Search results for "integumentary system"
showing 10 items of 744 documents
A ballistometer for the study of the plasto-elastic properties of skin.
1977
The ballistrometer is based on the "drop impact" of a body onto a stationary surface. A collision in one dimension is provoked by allowing a bard body to drop from a given height onto the skin surface to be tested. After the collision, the impacting body undergoes a variable number of rebounds decreasing in amplitude. By measuring the height of the rebounds, the amount of energy returned by the tissue is calculated in terms of coefficient of restitution e. The equipment, consisting of a hammer unit, a feeder-amplifier, and a plotter, is described. Ballistometry has been carried out on skin areas of 46 normal subjects ranging in age from 8 to 80 years, as well as on pathologic and cadaveric …
Aortic root dilation in associated with the reduction in capillary density observed at nailfold capillaroscopy in SSc patients
2020
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease characterized by endothelial dysfunction and fibroblasts activation. Microvascular disease may be easily observed by means of nailfold capillaroscopy. Recent evidences emphasized also the involvement of large-medium arteries in SSc, mainly in terms of increased stiffness of the vessel wall. The study aims to measure aortic root diameter in a cohort of SSc patients and to correlate echocardiographic findings with the capillaroscopic pictures. We analyzed the clinical records of 125 consecutive SSc patients (M/F 14/111, mean age 55 ± 12.7 years, median disease duration 11 years) referring in 3 second-level rheumatology centers. All subjects un…
Editorial: Clinical Trials in Raynaud's Phenomenon: A Spoonful of Sugar (Pill) Makes the Medicine Go Down (in Flames)
2017
Objective To determine the effect of selexipag, an oral, selective IP prostacyclin receptor agonist, on the frequency of attacks of Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Methods Patients with SSc‐related RP were randomized 1:1 to placebo (n = 38) or selexipag (n = 36) in individualized doses (maximum of 1,600 μg twice daily) during a 3‐week titration period. The primary end point was the weekly average number of RP attacks during the study maintenance period, analyzed using a Bayesian approach with a negative binomial model adjusted for baseline number of RP attacks. Other outcome measures included Raynaud's Condition Score (RCS), RP attack duration, and treat…
Anti-Aging Effects of GDF11 on Skin
2020
International audience; Human skin is composed of three layers: the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis. The epidermis has four major cell layers made up of keratinocytes in varying stages of progressive differentiation. Skin aging is a multi-factorial process that affects every phase of its biology and function. The expression profiles of inflammation-related genes analyzed in resident immune cells demonstrated that these cells have a strong ability to regenerate adult skin stem cells and to produce endogenous substances such as growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11). GDF11 appears to be the key to progenitor proliferation and/or differentiation. The preservation of youthful phenot…
Progerin expression induces a significant downregulation of transcription from human repetitive sequences in iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons.
2019
Repetitive DNA sequences represent about half of the human genome. They have a central role in human biology, especially neurobiology, but are notoriously difficult to study. The purpose of this study was to quantify the transcription from repetitive sequences in a progerin-expressing cellular model of neuronal aging. Progerin is a nuclear protein causative of the Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome that is also incrementally expressed during the normal aging process. A dedicated pipeline of analysis allowed to quantify transcripts containing repetitive sequences from RNAseq datasets oblivious of their genomic localization, tolerating a sufficient degree of mutational noise, all with low c…
Prostaglandin D2 regulates joint inflammation and destruction in murine collagen-induced arthritis.
2012
Item does not contain fulltext OBJECTIVE: Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) may exert proinflammatory or antiinflammatory effects in different biologic systems. Although this prostanoid and the enzymes responsible for its synthesis are up-regulated by interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) in human chondrocytes in vitro, the role of PGD2 in arthritis remains unclear. This study was undertaken to investigate the role of PGD2 in the inflammatory response and in joint destruction during the development of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in mice. METHODS: PGD2 and cytokine levels in mice with CIA were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Expression of hematopoietic PGD synthase (h-PGDS), lipocalin-typ…
The role of NO in contact hypersensitivity
2001
Contact dermatitis or contact hypersensitivity (CHS) is a common T lymphocyte-mediated allergic disease characterized by local inflammatory skin reactions following contact with small reactive compounds called haptens. In common with other allergic processes, the development of contact dermatitis proceeds in two phases: a sensitization phase which occurs on first exposure to allergen, and an elicitation phase which occurs on subsequent exposure when the clinical manifestations of the disease are observed. This process is hapten-specific. While the pathophysiology of the sensitization phase is well characterized, our understanding of the elicitation phase is still incomplete, including the r…
Residents'corner February 2014. Editorial: What's new this month?
2014
In this issue of the EJD, two articles shed light on sun-tanning behaviour in southern Europe [1, 2] that will be discussed here. We also critically review an article by Stockfleth et al. [4] who propose the ‘maximum lesion count’ as a new parameter for efficacy assessment of field-directed therapy for actinic keratoses. Last but not least, the publication of Mailhol et al. [5] on food allergies in children with atopic dermatitis will be reviewed.Skin cancer prevention is an important aspect [...]
Effect of selected triterpenoids on chronic dermal inflammation.
1997
The activity of four natural triterpenoids on a 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate multiple-dose model of skin chronic inflammation was studied. Erythrodiol and ursolic acid were significantly effective. The most important features concerning structure-activity relationship and previous data on the effect of these triterpenoids on other inflammatory conditions are discussed.
Zanhasaponins A and B, Antiphospholipase A2 Saponins from an Antiinflammatory Extract of Zanha africana Root Bark
1997
A MeOH extract from Z. africana was examined for topical antiinflammatory activity and proved to be active against arachidonic acid (AA) acute edema, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA)-induced chronic inflammation, and oxazolone delayed-type hypersensitivity in mice. The extract also showed significant inhibitory activity of Naja naja phospholipase A2 when a polarographic method was used. Two oleanane-type triterpene saponins, zanhasaponins A (1) and B (2), and the cyclitol pinitol (4), isolated from the extract, were active as inhibitors of PLA2. A further saponin, zanhasaponin C (3) was inactive in this assay.