Correlation of endothelial cell proliferation with vascular endothelial growth factor in endometrium of women with menorrhagia

Background: Approximately 30% of women of reproductive age experience excessive blood loss during menstruation. In 50% of cases, menorrhagia has no underlying pathology. However, until recently, the only permanent cure for menorrhagia was hysterectomy. In this study we aim to determine the correlation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression with markers of endometrial endothelial cell proliferation like proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and Cluster Determination (CD34).Methods: A total of 100 patients with history of menorrhagia were selected for study. Double Immunohistochemistry was performed on these endometrial biopsy sections. Proliferating endothelial cells were identified by an immunohistochemical double staining technique with PCNA and CD34. VEGF expression was also seen in endometrial biopsy.Results: In general, expression of both VEGF and PCNA was more in functional layer than basal layer in both menorrhagic patients as well as non menorrhagic patients.  When glandular cytoplasmic VEGF expression was compared with PCNA the association was statistically significant whereas completely opposite findings was seen with glandular luminal surface VEGF positivity but the association was statistically significant. In secretory phase (p-value<0.001) there was highly statistically significant association in PCNA grading with glandular luminal surface VEGF positivity whereas when we correlated PCNA with  cytoplasmic  glandular VEGF in secretory phase it was statistically significant (p-value<0.001).Conclusions: The endothelial proliferation was significantly higher in menorrhagia patients during late secretory phase of cycle than controls. We were able to demonstrate increased endothelial proliferation in patients in the premenstrual part of cycle

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI): a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Remote ischaemic conditioning with transient ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). We investigated whether remote ischaemic conditioning could reduce the incidence of cardiac death and hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. METHODS: We did an international investigator-initiated, prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI) at 33 centres across the UK, Denmark, Spain, and Serbia. Patients (age >18 years) with suspected STEMI and who were eligible for PPCI were randomly allocated (1:1, stratified by centre with a permuted block method) to receive standard treatment (including a sham simulated remote ischaemic conditioning intervention at UK sites only) or remote ischaemic conditioning treatment (intermittent ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of an automated cuff device) before PPCI. Investigators responsible for data collection and outcome assessment were masked to treatment allocation. The primary combined endpoint was cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02342522) and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 6, 2013, and March 31, 2018, 5401 patients were randomly allocated to either the control group (n=2701) or the remote ischaemic conditioning group (n=2700). After exclusion of patients upon hospital arrival or loss to follow-up, 2569 patients in the control group and 2546 in the intervention group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At 12 months post-PPCI, the Kaplan-Meier-estimated frequencies of cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure (the primary endpoint) were 220 (8·6%) patients in the control group and 239 (9·4%) in the remote ischaemic conditioning group (hazard ratio 1·10 [95% CI 0·91-1·32], p=0·32 for intervention versus control). No important unexpected adverse events or side effects of remote ischaemic conditioning were observed. INTERPRETATION: Remote ischaemic conditioning does not improve clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure) at 12 months in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, University College London Hospitals/University College London Biomedical Research Centre, Danish Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, TrygFonden

Construction, analysis and validation of co-expression network to understand stress adaptation in Deinococcus radiodurans R1.

Systems biology based approaches have been effectively utilized to mine high throughput data. In the current study, we have performed system-level analysis for Deinococcus radiodurans R1 by constructing a gene co-expression network based on several microarray datasets available in the public domain. This condition-independent network was constructed by Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) with 61 microarray samples from 9 different experimental conditions. We identified 13 co-expressed modules, of which, 11 showed functional enrichments of one or more pathway/s or biological process. Comparative analysis of differentially expressed genes and proteins from radiation and desiccation stress studies with our co-expressed modules revealed the association of cyan with radiation response. Interestingly, two modules viz darkgreen and tan was associated with radiation as well as desiccation stress responses. The functional analysis of these modules showed enrichment of pathways important for adaptation of radiation or desiccation stress. To decipher the regulatory roles of these stress responsive modules, we identified transcription factors (TFs) and then calculated a Biweight mid correlation between modules hub gene and the identified TFs. We obtained 7 TFs for radiation and desiccation responsive modules. The expressions of 3 TFs were validated in response to gamma radiation using qRT-PCR. Along with the TFs, selected close neighbor genes of two important TFs, viz., DR_0997 (CRP) and DR_2287 (AsnC family transcriptional regulator) in the darkgreen module were also validated. In our network, among 13 hub genes associated with 13 modules, the functionality of 5 hub genes which are annotated as hypothetical proteins (hypothetical hub genes) in D. radiodurans genome has been revealed. Overall the study provided a better insight of pathways and regulators associated with relevant DNA damaging stress response in D. radiodurans

Cohort Profile: ZOE 2.0—A Community-Based Genetic Epidemiologic Study of Early Childhood Oral Health

Early childhood caries (ECC) is an aggressive form of dental caries occurring in the first five years of life. Despite its prevalence and consequences, little progress has been made in its prevention and even less is known about individuals’ susceptibility or genomic risk factors. The genome-wide association study (GWAS) of ECC (“ZOE 2.0”) is a community-based, multi-ethnic, cross-sectional, genetic epidemiologic study seeking to address this knowledge gap. This paper describes the study’s design, the cohort’s demographic profile, data domains, and key oral health outcomes. Between 2016 and 2019, the study enrolled 8059 3–5-year-old children attending public preschools in North Carolina, United States. Participants resided in 86 of the state’s 100 counties and racial/ethnic minorities predominated—for example, 48% (n = 3872) were African American, 22% white, and 20% (n = 1611) were Hispanic/Latino. Seventy-nine percent (n = 6404) of participants underwent clinical dental examinations yielding ECC outcome measures—ECC (defined at the established caries lesion threshold) prevalence was 54% and the mean number of decayed, missing, filled surfaces due to caries was eight. Nearly all (98%) examined children provided sufficient DNA from saliva for genotyping. The cohort’s community-based nature and rich data offer excellent opportunities for addressing important clinical, epidemiologic, and biological questions in early childhood

Molecular modeling and synthesis of ZINC02765569 derivatives as protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B inhibitors: lead optimization study

This article describes design, synthesis, and molecular modeling studies of the ZINC02765569 derivatives as potent protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) inhibitors, which was previously reported as a vHTS hit (ZINC02765569) by our laboratory. Ten compounds were synthesized and characterized by IR, MASS, and NMR followed by in vitro screening for PTP1B inhibition and glucose uptake in skeletal muscle L6 myotubes. The most potent compound 3j shows 66.4 % in vitro PTP1B inhibition and 39.6 % increase in glucose uptake. Glide was used to study the nature of interactions governing binding of designed molecules with active site of the PTP1B enzyme