443 research outputs found

    Prostatitis, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and Prostate Cancer: The California Men's Health Study

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    BACKGROUND: Prostatitis and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have been positively associated with prostate cancer in previous case-control studies. However, results from recent prospective studies have been inconclusive. METHODOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We investigated the association between prostatitis, STDs, and prostate cancer among African American, Asian American, Latino, and White participants of the California Men's Health Study. Our analysis included 68,675 men, who completed a detailed baseline questionnaire in 2002-2003. We identified 1,658 incident prostate cancer cases during the follow-up period to June 30, 2006. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate relative risks and 95% confidence intervals. Overall, men having a history of prostatitis had an increased risk of prostate cancer than men with no history (RR = 1.30; 95% CI: 1.10-1.54). Longer duration of prostatitis symptoms was also associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer (P trend = 0.003). In addition, among men screened for prostate cancer (1 or 2 PSA tests), a non-significant positive association was observed between prostatitis and prostate cancer (RR = 1.10; 95% CI: 0.75-1.63). STDs were not associated with overall prostate cancer risk. In racial/ethnic stratified analysis, Latinos reporting any STDs had an increased risk of disease than those with no STDs (RR = 1.43; 95% CI: 1.07-1.91). Interestingly, foreign-born Latinos displayed a larger risk associated with STDs (RR = 1.87; 95% CI: 1.16-3.02) than U.S. born Latinos (RR = 1.15; 95% CI: 0.76-3.02). CONCLUSION: In summary, results from this prospective study suggest that prostatitis and STDs may be involved in prostate cancer susceptibility. While we cannot rule out the possible influence of incidental detection, future studies are warranted to further investigate the role of infectious agents related to prostatitis and STDs in prostate cancer development

    Evaluating early selection in perennial tropical forages.

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    Perennial grass hybrids of Urochloa are evaluated for at least two years during the screening stage trials (SS) and advanced trials (AD) in breeding programs, an expensive and time-consuming process. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the potential for early selection of cultivars in this breeding scheme. We used multiple measurements of agronomic and nutritive value traits of Urochloa humidicola and Urochloa decumbens in the SS, and Urochloa ssp. in the AD. Repeatability coefficient, genetic correlation, selection efficiency (SE), and Spearman correlations were estimated. The results indicated that reliable early selection could be applied, decreasing the evaluation period to one year and a half for SS, and to one year for AD. These results were confirmed by high genetic and rank correlations, and overall SE above 50%. This proposed change in the breeding scheme could save considerable time, labor, and resources and accelerate the release of improved cultivars

    The marrow cell continuum: stochastic determinism.

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    Traditional models of hematopoiesis have been hierarchical in nature. Over the past 10 years, we have developed data indicating that hematopoiesis is regulated in a continuum with deterministic and stochastic components. We have shown that the most primitive stem cells, as represented by lineage negative rhodamine(low) Hoechst(low) murine marrow cells are continuously or intermittently cycling as determined by in vivo BrdU labeling. When marrow stem cells are induced to transit cell cycle by in vitro exposure to cytokines, either IL-3, IL-6, IL-11, and steel factor or thrombopoietin, FLT3 ligand, and steel factor, they progress through cycle in a highly synchronized fashion. We have determined that when the stem cells progress through a cytokine stimulated cell cycle the homing, engraftment, adhesion protein, global gene expression, and hematopoietic differentiation phenotypes all change in a reversible fashion. This has led to the continuum model, in which, with cycle transit, chromatin is continually changing altering open transcription areas and providing a continually changing landscape of transcriptional opportunity. More recently, we have extended the changing differentiation profiles to differentiation into lung cells and found that non-hematopoietic differentiation also shows cycle related reversibly modulation. These observations all together support a continuum model of stem cell regulation in which the phenotype of the marrow stem cells is continually and reversibly changing over time

    Release of a New Forage Bermudagrass Cultivar from the USDA-NPGS Cynodon Collection

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    Warm-season perennial grasses are the backbone of the pasture-based livestock industry in the southeastern USA. In Florida specifically, bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flugge) and bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) support 1 million head of cattle and 15,000 beef cattle operations. Bermudagrass is the most widely planted forage species in the southeastern USA, planted in approximately 15 million ha and used for grazing, hay and silage. The genus Cynodon is native to southern Africa and germplasm collections have revealed a high degree of genetic variability within the genus. The United States Department of Agriculture National Plant Germplasm System (USDA-NPGS) maintains a collection of bermudagrass plant introduction (PIs) in Griffin, GA, USA and the USDA Georgia Coastal Plains Experiment Station, Tifton, GA, maintains additional forage germplasm. Multi-location trials were established in 2014 in four states (FL, GA, NC and OK) to screen the collection for herbage accumulation (HA) and nutritive value (NV). Due to the large genotype by environment interaction for HA across states, we focused on selecting accessions adapted to South Georgia and Florida. Several PIs showed improved HA and NV compared to ‘Tifton 85’ across several trials and years. Particularly, PI 316510 produced high HA in Citra, FL and Tifton, GA, had improved NV traits, and faster establishment compared to Tifton 85. We confirmed that PI 316510 is tetraploid by chromosome counts and flow cytometry. The PI 316510 has been released by the University of Florida under the name “Newell”
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