Search results for "Clinical Research Design"
showing 10 items of 61 documents
DR(high+)CD45RA(-)-Tregs potentially affect the suppressive activity of the total Treg pool in renal transplant patients.
2011
Recent studies show that regulatory T cells (Tregs) play an essential role in tolerance induction after organ transplantation. In order to examine whether there are differences in the composition of the total CD4(+)CD127(low+/-)FoxP3(+)- Treg cell pool between stable transplant patients and patients with biopsy proven rejection (BPR), we compared the percentages and the functional activity of the different Treg cell subsets (DR(high+)CD45RA(-)-Tregs, DR(low+)CD45RA(-)-Tregs, DR(-)CD45RA(-)-Tregs, DR(-)CD45RA(+)-Tregs). All parameters were determined during the three different periods of time after transplantation (0-30 days, 31-1,000 days, >1,000 days). Among 156 transplant patients, 37 pat…
Relationship between Meditative Practice and Self-Reported Mindfulness: the MINDSENS Composite Index
2014
Mindfulness has been described as an inherent human capability that can be learned and trained, and its improvement has been associated with better health outcomes in both medicine and psychology. Although the role of practice is central to most mindfulness programs, practice-related improvements in mindfulness skills is not consistently reported and little is known about how the characteristics of meditative practice affect different components of mindfulness. the present study explores the role of practice parameters on self-reported mindfulness skills. A total of 670 voluntary participants with and without previous meditation experience (n = 384 and n = 286, respectively) responded to an…
Bone Marrow-Derived Cells from Male Donors Do Not Contribute to the Endometrial Side Population of the Recipient
2012
Accumulated evidence demonstrates the existence of bone marrow-derived cells origin in the endometria of women undergoing bone marrow transplantation (BMT). In these reports, cells of a bone marrow (BM) origin are able to differentiate into endometrial cells, although their contribution to endometrial regeneration is not yet clear. We have previously demonstrated the functional relevance of side population (SP) cells as the endogenous source of somatic stem cells (SSC) in the human endometrium. The present work aims to understand the presence and contribution of bone marrow-derived cells to the endometrium and the endometrial SP population of women who received BMT from male donors. Five fe…
Acute Hormonal and Force Responses to Combined Strength and Endurance Loadings in Men and Women: The “Order Effect”
2013
Purpose To examine acute responses and recovery of serum hormones and muscle force following combined strength (S) and endurance (E) loading sessions in which the order of exercises is reversed (ES vs. SE). Methods This cross-over study design included recreationally endurance trained men and women (age 21–45 years, n = 12 men n = 10 women) who performed both loadings. Maximal bilateral isometric strength (MVC), isometric rate of force development (RFD) and serum concentrations of testosterone (T), cortisol (C), growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), binding protein 3 (IGFBP3) and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) were measured during and after both loadings. Results B…
Association between COX-2 rs 6681231 genotype and interleukin-6 in periodontal connective tissue. A pilot study.
2014
[Objectives] The aim of this pilot study was to investigate associations between IL-6 and COX-2 expression in gingival biopsies and both clinical diagnosis and genotypes in the IL-6 and COX-2 genes. [Design] A case-control study included 41 gingival biopsies obtained from Caucasian patients grouped according to clinical diagnosis of gingival health (n = 10), gingivitis (n = 15) or chronic periodontitis (n = 16). Immunohistochemistry analyses were performed to determine COX-2 expression in lamina propria, IL-6 expression in lamina propria and gingival epithelium and level of inflammatory cell infiltrate. Individual DNA was extracted and genotyped by real-time PCR for IL6 SNPs rs 2069827 and …
Oro-gustatory perception of dietary lipids and calcium signaling in taste bud cells are altered in nutritionally obesity-prone Psammomys obesus.
2013
Since the increasing prevalence of obesity is one of the major health problems of the modern era, understanding the mechanisms of oro-gustatory detection of dietary fat is critical for the prevention and treatment of obesity. We have conducted the present study on Psammomys obesus, the rodent desert gerbil which is a unique polygenic natural animal model of obesity. Our results show that obese animals exhibit a strong preference for lipid solutions in a two-bottle test. Interestingly, the expression of CD36, a lipido-receptor, in taste buds cells (TBC), isolated from circumvallate papillae, was decreased at mRNA level, but remained unaltered at protein level, in obese animals. We further st…
The Global Research Collaboration of Network Meta-Analysis: A Social Network Analysis
2016
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The pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents: A systematic review wi…
2017
Background Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders in childhood. A wide variety of treatments have been used for the management of ADHD. We aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of pharmacological, psychological and complementary and alternative medicine interventions for the treatment of ADHD in children and adolescents. Methods and findings We performed a systematic review with network meta-analyses. Randomised controlled trials (≥ 3 weeks follow-up) were identified from published and unpublished sources through searches in PubMed and the Cochrane Library (up to April 7, 2016). Interventions of interest were pharmacolo…
A Xenogeneic-Free Protocol for Isolation and Expansion of Human Adipose Stem Cells for Clinical Uses
2013
Human adipose stem cells (hASCs) play a crucial role in the fields of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering for different reasons: the abundance of adipose tissue, their easy harvesting, the ability to multipotent differentiation and the fact that they do not trigger allogeneic blood response or secrete cytokines that act as immunosuppressants. The vast majority of protocols use animal origin reagents, with the underlying risk of transmitting infections by non-human pathogens. We have designed a protocol to isolate and maintain the properties of hASCs avoiding xenogeneic reagents. These changes not only preserve hASCs morphology, but also increase cell proliferation and maintain thei…
The short-term efficacy and safety of artificial total disc replacement for selected patients with lumbar degenerative disc disease compared with ant…
2018
PurposeTo systematically compare the efficacy and safety of lumbar total disc replacement (TDR) with the efficacy and safety of anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) for the treatment of lumbar degenerative disc disease (LDDD).MethodsThe electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library were searched for the period from the establishment of the databases to March 2018. The peer-reviewed articles that investigate the safety and efficacy of TDR and ALIF were retrieved under the given search terms. Quality assessment must be done independently by two authors according to each item of criterion. The statistical analyses were performed using RevMan (version 5.3) and Stata (v…