The relationship between lymphatic vascular density and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) expression with clinical-pathological features and survival in pancreatic adenocarcinomas

Abstract: Background Pancreatic cancer is a rare tumor with an extremely low survival rate. Its known risk factors include the chronic use of tobacco and excessive alcohol consumption and the presence of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as pancreatitis and type 2 diabetes. Angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, which have been the focus of recent research, are considered prognostic factors for cancer development. Knowing the angiogenic and lymphangiogenic profiles of a tumor may provide new insights for designing treatments according to the different properties of the tumor. The aim of this study was to evaluate the density of blood and lymphatic vessels, and the expression of VEGF-A, in pancreatic adenocarcinomas, as well as the relationship between blood and lymphatic vascular density and the prognostically important clinical-pathological features of pancreatic tumors. Methods Paraffin blocks containing tumor samples from 100 patients who were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between 1990 and 2010 were used to construct a tissue microarray. VEGF expression was assessed in these samples by immunohistochemistry. To assess the lymphatic and vascular properties of the tumors, 63 cases that contained sufficient material were sectioned routinely. The sections were then stained with the D2-40 antibody to identify the lymphatic vessels and with a CD34 antibody to identify the blood vessels. The vessels were counted individually with the Leica Application Suite v4 program. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 18.0 (Chicago, IL, USA) software, and p values ≤ 0.05 were considered significant. Results In the Cox regression analysis, advanced age (p=0.03) and a history of type 2 diabetes (p=0.014) or chronic pancreatitis (p=0.02) were shown to be prognostic factors for pancreatic cancer. Blood vessel density (BVD) had no relationship with clinical-pathological features or death. Lymphatic vessel density (LVD) was inversely correlated with death (p=0.002), and by Kaplan-Meyer survival analysis, we found a significant association between low LVD (p=0.021), VEGF expression (p=0.023) and low patient survival. Conclusions Pancreatic carcinogenesis is related to a history of chronic inflammatory processes, such as type 2 diabetes and chronic pancreatitis. In pancreatic cancer development, lymphangiogenesis can be considered an early event that enables the dissemination of metastases. VEGF expression and low LVD can be considered as poor prognostic factors as tumors with this profile are fast growing and highly aggressive. Virtual slides. The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/5113892881028514

Phenotypic and genotypic features of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans isolated from patients with periodontal disease

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of periodontitis. In this study, the phenotypic and genotypic features of A. actinomycetemcomitans and the presence of genes involved in toxicity were determined. Sixty-five patients with periodontal pocket and 48 healthy subjects were evaluated. Biotyping, adherence and invasion, neuraminidase and biofilm production, presence of capsule and fimbria, as well as the presence of flp-1, apaH, ltx, and cdt genes were determined. Biotype II was the most prevalent. Sixty-six strains were adherent and 33 of them were able to invade KB cells. Sixty strains produced neuraminidase, and 55 strains biofilms. Strains showed capsule but not fimbriae. Forty-six strains were cytotoxic, and most strains harbored the apaH and flp-1 genes. LTX promoter and the ltxA gene were observed in all strains from periodontal patients. The cdtA gene was observed in 50 (71.4%) strains, cdtB in 48 (68.6%) strains, cdtC in 60 (85.7%), and cdtABC in 40 (57.1%) strains. The presence of A. actinomycetemcomitans harboring the cdtC gene from healthy subjects may represent a transitory microorganism in the oral microbiota. More studies are necessary to understand the real role of this microorganism in the pathogenesis of periodontal disease

Effect of rearing system intensiveness on biological features, culture performance and larval quality of meagre (Argyrosomus regius Asso, 1801) larvae

[EN]Meagre, Argyrosomus regius A., is a new species for aquaculture in south Atlantic and Mediterranean regions, that can reach a mean fresh weight of 8.02±2.51g. at 95dah. However, hatchery techniques must be improved to optimize culture performance and larval quality. Eggs of meagre were cultured under intensive (75 indv.l-1 in 2m3 tanks) and semi-intensive system (7.5 indv.l-1 in 40m3 tanks) to evaluate the effect of the intensification on biological features, stress resistance and skeletal deformities. At 30dah, despite in semi-intensive system reared larvae a higher total length (19.08± 2.3mm vs 16.00±1.54mm), dry body weight (13.09± 2.43mg vs 6.46±0.52mg), and survival after the activity test (75.0± 13.8% vs 53.3±11.5%) was found, the use of intensive systems were also very suitable and cost-effective for larval rearing of this species

A Virtual Programming Lab for Moodle with automatic assessment and anti-plagiarism features

[EN] This paper describes VPL, a Virtual Programming Lab module for Moodle, developed at the University of Las Palmas of Gran Canaria (ULPGC) and released for free uses under GNU/GPL license. For the students, it is a simple development environment with auto evaluation capabilities. For the instructors, it is a students' work management system, with features to facilitate the preparation of assignments, manage the submissions, check for plagiarism, and do assessments with the aid of powerful and flexible assessment tools based on program testing, all of that being independent of the programming language used for the assignments and taken into account critical security issues.

From "wet biology" to statistical analysis of structural features with bioinformatics tools

Many new Escherichia coli outer membrane proteins have recently been identified by proteomics techniques. However, poorly expressed proteins and proteins expressed only under certain conditions may escape detection when wild-type cells are grown under standard conditions. Here, we have taken a complementary approach where candidate outer membrane proteins have been identified by bioinformatics prediction, cloned and overexpressed, and finally localized by cell fractionation experiments. Out of eight predicted outer membrane proteins, we have confirmed the outer membrane localization for five—YftM, YaiO, YfaZ, CsgF, and YliI—and also provide preliminary data indicating that a sixth—YfaL—may be an outer membrane autotransporter.

The effect of adding features on product attractiveness: the role of product perceived congruity

Technological progress has been enabling companies to add disparate features to their existing products. This research investigates the effect of adding more features on consumers’ evaluation of the product, by examining in particular the role of the congruity of the features added with the base product as a variable the moderates the effect of increasing the number of features. Grounding on schema-congruity theory, I propose that the cognitive elaboration associated with the product congruity of the features added explains consumers’ evaluation as the number of new features increases. In particular, it is shown that consumers perceive a benefit from increasing the number of features only when these features are congruent with the product. The underlying mechanisms that explains this finding predicts that when the number of incongruent features increases the cognitive resources necessary to elaborate such incongruities increase and consumers are not willing to spend such resources. However, I further show that when encouraged to consider the new features thoughtfully, consumers do seem able to infer value from increasing the number of moderately incongruent features. Nonetheless, this finding does not apply for those new features that are extremely incongruent with the product. Further evidence for consumers’ ability to resolve the moderate incongruity associated with adding more features is also shown, by studying the moderating role of temporal construal. I propose that consumers perceive an increase in product evaluation as the number of moderately incongruent features increases when consumers consider purchasing the product in the distant future, whereas such an increase is not predicted for the near future scenario. I verify these effect in three experimental studies. Theoretical and managerial implications, and possible avenues of future research are also suggested.