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Extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) has demonstrated immunological effects. The proposed cytotoxic lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) involvement, together with forkhead box P3 (FoxP3) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta are associated with regulatory T cell activity. The aim of the study was to evaluate the regulatory T cell-associated effect of ECP in recent onset type 1 diabetic (T1D) child

The interpretation of folding rates is often rationalized within the context of transition state theory. This means that the reaction rate is linked to an activation barrier, the height of which is determined by the free energy difference between a ground state (the starting point) and an apparent transition state. Changes in the folding kinetics are thus caused by effects on either the ground sta

Oxi4503, which is the diphosphate prodrug of combretastatin A1, is a novel vascular targeting agent from the combretastatin family. Another member of this family, Combretastatin A-4 phosphate (CA4P), is a well-characterized vascular targeting agent already being evaluated in clinical trials. The potential for tumor vascular targeting by Oxi4503 was assessed in a mouse system. This approach aims to

Transfer of deoxyribonucleoside kinases (dNKs) into cancer cells increases the activity of cytotoxic nucleoside analogues. It has been shown that bacterial dNKs, when introduced into Escherichia coli, sensitize this bacterium toward nucleoside analogues. We studied the possibility of using bacterial dNKs, for example deoxyadenosine kinases (dAKs), to sensitize human cancer cells to gemcitabine. St

Fibroblast growth factor 8 (FGF-8) is expressed at an increased level in a high proportion of prostate cancers and it is associated with a poor prognosis of the disease. Our aim was to study the effects of FGF-8b on proliferation of PC-3 prostate cancer cells and growth of PC-3 tumors, and to identify FGF-8b-associated molecular targets. Expression of ectopic FGF-8b in PC-3 cells caused a 1.5-fold

The paper tests the hypothesis that highly leveraged firms lose market shares to their less leveraged rivals in an industry downturn. Both parametric and semiparametric regression methods are applied to analyse the relationships between firm performance and leverage. It is found that the highly leveraged firms in distressed industries face relatively lower sales growth and stock returns but are st

Ferrochelatase is the terminal enzyme in the heme biosynthetic pathway. It catalyzes the insertion of ferrous iron into protoporphyrin IX to produce protoheme IX. The crystal structures of ferrochelatase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae in free form, in complex with Co(II), a substrate metal ion, and in complex with two inhibitors, Cd(II) and Hg(I), are presented in this work. The enzyme is a homodim

Background Knowledge about how elderly persons perceive the impact of chronic heart failure (CHF) on daily life is important when planning nursing care. For this purpose, disease specific instruments are needed. However, few instruments have been developed or tested specifically on elderly persons. Aim To validate a Swedish version of the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (LHFQ)

To improve image quality in the upper thoracic spine, an anatomically shaped copper wire loop coil, made to fit over the patient's shoulders, was constructed. The coil was permanently mounted on a foam-rubber vest to facilitate attachment to the patient. Phantom and in vivo studies of the performance of the coil in healthy volunteers showed as much as a two times greater signal-to-noise ratio rela

Polyphosphoinositides (PIP) and (PIP2) show prominent negative singly and doubly charged deprotonated molecules in electrospray mass spectrometry. These ions can be used for quantification of PIP and PIP2 in the low picomole range, without prior chromatographic separation, using selected ion monitoring and consecutive measurements of the signals from the deprotonated singly charged molecules. The

1. The cereal field carabid beetle Amara similata was selected to elucidate the role of seeds and insects as food sources. Three experiments were performed to rank different weed seeds and insects in terms of food value: (i) fecundity in relation to adult diet, (ii) larval survival in relation to diet and (iii) larval survival in relation to parental diet. 2. Seeds were found to be of high value

Background: While the association between increased maternal age and congenital disorders has long been recognized, the offspring of older fathers are also at increased risk of congenital disorders related to DNA errors during spermatogenesis. Recent studies have drawn attention to an association between increased paternal age and increased risk of schizophrenia. The aim of the current study was t

The imaging properties of optimally designed planar-concave (PC) collimators were evaluated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The evaluation was done with respect to total system spatial resolution and the overall image noise distribution in single-photon emission tomography. The results showed that the non-isotropy with PC collimators, assessed by the ratio of the full-width at half-maximum in

Searching for new prognostic factors, we investigated the influence of cyclin expression on breast cancer prognosis. A total of 273 archival tumor specimens from patients with pT1/pT2 NO breast cancers treated by surgery and local irradiation were immunostained for cyclins E, A and B. Outcome was evaluated as metastasis-free (MFS) and diseasespecific survival (DSS) over a median observation period

Protein MIG, from Streptococcus dysgalactiae, binds alpha2-macroglobulin and immunoglobulin G (IgG). MIG-derived fusion proteins with one to five IgG-binding repeats differed up to 72,000- fold in avidity for goat IgG, indicating a considerable cooperativity of the repeats. Significant sequence variation in the IgG-binding repeats was recognized. Protein MIG interacted with goat IgG1 via both the