It has previously been demonstrated that gingival fibroblasts derived from nifedipine-reactive patients (nifedipine responders) show a greater cell proliferation rate than those from nifedipine non-reactive patients (nifedipine non-responders) in the presence of 1 microM nifedipine. The aim of the present study was to characterize cell cycle differences between nifedipine responder and non-resp...

Numerous studies have provided clues about the ontogeny of lateralization of auditory processing in humans, but most have employed specific subtypes of stimuli and/or have assessed responses in discrete temporal windows. The present study used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to establish changes in hemodynamic activity in the neocortex of preverbal infants (aged 4-11 months) while they were e...

BACKGROUND Fecal lactoferrin has been introduced as a useful tool for the diagnosis and monitoring of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of this study was to assess if fecal lactoferrin can be employed to predict or estimate the effect of granulocyte and monocyte adsorptive apheresis (GMA) in ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS This was a prospective study involving 21 patients with UC. P...

BACKGROUND Transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVR) has been shown to have acute effects on mitral valve geometry in patients with functional mitral regurgitation (FMR). This study investigates the impact of MitraClip® therapy-induced annular remodeling on clinical outcome and mitral regurgitation in heart failure patients. METHODS TMVR was performed successfully in 45 patients with FMR. In t...

Psychological stress has been reported to be related to higher blood pressure (BP) and unfavorable cardiovascular profile. However, because of the complexity of personal stress management, a multilevel stress measurement strategy is needed. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to analyze the respective influences of the subjective perception of professional strain (high demand and low lati...

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, a known pathogen causing periodontal disease and infective endocarditis, is a survivor in the periodontal pocket and blood stream; both environments contain serum as a nutrient source. To screen for unknown virulence factors associated with this microorganism, A. actinomycetemcomitans was grown in serum-based media to simulate its in vivo environment. Diff...

background to treat viral infection of chronic hepatitis c (chc) is a main strategy to prevent progression of liver disease, and cancer. some patients with chc have failed to respond to the common antiviral therapy in different populations. objectives in the current study it was aimed to find out the possible role of multiple drug resistance gene1 (mdr1) in non-responder patients with chc infec...

INTRODUCTION Hepatitis C virus (HCV), which is a major cause of liver diseases worldwide, undergoes genetic variation during the course of infection. The aim of this study was to examine sequence variations within the HVR1 region of HCV genotype 4 in infected Saudi patients treated with a combination therapy of interferon-α and ribavirin. METHODOLOGY cDNA of the HVR1 region of HVC-4 from one ...

To test whether the antigen-specific stimulation of low responder-genotype B cells in tetraparental mice is due to a histoincompatibility reaction (allogeneic effect) against these B cells, tetraparental mice were constructed (a) between an Ir-1A low responder to the antigen poly-L(Tyr,Glu)-poly-D,L-Ala--poly-L-Lys. [(T,G)-A--L] and an Ir-1A F1 high responder and (b) between two histoincompatib...