Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0729233 (Thoracic)
 6,478 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Diabetes is known to cause impaired endothelium-dependent relaxation of blood vessels. The purpose of this study was to determine whether this endothelial dysfunction is a permanent defect or is reversible after acute arginine supplementation in vitro or by surgical intervention in vivo using syngeneic pancreatic islet transplantation. Lewis rats were injected with streptozotocin to induce diabetes and were studied either 8 or 12 weeks later. Another group received syngeneic islets via intraportal injection at 8 weeks of diabetes and were allowed to become euglycemic for 4 weeks before study. Thoracic aortic rings were tethered in isolated muscle baths, contracted with a submaximal concentration of norepinephrine, and challenged with either the endothelium-dependent vasodilator acetylcholine or the endothelium-independent vasodilator nitroglycerin. Relaxation to acetylcholine (but not nitroglycerin) was reduced in both 8- and 12-week diabetic rings compared with age-matched control rings. Preincubation of diabetic rings in vitro with L-arginine (but not D-arginine) restored relaxation to acetylcholine to normal to rings from 8-week but not 12-week diabetic animals. Plasma basic amino acids (arginine, lysine, and histidine) were reduced by diabetes, whereas other neutral or acidic amino acids were unchanged (phenylalanine, proline, and glutamate), reduced (serine, cysteine, threonine, tyrosine, tryptophan, and aspartate), or elevated (isoleucine, leucine, and valine). Islet transplantation restored to normal the changes in plasma amino acids. Elevation in blood glucose and total glycosylated hemoglobin in diabetic animals was normalized after islet transplantation. Furthermore, islet transplantation completely restored the defective endothelium-dependent relaxation to acetylcholine in diabetic rings.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Syngeneic pancreatic islet transplantation reverses endothelial dysfunction in experimental diabetes. 765 36

Platinum-based chemotherapy is the standard first-line treatment for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, randomized trials have recently demonstrated the efficacy of several new drugs (pemetrexed, bevacizumab, cetuximab, erlotinib, gefitinib) in this setting. Hence, the choice of optimal treatment is no longer limited to the different platinum-based doublets. In order to guide clinical management of patients with advanced NSCLC, assess the strengths and limitations of available evidence, and to suggest priorities for clinical research, the Italian Association of Thoracic Oncology organized an International Expert Panel Meeting on the first-line treatment of advanced NSCLC, which took place in Sperlonga (Italy) in May 2009. Experts recommended that every effort should be made to obtain adequate tumor tissue before initiating treatment. Tumor histology/cytology subtyping is now important for the correct choice of treatment. In particular, considering efficacy data obtained with pemetrexed and safety concerns with bevacizumab, a division between squamous and non-squamous tumors is necessary. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation analysis, at present, is not recommended in all patients, but should be performed in subgroups of patients characterized by higher prevalence of sensitizing mutations (Asians, never smokers, women, adenocarcinoma). When a mutation is present, first-line treatment with single-agent EGFR tyrosine-kinase inhibitor may be considered. Finally, the potential benefit of maintenance treatment for patients without progression at the end of first-line should be carefully discussed with each patient. Although the number of treatment options for patients with advanced NSCLC has increased recently, their results remain modest and further research is mandatory.
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PMID:Recent issues in first-line treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: Results of an International Expert Panel Meeting of the Italian Association of Thoracic Oncology. 2003 27

Despite the new available histologic classification of lung cancers, it remains difficult to assess the real prognostic relevance of the different subtypes of lung adenocarcinomas. Facing the prognostic relevance of microvessel density (MVD) and the expression of metalloproteases and thyroid tyrosine factor 1 (TTF1) in different cancers, we tried to compare these parameters in the different subtypes of lung adenocarcinomas. We conducted a retrospective study of 46 adenocarcinomas surgically resected. An immunohistochemical study using the cluster of differentiation 34 (CD34), TTF1, metalloproteases 2 (MMP2), and metalloproteases 9 (MMP9) antibodies was performed on all samples while MVD was evaluated using CD34 antibody. The analyzed cases included 19 acinar, 7 papillary, 1 lepidic, and 19 solid predominant American Thoracic Classification of lung adenocarcinomas (ASK). The higher MVD levels were observed in papillary and acinar subtypes types and a statically significant difference in the MVD was observed in the different subtypes (p< 0,001). This study didn't show significant statistical results concerning MMP and TTF1 expression but it revealed a tendency to an equal expression of these antibodies in the different subtypes. The difference in the MVD between the different subtypes of adenocarcinoma puts emphasis on their prognostic relevance.
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PMID:Evaluation of the microvessel density and the expression of metalloproteases 2 and 9 and ttf1 in the different subtypes of lung adenocarcinoma in Tunisia: a retrospective study of 46 cases. 2468 94