Place cells

INTRODUCTION: The human-T cell lymphotropic virus is a retrovirus with various types known so far. HTLV-I and HTLV-II are of clinically importance as they cause different diseases such as adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma, tropical spastic paraparesis, and human T-lymphotropic virus type I-associated myelopathy (HAM). OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of presumptive and confirmatory reactivity to HTLV-I/II in blood donors of Hospital Pablo Tobón Uribe Blood Bank between 2014 and 2015...

A number of test have been proposed to assess male fertility potential, ranging from routine testing by light microscopic method for evaluating semen samples, to screening test for DNA integrity aimed to look at sperm chromatin abnormalities. Spermatozoa are an extremely differentiated cell, they have critical functions for embryo development and heredity, in addiction to delivering a haploid paternal genome to the oocyte. Towards this goal certain requirements must always be met. The ability of spermatozoa to perform its reproductive function taking place in the spermatogenesis, a highly specialized process depending on multiple factors with effect on male fertility...

Sickle cell disease and homozygous β-thalassaemia are common haemoglobinopathies in Oman, with many implications for local healthcare services. The transfusions of such patients take place in many hospitals throughout the country. Indications for blood transfusions require local recommendations and guidelines to ensure standardised levels of care. This article summarises existing transfusion guidelines for this group of patients and provides recommendations for blood banks and transfusion services in Oman...

The yeast Metschnikowia fructicola was reported as an efficient biological control agent of postharvest diseases of fruits and vegetables, and it is the bases of the commercial formulated product "Shemer." Several mechanisms of action by which M. fructicola inhibits postharvest pathogens were suggested including iron-binding compounds, induction of defense signaling genes, production of fungal cell wall degrading enzymes and relatively high amounts of superoxide anions. We assembled the whole genome sequence of two strains of M...

Programmed cell death, which occurs through a conserved core molecular pathway, is important for fundamental developmental and homeostatic processes. The human iron-sulfur binding protein NAF-1/CISD2 binds to Bcl-2 and its disruption in cells leads to an increase in apoptosis. Other members of the CDGSH iron sulfur domain (CISD) family include mitoNEET/CISD1 and Miner2/CISD3. In humans, mutations in CISD2 result in Wolfram syndrome 2, a disease in which the patients display juvenile diabetes, neuropsychiatric disorders and defective platelet aggregation...

Sox7, Sox17 and Sox18 are the members of the Sry-related high-mobility group box family (SoxF) of transcription factors. SoxF factors regulate endothelial cell fate as well as development and differentiation of blood cells and lymphatic vessels. There is very less information about the functions of these genes in fish. We obtained the full-length cDNA sequence of SoxF genes including Sox7, Sox17 and Sox18 in Cyprinus carpio, where Sox7 and Sox18 had two copies. The construction of a phylogenetic tree showed that these genes were homologous to the genes in other species...

INTRODUCTION: Following growing evidence to support the safety, local control (LC) and potential improvement in overall survival (OS) in patients with oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that have been treated with local ablative therapy such as stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), we initiate the SARON trial to investigate the impact and feasibility of adding SABR/SRS and radical radiotherapy (RRT) following standard chemotherapy on OS...

Contamination of soil by a mixture of organic and non-organic pollutants due to various anthropogenic and natural causes is one of the most important issues in soil pollution. Generating a single layer of soil is a time-consuming process, and soil is a significant part of the environmental cycle; thus, protection and remediation of soil are of paramount importance. In this study, phenanthrene (PHE) as a representative for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and nickel (Ni) as heavy metal pollutants were used because of their synergistic effects and abundant presence in soil...

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Dental root cell proliferation following tooth avulsion has not been well researched. Understanding the effects of dry time and dentin treatment influences on cell proliferation is essential to provide evidence-based guidelines for tooth replantation. The study evaluated the viability of periodontal ligament fibroblasts (PLF) in contact with roots, submitted to surface treatments with EDTA and hyaluronic acid (HA) at different times, including to quantify inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β and TNF-α expressed by PLF...

Fluctuations in gonadal hormones over the course of the menstrual cycle are known to cause functional brain changes and are thought to modulate changes in the balance of cortical excitation and inhibition. Animal research has shown this occurs primarily via the major metabolite of progesterone, allopregnanolone, and its action as a positive allosteric modulator of the GABAA receptor. Our study used EEG to record gamma oscillations induced in the visual cortex using stationary and moving gratings. Recordings took place during twenty females' mid-luteal phase when progesterone and estradiol are highest, and early follicular phase when progesterone and estradiol are lowest...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to analyze what is known to date about the relation between telomeres and male fertility, and if it is possible for telomeres, or elements related to them, to be used as new prognostic biomarkers in fertility treatment. RECENT FINDINGS: Cells in germ series, including spermatozoids, have longer telomeres (10-20 kb), and do not seem to undergo the shortening that takes place in somatic cells with age as they present telomerase activity...

Objective To determine if immediate postoperative uncuffed tracheostomy placement following oral cavity or oropharyngeal head and neck free flap reconstruction is associated with shorter hospital length of stay and higher inpatient decannulation rates without an increase in respiratory complications, as compared with immediate placement of cuffed tracheostomy. Study Design Retrospective cohort. Setting Tertiary referral center. Subjects and Methods Patients were included if they underwent free flap reconstruction for oral cavity or oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma and had an intraoperative tracheostomy placed between 2005 and 2016...

Secondary lymphoid organs (SLO), including the spleen and lymph nodes (LN) are a meeting place for immune cells to initiate adaptive immune responses. Lymphocytes constantly circulate between SLO through the blood and lymph in search of their cognate antigen and are activated within the organized microarchitecture of SLO. Lymphoid stromal cells (LSC) of mesenchymal and endothelial origin construct and support the microarchitecture of SLO by defining distinct compartments and providing signals that can either promote or inhibit immune responses...

Increasing experience in single-incision video-assisted thoracoscopic (SIVATS) lung resections for lung cancer has made some sophisticated lung resections such as bronchial or vascular sleeve resections, chest wall resections and pneumonectomy possible. There are some case series published in medical literature about the feasibility and safety of multiportal video-assisted thoracic surgery pneumonectomy. However, in this prepubertal period of its evolution the literature data are still immature, and limited only to rare case reports or video presentations for SIVATS pneumonectomy for lung cancer...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deficient metaphase II porcine oocytes are less likely to fertilize and more likely to arrest during preimplantation development. However, they can be supplemented with autologous populations of mitochondria at the time of fertilization, which significantly increases mtDNA copy number by the 2-cell stage due to the modulation of DNA methylation at a CpG island of the gene encoding mtDNA-specific polymerase, POLG, and promotes preimplantation development. Although mitochondrial supplementation does not increase development rates or mtDNA copy number in oocytes with normal levels of mtDNA copy number, we tested whether this approach would also impact on chromosomal gene expression patterns in these oocytes at each stage of preimplantation development...

Hepatoblastoma (HBL) is a pediatric liver cancer with defined molecular alterations driving its progression. Here, we describe an animal model for HBL on the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM), which recapitulates relevant features of HBL in patients. Expression of classic tumor-associated proteins such as β-catenin, EpCAM and CK19 was maintained in acini-like organized tumors on CAM, as was synthesis of AFP, a tumor marker used for monitoring patient response. RNA sequencing revealed an unexpected molecular evolution of HBL cells on the CAM, with significant deregulation of more than 6,000 genes including more than half of all HOX genes...

The extraction and processing of uranium (U) have polluted large areas worldwide, rendering anthropogenic extreme environments inhospitable to most species. Noticeably, these sites are of great interest for taxonomical and applied bioprospection of extremotolerant species successfully adapted to U tailings contamination. As an example, in this work we have studied a microalgae species that inhabits extreme U tailings ponds at the Saelices mining site (Salamanca, Spain), characterized as acidic (pH between 3 and 4), radioactive (around 4 μSv h-1 ) and contaminated with metals, mainly U (from 25 to 48 mg L-1 ) and zinc (from 17 to 87 mg L-1 )...

Advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains a challenging disease. The limited utility of chemotherapy indicates the need for additional therapeutic options. Targeted therapy continues to be an important tool in the treatment of NSCLC. Mutations within the RAS-RAF-MEK-MAPK pathway, specifically the BRAF V600E mutation, have become an important target for the subset of NSCLC patients with this mutation. This paper summarizes the clinical evidence that lead to the recent approval of the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib to treat patients with advanced NSCLC who harbor a BRAF V600E mutation...

Titanium is a biocompatible material that is frequently used for making implantable medical devices. Nanoengineering of the surface is the common method for increasing material biocompatibility, and while the nanostructured materials are well-known to represent attractive substrata for eukaryotic cells, very little information has been documented about the interaction between mammalian cells and bactericidal nanostructured surfaces. In this study, we investigated the effect of bactericidal titanium nanostructures on PC12 cell attachment and differentiation—a cell line which has become a widely used in vitro model to study neuronal differentiation...

One of the fundamental properties of the cell is the capability to digest and remodel its own components according to metabolic and developmental needs. This is accomplished via the autophagy-lysosome system, a pathway of critical importance in the brain, where it contributes to neuronal plasticity and must protect nonreplaceable neurons from the potentially harmful accumulation of cellular waste. The study of lysosomal biogenesis and function in the context of common and rare neurodegenerative diseases has revealed that a dysfunctional autophagy-lysosome system is the shared nexus where multiple, interconnected pathogenic events take place...