The atypical squamous cell/squamous intraepithelial lesion (ASC/SIL) ratio has been used as a surrogate quality control tool for specificity and uncertainty for cytopathologists. Whether this ratio is useful for cytotechnologists is not known. During an 8-month period, the sensitivity of screening for 11 cytotechnologists was determined using rapid prescreening. The ASC/SIL ratio for each cytot...

This study was undertaken to determine if advanced epithelial ovarian cancer was associated with increased serum and ascitic levels of soluble interleukin-2 receptor alpha (sIL-2R alpha). Serum and ascitic fluid samples from 23 ovarian cancer patients were analyzed for sIL-2R alpha using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and compared with the serum and peritoneal levels in 18 normal females....

BACKGROUND The soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R, sIL2R, sTAC, sCD25) is a reliable biomarker for disease activity in inflammatory disorders such as sarcoidosis. Based on the essential pathogenic role of inflammation for progression of liver diseases, we hypothesized that sIL-2R might be an indicator of inflammatory cell activation and disease severity in patients with chronic liver diseas...

BACKGROUND It has been well documented that phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor, sildenafil (SIL) protects against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I-R) injury. SIRT1 is part of the class III Sirtuin family of histone deacetylases that deacetylates proteins involved in cellular stress response including those related to I-R injury. OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS We tested the hypothesis that SIL-induced card...

A hemispherical silicon solid immersion lens (SIL) was used to improve the spatial resolution of front-side thermal IR imaging in lock-in mode. The bottom of the SIL was cone-shaped to reduce the footprint of the SIL to the size of the imaged region. Caused by the lock-in operation mode, the detection limit improves by 2-3 orders of magnitude, and scattered light does not limit the image contra...

objective: to determine the effects of local administration of platelet rich plasma (prp) on peripheral nerve regeneration in rat sciatic nerve transection model. methods: forty-five male white wistar rats were randomized into three experimental groups (n = 15): normal control group (nc), silicon group (sil), prp treated group (sil/prp). in nc group left sciatic nerve was exposed through a glut...

A recent study by Bidet et al. (1) reported the molecular epidemiology of the streptococcal invasive locus (sil) in the group A streptococcus (GAS), an organism which caused invasive infections in French children. The authors demonstrated the prevalence of emm type toxin genotypes among 74 invasive GAS isolates from French children. The authors PCR amplified and characterized the locus DNA of s...

We have recently shown that stimulation of glycoprotein (gp) 130, the membrane-anchored signal transducing receptor component of IL-6, by a complex of human soluble interleukin-6 receptor (sIL-6R) and IL-6 (sIL-6R/IL-6), potently stimulates the ex vivo expansion as well as erythropoiesis of human stem/progenitor cells in the presence of stem cell factor (SCF). Here we show that sIL-6R dose-depe...

Serum soluble interleukin 2 receptor (sIL-2R) concentrations reflect lymphocyte activation in vivo. An investigation was carried out to determine if sIL-2R concentrations correlate with existing disease activity parameters in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and whether these concentrations are modulated by treatment with second line drugs. Seventy nine patients with rheumatoid arthritis...