Deletion of the long arm of chromosome 20 (del 20q) has been observed in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or myeloid malignancies. We experienced an MDS female case of del 20q accompanied by clusters of plasmacytic cells in bone marrow. Her bone marrow cells showed morphological abnormalities in three lineages and the chromosomal abnormality of 46, XX, del (20) (q11.2q13.3). Althoug...

Patients treated with hemodialysis (HD) repeatedly undergo intradialytic low arterial oxygen saturation and central venous saturation, reflecting an imbalance between upper body systemic supply demand, which are associated increased mortality. Abnormalities along the entire cascade, impaired diffusive convective transport, contribute to reduced tissue supply. HD treatment impairs pulmonary gas ...

FK506 is a powerful immunosuppressive drug currently in use that inhibits the activation of several transcription factors (nuclear factor (NF)-AT and NF-kappaB) critical for T cell activation. We show here that, contrary to the situation in T cells, FK506 activates transcription factor NF-kappaB in nonlymphoid cells such as fibroblasts and renal mesangial cells. We further show that FK506 induc...

The heart is highly dependent for its function on oxidative energy generated in mitochondria, primarily by fatty acid beta-oxidation, respiratory electron chain and oxidative phosphorylation. Defects in mitochondrial structure and function have been found in association with cardiovascular diseases such as dilated and hypertrophy cardiomyopathy, cardiac conduction defects and sudden death, isch...

Somatic nuclear transfer is a cloning technique that shows great promise in the application to regenerative medicine. Although cloned animals are genetically identical to their donor counterparts, abnormalities in phenotype and gene expression are frequently observed. One hypothesis is that the cause of these abnormalities is due to epigenetic aberration. In this report, we focused our analysis...

BACKGROUND Oxidative stress due to improper control of blood glucose in chronic diabetes plays a major role in the development of secondary complications including cancer and birth defect. The aim of this study is to evaluate the protective effect of combination of pioglitazone with metformin or glimepiride against the experimental type-2 diabetes induced nuclear damage and reproductive toxicit...

Mitochondria within human cells contain vast numbers of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which are small, circular, and double-stranded. The proper functions of mtDNA depend totally on specific proteins that are encoded by the nucleus and then imported into mitochondria. Thus instability of mtDNA can stem from the mtDNA itself, or secondarily from abnormalities in nuclear DNA. In this review, we will...

AIM To determine the proportion of women with abnormalities in cervical smears corresponding to borderline nuclear change, as defined by national guidelines, which return to normal or persist as cytological or histological abnormalities. METHODS 313 women with borderline nuclear change diagnosed by a single pathologist using the national criteria were followed up for up to two years. RESULT...