Cardiopoietic cell therapy for advanced ischemic heart failure: results at 39 weeks of the prospective, randomized, double blind, sham-controlled CHART-1 clinical trial

Cardiopoietic cells, produced through cardiogenic conditioning of patients' mesenchymal stem cells, have shown preliminary efficacy. The Congestive Heart Failure Cardiopoietic Regenerative Therapy (CHART-1) trial aimed to validate cardiopoiesis-based biotherapy in a larger heart failure cohort

Increased total scavenger capacity in rats fed corticosterone and cortisol on lipid-rich diet.

Background: In our earlier studies both corticosterone and cortisol had antioxidant effect in vitro.Objectives: Our aim was to clarify whether corticosterone and cortisol oral administration results in beneficial antioxidant changes in Sprague-Dawley adult male rats in vivo.Methods: Experimental animals were fed a lipid rich diet and treated with corticosterone or cortisol in the drinking fluid. Control group was fed only lipid rich diet with untreated drinking water. The untreated group was fed a normal diet with untreated water. Total scavenger capacity (TSC) was measured before and after 4 weeks of treatment in blood samples using a chemiluminometric assay.Results: Both corticosterone and cortisol treatment caused increased TSC. The control group and the untreated group showed no significant changes in TSC. Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis that corticosterone and cortisol administration can improve the antioxidant status not only in vitro but also in vivo

Common gene variants within 3'-untranslated regions as modulators of multiple myeloma risk and survival

Contains fulltext : 232394.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access)We evaluated the association between germline genetic variants located within the 3'-untranlsated region (polymorphic 3'UTR, ie, p3UTR) of candidate genes involved in multiple myeloma (MM). We performed a case-control study within the International Multiple Myeloma rESEarch (IMMEnSE) consortium, consisting of 3056 MM patients and 1960 controls recruited from eight countries. We selected p3UTR of six genes known to act in different pathways relevant in MM pathogenesis, namely KRAS (rs12587 and rs7973623), VEGFA (rs10434), SPP1 (rs1126772), IRF4 (rs12211228) and IL10 (rs3024496). We found that IL10-rs3024496 was associated with increased risk of developing MM and with a worse overall survival of MM patients. The variant allele was assayed in a vector expressing eGFP chimerized with the IL10 3'-UTR and it was found functionally active following transfection in human myeloma cells. In this experiment, the A-allele caused a lower expression of the reporter gene and this was also in agreement with the in vivo expression of mRNA measured in whole blood as reported in the GTEx portal. Overall, these data are suggestive of an effect of the IL10-rs3024496 SNP on the regulation of IL10 mRNA expression and it could have clinical implications for better characterization of MM patients in terms of prognosis

Common gene variants within 3′-untranslated regions as modulators of multiple myeloma risk and survival

We evaluated the association between germline genetic variants located within the 3 '-untranlsated region (polymorphic 3 ' UTR, ie, p3UTR) of candidate genes involved in multiple myeloma (MM). We performed a case-control study within the International Multiple Myeloma rESEarch (IMMEnSE) consortium, consisting of 3056 MM patients and 1960 controls recruited from eight countries. We selected p3UTR of six genes known to act in different pathways relevant in MM pathogenesis, namely KRAS (rs12587 and rs7973623), VEGFA (rs10434), SPP1 (rs1126772), IRF4 (rs12211228) and IL10 (rs3024496). We found that IL10-rs3024496 was associated with increased risk of developing MM and with a worse overall survival of MM patients. The variant allele was assayed in a vector expressing eGFP chimerized with the IL10 3 '-UTR and it was found functionally active following transfection in human myeloma cells. In this experiment, the A-allele caused a lower expression of the reporter gene and this was also in agreement with the in vivo expression of mRNA measured in whole blood as reported in the GTEx portal. Overall, these data are suggestive of an effect of the IL10-rs3024496 SNP on the regulation of IL10 mRNA expression and it could have clinical implications for better characterization of MM patients in terms of prognosis