Stargardt-like macular dystrophy (STGD3) is a dominantly inherited juvenile macular degeneration that eventually leads to loss of vision. Three independent mutations causing STGD3 have been identified in exon six of a gene named Elongation of very long chain fatty acids 4 (ELOVL4). The ELOVL4 protein was predicted to be involved in fatty acid elongation, although evidence for this and the speci...

Background. The literature reports are unclear whether a permanent stoma reduces the quality of life (QOL) of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (T3-4 and/or N+). Our aim was to compare the QLQ of patients with abdominoperineal resection and with restorative surgery, treated with preoperative radiochemotherapy in a prospective phase II clinical trial. Methods. Fifty-seven patients wer...

For the systemic treatment of colorectal cancer, 5-fluorouracil (FU)-based chemotherapy is the standard. However, only a subset of patients responds to chemotherapy. Breathing of carbogen (95% O2 and 5% CO2) may increase the uptake of FU through changes in tumor physiology. This study aims to monitor in animal models in vivo the effects of carbogen breathing on tumor blood plasma volume, pH, an...

In cystic fibrosis (CF), inflammatory mediator production by airway epithelial cells is a critical determinant of chronic airway inflammation. To determine whether altered signal transduction through the nuclear factor (NF)k B pathway occurs in CF epithelial cells and results in excessive generation of inflammatory cytokines, we evaluated tumor necrosis factor (TNF)a –induced production of the ...

Specialized to simulate proteins in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with explicit solvation, FF12MC is a combination of a new protein simulation protocol employing uniformly reduced atomic masses by tenfold and a revised AMBER forcefield FF99 with (i) shortened CH bonds, (ii) removal of torsions involving a nonperipheral sp(3) atom, and (iii) reduced 1-4 interaction scaling factors of tors...

OBJECTIVES Metabolic dysfunction is a common hallmark of the aging process and aging-related pathogenesis. Blood metabolites have been used as biomarkers for many diseases, including cancers, complex chronic diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. METHODS In order to identify aging-related biomarkers from blood metabolites, we investigated the specific metabolite profiles of mouse sera from...

Metabolomics is a promising tool to gain new insights into early metabolic alterations preceding the development of hypertension in humans. We therefore aimed to identify metabolites associated with incident hypertension using measured data of serum metabolites of the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam study. Targeted metabolic profiling was conducted on...