Search results for "Assay"
showing 10 items of 2241 documents
Effects of acute exercise and allopurinol administration on soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR).
2013
Background Although physical exercise acutely increases the most widely used inflammatory biomarkers, there is no information on its effect on soluble urokinase plasminogen activating receptor (suPAR), a circulating biomarker increasingly used for the assessment of systemic inflammation. Methods suPAR was assessed with the quantitative suPARnostic Standard ELISA Assay (Virogates, Birkerod, Denmark) in 12 professional football players before and after a football match. The athletes were divided into two experimental groups. An oral dose of 300 mg of allopurinol was administered to one group of six participants four hours before a match; the other six participants received placebo. Results Se…
A multicenter clinical trial on the use of alpha1-antichymotrypsin-prostate-specific antigen in prostate cancer diagnosis
2001
BACKGROUND The aim was to evaluate the clinical performance of alpha1-antichymotrypsin prostate-specific antigen (PSA-ACT) for early diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa) in a multicenter trial. METHODS Three hundred sixty-seven white men with PCa and 290 with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) with tPSA concentrations between 2 and 20 μg/L were analyzed. The Elecsys system 2010 (Roche Diagnostics, Germany) was used for determination of total PSA (tPSA) and free PSA (fPSA). The PSA-ACT test was a prototype assay used on the ES system (Roche Diagnostics). RESULTS The median concentrations of tPSA (PCa: 8.43 μg/L vs. BPH: 6.60 μg/L) and PSA-ACT (8.30 μg/L vs. 6.46 μg/L) were significantly differ…
The presence of infection-related antiphospholipid antibodies in infective endocarditis determines a major risk factor for embolic events.
1999
Abstract OBJECTIVES The impact of infection-associated antiphospholipid antibodies (APA) on endothelial cell activation, blood coagulation and fibrinolysis was evaluated in patients with infective endocarditis with and without major embolic events. BACKGROUND An embolic event is a common and severe complication of infective endocarditis. Despite the fact that APAs are known to be associated with infectious diseases, their pathogenic role in infective endocarditis has not been clearly defined. METHODS The relationship among the occurrence of major embolic events, echocardiographic vegetation size, endothelial cell activation, thrombin generation, fibrinolysis and APA was examined in 91 patie…
Circulating Levels of Adhesion Molecules in Chronic Kidney Disease Correlate with the Stage of Renal Disease and with C-Reactive Protein
2007
Patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) suffer from a series of complications linked to the atherosclerotic process in which the endothelial dysfunction mediated by the activation of some adhesion molecules plays an important role. This study aims to evaluate circulating levels of intercellular adhesion molecules-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecules-1 (VCAM-1) in patients with predialysis CRF, on maintenance hemodialysis (HD) and after kidney transplantation (KTx) and to correlate them with some inflammation and nutritional indexes.Thirty two patients with predialysis CRF, 30 on maintenance HD, 36 after KTx and 28 subjects as a control group (C) were included in this study. Cir…
Induction of the cytokine TWEAK and its receptor Fn14 in ischemic stroke.
2008
Stroke outcome is determined by delayed neuronal cell death and edema formation. TWEAK, a cytokine of the TNF superfamily, and its membrane receptor Fn14 promote ischemia-induced neuronal apoptosis and leakage of the blood-brain barrier. Both TWEAK and Fn14 are upregulated in experimental stroke models. In this study, we investigated whether TWEAK and Fn14 are upregulated in stroke patients. We measured serum concentrations of TWEAK in stroke patients and matched control subjects by ELISA. Expression of Fn14 in the brain was evaluated by real-time RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. TWEAK serum concentrations were elevated in stroke patients. In autopsy samples, we found elevated mRNA levels o…
HLA-B27-derived peptides as autoantigens for T lymphocytes in ankylosing spondylitis
1997
Objective.To study whether peptides derived from the HLA-B27 molecule sequence can stimulate peripheral blood T lymphocytes (PBL) from patients with HLA-B27-associated spondylarthropathies. Methods.PBL from 55 HLA-B27+ patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), 28 HLA-B27+ patients with other spondylarthropathies, 7 rheumatoid arthritis patients, and 30 HLA-B27+ and 22 HLA-B27- healthy controls were tested in lymphocyte proliferation assays with 4 synthetic peptides derived from the HLA-B*2705 molecule. Results. A 13-mer peptide (B27PA) induced significant proliferative responses in 17 of the 55 AS patients (stimulation index [SI] 2.5–17.5), as well as in 3 of the HLA-B27+ healthy controls …
Increased seroprevalence of parvovirus B 19 IgG in complex regional pain syndrome is not associated with antiendothelial autoimmunity
2005
The etiology of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is unclear yet. Recently autoantibodies and antecedent viral infections have been discussed to be involved in the pathogenesis of CRPS. We investigated sera from 39 CRPS patients and healthy controls for parvovirus B19 IgG and the occurrence of antiendothelial autoantibodies (AECA). CRPS patients showed a higher seroprevalence of parvovirus B19 IgG than controls (p < 0.01). All CRPS 2 patients were positive. 10.2% of the CRPS patients and 10.0% of the controls had AECA (n.s.) and AECA were not associated with parvovirus B19 seropositivity. Our findings suggest the involvement of parvovirus B19, but not autoantibody-mediated endothelial c…
Vitiligo susceptibility and catalase gene (CAT) polymorphisms in sicilian population
2018
BACKGROUND Catalase gene (CAT) polymorphisms were analyzed as responsible for the deficiency of catalase enzyme activity and concomitant accumulation of excessive hydrogen peroxide in vitiligo patients. Catalase is a well-known oxidative stress regulator that could play an important role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. This study was conducted to evaluate three CAT gene polymorphisms (-89A/T, 389C/T, 419C/T) and their association with vitiligo susceptibility in Sicilian population. METHODS Sixty out of 73 Sicilian patients with vitiligo were enrolled and submitted to CAT gene analysis. RESULTS Contrary to the Northern part of Europe but likewise to the Mediterranean area, the frequency of …
Molecular Cloning, Expression, Self-Assembly, Antigenicity, and Seroepidemiology of a Genogroup II Norovirus Isolated in France
2003
ABSTRACT Virus-like particles of Dijon171/96 virus, a genogroup II norovirus, were expressed in a baculovirus system and were used for a seroepidemiological study of 1,078 age-stratified human sera collected in Dijon, France. The results showed a seroprevalence of 74.1%. Furthermore, we showed that murine antibodies generated against recombinant Dijon171/96 virus, and human antibodies recognized discontinuous epitopes on the particles.
Immunogenicity and safety of human papillomavirus-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine administered according to an alternative dosing schedule compared wit…
2011
BACKGROUND: The human papillomavirus (HPV)-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine is immunogenic, has a clinically acceptable safety profile, and prevents incident and persistent HPV-16/18 infection and cervical precancerous lesions. This study (NCT00552279) evaluated the vaccine when administered according to an alternative dosing schedule (0-1-12 months) compared with the standard dosing schedule (0-1-6 months). METHODS: The study was of randomized open design and was conducted at multiple centers in Europe. Healthy women aged 15 to 25 years were randomized (1:1) to receive HPV-16/18 vaccine according to the standard schedule at months 0, 1, and 6 (n = 401) or an alternative schedule at months 0, …