Case report: Acute pericarditis following hepatic microwave ablation for liver metastasis.

Hepatic microwave ablation (MWA) is a growing treatment modality in the field of primary and secondary liver cancer. One potential side effect is thermal damage to adjacent structures, including the pericardium if the hepatic lesion is located near the diaphragm. Hemorrhagic cardiac tamponade is known to be a rare but potentially life-threatening complication. Here we present the first case of cardiac complication following MWA treatment in a 55-year-old man who presented with late cardiac tamponade. Adequate and timely management is essential, and clinicians should be fully aware of the need to perform early transthoracic echocardiography to detect signs of pericardial effusion when cardiac involvement is suspected

The impact of pulsed electric field on the extraction of bioactive compounds from beetroot

Beetroot is a root vegetable rich in different bioactive components, such as vitamins, minerals, phenolics, carotenoids, nitrate, ascorbic acids, and betalains, that can have a positive effect on human health. The aim of this work was to study the influence of the pulsed electric field (PEF) at different electric field strengths (4.38 and 6.25 kV/cm), pulse number 10\u201330, and energy input 0\u201312.5 kJ/kg as a pretreatment method on the extraction of betalains from beetroot. The obtained results showed that the application of PEF pre-treatment significantly (p < 0.05) influenced the efficiency of extraction of bioactive compounds from beetroot. The highest increase in the content of betalain compounds in the red beet\u2019s extract (betanin by 329%, vulgaxanthin by 244%, compared to the control sample), was noted for 20 pulses of electric field at 4.38 kV/cm of strength. Treatment of the plant material with a PEF also resulted in an increase in the electrical conductivity compared to the non-treated sample due to the increase in cell membrane permeability, which was associated with leakage of substances able to conduct electricity, including mineral salts, into the intercellular space

Epidermal RAF prevents allergic skin disease

The RAS pathway is central to epidermal homeostasis, and its activation in tumors or in Rasopathies correlates with hyperproliferation. Downstream of RAS, RAF kinases are actionable targets regulating keratinocyte turnover; however, chemical RAF inhibitors paradoxically activate the pathway, promoting epidermal proliferation. We generated mice with compound epidermis restricted BRAF/RAF1 ablation. In these animals, transient barrier defects and production of chemokines and Th2-type cytokines by keratinocytes cause a disease akin to human atopic dermatitis, characterized by IgE responses and local and systemic inflammation. Mechanistically, BRAF and RAF1 operate independently to balance MAPK signaling: BRAF promotes ERK activation, while RAF1 dims stress kinase activation. In vivo, JNK inhibition prevents disease onset, while MEK/ERK inhibition in mice lacking epidermal RAF1 phenocopies it. These results support a primary role of keratinocytes in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis, and the animals lacking BRAF and RAF1 in the epidermis represent a useful model for this disease

Cell cycle regulation of embryonic stem cells and mouse embryonic fibroblasts lacking functional Pax7

The transcription factor Pax7 plays a key role during embryonic myogenesis and in adult organisms in that it sustains the proper function of satellite cells, which serve as adult skeletal muscle stem cells. Recently we have shown that lack of Pax7 does not prevent the myogenic differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. In the current work we show that the absence of functional Pax7 in differentiating embryonic stem cells modulates cell cycle facilitating their proliferation. Surprisingly, deregulation of Pax7 function also positively impacts at the proliferation of mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Such phenotypes seem to be executed by modulating the expression of positive cell cycle regulators, such as cyclin E

Possible association between ABCC8 C49620T polymorphism and type 2 diabetes in a Nigerian population

The association between ABCC8 gene C49620T polymorphism and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in populations of diverse ethnic backgrounds has been reported. However, such occurrence in an African population is yet to be established. This case-control study involving 73 T2D and 75 non-diabetic (ND) patients investigated the occurrence of this polymorphism among T2D patients in Nigeria and assessed its relationship with body lipids of patients. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients were collected and lipid profile indices including total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) were assayed. Restriction fragment length polymorphism-PCR (RFLP-PCR) was employed to genotype the ABCC8-C49620T polymorphism using PstI restriction enzyme. This study revealed significantly (p 0.05) of T2D for the unadjusted codominant, dominant and recessive models. Following age adjustment, the mutant genotypes (CT and TT) showed significant (p<0.05) risk of T2D for all the models with the recessive model presenting the greatest risk of T2D (OR: 2.39, 95% CI: 1.16-4.91, p<0.018). The TT genotype significantly (p<0.05) associated with high level of HDL and reduced levels of TC, TG and LDL in non-diabetic patients but was not associated with any of the demographic and clinical characteristics among T2D patients. ABCC8 C49620T polymorphism showed possible association with T2D marked by predominance of the mutant TT genotype in T2D patients. However, the relationship between TT genotype and lipid abnormalities for possible beneficial effect on people suffering from T2D is unclear

2D-PAGE as an effective method of RNA degradome analysis

The continuously growing interest in small regulatory RNA exploration is one of the important factors that have inspired the recent development of new high throughput techniques such as DNA microarrays or next generation sequencing. Each of these methods offers some significant advantages but at the same time each of them is expensive, laborious and challenging especially in terms of data analysis. Therefore, there is still a need to develop new analytical methods enabling the fast, simple and cost-effective examination of the complex RNA mixtures. Recently, increasing attention has been focused on the RNA degradome as a potential source of riboregulators. Accordingly, we attempted to employ a two-dimensional gel electrophoresis as a quick and uncomplicated method of profiling RNA degradome in plant or human cells. This technique has been successfully used in proteome analysis. However, its application in nucleic acids studies has been very limited. Here we demonstrate that two dimensional electrophoresis is a technique which allows one to quickly and cost-effectively identify and compare the profiles of 10–90 nucleotide long RNA accumulation in various cells and organs

In vivo NMR as a tool for probing molecular structure and dynamics in intact Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cells

Solid state NMR/Biophysical Organic Chemistr

Microsatellite polymorphism and its association with body weight and selected morphometrics of farm red fox (Vulpes vulpes L.)

Polymorphism of 30 canine-derived microsatellites was studied in a group of 200 red foxes kept on 2 Polish farms. 22 out of 30 microsatellites were selected to study association between marker genotypes and body weight (BW), body length (BL), body circumference (BC), tail length (TL), ear height (EH), length of the right front limb (FRLL), length of the right rear limb (RRLL), length of the right front foot (FRFL) and length of the right rear foot (RRFL). A total of 112 alleles and 243 genotypes were found at 22 autosomal microsatellite loci. Three monomorphic loci deemed as uninformative were excluded from the study. The association between marker genotypes and the studied traits was analysed using general linear model (GLM) procedure and least squares means (LSM). Linkage disequilibrium (LD) was estimated to assess non-random association between microsatellite loci. Out of 19 microsatellites studied four markers showed no association with the studied traits, three markers had a significant effect on one trait, and another three markers had significant effect on two traits. Among ten microsatellites with significant effect on four economically important traits (BW, BL, BC, TL) four were associated with two characters: marker FH2613 with BW and BC, marker FH2097withBL and BC, marker ZUBECA6 with BW and BC, whereas marker REN75M10 was associated with BL and TL. The strongest LD (r(2) ranged from 0.15 to 0.33) was estimated between nine loci with significant effect on economically important traits (BW, BL, BC, TL)