Body

It is known that I/R induces an inflammatory response deleterious to the organ involved but also to the system as a whole. Mesenteric ischemia occurs when the veins or arteries that supply blood to the intestine are obstructed. In transplants, the organ undergoes total (arterial and venous) I/R. Few available treatments exist. Greater knowledge of these conditions would aid in the search for new therapies. However, the precise nature of the response arises after venous, arterial or total ischemia is not fully understood.

Anti-microbial antibody formation has been reported in celiac disease. Relatively high positivity rates were observed for the conventional antibodies, for example, ASCA, anti-OmpW, and anti-I2, and they were known to decrease after a successful gluten free-diet. The importance of newly discovered inflammatory bowel disease-associated antibodies (including anti-glycan antibodies and anti-OMP) in celiac disease is not sure. The presence of anti-microbial antibodies in relation to clinical presentation of the disease and NOD2/CARD15 mutations was also not investigated.

It is still unknown why the natural history of chronic disease caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV), which currently infects 3% of the world's population, varies from mild in some patients to rapidly progressing in others. Age, sex, alcohol consumption, and liver sensitivity to gut-derived bacterial endotoxins, were the early factors defined to enhance the risk of fibrosis progression.

In view of low attendance rate for colonoscopy screening for colorectal cancer (CRC), it is necessary to establish effective intervention methods to increase colonoscopy compliance. Many studies have reported that subjective or objective barriers prevent high-risk subjects from undergoing colonoscopy examination, which indicates that barrier-focused intervention might be effective. However, such barrier-focused intervention has not been reported in China.

Many studies favor an extended lymphadenectomy at the time of a potentially curative gastrectomy for node-positive gastric cancer, and the risk of long-term death tends to decrease when the number of resected lymph nodes increases to about 25. However, few studies have assessed the relative contribution of the total number of resected lymph nodes to the outcome of patients with node-negative gastric cancer. Further studies are needed to know how the numbers of dissected LNs may affect the survival outcome of patients with node-negative gastric cancer.

WILMINGTON, Del.—Aug. 26, 2009—Mayo Clinic Proceedings published a peer-reviewed comparative effectiveness study performed by HealthCore, Inc. in its August edition. The study demonstrated that asthma patients in general had better clinical outcomes with oral controllers than inhaled corticosteroids.

AUSTIN, Texas—The complete asexuality of a widespread fungus-gardening ant, the only ant species in the world known to have dispensed with males entirely, has been confirmed by a team of Texas and Brazilian researchers.

Most social insects—the wasps, ants and bees—are relatively used to daily life without males. Their colonies are well run by swarms of sterile sisters lorded over by an egg-laying queen. But, eventually, all social insect species have the ability to produce a crop of males who go forth in the world to fertilize new queens and propagate.

Without at least a temporary reprieve from hunting, the world's largest species of fruit bat, Pteropus vampyrus or the "large flying fox", could be driven to extinction in Peninsular Malaysia at the current hunting rate, scientists have warned. Writing in the new issue of the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, they say around 22,000 flying foxes are legally hunted (in addition to those illegally hunted) each year in Peninsular Malaysia, a level of hunting that is unsustainable based on their estimates of the number of bats in the country.

A new study published by researchers at the UCLA School of Dentistry substantiates the effectiveness of measuring the microRNAs present in saliva to detect oral squamous cell carcinoma. MicroRNAs are the molecules produced by cells that simultaneously asses the behavior of multiple genes and control their activity.

Scientists from Stanford University have teamed up with Israeli and Jordanian researchers to protect the Gulf of Aqaba, a strategic waterway whose fragile marine ecosystem is vital to both Israel and Jordan.

"The people involved are interested in international collaboration in science and protecting the place they live," said project co-director Stephen Monismith, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. "Nothing in the ocean understands political borders."

Patients with a certain genetic variation who received the antiplatelet drug clopidogrel had a decreased platelet response to treatment and among those who had percutaneous coronary intervention (procedures such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries) had an increased risk of having a cardiovascular event in the following year than patients who did not have this variant, according to a study in the August 26 issue of JAMA.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have identified a common gene variant carried by as many as a third of the general population that is believed to play a major role in determining why people do not respond to a popular anti-clotting medication, Plavix. If the medication doesn't work, patients are at increased risk for subsequent heart attacks, strokes and other serious cardiovascular problems.

Men with coronary artery disease-induced congestive heart failure or heart attack who receive hormone therapy before or along with radiation therapy for treatment of prostate cancer have an associated increased risk of death, according to a study in JAMA.

Women may have a slightly higher risk of death than men in the 30 days following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS; such as heart attack or unstable angina), but this difference appears attributable to factors such as severity and type of ACS, clinical differences and angiographic severity according to a study in the August 26 issue of JAMA.

A new study reports that a gene variant carried by about a third of the population plays a major role in this group's response to an anti-clotting medicine, clopidogrel (Plavix). People with the variant produce a defective version of the CYP2C19 enzyme and are less able to activate the drug.

Plavix prevents blood clots in people with heart disease by keeping platelets from sticking together. But about 30 percent of people respond poorly to the drug and are at increased risk for dangerous events like strokes and heart attacks.