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Clinical trials in patients with Parkinson's disease have shown that transplants of fetal mesencephalic dopamine neurons can form a new functional innervation of the host striatum, but the clinical benefits have been highly variable: some patients have shown substantial recovery in motor function, whereas others have shown no improvement and even a worsening in the 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine (L

Background: The relationship between plasma markers of inflammation and the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is still unclear. This population-based study explored whether raised levels of five inflammation-sensitive plasma proteins (ISPs) predicted hospital admissions for COPD during 25 years of follow-up. Methods: Spirometric tests and measurements of five ISPs (fibrinog

The cloud-nucleating properties of the atmospheric aerosol were studied in an area under strong influence of vegetation burning. The measurements were part of Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia-Smoke Aerosols, Clouds, Rainfall and Climate (LBA-SMOCC) and were carried out at a ground site located in the state of Rondonia in southwestern Amazonia, Brazil, September to November 2

We examined the effects of the immunophilin ligands and calcineurin inhibitors FK506 and cyclosporin A on the survival of rat embryonic dopamine (tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-immunoreactive) neurons. The protective effects of FK506 and cyclosporin A were first studied in dissociated mesencephalic cell cultures subjected to serum deprivation. Significant increases in both the total number of surviving

Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder presenting with chorea, dementia, and extensive striatal neuronal death. The mechanism through which the widely expressed mutant HD gene mediates a slowly progressing striatal neurotoxicity is unknown. Glutamate receptor-mediated excitotoxicity has been hypothesized to contribute to the pathogenesis of HD. Here we show that trans

Dactylorhiza traunsteineri is an allotetraploid species that belongs to the large Dactylorhiza incarnata/maculata polyploid complex of the Eurasian genus Dactylorhiza (Orchidaceae). Here, eight polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated using selective hybridization according to the FIASCO protocol (fast isolation by AFLP of sequences containing repeats) with slight modifications. The number of

Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations of a large sample of globular clusters reveal that every cluster contains between 40 and 400 blue stragglers.The population does not correlate with either stellar collision rate (as would be expected if all blue stragglers were formed via collisions) or total mass (as would be expected if all blue stragglers were formed via the unhindered evolution of a s

Breast cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are tumour suppressor genes the alleles of which have to be inactivated before tumour development occurs. Hereditary breast cancers linked to germ-line mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes almost invariably show allelic imbalance (Al) at the respective loci. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are believed to take part in a common pathway in maintenance of genomic inte

Background. To further improve the outcome of clinical islet transplantation analysis of the impact of donor- and process-related factors could be of great importance. Materials and Methods. Thirty-eight consecutive clinical islet transplantations were performed with consecutive islet isolations. Univariate analysis for donor- and isolation-related variables were correlated with recipient C-peptid

Microalbuminuria is an early sign of diabetic nephropathy. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the changes of the glomerular filtration barrier in early experimental diabetes are due to size- or charge-selective alterations. Wistar rats, made diabetic by streptozotocin (STZ) and having their blood glucose maintained at similar to 20 mM for 3 or 9 wk, were compared with age-matc

Allergic rhinitis is a common disease characterized by the symptoms of pruritus, sneezing, hypersecretion and nasal blockage. Increased mucosal barrier permeability has been suggested to be an indicator for the severity of allergic rhinitis. This study investigates the passage of radiolabelled albumin from the nasal mucosal circulation into the lumen in guinea pigs intraperitoneally sensitized and

The effect of ethanol on the characteristics of carbachol-stimulated release of Ca2+ from intracellular Ca2+ stores was studied in single SH-SY5Y cells. Stimulation with carbachol, in the absence of extracellular Ca2+, elicited a rapid Ca2+ increase in SH-SY5Y cells peaking within seconds after addition of maximal agonist concentration. The Ca2+ response pattern in single cells resembled the popul

Motivation: Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) provides a genome- wide technique to screen for copy number alteration. The existing segmentation approaches for analyzing aCGH data are based on modeling data as a series of discrete segments with unknown boundaries and unknown heights. Although the biological process of copy number alteration is discrete, in reality a variety of biologic

Box jellyfish have the most elaborate sensory system and behavioural repertoire of all cnidarians. Sensory input largely comes from 24 eyes situated on four club-shaped sensory structures, the rhopalia, and behaviour includes obstacle avoidance, light shaft attractance and mating. To process the sensory input and convert it into the appropriate behaviour, the box jellyfish have a central nervous s