Clostridium septicum produces a number of diseases in human and farm animals which, in most of the cases, are fatal without clinical intervention. Alpha toxin is an important agent and the unique lethal virulent factor produced by Clostridium septicum. This toxin is haemolytic, highly lethal and necrotizing activities but is being used as an antigen to develop animal vaccines. The aim of this s...

Background: Inflammatory response following surgical trauma has long been a matter of study. Results, however, have been varied. We sought to assess changes in the levels of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in patients undergoing laparoscopic and open cholecystectomy and their impact on the clinical outcome of patients concerning the postoperative pain score.Methods: The study in...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Cancer cells that express P-glycoprotein, multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP), or lung resistance protein (LRP) have demonstrated resistance to a wide variety of chemotherapeutic drugs. Recently, we reported that human colon carcinoma cells that express all three proteins exhibit reduced P-glycoprotein gene expression and a loss of multidrug resistance after exp...

The interplay between malignant and stromal cells is essential in tumorigenesis. We have previously shown that colony-stimulating factor (CSF)-1, matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-2, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A production by stromal cells is enhanced by CSF-1-negative SW620 colon cancer cells. In the present study, the mechanisms by which colon cancer cells up-regulate host facto...

Among the anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA), those targeting proteinase 3 (PR3) have a high specificity for Wegener's granulomatosis (WG). It is known that a preceding priming of neutrophils with cytokines is a prerequisite for membrane surface expression of PR3, which is then accessible to autoantibody binding. Employing a monoclonal antibody directed against human PR3 and ANCA-pos...