In humans, mast cells are ubiquitously present in tissues adjacent to external environment and consequently have an important sentential role in host defence, homeostasis and repair. Their key role in allergen-mediated conditions has been recognized for many decades already. So far, therapies targeting mast cells offered clinical efficacy in allergic conditions except for asthma. More recently, so

Aims: This prospective study was designed to replicate previous findings of an association between the platelet monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) activity and factors of relevance for criminal behaviour in a well-documented clinical study population. Methods: Subjects (n = 77, aged 17-76 years, median 30 years) were recruited among consecutive perpetrators of severe interpersonal violent and/or sexual c

Studies of the association between circulating IGF-I and cancer risk have shown conflicting results. We have previously observed a U-shaped association between IGF-I and cancer mortality. The present study test the hypotheses of a U-shaped association between IGF-I and incident cancer.

Background: Rhinovirus (RV)-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations exhibit TH(2)-like inflammation. We hypothesized that RV-infected bronchial epithelial cells (BEC) overproduce TH(2)-switching hub cytokine, thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) in COPD. Methods: Primary BEC from healthy (HBEC) and from COPD donors (COPD-BEC) were grown in 12-well plates, infected with RV

In SPECT imaging of pure beta emitters, such as (90)Y, the acquired spectrum is very complex, which increases the demands on the imaging protocol and the reconstruction. In this work, we have evaluated the quantitative accuracy of bremsstrahlung SPECT with focus on the reconstruction algorithm including model-based attenuation, scatter and collimator-detector response (CDR) compensations. The scat

BACKGROUND: Knowledge of the size and location of ischemic myocardium during acute coronary occlusion could provide decision support before reperfusion therapy. Electrocardiogram (ECG) scores based on the number of leads and the sum of ST-segment elevation have been unreliable in quantifying ischemia. We aimed to develop a new method to graphically display ischemic myocardium from simulated ECGs (

OBJECTIVE. This study explored factors related to changes in the time parents spent with their children with obesity and associated decreases in children's body mass index (BMI) z-scores after an occupation-focused intervention. METHOD. Parents participated in a 1-yr occupation-focused intervention to promote healthy family lifestyles. Data on 40 parents of 22 children with obesity ages 4-6 yr wer

Growth anomaly of trees in some regions was detected under current episode of rapid warming. Thisraises a dilemma for temperature reconstructions by using tree-ring width which is believed to be themost important proxy on inter-annual temperature reconstruction during the past millenniums. Here weemployed the tree-ring d13C to reconstruct temperature variations for exploring their potential oncapt

When offered participation in clinical trials, families of children with cancer face a delicate balance between cure and toxicity. Since parents and children may perceive this balance differently, this paper explores whether adolescent patients have different enrollment patterns compared to younger children in trials with different toxicity profiles.

PURPOSE: An inherent problem in breast cancer treatment is that current therapeutic approaches fail to specifically target the dissemination of breast cancer cells from the primary tumor. Clinical findings show that the loss of Wnt-5a protein expression in the primary breast tumor predicts a faster tumor spread, and in vitro analyses reveal that it does so by inhibiting tumor cell migration. There

BACKGROUND: To investigate the correlation between various orthopedic conditions and overweight/obesity at the Department of Orthopedics, Malmö University Hospital Sweden. Obesity is associated with numerous major medical conditions. Although the relationship between gonarthrosis and osteoarthritis and body mass index (BMI) is well recognized, other orthopedic conditions have been less well studie

The factor Va (FVa) inactivation by activated protein C (APC), mediated by cleavages at Arg306 and Arg506 in FVa, is inhibited by both factor Xa (FXa) and prothrombin. While FXa is known to specifically inhibit the Arg506 cleavage, the effect of prothrombin has not been confined to one cleavage site. We used recombinant FV variants, FV:506Q/679Q and FV:306Q/679Q, to investigate the effect of proth

In a previous exploratory analysis, intracoronary near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) found the majority of culprit lesions in ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) to contain a maximum lipid core burden index in 4 mm (maxLCBI4mm) of >400. This initial study was limited by a small sample size, enrollment at a single center, and post hoc selection of the maxLCBI4mm ≥400 threshold. This s

In the present study the nature of stress and coping was investigated and considered as socially constructed. Thirty small group interviews were performed using the Critical Incident Technique in one female- and one male-dominated customer service department of a telecom company. The main themes about stress among both women and men were often expressed as collective phenomena and were connected t

Meso-tetra(hydroxyphenyl)chlorin (mTHPC) (INN: Temoporfin) is one of the most potent photodynamically active substances in clinical use. Treatment protocols for Temoporfin-mediated photodynamic therapy often rely on drug-light intervals of several days in order for the photosensitizer to accumulate within the target tissue, though tumor selectivity is limited. Here, the mTHPC localization was stud

The fundamental limits of the gain and e±ciency of an antenna are explored. These are very important quantities for, e.g., superdirective arrays. The antenna is in this paper con¯ned in a sphere and all of the currents are assumed to run in a material with a given conductivity. It is shown that one can ¯nd the current distribution in the sphere that optimizes the gain, given the frequency and the