert judgment to aggregating existing evidence to systematic replication efforts. Such assessments can require substantial time and effort. Research progress could be accelerated if there were rapid, scalable, accurate credibility indicators to guide attention and resource allocation for further assessment. The SCORE program is creating and validating algorithms to provide confidence scores for research claims at scale. To investigate the viability of scalable tools, teams are creating: a database of claims from papers in the social and behavioral sciences; expert and machine generated estimates of credibility; and, evidence of reproducibility, robustness, and replicability to validate the estimates. Beyond the primary research objective, the data and artifacts generated from this program will be openly shared and provide an unprecedented opportunity to examine research credibility and evidence

Advances in prevention and therapy of neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea : a systematical review with emphasis on colostrum management and fluid therapy

Neonatal calf diarrhoea remains the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in preweaned dairy calves worldwide. This complex disease can be triggered by both infectious and non-infectious causes. The four most important enteropathogens leading to neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea are Escherichia coli, rota-and coronavirus, and Cryptosporidium parvum. Besides treating diarrhoeic neonatal dairy calves, the veterinarian is the most obvious person to advise the dairy farmer on prevention and treatment of this disease. This review deals with prevention and treatment of neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea focusing on the importance of a good colostrum management and a correct fluid therapy

Novel spectrophotometric method for determination of cinacalcet hydrochloride in its tablets via derivatization with 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulphonate

This study represents the first report on the development of a novel spectrophotometric method for determination of cinacalcet hydrochloride (CIN) in its tablet dosage forms. Studies were carried out to investigate the reaction between CIN and 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulphonate (NQS) reagent. In alkaline medium (pH 8.5), an orange red-colored product exhibiting maximum absorption peak (λmax) at 490 nm was produced. The stoichiometry and kinetic of the reaction were investigated and the reaction mechanism was postulated. This color-developing reaction was employed in the development of a simple and rapid visible-spectrophotometric method for determination of CIN in its tablets. Under the optimized reaction conditions, Beer's law correlating the absorbance with CIN concentration was obeyed in the range of 3 - 100 μg/ml with good correlation coefficient (0.9993). The molar absorptivity (ε) was 4.2 × 105 l/mol/cm. The limits of detection and quantification were 1.9 and 5.7 μg/ml, respectively. The precision of the method was satisfactory; the values of relative standard deviations (RSD) did not exceed 2%. No interference was observed from the excipients that are present in the tablets. The proposed method was applied successfully for the determination of CIN in its pharmaceutical tablets with good accuracy and precisions; the label claim percentage was 100.80 - 102.23 ± 1.27 - 1.62%. The results were compared favorably with those of a reference pre-validated method. The method is practical and valuable in terms of its routine application in quality control laboratories

Cancer metastasis networks and the prediction of progression patterns

Other Research Uni

"A novel in vivo model for the study of human breast cancer metastasis using primary breast tumor-initiating cells from patient biopsies"

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The study of breast cancer metastasis depends on the use of established breast cancer cell lines that do not accurately represent the heterogeneity and complexity of human breast tumors. A tumor model was developed using primary breast tumor-initiating cells isolated from patient core biopsies that would more accurately reflect human breast cancer metastasis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Tumorspheres were isolated under serum-free culture conditions from core biopsies collected from five patients with clinical diagnosis of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Isolated tumorspheres were transplanted into the mammary fat pad of NUDE mice to establish tumorigenicity <it>in vivo</it>. Tumors and metastatic lesions were analyzed by hematoxylin and eosin (H+E) staining and immunohistochemistry (IHC).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Tumorspheres were successfully isolated from all patient core biopsies, independent of the estrogen receptor α (ERα)/progesterone receptor (PR)/Her2/neu status or tumor grade. Each tumorsphere was estimated to contain 50-100 cells. Transplantation of 50 tumorspheres (1-5 × 10³cells) in combination with Matrigel into the mammary fat pad of NUDE mice resulted in small, palpable tumors that were sustained up to 12 months post-injection. Tumors were serially transplanted three times by re-isolation of tumorspheres from the tumors and injection into the mammary fat pad of NUDE mice. At 3 months post-injection, micrometastases to the lung, liver, kidneys, brain and femur were detected by measuring content of human chromosome 17. Visible macrometastases were detected in the lung, liver and kidneys by 6 months post-injection. Primary tumors variably expressed cytokeratins, Her2/neu, cytoplasmic E-cadherin, nuclear β catenin and fibronectin but were negative for ERα and vimentin. In lung and liver metastases, variable redistribution of E-cadherin and β catenin to the membrane of tumor cells was observed. ERα was re-expressed in lung metastatic cells in two of five samples.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Tumorspheres isolated under defined culture conditions from patient core biopsies were tumorigenic when transplanted into the mammary fat pad of NUDE mice, and metastasized to multiple mouse organs. Micrometastases in mouse organs demonstrated a dormancy period prior to outgrowth of macrometastases. The development of macrometastases with organ-specific phenotypic distinctions provides a superior model for the investigation of organ-specific effects on metastatic cancer cell survival and growth.</p