Viral respiratory infections are increasingly implicated in allergic exacerbations. The mechanisms behind this are not known, but a virus-induced activation of eosinophils through TLRs could be involved. Herein, we investigated the expression and function of TLR7 and TLR9 in purified eosinophils from peripheral blood and assessed their role in allergic airway inflammation. Eosinophils expressed TL

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in mice is a commonly used experimental model for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We have previously identified a significant quantitative trait locus denoted Cia40 on chromosome 11 that affects CIA in older female mice. This locus colocalizes with another locus, denoted Pregq2, known to affect reproductive success. The present study was performe

Advice on how to manage medications while traveling is provided. Considerations include carrying a letter from the treating physician or clinic, carrying adequate medication for a trip extension and keeping it in carry-on luggage, and utilizing governmental agency-issued certificates to allow carrying certain medications while traveling.

Gene therapy represents a promising approach for the treatment of monogenic and multifactorial neurological disorders. It can be used to replace a missing gene and mutated gene or downregulate a causal gene. Despite the versatility of gene therapy, one of the main limitations lies in the irreversibility of the process: once delivered to target cells, the gene of interest is constitutively expresse

The human placenta is a difficult tissue to work with using proteomic technology since it contains large amounts of lipids and glycogen. Both lipids and glycogen are known to interfere with the first step in the two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE), the isoelectric focusing. In order to gain the best possible protein separation on 2D-PAGE, an optimized sample preparation pr

Objective. To follow the development of a class of pupils' tobacco habits for seven years, and to study differences in tobacco use between girls and boys. Setting. Kronoberg County in southern Sweden. Subjects. All the approximately 2000 pupils were followed from approximately age 12 to approximately age 18. Design. Yearly cross-sectional surveys from 1994 to 2000. Each year, the pupils filled in

This work tackles the challenge of assessment of force distributions in granular media. Spatially resolved neutron and x-ray diffraction are used to measure internal strains of sand grains under load. These approaches are sensitive to the crystallographic strains of the sand grains (quartz crystals) such that each grain acts as a local 3D strain gauge and so, for elastic deformations, a force gaug

BACKGROUND: Wilms tumor (WT) is the most common renal neoplasm in children. Histologically, most WTs consist of three tissue elements: blastema, epithelium, and stroma. Some cases also show diffuse or focal anaplastic features. Previous studies have shown that a predominance of blastemal cells in post-chemotherapy WT specimens is associated with a poor clinical course. However, there is currently

As genetic factors can hardly explain the changes taking place during short time spans, environmental and lifestyle-related factors have been suggested as the causes of time-related deterioration of male reproductive function. However, considering the strong heterogeneity of male fecundity between and within populations, genetic variants might be important determinants of the individual susceptibi

Blood parasite prevalence in two related warbler species (Acrocephalus arundinaceus and A. scirpaceus) was studied at three Bulgarian sites that differed mainly in altitude and weather. The prevalence of Haemoproteus, the most common parasite genus, was significantly lower at the highest altitude site (730 in above sea level, asl). Such a pattern was not found in ectoparasite-transmitted Hepatozoo

To investigate the efficacy of lingonberries in prevention of atherosclerosis, using atherosclerosis-prone Apoe-/- mice and to clarify whether effects were associated with changes in the gut microbiota, gut metabolites and lipid metabolism.

This study investigated if copeptin is affected by high salt intake and whether any salt-induced changes in copeptin are related to the degree of salt sensitivity. The study was performed on 20 men and 19 women. In addition to meals containing 50 mmol NaCl daily, capsules containing 100 mmol NaCl and corresponding placebo capsules were administered during 4 weeks each, in random order. Measurement

To explore the relation between country of birth and risk of hospitalization due to heart failure (HF). All 40-89 year-old inhabitants in the city of Malmö, Sweden (n = 114,917, of whom 15.2% were born outside Sweden) were followed from November 1st, 1990 until December 31st, 2007. During a mean follow-up of 13.5 ± 5.3 years, a total of 7,640 individuals (47.4% men) were discharged from hospital w

Wnt-5a is a non-transforming Wnt protein that is implicated in cell-polarity, adhesion and motility. We have previously shown that low expression of Wnt-5a is a predictor of shorter disease-free survival in human breast cancer. Here, we investigated whether ss-catenin/E-cadherin mediated cell-cell adhesion was affected by loss of Wnt-5a in breast carcinomas, thereby promoting a metastatic behavior

Even though the concept of health and its importance has been widely discussed in health care during recent decades, mental health services have been criticised for adopting a biomedical perspective, which does not sufficiently consider the concept of health. The aim of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Health Questionnaire, a newly developed questionnaire to

The risk of distant recurrence in breast cancer patients is difficult to assess with current clinical and histopathological parameters, and no validated serum biomarkers currently exist. Using a recently developed recombinant antibody microarray platform containing 135 antibodies against 65 mainly immunoregulatory proteins, we screened 240 sera from 64 patients with primary breast cancer. This uni