4 research outputs found
Group IV Phospholipase A2α Controls the Formation of Inter-Cisternal Continuities Involved in Intra-Golgi Transport
The enzyme phospholipase A2 (cPLA2α) is involved in the formation of intercisternal tubules that mediate transport of proteins within the Golgi complex
Clinical features and outcomes of elderly hospitalised patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure or both
Background and objective: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure (HF) mutually increase the risk of being present in the same patient, especially if older. Whether or not this coexistence may be associated with a worse prognosis is debated. Therefore, employing data derived from the REPOSI register, we evaluated the clinical features and outcomes in a population of elderly patients admitted to internal medicine wards and having COPD, HF or COPD + HF. Methods: We measured socio-demographic and anthropometric characteristics, severity and prevalence of comorbidities, clinical and laboratory features during hospitalization, mood disorders, functional independence, drug prescriptions and discharge destination. The primary study outcome was the risk of death. Results: We considered 2,343 elderly hospitalized patients (median age 81 years), of whom 1,154 (49%) had COPD, 813 (35%) HF, and 376 (16%) COPD + HF. Patients with COPD + HF had different characteristics than those with COPD or HF, such as a higher prevalence of previous hospitalizations, comorbidities (especially chronic kidney disease), higher respiratory rate at admission and number of prescribed drugs. Patients with COPD + HF (hazard ratio HR 1.74, 95% confidence intervals CI 1.16-2.61) and patients with dementia (HR 1.75, 95% CI 1.06-2.90) had a higher risk of death at one year. The Kaplan-Meier curves showed a higher mortality risk in the group of patients with COPD + HF for all causes (p = 0.010), respiratory causes (p = 0.006), cardiovascular causes (p = 0.046) and respiratory plus cardiovascular causes (p = 0.009). Conclusion: In this real-life cohort of hospitalized elderly patients, the coexistence of COPD and HF significantly worsened prognosis at one year. This finding may help to better define the care needs of this population
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Regulation of Golgi structure and function by signal transduction molecules
The Golgi complex is a highly organized and morphologically complicated intracellular organelle that serves as the crossroad of membrane trafficking. It has been demonstrated that membranous tubules connecting cisternae within Golgi stacks represent essential element the Golgi complex in mammalian cells (Marsh et aI., 2004; Trucco et aI., 2004). In spite of extensive morphological characterization two main questions have to be addressed: (i) which is the functional role and (ii) which is the molecular mechanisms behind the formation of such Golgi tubules? It has recently been shown that these tubular connections are traffic dependent, suggesting that they might be involved in intra-Golgi transport (Marsh et al., 2004; Trucco et aI., 2004). Moreover, cytosolic phospholipase Az (cPLAz) enzymes (Six and Dennis, 2000) have been proposed to modify the lipid membrane conformation favouring membrane curvature and thus promoting the formation of such tubular structures (de Figueiredo et al., 1998). This study shows that upon activation of secretory transport, cytosolic PLAza (cPLAzu) is rapidly recruited to the Golgi and is required for the formation of tubular connections linking different Golgi sub-compartments. In contrast, cPLAzu does not control the dynamic of Golgi vesicles. Importantly, by blocking cPLAza and thus the formation of Golgi tubules the progression of cargo is arrested at the cis level of the Golgi stacks; while the recovery of cPLAzu activity results in the re-formation of Golgi tubular structures and in the reactivation of transport through the Golgi complex. These [mdings indicate that tubular connections regulated by cPLAzu are essential mediators of intraGolgi traffic.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo