0000000000384920
AUTHOR
Gabriele Rossi
Regulation of PDE5 expression in human aorta and thoracic aortic aneurysms
AbstractAneurysms and dissections affecting thoracic aorta are associated with smooth muscle cell (SMC) dysfunction. NO/cGMP signaling pathway in smooth muscle cells has been shown to be affected in sporadic thoracic aortic aneurysms. We analyzed the mRNA levels of PDE5, a cGMP-hydrolyzing enzyme highly expressed in aortic SMCs, that regulates arterious vascular tone by lowering cGMP levels. We found that aortic tissue obtained from Marfan, tricuspid and bicuspid thoracic aneurysms expressed lower levels of PDE5 mRNA compared to control aortas. In particular, we found that affected aortas showed lower levels of all the PDE5A isoforms, compared to control aortas. Transfection of vascular SMC…
The clinical value of tumor burden at diagnosis in Hodgkin lymphoma
BACKGROUND The authors investigated the clinical role of tumor burden (TB) in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, relating this parameter to most of the current clinical and prognostic factors and to the best predictive multifactorial models. METHODS The volume of TB at diagnosis was measured directly from the initial staging computed tomography scans in 351 patients who were treated on standard protocols. The mean patient age was 34.0 years ± 16.4 years. Forty-six patients had clinical Stage I disease, 201 patients had Stage II disease, 64 patients had Stage III disease, and 40 patients had Stage IV disease. There were 146 symptomatic patients. Overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS…