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Abstract : The Influence of Pigment Transfer on the Risk of Developing Melanoma: The Significance of the Melanocyte ‘Amputation Cycle’
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Abstract: It has been shown that cancer incidence is not only a function of the size of the population at risk but is strongly associated with the turnover rate of the tissue concerned. There is a strong negative correlation between melanoma incidence and the degree of skin pigmentation, and yet the melanocyte density is the same for all races. The proposal advanced in this communication is that the probability of undergoing malignant change is critically dependent on the melanocyte turnover and that this is regulated by the pigmentation process. In melanocytes, the division rate is influenced by the process of pigment donation, probably by a mechanism whereby the continual cytoplasmic loss due to cytocrine transfer of melanosomes (termed the ‘Amputation Cycle’) inhibits replication. Consequently the turnover of melanocyte stem cells in heavily pigmented epidermis will be diminished, and this is held to account for the strong negative correlation between the degree of skin pigmentation and melanoma incidence. Download Full Article |
Abstract : Most Commonly Isolated Bacteria in Urine and their In Vitro Sensitivity to Antibiotics in Men with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
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Abstract: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and associated lower urinary tract symptoms commonly affect older men. Men with BPH in Podgorica in almost half (47.5%) cases have positive urine culture, out of which 14.2% have polyinfection. Urinary tract infections are most common in the age group 71 to 80 years. Although both groups of men (with and without BPH) are more prone to gram-negative bacterial infections of the urinary tract, K. pneumoniae is significantly more common in men with BPH compared with men without BPH. The results indicate that treatment of men with BPH is much more complex than in men without BPH due to the fact that in the treatment, a number of strains are resistant to levofloxacin (resistance of gram-negative bacteria to levofloxacin at the level of 80.4%, with 89.7% of resistant strains of K. pneumoniae and 73.3% of E. coli strains, as well as resistance of gram-positive bacteria at level of 24.8%, with resistant strains of enterococci in 64.7% of the strains) and β-lactam antibiotics (53.4% of isolated gram-negative bacteria synthesize ESBL enzymes out of which K. pneumoniae in up to 89.7% of the strains). Also, men with BPH have multi drug resistant strains in 53.1% of gram-positive bacteria and 79.7% of gram-negative bacteria. Carbapenems still represent a reserve group of drugs that have a good therapeutic effect in 93.2% of urinary tract infections in men with BPH. Download Full Article |
Abstract : Triptolide Inhibits MCF-7 and HepG2 Cells Invasion and Migration by Inhibiting the Synthesis of Polylactosamine Chains
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Abstract: Triptolide is a bioactive natural products isolated from Tripterygium wilfordii, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine. Clinical studies reveal that triptolide can be used in autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, kidney disease and systemic lupus erythematosus. Recently, some studies revealed that triptolide has anti-tumor effects, which attracts more and more attention. This experiment aimed to explore the relationship between anti-tumor effects of triptolide and N-type polylactosamine. With increasing the concentration of triptolide, the viability of MCF-7 and HepG2 cells was reduced significantly and the polylactosamine expression on these cells declined as well. In addition, the expression of β1, 3-N-acetylglucosamine transferase (β3GnT8) participated in catalyzing the synthesis of N-type polylactosamine was also decreased and the expression of genes and proteins of downstream signaling was altered consequently. Finally, triptolide weakened the cancer cells invasion and migration. All of these indicate that triptolide can impair MCF-7 and HepG2 cells invasion and migration through downregulating the expression of polylactosamine chains. These studies establish that triptolide is a potential novel therapy in breast cancer and hepatic carcinoma. Download Full Article |
Abstract : Tobacco Consumption Induced Changes in the Healthy Oral Mucosa and its Effect on Differential Diagnosis of Oral Lesions – A Clinical In Vivo Raman Spectroscopic Study
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Abstract: Objective: To investigate tobacco consumption induced changes in the in vivo Raman spectra of oral mucosa of healthy volunteers and to study its effect on the differential diagnosis of oral lesions. Materials and Methods: The clinical in vivo study involved 28 healthy volunteers and 171 patients having malignant and potentially malignant lesions of the oral cavity. Twenty of the healthy volunteers had habits of either smoking and/or of chewing tobacco while the rest did not have any tobacco consumption habits. The in vivo Raman spectra were measured using a compact and portable near-infrared Raman spectroscopic system. A probability based multi-class diagnostic algorithm, developed for supervised classification, was employed to classify the whole set of measured tissue Raman spectra into various categories. Results: It was found that the Raman spectra of healthy volunteers with tobacco consumption habits could be separated from the spectra of those without any habit of tobacco consumption with an accuracy of over 95%. Further, it was found that exclusion of the spectral data of the oral cavity of the healthy volunteers from the reference normal database considerably improved the overall classification accuracy (92.3% as against 86%) of the algorithm in separing the oral lesions from the normal oral mucosa. Conclusion: The results of the clinical study demonstrate the potential of Raman spectroscopy in screening tobacco users who are at an increased risk of developing dysplasia or malignancy. Further, the results also show that for accurate discrimination of oral lesions based on their Raman spectra, the reference normal database should exclude spectral data of tobacco using healthy subjects. Download Full Article |
