No evidence of association between prothrombotic gene polymorphisms and the development of acute myocardial infarction at a young age

Background : we investigated the association between 9 polymorphisms of genes encoding hemostasis factors and myocardial infarction in a large sample of young patients chosen because they have less coronary atherosclerosis than older patients, and thus their disease is more likely to be related to a genetic predisposition to a prothrombotic state Methods and Results : this nationwide case-control study involved 1210 patients who had survived a first myocardial infarction at an age of 45 years who underwent coronary arteriography in 125 coronary care units and 1210 healthy subjects matched for age, sex, and geographical origin. None of the 9 polymorphisms of genes encoding proteins involved in coagulation (G-455A -fibrinogen: OR, 1.0; CI, 0.8 to 1.2; G1691A factor V: OR, 1.1; CI, 0.6 to 2.1; G20210A factor II: OR, 1.0; CI, 0.5 to 1.9; and G10976A factor VII: OR, 1.0; CI, 0.8 to 1.3), platelet function (C807T glycoprotein Ia: OR, 1.1; CI, 0.9 to 1.3; and C1565T glycoprotein IIIa: OR, 0.9; CI, 0.8 to 1.2), fibrinolysis (G185T factor XIII: OR, 1.2; CI, 0.9 to 1.6; and 4G/5G plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1: OR, 0.9; CI, 0.7 to 1.2), or homocysteine metabolism (C677T methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase: OR, 0.9; CI, 0.8 to 1.1) were associated with an increased or decreased risk of myocardial infarction Conclusions : this study provides no evidence supporting an association between 9 polymorphisms of genes encoding proteins involved in hemostasis and the occurrence of premature myocardial infarction or protection against it

Il cancro come problema biologico. IV Revisione e aggiornamento della eziopatogenesi dei tumori. La immunosorveglianza - Coagulazione e cancro.

La ricerca oncologica negli ultimi decenni ha evidenziato una serie di alterazioni sia cromosomiche che geniche sempre più complesse. Da qui ne conseguono alcune domande (alle quali abbiamo qui cercato di rispondere) e riflessioni Tali alterazioni devono considerarsi la causa primaria della malignità nei tumori o la conseguenza? Come interpretare la patogenesi dei tumori oggi? L’ossigeno stimola il sistema immunitario? E quindi l’ossigenoterapia ha azione antiblastica?C’è un legame tra immunosorveglianza, coagulazione e cancro

Colloidal mercury (Hg) distribution in soil samples by sedimentation field flow fractionation coupled to mercury cold vapour generation atomic absorption spectrometry

Dimensional characterisation of potentially toxic elements present in soil is of crucial importance for determining their actual impact on the environment and understanding the role played by colloidal particles in mobilising pollutants. Recently, a number of measurement determinations have been available for this purpose; nevertheless a single technique is often not exhaustive enough to completely determine particle size distribution and element concentration. The present work concerns the investigation of mercury in soil samples collected from a polluted industrial site. The analytical approach here proposed makes use of sedimentation field flow fractionation (SdFFF) instrumentation coupled off-line to a cold vapour generation electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopic (CV-ETAAS) technique to achieve the complete Hg characterisation in colloidal soil fractions. In the investigated samples the results demonstrated a predominant presence of Hg in the fraction between 400 and 700 nm. The apparent relation between concentration of Hg and organic matter (O.M.) content in the soil samples seems to be not related to Hg sorbtion to soil O.M. but rather to the presence of colloidal mercuric sulphides particles which size is likely to be controlled by the occurrence of dissolved O.M. This research pointed out how relatively high levels of mercury in the original soil samples can become even more alarming if concentrated in the submicronic fraction