A significant relationship has been noted between the lipid profile and atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) using invasive coronary angiography. We tested the hypothesis that the severity of Show more
A significant relationship has been noted between the lipid profile and atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) using invasive coronary angiography. We tested the hypothesis that the severity of CAD as determined by a non-invasive method, multi-detector row computed tomography (MDCT), is also associated with lipidemic factors. The subjects included 195 consecutive patients who underwent coronary angiography using MDCT because of suspected CAD. The number of significantly stenosed vessels (VD) as evaluated by MDCT, platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH), free cholesterol (FC), phospholipid (PL), remnant-like lipoprotein particle-cholesterol (RLP-C), apolipoprotein (apo)-B, apo-C3, apo-E, and highly-sensitive C-reactive protein were determined. The subjects were divided into diabetes mellitus (DM) and non-DM groups. The HDL-associated PAF-AH level in the DM group was significantly lower than that in the non-DM group. The VD determined by MDCT was significantly associated with hypertension, administration of angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), HDL-associated (H)-HDL, H-PL, H-FC and RLP-C. Multivariate analysis revealed that VD determined by MDCT was most closely correlated with HDL-C. Lower levels of HDL-C may be an indicator for and provide additional information regarding the severity of CAD compared with other lipidemic factors. Show less
RET/PTC rearrangements represent key genetic events involved in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) initiation. The aim of the present study was to identify the early changes in gene expression induced Show more
RET/PTC rearrangements represent key genetic events involved in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) initiation. The aim of the present study was to identify the early changes in gene expression induced by RET/PTC in thyroid cells. For this purpose, microarray analysis was conducted on PCCL3 cells conditionally expressing the RET/PTC3 oncogene. Gene expression profiling 48 h after activation of RET/PTC3 identified a statistically significant modification of expression of 270 genes. Quantitative PCR confirmation of 20 of these demonstrated 90% accuracy of the microarray. Functional clustering of genes with greater than or less than 1.75-fold expression change (86 genes) revealed RET/PTC3-induced regulation of genes with key functions in apoptosis (Ripk3, Tdga), cell-cell signaling (Cdh6, Fn1), cell cycle (Il24), immune and inflammation response (Cxcl10, Scya2, Il6, Gbp2, Oas1, Tap1, RT1Aw2, C2ta, Irf1, Lmp2, Psme2, Prkr), metabolism (Aldob, Ptges, Nd2, Gss, Gstt1), signal transduction (Socs3, Nf1, Jak2, Cpg21, Dusp6, Socs1, Stat1, Stat3, Cish) and transcription (Nr4a1, Junb, Hfh1, Runx1, Foxe1). Genes coding for proteins involved in the immune response and in intracellular signal transduction pathways activated by cytokines and chemokines were strongly represented, indicating a critical role of RET/PTC3 in the early modulation of the immune response. Show less