Search results for "Thoracic"
showing 10 items of 511 documents
Glia to neuron ratio in the posterior aspect of the human spinal cord at thoracic segments relevant to spinal cord stimulation.
2019
Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) applied between T8 and T11 segments has been shown to be effective for the treatment of chronic pain of the lower back and limbs. However, the mechanism of the analgesic effect at these medullary levels remains unclear. Numerous studies relate glial cells with development and maintenance of chronic neuropathic pain. Glial cells are electrically excitable, which makes them a potential therapeutic target using SCS. The aim of this study is to report glia to neuron ratio in thoracic segments relevant to SCS, as well as to characterize the glia cell population at these levels. Dissections from gray and white matter of posterior spinal cord segments (T8, T9, interse…
Stenosis coexists with compromised α1-adrenergic contractions in the ascending aorta of a mouse model of Williams-Beuren syndrome
2020
Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) is a rare disorder caused by a heterozygous deletion of 26-28 contiguous genes that affects the brain and cardiovascular system. Here, we investigated whether WBS affects aortic structure and function in the complete deletion (CD) mouse model harbouring the most common deletion found in WBS patients. Thoracic aortas from 3-4 months-old male CD mice and wild-type littermates were mounted in wire myographs or were processed for histomorphometrical analysis. Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoforms and oxidative stress levels were assessed. Ascending aortas from young adult CD mice showed moderate (50%) luminal stenosis, whereas endothelial function and oxidative str…
On the role of material properties in ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms
2019
One of the obstacles standing before the biomechanical analysis of an ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA) is the difficulty in obtaining patient-specific material properties. This study aimed to evaluate differences on ATAA-related stress predictions resulting from the elastostatic analysis based on the optimization of arbitrary material properties versus the application of patient-specific material properties determined from ex-vivo biaxial testing. Specifically, the elastostatic analysis relies the on the fact that, if the aortic wall stress does not depend on material properties, the aorta has to be statistically determinate. Finite element analysis (FEA) was applied to a group of …
Metastatic site location influences the diagnostic accuracy of ctDNA EGFR- mutation testing in NSCLC patients: a pooled analysis
2018
Background: Recent studies evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis in the detection of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations from plasma of NSCLC patients, overall showing a high concordance as compared to standard tissue genotyping. However it is less clear if the location of metastatic site may influence the ability to identify EGFR mutations. Objective: This pooled analysis aims to evaluate the association between the metastatic site location and the sensitivity of ctDNA analysis in detecting EGFR mutations in NSCLC patients. Methods: Data from all published studies, evaluating the sensitivity of plasma-based EGFRmutation testing, stratifi…
A study of PD-L1 expression in KRAS mutant non-small cell lung cancer cell lines exposed to relevant targeted treatments.
2017
We investigated PD-L1 changes in response to MEK and AKT inhibitors in KRAS mutant lung adenocarcinoma (adeno-NSCLC). PD-L1 expression was quantified using immunofluorescence and co-culture with a jurkat cell-line transfected with NFAT-luciferase was used to study if changes in PD-L1 expression in cancer cell lines were functionally relevant. Five KRAS mutant cell lines with high PD-L1 expression (H441, H2291, H23, H2030 and A549) were exposed to GI50 inhibitor concentrations of a MEK inhibitor (trametinib) and an AKT inhibitor (AZD5363) for 3 weeks. Only 3/5 (H23, H2030 and A549) and 2/5 cell lines (H441 and H23) showed functionally significant increases in PD-L1 expression when exposed to…
Impact of DLK1-DIO3 imprinted cluster hypomethylation in smoker patients with lung cancer.
2018
// Sonia Molina-Pinelo 1, 2 , Ana Salinas 1 , Nicolas Moreno-Mata 2 , Irene Ferrer 1, 2 , Rocio Suarez 1, 2 , Eduardo Andres-Leon 1 , Manuel Rodriguez-Paredes 4, 5 , Julian Gutekunst 4 , Eloisa Jantus-Lewintre 6, 7 , Carlos Camps 8, 9 , Amancio Carnero 1 , Luis Paz-Ares 1, 2 1 Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (IBIS) (HUVR, CSIC, Universidad de Sevilla), Sevilla, Spain 2 Medical Oncology Department, Hospital Universitario Doce de Octubre & Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas (CNIO), Madrid, Spain 3 Thoracic Surgery Department, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocio, Sevilla, Spain 4 Division of Epigenetics, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany…
Restoration of perivascular adipose tissue function in diet-induced obese mice without changing bodyweight
2017
Background and Purpose We have recently shown that a reduced function of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in the perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) contributes crucially to obesity-induced vascular dysfunction in mice. The current study was conducted to test the hypothesis that vascular dysfunction in obesity can be reversed by in vivo improvement of PVAT eNOS activity. Experimental Approach Male C57BL/6 J mice were fed a high-fat diet (HFD) for 22 weeks to induce obesity. During the last 4 weeks of HFD feeding, the obese mice were treated orally with the standardized Crataegus extract WS® 1442 which has been shown previously to improve eNOS activity. Key Results Diet-induced obesit…
WES/WGS Reporting of Mutations from Cardiovascular "Actionable" Genes in Clinical Practice: A Key Role for UMD Knowledgebases in the Era of Big Datab…
2016
International audience; High-throughput next-generation sequencing such as whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing are being rapidly integrated into clinical practice. The use of these techniques leads to the identification of secondary variants for which decisions about the reporting or not to the patient need to be made. The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics recently published recommendations for the reporting of these variants in clinical practice for 56 "actionable" genes. Among these, seven are involved in Marfan Syndrome And Related Disorders (MSARD) resulting from mutations of the FBN1, TGFBR1 and 2, ACTA2, SMAD3, MYH11 and MYLK genes. Here, we show that mutations col…
Cardiovascular disease in aging: an overview on thoracic aortic aneurysm as an emerging inflammatory disease
2017
Medial degeneration associated with thoracic aortic aneurysm and acute aortic dissection was originally described by Erdheim as a noninflammatory lesion related to the loss of smooth muscle cells and elastic fibre fragmentation in the media. Recent evidences propose the strong role of a chronic immune/inflammatory process in aneurysm evocation and progression. The coexistence of inflammatory cells with markers of apoptotic vascular cell death in the media of ascending aorta with aneurysms and type A dissections raises the possibility that activated T cells and macrophages may contribute to the elimination of smooth muscle cells and degradation of the matrix. On the other hand, several infla…
First-in-Human Percutaneous Circumferential Annuloplasty for Secondary Tricuspid Regurgitation
2020
Transcatheter therapies to treat tricuspid regurgitation are being developed, but few have attempted the gold standard of surgical repair: ring annuloplasty. We describe the first-ever fully percutaneous implantation of a circumferential, semirigid annuloplasty ring to treat massive secondary tricuspid regurgitation. (Level of Difficulty: Advanced.)