Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019829 (Hodgkin's disease)
 30,247 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The vomeronasal organ (VNO) is a chemosensory structure involved in the detection of pheromones in most mammals. The VNO sensory epithelium contains both neurons and supporting cells. Data suggest that vomeronasal neurons represent the pheromonal transduction sites, whereas scarce information is available on the functional properties of supporting cells. To begin to understand their role in VNO physiology, we have characterized with patch-clamp recording techniques the electrophysiological properties of supporting cells isolated from the neuroepithelium of the mouse VNO. Supporting cells were distinguished from neurons by their typical morphology and by the lack of immunoreactivity for Ggamma8 and OMP, two specific markers for vomeronasal neurons. Unlike glial cells in other tissues, VNO supporting cells exhibited a depolarized resting potential (about -29 mV). A Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz analysis for resting ion permeabilities revealed indeed an unique ratio of P(K):P(Na):P(Cl) = 1:0.23:1.4. Supporting cells also possessed voltage-dependent K(+) and Na(+) conductances that differed significantly in their biophysical and pharmacological properties from those expressed by VNO neurons. Thus glial membranes in the VNO can sustain significant fluxes of K(+) and Na(+), as well as Cl(-). This functional property might allow supporting cells to mop-up and redistribute the excess of KCl and NaCl that often occurs in certain pheromone-delivering fluids, like urine, and that could blunt the sensitivity of VNO neurons to pheromones. Therefore vomeronasal supporting cells could affect chemosensory transduction in the VNO by regulating the ionic strength of the pheromone-containing medium.
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PMID:Ion conductances in supporting cells isolated from the mouse vomeronasal organ. 1252 64

Helicobacter pylori proteins CagA (cytotoxin-associated gene A) and VacA (vacuolating cytotoxin A) are among the virulence factors of this species. CagA gene carrying H. pylori strains are particularly associated with gastric adenocarsinoma. This study was conducted to evaluate Western Blot (WB) method to determine specific H. pylori antibodies in a group of patients with gastric cancer and in a control group with no malignancy. A total of 99 patients with gastric cancer (94 adenocarcinoma, 2 adenosquamous cell carcinoma, 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma) and 150 control cases with epigastric complaints such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, gastroesophageal reflux and abdominal pain, were included to the study. H. pylori IgG-ELISA was positive in all study (mean age: 56.7 +/- 1.2 years, 62 male) and control (mean age: 24.2 +/- 1.3 years, 64 male) patients. Specific antibodies against CagA, VacA, OMP (outer membrane protein)-67, urease-A, urease-B, HSP (heat shock protein) and flagellin antigens determined by a commercial WB-based kit (RIDA Blot Helicobacter, R-Biopharm GmbH, Germany). Interestingly, no anti-VacA positivity was detected in none of the patient and control groups. The positivity rates for H. pylori CagA, OMP-67, urease A, urease-B, flagellin and HSP specific antibodies were as 78%, 54%, 37%, 60%, 53% and 82% in the gastric cancer group and 85%, 71%, 55%, 43%, 61% and 75% in the control group, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) between gastric carcinoma and control groups in terms of CagA, HSP and flagellin antibodies (p > 0.05). On the other hand, a statistically significant difference was found between the 2 groups in terms of urease-A, urease-B and OMP-67 (p < 0.01). These results suggested that this test should be assessed again by the manufacturer for its detection power directed towards specific H. pylori antibodies, especially for Vac-A. Further molecular and clinical studies are necessary to determine the factors that affect H. pylori virulence and disease prognosis.
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PMID:[Evaluation of Western Blot method for the detection of antibodies to Helicobacter pylori antigens in patients with gastric carcinoma and cases with epigastric complaints]. 2045 95