Association of matrix metalloproteinase-8 gene variation with breast cancer prognosis

Animal and cell studies indicate an inhibitory effect of matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP8) on tumorigenesis and metastasis. We investigated whether MMP8 gene variation was associated with breast cancer metastasis and prognosis in humans. We first studied nine tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the MMP8 gene in 140 clinically and pathologically well-characterized breast cancer patients. Four of the SNPs were found to be associated with lymph node metastasis, the most pronounced being a promoter SNP (rs11225395) with its minor allele (T) associating with reduced susceptibility to lymph node metastasis (P = 0.02). This SNP was further evaluated for association with cancer relapse and survival among a cohort of similar to 1,100 breast cancer patients who had been followed for cancer recurrence and mortality for a median of 7.1 years. The T allele was associated with reduced cancer relapse and greater survival, particularly among patients with earlier stage cancer. Among patients of tumor-node-metastasis stage 0 to 11, the adjusted hazard ratio of disease-free survival was 0.7 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.5-0.9] for patients carrying T allele compared with those homozygous for the C allele (P = 0.02). In vitro experiments showed that the T allele had higher promoter activity than the C allele in breast cancer cells. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed binding of nuclear proteins to the DNA sequence at the SNP site of the T allele but not that of the C allele. The data suggest that MMP8 gene variation may influence breast cancer prognosis and support the notion that MMP8 has an inhibitory effect on cancer metastasis.

PHYLOGENETIC STUDIES OF SOME SPECIES OF THE GENUS COFFEA .1. NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS OF FLAVONOID COMPOUNDS

Flavonoid compounds were analyzed in ripe fruit pulp of ten species of Coffea, including two cultivars of C. arabica and two of C. canephora. Three coefficients of similarity: Simple-Matching, Jaccard and Ochiai and three different clustering methods, Single Linkage, Complete Linkage and Unweighted Pair Group, Using Arithmetic Averages (UPGMA), were used to analyze the data.Jaccard and Ochiai's coefficients of association showed a more coherent result, when compared with taxonomic and hybridization studies. Inclusion of Psilanthopsis kapakata in the genus Coffea, as C. kapakata, is justified by the similarity of this species with other studied species, and clusters clearly approximate the species C. arabica and C. eugenioides. The latter is one of the possible parents of the allotetraploid species C. arabica, C. congensis is the only species whose position remains ambiguous, probably due to the fact that the plants of this species that were introduced into the Campinas collections, were hybrids and not typical of C. congensis.

Biocompatibility studies of anionic collagen membranes with different degree of glutaraldehyde cross-linking

The work describes the biocompatibility and biodegradation studies of anionic collagen membranes casted form collagen gels collagen, that were selective hydrolyzed at the carboxyamide groups, as a function of the degree of cross-links induced by glutaraldehyde. Independently from the degree of cross-links, all membranes studied were characterized by a similar inflammatory response, inversely dependent on glutaraldehyde reaction time, that decreased from the time of the implant. Cell alterations, mineralization or contact necrosis were not observed in any of the membranes studied. Rates for membrane tissue biodegradation were directly related to glutaraldehyde reaction time, and ranged from 30 to periods longer than 60 days, associated with good biocompatibility. Although other properties must be considered, their use in the treatment of periodontal diseases, the biological behavior observed with the 8 h GA cross-linked membrane suggests that, anionic collagen membrane described in this work may be of potential use, not only in association with guided tissue regeneration technique for periodontal tissue reconstruction, but also in other collagen biomaterial applications where controlled biodegradability is required. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

AIDS-related lymphoma in Brazil - Histopathology, immunophenotype, and association with Epstein-Barr virus

The occurrence of malignant lymphoma is an increasingly important cause of morbidity and mortality in AIDS patients. The incidence of AIDS-related lymphoma in some developing countries such as Brazil is increasing as the survival of HIV infection has improved. Although there is a clear association between several types of immunodeficiency related lymphomas and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the association of EBV infection in AIDS-related lymphoma in Brazil, where the incidence of AIDS is high, is unknown. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue from 24 cases of AIDS-related lymphoma in Brazil were analyzed for morphologic classification, immunophenotype, and EBV association using in situ hybridization studies with an EBV-EBER1 biotinylated probe. Twenty cases of AIDS-related lymphoma were classified as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and four cases were Hodgkin's disease. Eleven non-Hodgkin's lymphomas were classified as diffuse large cell type, five cases were small non-cleaved cell, Burkitt-type, and four cases were large cell immunoblastic non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Eighteen cases were of B-cell phenotype; one was a T-cell lymphoma, and one was classified as null. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was demonstrated in the majority of tumor cells of 11 of 20 (55%) of the cases non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and in 3 of 4 (75%) cases of Hodgkin's disease. AIDS-related lymphomas in Brazil are usually of large cell/immunoblastic type, but Hodgkin's disease is also seen. Both non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease are often associated with EBV infection. The non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is predominantly of B-cell phenotype.

Analysis of the association of polymorphism in the osteoprotegerin gene with susceptibility to chronic kidney disease and periodontitis

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Association of free amino acids with caries experience and mutans streptococci levels in whole saliva of children with early childhood caries

Objective: The aim of the present study was to identify the free amino acid content in whole saliva of children with (CE) and without early childhood caries (CF) (ECC), correlating these findings with caries experience and mutans streptococci (MS) levels in saliva.Design: Seventy-eight healthy children, both genders, 6-71 months age, were selected to participate in the study. Following examination for dmft scores calculation, unstimulated whole saliva was collected from all 78 participants, stored at -80 degrees C, and used for amino acid analysis, on a Biochem 20 plus amino acid analyzer. Stimulated whole saliva was collected from 52 children, transported, diluted and plated on MSB agar medium for detection of MS in cfu/mL.Results: Forty different free amino acids were identified in whole saliva, with great variation in their concentration. A statistically significant relation was found between caries experience and the presence of free proline and glycine. While proline (p = 0.0182) was more frequently absent in the CF group, the absence of glycine (p = 0.0397) was more often observed in the CE group. In the presence of higher levels of MS, free glycine reduced the risk of experiencing dental caries (p = 0.0419). Conversely, the presence of proline was found to increase the risk of experiencing the disease (p = 0.0492).Conclusions: The presence of free proline and absence of free glycine in children with ECC, highly contaminated with MS, increased the chances of experiencing dental caries in the present population. Further studies are needed to better understand this phenomenon. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recommended Guidelines for the Conduct and Evaluation of Prognostic Studies in Veterinary Oncology

There is an increasing need for more accurate prognostic and predictive markers in veterinary oncology because of an increasing number of treatment options, the increased financial costs associated with treatment, and the emotional stress experienced by owners in association with the disease and its treatment. Numerous studies have evaluated potential prognostic and predictive markers for veterinary neoplastic diseases, but there are no established guidelines or standards for the conduct and reporting of prognostic studies in veterinary medicine. This lack of standardization has made the evaluation and comparison of studies difficult. Most important, translating these results to clinical applications is problematic. To address this issue, the American College of Veterinary Pathologists' Oncology Committee organized an initiative to establish guidelines for the conduct and reporting of prognostic studies in veterinary oncology. The goal of this initiative is to increase the quality and standardization of veterinary prognostic studies to facilitate independent evaluation, validation, comparison, and implementation of study results. This article represents a consensus statement on the conduct and reporting of prognostic studies in veterinary oncology from veterinary pathologists and oncologists from around the world. These guidelines should be considered a recommendation based on the current state of knowledge in the field, and they will need to be continually reevaluated and revised as the field of veterinary oncology continues to progress. As mentioned, these guidelines were developed through an initiative of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists' Oncology Committee, and they have been reviewed and endorsed by the World Small Animal Veterinary Association.

Poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) microspheres loaded with atrazine herbicide: screening of conditions for preparation, physico-chemical characterization, and in vitro release studies

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Therapeutic response of benzodiazepine, orphenadrine citrate and occlusal splint association in TMD pain

Loss of function, muscle inflammation, and pain are some of the signs and symptoms of temporomandibular dysfunction (TMD). Pharmacological strategies to minimize the clinical manifestation of these disorders often focus on blocking or inhibiting the pain-causing symptom. Resources such as muscle-relaxants, anxiety-relief drugs, and splint therapy are often used to reduce muscular hyperactivity related to TMD muscle pain. This study compares the effect of a randomly ordered association of occlusal splint therapy (S), nonsteroid anti-inflammatory with a muscle-relaxant drug (orphenadrine citrate) (O), and an anxiety-relief drug (benzodiazepine) (B), to ease painful TMD muscle symptoms. Clinical and anamnestic analyses were recorded in accordance with the Helkimo TMD index and applied before and after treatments. Twenty-one group two Helkimo TMD adult female patients were treated, all of whom were subjected to the three random therapeutic associations proposed: SBO, BOS, and OSB. The same operator applied the three specific associations over a period of 21 days in the proposed sequence, seven days for each therapy. The results show that all the groups presented the best results in terms of relief from pain after the therapeutic association (28.5% showed a decrease and 47.6% showed an absence of symptoms). No significant difference was observed among association therapeutic protocols. Copyright © 2003 by CHROMA, Inc.

Missing association between telomerase activity and clinicopathological features in patients with early stage carcinoma of the cervix

Objectives: This study was undertaken to evaluate the association between the telomerase activity in the tumor and clinicopathological findings in patients with stage IB-IIA (FIGO) carcinoma of the cervix. Methods: Thirty-eight patients with carcinoma of the cervix submitted to radical hysterectomy were prospectively from January 1998 to November 2001. Samples from the tumor were taken and analyzed by the telomerase PCR-TRAP-ELISA kit. Clinicopathological characteristics such as age, stage, tumor size, grade of differentiation, lymphatic vascular space invasion (LVSI), parametrial involvement and status of pelvic lymph nodes were also recorded. Results: Patient's mean age was 49.3 ± 1.99 years (29-76 years). The clinical stage (FIGO) was IB in 35 patients (92.1%) and IIA in 3 patients (7.9%). The histological classification identified squamous cell carcinoma in 33 patients (86.8%) and adenocarcinoma in 5 patients (13.2%). There was no association between age, clinical stage, histological classification, tumor size, grade of differentiation and presence of LVSI with tumoral telomerase activity. The telomerase activity was not associated with the presence of vaginal involvement (P = 0.349), parametrium involvement (P = 0.916), pelvic lymph node metastasis (P = 0.988) or tumoral recurrence (P = 0.328) in patients with carcinoma of the cervix. Conclusions: Telomerase activity in the tumor is not associated with clinicopathological findings or tumor recurrence in patients with early stage cervical carcinoma. © 2006 Springer-Verlag.

Presence of Candida spp. in infants oral cavity and its association with early childhood caries

Candida spp., mainly C. albicans, colonizes oral cavity of infants. Transmission by mother to childbirth, pacifier use, feeding habits and caries are factors related to Candida oral colonization. Some researches related that early childhood caries favor the oral colonization of C. albicans. The present literature review described the presence of Candida spp. in oral cavity of infants and its association with early childhood caries (ECC). The literature was searched for original papers relating Candida, pacifier and baby bottle usage and ECC.The articles, were selected using Bireme and Medline databases. Manual tracing of references cited in key papers was also elicited It can be concluded that Candida spp. colonization in the infants'oral cavity especially C. albicans, can be related to the pacifier usage, feeding habits caries lesion. The early childhood caries favor the C. albicans colonization, although it's role in the carious process need further studies to be elucidate scientifically.

Association between breast-feeding practices and sucking habits: A cross-sectional study of children in their first year of life

In addition to providing nutrition and immunological protection, breast-feeding has positive effects on the development of the infant's oral cavity. The aim of the present study is to assess breast-feeding patterns and to analyze the influence of breast-feeding practices and maternal sociodemographic variables on the prevalence of non-nutritive sucking habits in a sample of Brazilian infants. This cross-sectional study was carried out in Southern Brazil. A random sample of 100 mothers of infants up to 12 months of age was interviewed during the National Vaccination Campaign Day. The prevalence and median duration of breast-feeding were assessed. Breast-feeding practice, the exposure factor, was categorized as exclusive breast-feeding, predominant breast-feeding, complementary breast-feeding, or weaning. Maternal sociodemographic variables included age, race, marital status, educational level, profession, and family income. The outcome investigated was the prevalence of sucking habits (pacifier use and thumb sucking). We used two-sample tests, the chi-square test and Fisher exact test0 for statistical analyses of the data. The study revealed that 75% of infants were being breast-fed. Pacifier use and thumb sucking were common in 55%. Bottle-feeding was prevalent in 74% of infants. Breast-feeding was negatively correlated with pacifier use and thumb sucking (OR = 0.11; 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.4). Bottle-feeding was strongly associated with weaning (p = 0.0003). Among the sociodemographic variables, only marital status showed a statistical association with sucking habits (p = 0.04). These findings suggest that breast-feeding can prevent the occurrence of sucking habits. Although we could not evaluate causality assessment, malocclusion prevention seems to be yet one more reason for promoting breast-feeding practices.

Comparative study of algorithms for mining association rules: Traditional approach versus multi-relational approach

The multi-relational Data Mining approach has emerged as alternative to the analysis of structured data, such as relational databases. Unlike traditional algorithms, the multi-relational proposals allow mining directly multiple tables, avoiding the costly join operations. In this paper, is presented a comparative study involving the traditional Patricia Mine algorithm and its corresponding multi-relational proposed, MR-Radix in order to evaluate the performance of two approaches for mining association rules are used for relational databases. This study presents two original contributions: the proposition of an algorithm multi-relational MR-Radix, which is efficient for use in relational databases, both in terms of execution time and in relation to memory usage and the presentation of the empirical approach multirelational advantage in performance over several tables, which avoids the costly join operations from multiple tables. © 2011 IEEE.

PAR-COM: A new methodology for post-processing association rules

The post-processing of association rules is a difficult task, since a huge number of rules that are generated are of no interest to the user. To overcome this problem many approaches have been developed, such as objective measures and clustering. However, objective measures don't reduce nor organize the collection of rules, therefore making the understanding of the domain difficult. On the other hand, clustering doesn't reduce the exploration space nor direct the user to find interesting knowledge, therefore making the search for relevant knowledge not so easy. In this context this paper presents the PAR-COM methodology that, by combining clustering and objective measures, reduces the association rule exploration space directing the user to what is potentially interesting. An experimental study demonstrates the potential of PAR-COM to minimize the user's effort during the post-processing process. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.