The role of prostaglandin production in the control of regenerative function of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) has not been studied. We hypothesized that activation of cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymatic activity and the subsequent production of prostacyclin (PGI(2)) is an important mechanism responsible for the regenerative function of EPCs. In the present study, we detected high levels of COX...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the content and construct validity of an individualized patient-reported instrument, the Patient-generated Index (PGI), in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), and to compare its performance to that of other instruments and to the Patient-reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) framework. METHODS Patients identified the 5 most important life areas af...

Introduction Our study aimed to assess the impact of managed complications of tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) on the patients' assessment of the results as measured by Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI-I). Materials and methods This was a retrospective study, supplemented with a telephone interview, comparing patients who had complications of TVT procedures with those where no com...

Allele frequency variation at the phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI) locus in Californian populations of the beetle Chrysomela aeneicollis suggests that PGI may be undergoing natural selection. We quantified (i) apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (K(m)) of fructose 6-phosphate at different temperatures and (ii) thermal stability for three common PGI genotypes (1-1, 1-4, and 4-4). We also measured a...

Vascular cyclooxygenase (COX)-2-dependent prostacyclin (PGI(2)) may affect angiogenesis by preventing endothelial activation and platelet release of angiogenic factors present in platelet α-granules. Thus, a profound inhibition of COX-2-dependent PGI(2) might be associated with changes in circulating markers of angiogenesis. We aimed to address this issue by performing a clinical study with cel...

Phosphoglucose isomerase/autocrine motility factor (PGI/AMF) plays an important role in glycolysis and gluconeogenesis and is associated with invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. We have previously shown its role in the induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in breast cancer cells, which led to increased aggressiveness; however, the molecular mechanism by which PGI/AMF regulat...

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) can induce cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and prostacyclin I-2 (PGI-2) release in endothelial cells to exert multiple antiatherogenic functions. This effect has been attributed mainly to the role of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) integrated in HDL. However, whether apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I), the major apolipoprotein of HDL, could induce COX-2 expression and ...

Leišová-Svobodová L., Tomková L., Sedláček T., Psota V., Kučera L. (2014): The application of microsatellite analysis in barley malting quality breeding programmes. Czech J. Genet. Plant Breed., 50: 268–277. A set of 43 microsatellite loci was used to characterise the malting barley varieties and breeding lines used for the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) “České pivo” (“Czech beer”) and...

Allozyme variation at the phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI) locus in the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) is associated with variation in flight metabolic rate, dispersal rate, fecundity and local population growth rate. To map allozyme to DNA variation and to survey putative functional variation in genomic DNA, we cloned the coding sequence of Pgi and identified nonsynonymous vari...

INTRODUCTION Inhaled vasodilators such as nitric oxide and aerosolized prostacyclin (PGI(2)) are used to treat severe hypoxemia in acute respiratory distress syndrome. Preferential distribution of nitric oxide and PGI(2) to ventilated areas of the lung causes selective pulmonary vasodilation, improved ventilation/perfusion matching, and decreased hypoxemia. Because of the technical limitations ...