Use of a Hanging-weight System for Isolated Renal Artery Occlusion

In hospitalized patients, over 50% of cases of acute kidney injury (AKI) are caused by renal ischemia 1-3. A recent study of hospitalized patients revealed that only a mild increase in serum creatinine levels (0.3 to 0.4 mg/dl) is associated with a 70% greater risk of death than in persons without any increase 1. Along these lines, surgical procedures requiring cross-clamping of the aorta and renal vessels are associated with a renal failure rates of up to 30% 4. Similarly, AKI after cardiac surgery occurs in over 10% of patients under normal circumstances and is associated with dramatic increases in mortality. AKI are also common complications after liver transplantation. At least 8-17% of patients end up requiring renal replacement therapy 5. Moreover, delayed graft function due to tubule cell injury during kidney transplantation is frequently related to ischemia-associated AKI 6. Moreover, AKI occurs in approximately 20% of patients suffering from sepsis 6.The occurrence of AKI is associated with dramatic increases of morbidity and mortality 1. Therapeutic approaches are very limited and the majority of interventional trials in AKI have failed in humans. Therefore, additional therapeutic modalities to prevent renal injury from ischemia are urgently needed 3, 7-9

Getting the Grip on Nonspecific Treatment Effects: Emesis in Patients Randomized to Acupuncture or Sham Compared to Patients Receiving Standard Care

Background: It is not known whether or not delivering acupuncture triggers mechanisms cited as placebo and if acupuncture or sham reduces radiotherapy-induced emesis more than standard care. Methodology/Principal Findings: Cancer patients receiving radiotherapy over abdominal/pelvic regions were randomized to verum (penetrating) acupuncture (n = 109; 99 provided data) in the alleged antiemetic acupuncture point PC6 or sham acupuncture (n = 106; 101 provided data) performed with a telescopic non-penetrating needle at a sham point 2-3 times/week during the whole radiotherapy period. The acupuncture cohort was compared to a reference cohort receiving standard care (n = 62; 62 provided data). The occurrence of emesis in each group was compared after a mean dose of 27 Gray. Nausea and vomiting were experienced during the preceding week by 37 and 8% in the verum acupuncture group, 38 and 7% in the sham acupuncture group and 63 and 15% in the standard care group, respectively. The lower occurrence of nausea in the acupuncture cohort (verum and sham) compared to patients receiving standard care (37% versus 63%, relative risk (RR) 0.6, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.5-0.8) was also true after adjustment for potential confounding factors for nausea (RR 0.8, CI 0.6 to 0.9). Nausea intensity was lower in the acupuncture cohort (78% no nausea, 13% a little, 8% moderate, 1% much) compared to the standard care cohort (52% no nausea, 32% a little, 15% moderate, 2% much) (p = 0.002). The acupuncture cohort expected antiemetic effects from their treatment (95%). Patients who expected nausea had increased risk for nausea compared to patients who expected low risk for nausea (RR 1.6; Cl 1.2-2.4). Conclusions/Significance: Patients treated with verum or sham acupuncture experienced less nausea and vomiting compared to patients receiving standard care, possibly through a general care effect or due to the high level of patient expectancy.Original Publication:Anna Enblom, Mats Lekander, Mats Hammar, Anna Johnsson, Erik Onelov, Martin Ingvar, Gunnar Steineck and Sussanne Börjeson, Getting the Grip on Nonspecific Treatment Effects: Emesis in Patients Randomized to Acupuncture or Sham Compared to Patients Receiving Standard Care, 2011, PLOS ONE, (6), 3, .http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0014766Licensee: Public Library of Science (PLoS)http://www.plos.org

Induction of gene expression by 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) but not epithelial cells by DNA-methylation-dependent and -independent mechanisms

The methylation inhibitor 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-Aza-CdR, decitabine) has therapeutic efficacy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Using microarray analysis, we investigated global changes in gene expression after 5-Aza-CdR treatment in AML. In the AML cell line OCI-AML2, Aza-CdR induced the expression of 81 out of 22 000 genes; 96 genes were downregulated (> or =2-fold change in expression). RT-PCR analysis of 10 randomly selected genes confirmed the changes of expression in AML cells. Similar results were obtained with primary AML and MDS cells after treatment with 5-Aza-CdR ex vivo and in vivo, respectively. In contrast, significantly fewer changes in gene expression and cytotoxicity were detected in normal peripheral blood mononuclear and bone marrow cells or transformed epithelial cells treated with 5-Aza-CdR. Interestingly, only 50.6% of the induced genes contain putative CpG islands in the 5' region. To further investigate the significance of promoter methylation in the induced genes, we analyzed the actual methylation status of randomly selected 5-Aza-CdR-inducible genes. We detected hypermethylation exclusively in the 5' region of the myeloperoxidase (MPO) gene. DNA methylation inversely correlated with MPO expression in newly diagnosed untreated AML patients (P< or =0.004). In contrast, all other analyzed 5-Aza-CdR-inducible genes revealed no CpG methylation in the promoter region, suggesting a methylation-independent effect of 5-Aza-CdR

Entwicklung von Testmethoden und -systemen fuer die Prozessanalytik in der Biotechnologie Abschlussbericht

For the testing and comparison of biotechnical equipments and measuring systems three bioprocesses have been developed and applied as model systems: yeast production by saccharomyces creoisiae, production of subbilisin Carlsberg alkaline serine by Bacillus licheniformic, and the cultivation of Cephalosporium acremonium. Measuring methods and devices have been adapted to the biological systems, and software have been developed for dynamic and static device characterization. Cultivation medium composition, e.g. starch, maltose, glucose, urea, ammonia, phosphate concentrations and protease activity were monitored by on-line and off-line multi-channel flow injection analysis. In a case study, a hybrid model of yeast production processes has been developed combining mathematical models, neural networks and fuzzy rules. (WEN)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F95B1612 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekArbeitsgemeinschaft Industrieller Forschungsvereinigungen e.V., Koeln (Germany)DEGerman

Biopolymers for biosensors : polypeptide nanotubes for optical biosensing

In this work, N-carboxy anhydride (NCA) monomer molecules were condensed on the pore walls of an initiator-coated nanoporous alumina template, leading to polypeptide (poly(gamma-benzyl-L-glutamate), PBLG) film formation. Three different ways were followed for peptide nanotube formation: NCA polymerization in solution, in melt and polymerization from surface-nitiated vapor deposition. While the NCA monomer was polymerized within the pores, the wall thickness of the resulting polypeptide was tuned by changing the polymerization time. This polypeptide-coated alumina membrane will be used as planar optical waveguide to monitor both the changes in the refractive index and fluorescent signals of the composite membrane through specific binding of a bioanalyte. We monitored for the first time the in-situ formation of an initiator layer (3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane, APTE) inside the pores of an alumina membrane via optical waveguide spectroscopy. Attachment of initiator molecule effectively changed the dielectric constants of the interfaces, resulting in detectable shifts of the waveguide modes. We have previously demonstrated that unmodified nanoporous alumina waveguide sensor having a 10 times higher sensitivity than surface plasmon spectroscopy (SPR). The sensitivity may be further increased if the pores are coated with PBLG polypeptides, which has many functional sites on each polypeptide chain