Microarray Analysis Reveals Distinct Gene Expression Profiles Among Different Tumor Histology, Stage and Disease Outcomes in Endometrial Adenocarcinoma

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy in developed countries and little is known about the underlying mechanism of stage and disease outcomes. The goal of this study was to identify differentially expressed genes (DEG) between late vs. early stage endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EAC) and uterine serous carcinoma (USC), as well as between disease outcomes in each of the two histological subtypes.Gene expression profiles of 20 cancer samples were analyzed (EAC = 10, USC = 10) using the human genome wide illumina bead microarrays. There was little overlap in the DEG sets between late vs. early stages in EAC and USC, and there was an insignificant overlap in DEG sets between good and poor prognosis in EAC and USC. Remarkably, there was no overlap between the stage-derived DEGs and the prognosis-derived DEGs for each of the two histological subtypes. Further functional annotation of differentially expressed genes showed that the composition of enriched function terms were different among different DEG sets. Gene expression differences for selected genes of various stages and outcomes were confirmed by qRT-PCR with a high validation rate.This data, although preliminary, suggests that there might be involvement of distinct groups of genes in tumor progression (late vs. early stage) in each of the EAC and USC. It also suggests that these genes are different from those involved in tumor outcome (good vs. poor prognosis). These involved genes, once clinically verified, may be important for predicting tumor progression and tumor outcome

Interferon-γ and Proliferation Responses to Salmonella enterica Serotype Typhi Proteins in Patients with S. Typhi Bacteremia in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi infection is a significant global public health problem and the cause of typhoid fever. Salmonella are intracellular pathogens, and cellular immune responses are required to control and clear Salmonella infections. Despite this, there are limited data on cellular immune responses during wild type S. Typhi infection in humans. Here we report the assessment of cellular immune responses in humans with S. Typhi bacteremia through a screening approach that permitted us to evaluate interferon-γ and proliferation responses to a number of S. Typhi antigens. We detected significant interferon-γ CD4 and CD8 responses, as well as proliferative responses, to a number of recombinantly purified S. Typhi proteins as well as membrane preparation in infected patients. Antigen-specific interferon-γ responses were present at the time of clinical presentation in patients and absent in healthy controls. These observations could assist in the development of interferon-γ-based diagnostic assays for typhoid fever

Preparation of hybrid biomaterials for bone tissue engineering

Tissue engineering has evolved from the use of biomaterials for bone substitution that fulfill the clinical demands of biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-immunogeneity, structural strength and porosity. Porous scaffolds have been developed in many forms and materials, but few reached the need of adequate physical, biological and mechanical properties. In the present paper we report the preparation of hybrid porous polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/bioactive glass through the sol-gel route, using partially and fully hydrolyzed polyvinyl alcohol, and perform structural characterization. Hybrids containing PVA and bioactive glass with composition 58SiO2-33CaO-9P2O5 were synthesized by foaming a mixture of polymer solution and bioactive glass sol-gel precursor solution. Sol-gel solution was prepared from mixing tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), triethylphosphate (TEP), and calcium chloride as chemical precursors. The hybrid composites obtained after aging and drying at low temperature were chemically and morphologically characterized through infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The degree of hydrolysis of PVA, concentration of PVA solution and different PVA-bioglass composition ratios affect the synthesis procedure. Synthesis parameters must be very well combined in order to allow foaming and gelation. The hybrid scaffolds obtained exhibited macroporous structure with pore size varying from 50 to 600 µm

Effects of simultaneously performed cognitive and physical training in older adults

BACKGROUND: While many studies confirm the positive effect of cognitive and physical training on cognitive performance of older adults, only little is known about the effects of simultaneously performed cognitive and physical training. In the current study, older adults simultaneously performed a verbal working memory and a cardiovascular training to improve cognitive and motor-cognitive dual task performance. Twenty training sessions of 30 minutes each were conducted over a period of ten weeks, with a test session before, in the middle, and after the training. Training gains were tested in measures of selective attention, paired-associates learning, executive control, reasoning, operation span, information processing speed, and motor-cognitive dual task performance in the form of walking and simultaneously performing a working memory task. RESULTS: Sixty-three participants with a mean age of 71.8 +/- 4.9 years (range 65 to 84) either performed the simultaneous training (N = 21), performed a single working memory training (N = 16), or attended no training at all (N = 26). The results indicate similar training progress and larger improvements in the executive control task for both training groups when compared to the passive control group. In addition, the simultaneous training resulted in larger improvements compared to the single cognitive training in the paired-associates task and was able to reduce the step-to-step variability during the motor-cognitive dual task when compared to the single cognitive training and the passive control group. CONCLUSIONS: The simultaneous training of cognitive and physical abilities presents a promising training concept to improve cognitive and motor-cognitive dual task performance, offering greater potential on daily life functioning, which usually involves the recruitment of multiple abilities and resources rather than a single one