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Evaluation of myocardial perfusion and function is important in management of patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease. This thesis focuses on the use of common diagnostic methods, myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (MPS) and electrocardiography (ECG), to enhance and validate the diagnostic information. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used

It is frequently argued that cannabinoids exert part of their analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects via activation of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor located on TRPV1-expressing primary sensory nerve fibres in peripheral tissues. However, we find no evidence of CB1 receptor immunoreactivity on nerve fibres in rat or mouse hindpaw skin and mesenteric artery. The CB1 receptor agonists anandamide and

Background: There are differences in drug use depending on non-medical factors such as age, gender and socioeconomic status. The combined effect of these factors, with adjustment for multimorbidity, is highly relevant to study to ensure equality in drug use. Objectives: 1. To examine drug use related to age, gender, income and education after adjustment for multimorbidity, in an entire adult popul

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is 4-6 times more common in women than men during the fertile years. For women, the incidence peaks shortly after menopause, and for men the risk is greater with higher age, when androgen levels drops. Sex hormones have been suggested to play a part in the pathogenesis, since low testosterone levels have been noted in men with RA and pregnancy has an ameliorating effect o

Intravenous administration of antibiotics is often followed by infusion phlebitis. In this condition are vessel irritation, inflammation and sometimes superficial thrombosis included. In this thesis, the risk for infusion phlebitis for various antibiotics has been evaluated in a clinical study in 550 patients. Various effects of four antibiotics on cultured endothelial cells have also been examine

The childhood malignancy neuroblastoma develops from early cells of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and the tumors often produce catecholamines. Neuroblastoma cells retain several characteristics of immature sympathetic cells including the expression of a number of transcription factors normally expressed during embryogenesis. The genesis of the SNS requires the correct expression pattern of

Background: A large number of different wound coverings have been used in order to improve the wound microenvironment, and thus accelerate repair. Since almost two centuries, clinicians and researchers have developed techniques for skin transplantation. In the past several decades, growth factors have been used as tools for accelerating and modifying skin wound repair. The experimental work in thi

PSII catalyses the light-induced water splitting process which leads to electron transfer through the thylakoid membrane and formation of energy rich molecules. Several redox components including a Mn4Ca, an amino acid residueYZ, two special Chl molecules P680, two Pheo and two quinone molecules participate in this process. Another component of PSII which interacts magnetically with Mn4Ca is D2-Ty

The gastrointestinal tract has two opposing functions; to effectively absorb nutrients and to act as a safety barrier against hazardous substances in the environment. After birth these functions develops gradually. The present thesis focuses on how the intestinal permeability and pancreatic secretion changes during ontogenic development of the pig, with some methodological aspects on manipulations

The influence of trauma (acute pancreatitis) or total parenteral nutrition (TPN) on pancreatic islet hormone secretion in relation to islet expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) was investigated. Acute pancreatitis resulted in an impaired glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) which was found to be parallelled by a marked expression of iNOS and an exaggerated NO production in t

In this thesis asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (FFF) separations of ribosomes and subunits have been studied. Ribosomal material was prepared from Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells and analyzed by the size separation technique. The five main peaks in the fractograms correspond to transfer RNA (tRNA), unidentified proteins, small subunit, large subunit, and ribosome. The accuracy of the

Increasing awareness of the need of reducing CO2, NOx and SOx emissions from combustion systems has led to a strong interest in biomass as a fuel source. Using it in combination with fluidised bed combustion technology can lead to a lowering of NOx emissions to the atmosphere. However, this is not a problem-free technique, since the flue gas can contain ammonia, NOx and tar. The fluidised bed can

Atmospheric aerosol particles are believed to have an impact on the radiative forcing of the earth's surface. The predicted results indicate a net cooling effect on the global climate, however there are few studies available to substantiate this and experimental data are needed. This work deals with the collection and the analysis of aerosol particles in various environments, specifically in the

Aberrant protein kinase C (PKC) activity and expression is implicated in different malignancies. To study the role of different PKC isoforms in breast cancer the expression of PCKα, δ and ε was evaluated in breast cancer tumors. In addition the effect of siRNA-mediated knockdown of the isoforms was studied in a global gene expression analysis. We found that high PKCα levels correlate with poor pro

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is among the most common bacterial infections in humans and the majority are caused by Escherichia coli (E. coli). Abundant evidence indicates that nitric oxide (NO) produced by the inducible NO synthase (iNOS) plays an important role in host defense against infection. This thesis examines iNOS expression in experimental UTI models. The rat and pig bladder urothelium

Abstract. This thesis describes factors that are rate limiting for the folding of two small proteins, U1A and CI2 which fold without accumulating intermediates. The [GdnHCl] dependencies of the unfolding- and refolding kinetics of U1A display downward curvatures. However, as the curvatures are precisely matched and no indications of formation of partially structured intermediates are seen, the fol

Membrane proteins are particularly important to characterize, since they are involved in cellular processes of utmost importance in control and regulation of cells, such as transport across membranes, signal transduction and photosynthesis. The word "proteome" means all proteins expressed by a e.g. a cell or a tissue, at a certain time point and "proteomics" is the large scale study of these prote

Proteoglycans (PGs) is a class of highly anionic macromolecules that consist of one or more linear polysaccharide chains (glycosaminoglycans, GAGs) covalently attached to a core protein. The biological functions of PGs are mainly due to the interactions of GAG chains with various protein ligands and regulatory factors, such as cytokines and growth factors. PGs and GAGs are critical for a diverse s

Mucosal infections trigger an inflammatory response that includes the secretion of cytokines and the recruitment of neutrophils to the infected site. This thesis describes studies examining the molecular mechanisms of neutrophil migration to sites of mucosal bacterial infection. Escherichia coli (E. coli) infection of epithelial cell layers stimulates chemokine secretion and chemokine receptor ex

The aim of this thesis work was to study phase diagrams, microstructure and phase separation in alkylglucoside systems. Both alkyl glucoside/water systems and microemulsions with alkyl glucosides have been studied. The phase diagram of the ternary n -nonyl-beta-glucoside (C₉G₁)/ n -decyl-beta-glucoside (C₁₀G₁)/water system has been determined and is dis