PURPOSE I investigated the diagnostic accuracy of balloon expulsion test (BET) with various techniques to find out the most appropriate method, and tried to confirm its clinical utility in diagnosing functional defecation disorders (FDD) in constipated patients. METHODS Eighty-seven patients constituted the study population. FDD was defined when patients had at least two positive findings in ...

BACKGROUND Allergic reactions towards the birch major pollen allergen Bet v 1 are among the most common causes of spring pollinosis in the temperate climate zone of the Northern hemisphere. Natural Bet v 1 is composed of a complex mixture of different isoforms. Detailed analysis of recombinant Bet v 1 isoforms revealed striking differences in immunologic as well as allergenic properties of the ...

More than 25% of the population suffer from Type I allergy, an IgE-mediated hypersensitivity disease. Allergens with homology to the major birch ( Betula verrucosa ) pollen allergen, Bet v 1, belong to the most potent elicitors of IgE-mediated allergies. T1, a cytokinin-inducible cytoplasmic periwinkle ( Catharanthus roseus ) protein, with significant sequence similarity to members of the Bet v...

RATIONALE Airway remodeling is an important feature of chronic asthma that causes irreversible airflow obstruction. Although asthma is considered to be a Th2 disease, the role of T-bet and GATA-3, the key transcription factors for differentiation toward Th1 and Th2 cells, in the pathogenesis of airway remodeling is poorly understood. OBJECTIVES We therefore examined the effects of GATA-3 or T...

In this issue of the Journal, Dorfman and colleagues1 describe the usefulness of T-bet as a marker for specific subtypes of B-cell lymphoma. T-bet originally was identified as a T-box family transcription factor that dominantly programs CD4 and CD8 T-cell development along Th1 and Tc1 pathways, respectively.2 It accomplished this impressive task in part through the coordinated transcriptional a...

Bromodomain inhibition comprises a promising therapeutic strategy in cancer, particularly for hematologic malignancies. To date, however, genomic biomarkers to direct clinical translation have been lacking. We conducted a cell-based screen of genetically defined cancer cell lines using a prototypical inhibitor of BET bromodomains. Integration of genetic features with chemosensitivity data revea...

The T-box transcription factor T-bet is known to control lineage commitment and interferon-gamma production by T helper 1 (Th1) CD4 lymphocytes. We report here that T-bet is essential for development of CD8 lymphocyte-dependent autoimmune diabetes (type 1 diabetes [T1D]) in the rat insulin promoter-lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) transgenic model for virally induced T1D. In the absenc...

During investigations of phase transformation kinetics by diffraction techniques, several hundreds or even thousands of diffraction patterns are collected. Automation of the data analysis process is mandatory to perform for example a long sequence of Rietveld refinements. The Bragg edge transmission (BET) technique, a neutron time-of-flight method, allows acquiring patterns of sufficient statis...

Glucocorticoids (GCs) immunosuppression acts via regulation of several transcription factors (TF), including activating protein (AP)-1, NF-kappaB, and NFAT. GCs inhibit Th1 cytokines and promote a shift toward Th2 differentiation. Th1 phenotype depends on TF T-bet. In this study, we examined GC regulation of T-bet. We found that GCs inhibit T-bet transcriptional activity. We show that glucocort...

adsorption of bovine serum albumin (bsa) onto calcium hydroxyl apatite (ha), ca10po4(oh)2, has been studied by ultra violet (uv) spectroscopy. the adsorption isotherms of bsa onto the ha surface at 291.7 k and 303.2 k were satisfactorily presented by langmuir equation and the evaluated parameters are reported. the specific surface area of ha has been measured by the bet method. the obtained val...