Head and neck cancer patients treated by radiation commonly suffer from a devastating side effect known as dry-mouth syndrome, which results from the irreversible loss of salivary gland function via mechanisms that are not completely understood. In this study, we used a mouse model of radiation-induced salivary hypofunction to investigate the outcomes of DNA damage in the head and neck region. ...

Chronic inflammation is a molecular element of the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Saturated fatty acids (SFAs) are considered to be an important proinflammatory factor. However, it is still incompletely understood how SFAs induce proinflammatory cytokine expression. Hereby we report that activating transcription factor (ATF) 4, a transcription factor that is induced downstream of metab...

From the second trimester to near term, fetuses in utero can swallow up to 500– 1000 ml amniotic fluid a day, which assists in normal development of the gastro-intestinal system. 1 2 The aims of this study were to determine whether the concentration of gastric interleukin 6 (IL6) immediately after birth was associated with funisitis, the histological hallmark of fetal inflam-matory response syn...

OBJECTIVE Cytokines play important roles in mediating inflammation in autoimmunity. Several cytokines are elevated in serum and synovial fluid samples from children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). Soluble CD154 (sCD154) is elevated in other autoimmune disorders, but has not been characterized in JIA. Our objectives were to determine if sCD154 is elevated in JIA, and to examine correla...

Numerous studies have evaluated the association between the -174 G/C polymorphism in the interleukin-6 gene (IL6) and myocardial infarction (MI) risk. However, the results from the published studies are inconclusive. The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine whether the IL6 -174 G/C polymorphism is associated with MI risk. A meta-analysis based on nine case-control studies was performed to...

Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM) is a low-grade incurable immunoglobulin M+ (IgM+) lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma for which a genetically engineered mouse model of de novo tumor development is lacking. On the basis of evidence that the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin 6 (IL6), and the survival-enhancing oncoprotein, B cell leukemia 2 (BCL2), have critical roles in the natural history of WM,...

To assess the association between polymorphisms of the IL-6 -174 G/C and Behçet's disease (BD) in Tunisian patients. DNA was extracted from blood samples taken from 43 Tunisian patients and 43 healthy controls. The polymorphisms were analyzed by PCR with the PCR-RFLP. No significant association was found between patients and controls concerning polymorphism of IL6 -174 G/C between the (allelic ...

Interleukin (IL)-6 is a circulatory, pleiotropic cytokine with multiple roles in the immune system. Both IL-6 and the IL6 -174G>C promoter polymorphism have been linked to various diseases associated with inflammation. However, the mechanism by which the polymorphism influences disease risk is unclear. We postulated that serum proteome analysis of individuals with different IL6 -174G>C genotype...

Aim. Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease that affects the teeth supporting structures, triggered by periodontal pathogens, and is influenced by environmental and genetic factors. Genes encoding molecules related to the immune response, such as cytokine, are the main candidates for polymorphisms analysis and may be possibly associated with this pathology. A G/C promoter polymorphism on the ...

PURPOSE To unravel the role of interleukin (IL)-6 and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I receptor (IGFIR) in expressing stemness-related properties and to evaluate the prognostic values of pluripotent transcription factor OCT4/NANOG, and IGFIR in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Serum levels of IL6 were detected using ELISA assays (n = 120). The effects of IL6/IGFI on stemn...