After rearrangement of the T-cell receptor (TCR) beta-locus, early CD4(-)/CD8(-) double negative (DN) thymic T-cells undergo a process termed 'beta-selection' that allows the preferential expansion of cells with a functional TCR beta-chain. This process leads to the formation of a rapidly cycling subset of DN cells that subsequently develop into CD4(+)/CD8(+) double positive (DP) cells. Using t...

The objectives of this study were to compare how different frailty measures (Frailty Phenotype/FP, Groningen Frailty Indicator/GFI and Tilburg Frailty Indicator/TFI) predict short-term adverse outcomes. Secondarily, adopting a multidimensional approach to frailty (integral conceptual model-TFI), this study aims to compare how physical, psychological and social frailty predict the outcomes. A lo...

Gfi-1B is a transcriptional repressor that is crucial for erythroid differentiation: inactivation of the GFI1B gene in mice leads to embryonic death due to failure to produce differentiated red cells. Accordingly, GFI1B expression is tightly regulated during erythropoiesis, but the mechanisms involved in such regulation remain partially understood. We here identify HMGB2, a high-mobility group ...

Gastric fundus compliance allows stomach volume increase in response to food intake. Absence of this postprandial relaxation alters hormonal signals and induces early satiety and weight loss. This study demonstrates the effect of gastric fundus invagination on the growth rate of juvenile pigs. After institutional animal care and use committee approval, 15 juvenile pigs were divided into two gro...

INTRODUCTION In general, geriatric assessment (GA) provides the combined information on comorbidity and functional, nutritional and psychosocial status and may be predictive for mortality outcome of cancer patients. The impact of geriatric assessment on the outcome of older patients with colorectal cancer treated with chemotherapy is largely unknown. METHODS In a prospective study, 143 patien...

A detailed radiorespirometric and enzymological analysis was made of the wild-type and GFI strains of Thiobacillus A2 grown on numerous sugars. The wild-type used the EmbdenMeyerhof, Entner-Doudoroff and pentose phosphate pathways for glucose oxidation only after culture on glucose. The fast-growing strain GFI used all three pathways after growth on glucose, maltose or fructose. The wild-type g...

Ursolic acid (UA) is a promising natural compound for cancer prevention and therapy. We previously reported that UA induced apoptosis in CML-derived K562 cells. Here we show that the apoptotic process is accompanied by down-regulation of Bcl-xL and Mcl-1 expression and dephosphorylation of Bad. These events are associated with Stat5 inhibition, which is partially mediated through elevated expre...

IL-7 is essential for the survival of naive and memory T cells, and IL-7 receptor alpha-chain (IL-7Ralpha) expression is dynamically regulated in activated CD8 T cells during acute viral and bacterial infections. Most virus-specific CD8 T cells become IL-7Ralpha(low) and are relatively short-lived, but some escape IL-7Ralpha repression (referred to as IL-7Ralpha(high) memory precursor effector ...

Gfi1 is a transcriptional repressor involved in directing differentiation of secretory precursors into goblet and paneth cells in the intestinal epithelium. Gfi 1 is downstream of the Notch signaling pathway, responsible in regulating expression of counter transcription factors Atoh 1 (secretory) and Hes 1, (absorptive). Recent reports describe Notch activity in gastric epithelium, but there ar...