Radioimmunological Determination of Arginine Vasopressin and Human Atrial Natriuretic Peptide after Simultaneous Extraction from Plasma

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Communication: Molecular-level insights into asymmetric triblock copolymers: Network and phase development

Copyright (2014) AIP Publishing. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. The following article appeared in Journal of Chemical Physics (Communication) 141 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4896612Molecularly asymmetric triblock copolymers progressively grown from a parent diblock copolymer can be used to elucidate the phase and property transformation from diblock to network-forming triblock copolymer. In this study, we use several theoretical formalisms and simulation methods to examine the molecular-level characteristics accompanying this transformation, and show that reported macroscopic-level transitions correspond to the onset of an equilibrium network. Midblock conformational fractions and copolymer morphologies are provided as functions of copolymer composition and temperature.Nonwovens Institute at North Carolina State University and the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Grant No. N204 125039)

Determination of Circulating Monomeric Katacalcin and Calcitonin: Physiological Studies in Normal Subjects

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Purification and characterization of a pig intestinal α-limit dextrinase

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Neopterin and Interferon Gamma Serum Levels in Patients with Heart and Kidney Transplants

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Serum sclerostin levels positively correlate with lumbar spinal bone mineral density in postmenopausal women-the six-month effect of risedronate and teriparatide

Sclerostin is expressed by osteocytes and inhibits bone formation by osteoblasts. In this study, serum sclerostin was positively correlated with either lumbar spinal bone mineral density or T-score. Furthermore, serum sclerostin was increased after 6 months treatment with risedronate, whereas remained unchanged after 6 months teriparatide treatment. Introduction: The primary aim of this study was the evaluation of serum sclerostin levels in postmenopausal women and their association with bone mineral density (BMD) and bone turnover markers. The secondary aim was the evaluation of treatment with either teriparatide (TPTD) or risedronate (RIS) on serum sclerostin levels in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis. Methods: Women with postmenopausal osteoporosis, assigned to receive either TPTD (TPTD group, n = 13) or RIS (RIS group, n = 36) for 6 months, and non-osteoporotic early postmenopausal women (NOEP group, n = 13) were recruited. Main outcome measure was serum sclerostin levels. Results: Serum sclerostin was higher in the NOEP group at baseline compared with either TPTD group (p = 0.007) or RIS group (p = 0.049). Sclerostin was positively correlated with both lumbar spinal (LS) BMD (r = 0.353; p = 0.005) and T-score (r = 0.501; p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with intact parathyroid hormone (r = -0.343; p = 0.024) at baseline. Multiple regression analysis showed that either LS BMD (Beta = 0.653; p = 0.018) or T-score (Beta = 0.711; p = 0.005) were independent predictors of serum sclerostin levels. No significant correlation was observed between serum sclerostin and bone turnover markers or estradiol at baseline. Sclerostin was significantly increased 6 months post-treatment in RIS group (p = 0.002), whereas remained statistically unaffected in the TPTD group. Conclusions: Serum sclerostin is decreased in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis compared with non-osteoporotic early postmenopausal women and is positively correlated to either LS BMD or LS T-score. Furthermore, serum sclerostin was increased after 6 months treatment with RIS, whereas remained essentially unchanged after 6 months TPTD treatment. © 2010 International Osteoporosis Foundation and National Osteoporosis Foundation

Serum sclerostin levels decline in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis following treatment with intermittent parathyroid hormone

Objective: This study was carried out in order to evaluate the effect of 18-month treatment with PTH (1-34) or PTH (1-84) on serum sclerostin levels in humans. Subjects and methods: We investigated 10 women with severe osteoporosis, previously treated with alendronate and 20 untreated osteoporotic women. Subjects with severe osteoporosis were randomly divided into 2 groups of 5 patients each; the first group was treated with 20 mu g of PTH (1-34) and the second one with 100 mu g of PTH (1-84) according to an open-label design. Fasting blood samples were collected at baseline and at 2, 4, and 24 h after hormone administration. The same protocol was followed at month 1, 6, 12, 18. Serum sclerostin levels were measured at each time point by a sandwich-type enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Basal serum sclerostin levels were not significantly different between patients previously treated with alendronate and those never treated. No significant acute change of serum sclerostin levels was observed after PTH administration. Fitting a mixed effect regression model, we found a significant time effect (p=0.0012) using the sclerostin level as the response variable and the month of drug administration as a single covariate. Treatment with both PTH molecules induced a monthly mean reduction of sclerostin levels of 0.1956 pmol/l. Conclusions: Our results indicate that long-term therapy with PTH (1-34) or PTH (1-84) in women with osteoporosis previously treated with alendronate is associated with a reduction in circulating sclerostin levels. This is a putative mechanism through which PTH performs its anabolic action. (J. Endocrinol. Invest. 35: 866-868, 2012) (c) 2012, Editrice Kurti