Neuronal expression of cytokines is an area of active investigation in the contexts of development, disease, and normal neural function. Although cultured rat sympathetic neurons respond very weakly to exogenous interleukin 6 (IL-6), we find that addition of soluble IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R) and IL-6 enhances neuronal survival in the absence of nerve growth factor. Neutralizing monoclonal antibodi...

Hairy cell leukemia is a chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of B-cell lineage, whose malignant cells express the interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor. A soluble form of the IL-2 receptor is released by these cells in culture, and the sera of patients with hairy cell leukemia contain elevated levels of this soluble receptor. Four hundred twenty-seven serum samples from 101 patients were analyzed for ...

The soluble interleukin 6 receptor (sIL-6R) circulates at elevated levels in various diseases. This suggests that inflammatory mediators control sIL-6R release. Through examination of human neutrophils, it was found that the acute phase reactant C-reactive protein (CRP) activates a threefold increase in sIL-6R production. Maximal release occurred after 30-60 min exposure to CRP (50 micrograms/m...

As a physically binding protein of GLI1 transcription factor, Suppressor-of-Fused (SUFU) has been placed in the center of negative regulation of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling. SUFU tethers GLI1 in cytoplasm, and in some circumstances, it moves into the nucleus in association with GLI1, leading to the suppression of GLI1 target gene expression by recruiting a corepressor complex. The activated transcr...

We assessed the influence of hormonal (oral, injectable, or levonorgestrel [Norplant, Wyeth-Ayerst, Philadelphia, PA]) and barrier methods of contraception on the risk of cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL), while adjusting for high-risk (HR) HPV infection. Subjects were women receiving family planning services through the state health department clinics from 1995 to 1998. We select...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus (HCV) recurrence after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) remains a serious problem in the clinical management of post-oLT patients. Recently, two case reports have described successful prevention of HCV liver graft reinfection with intravenous silibinin (SIL) monotherapy in two carriers of genotype 3a and 1a/4 HCV. Based on these findings, we decided to offer s...

A hospital-based unmatched case-control study was performed in order to determine the relation of DNA single (ssb) and double (dsb) strand breaks in women with and without cervical neoplasia. Cervical epithelial cells of 30 women: 10 with low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LG-SIL), 10 with high-grade SIL (HG-SIL), and 10 without cervical lesions were evaluated using alkaline and neutra...

OBJECTIVES To assess the impact of HIV-related immunodeficiency and antiretroviral treatment on the occurrence and evolution of abnormal Papanicolaou tests. STUDY DESIGN Cohort of 485 HIV-infected women with a known date of infection, enrolled during May 1993-April 1998 in 23 centres (gynaecology, infectious disease or STD clinics, or drug treatment centres) in 12 European countries; in 21 ce...

Phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors are used to treat erectile dysfunction, and growing evidence supports potential cardiovascular utility. Their efficacy declines with reduced nitric-oxide synthase (NOS) activity common to various diseases. We tested whether direct soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulation restores in vivo cardiovascular modulation by PDE5 inhibition despite acute or ...

Analyses of several mouse models imply that the phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitor sildenafil (SIL), via increasing cGMP, affords protection against angiotensin II (Ang II)-stimulated cardiac remodeling. However, it is unclear which cell types are involved in these beneficial effects, because Ang II may exert its adverse effects by modulating multiple renovascular and cardiac functions via An...