BACKGROUND Vascular hyporeactivity is observed in portal hypertensive animals and septic rats. The objective of this study was to investigate whether impairment of superior mesenteric artery vascular contractility in the portal hypertensive rat was further impaired after sepsis. METHODS Sepsis was induced by cecum ligation and puncture (CLP) in male portal hypertensive Sprague-Dawley rats tha...

INTRODUCTION Since the NF-κB pathway regulates both inflammation and host defense, it is uncertain whether interventions targeting NF-κB would be beneficial in sepsis. Based on the kinetics of the innate immune response, we postulated that selective NF-κB inhibition during a defined time period after the onset of sepsis would reduce acute lung injury without compromising bacterial host defense....

We previously established a bioassay method to screen for compounds that activate the promoter activity of p21(WAF1/CIP1), a potent inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases, in a p53-independent manner. As an activator of p21(WAF1/CIP1) promoter activity, we isolated cryptolepine (CLP: 5-methyl indolo (2,3b)-quiniine), an indoloquinoline alkaloid, from the traditional Ayurvedic medicinal plant Sid...

In hybrid solvers for combinatorial optimization, combining Constraint (Logic) Programming (CLP) and Mixed Integer Programming (MIP), it is important to have tight connections between the two domains. We extend and generalize previous work on automatic linearizations and propagation of symbolic CLP constraints that cross the boundary between CLP and MIP. We also present how reduced costs from t...

Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) and Abductive Logic Programming (ALP) share the important concept of conditional answer. We exploit their deep similarities to implement an efficient abductive solver where abducibles are treated as constraints. We propose two possible implementations, in which integrity constraints are exploited either (i) as the definition of a CLP solver on an abductive dom...

We have recently reported that cardiac lineage protein-1 (CLP-1), a nuclear protein with an acidic region that constitutes a potential protein-protein interaction domain, regulates transcription of the cardiac myosin light chain-2v (MLC-2v) gene promoter in a manner consistent with its being a transcriptional co-activator or regulator. To test the postulate that CLP-1 is a regulator of cardiac ...

INTRODUCTION In our previous studies we demonstrated that CXC chemokine receptor 3 (CXCR3) participates in the regulation of lymphocyte trafficking during cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced sepsis. In this study, we evaluated the effects of treatment with anti-CXCR3 immunoglobulin (IgG) and antibiotics on outcome during septic shock caused by CLP. METHODS C57BL/6J mice were treated wit...

BACKGROUND Cervical laminoplasty (CLP) and posterior cervical laminectomy and fusion (CLF) are well-established surgical procedures used in the treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). In situations of clinical equipoise, an influential factor in procedural decision making could be the economic effect of the chosen procedure. The object of this study is to compare and analyze the tot...

Background: Sepsis is a life-threatening complication of infections. Despite improvement in the management of septic patients, none of the current therapies are entirely effective. Ghrelin has been shown to possess anti-inflammatory properties together with prokinetic activity. The aim of this work was to study the effect of administration of ghrelin on outcome of sepsis induced by cecal ligati...

The present study addressed the role of IL-12 in a murine model of septic peritonitis, induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Although CLP surgery induced IL-12 production at 6 and 24 h after surgery, IL-12 immunoneutralization was clearly deleterious in this model: 54% of CLP mice receiving preimmune serum survived, whereas mice administered IL-12 antisera prior to CLP experienced a 25%...