BACKGROUND Hydroxycinnamic acids (HCAs) including cinnamic acid, p-coumaric acid, caffeic acid, and ferulic acid, are C6-C3 phenolic compounds that are synthesized via the phenylpropanoid pathway. HCAs serve as precursors for the synthesis of lignins, flavonoids, anthocyanins, stilbenes and other phenolic compounds. HCAs can also be conjugated with diverse compounds including quinic acid, hydro...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate plasma human cartilage glycoprotein (HC gp-39) as a possible marker for the presence and/or activity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other inflammatory conditions. BACKGROUND HC gp-39 is a secretory product of chondrocytes, synovial cells, macrophages, and neutrophils. HC gp-39, also described as YKL-40, was found to be a marker of joint disease and tissue injury in RA ...

Although hypercholesterolemia is known to impair endothelium-dependent vasodilation (EDV) long before the appearance of atherosclerotic plaques, it remains unclear whether the immune mechanisms that have been implicated in atherogenesis also contribute to the early oxidative stress and endothelial cell dysfunction elicited by hypercholesterolemia. EDV (wire myography), superoxide generation (cy...

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory process leading to enhanced cellular proliferation, apoptosis, and vasa vasorum (VV) neovascularization. While both diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypercholesterolemia (HC) predispose to atherosclerosis, the precise interaction of these risk factors is unclear. Akt is a central node in signaling pathways important for inflammation, and we hypothesized that DM/HC w...

Recruitment of endogenous progenitors is critical during tissue repair. The inner ear utricle requires mechanosensory hair cells (HCs) to detect linear acceleration. After damage, non-mammalian utricles regenerate HCs via both proliferation and direct transdifferentiation. In adult mammals, limited transdifferentiation from unidentified progenitors occurs to regenerate extrastriolar Type II HCs...

Several cases of inflammatory myopathy have been reported during the chronic course of hepatitis C (HC) in recent years. It has been suggested that this muscular inflammatory involvement in HC is related to an immune-mediated mechanism caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), as HCV RNA has been detected in the muscle of patients with concomitant inflammatory myopathy and chronic HC. Herein, we r...

Hemicrania continua (HC) is a primary headache disorder that is characterized by a continuous unilateral headache of moderate severity, exacerbations of severe pain, and complete responsiveness to indomethacin. Misdiagnosis of HC is probably common in general neurology settings and other clinical specialties. This paper is an attempt to bridge the gap between the correct and misdiagnosis of thi...

Aberrant oxysterol biosynthesis is implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. During the present study we have investigated the effects of exogenously added 25-hydroxycholesterol (25-HC) on transcription of cholesterol biosynthetic genes, sterol-regulatory element binding protein (SREBP) processing and cholesterol biosynthesis in the murine CATH.a neuronal cell line. A single...

Cross-sectional associations between human papillomavirus (HPV), anal squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were studied in a cohort of gay men. HPV DNA was detected by generic and type-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) probes and hybrid capture assay (HC). HPV virus load was estimated by HC relative light unit (RLU) ratio. HPV prevalence, number ...

In earlier work, we derived a transducer HC that translates from sequences of Gaussian mixture models directly to phone sequences. The HC transducer was statically expanded then determinized and minimized. In this work, we present a refinement of the correct algorithm whereby the initial HC transducer is incrementally expanded and immediately determinized. This technique avoids the need for a f...