Recombinant pro-BNP antigen (aa76,>95%) [His]

Background: Norovirus infection is the most frequent cause of infectious diarrhoea in the western world. This study aimed to characterise functionally and histomorphologically the diseased duodenum in human biopsies. Methods: Norovirus infection was diagnosed by the Kaplan criteria and confirmed by PCR of stool samples. Duodenal biopsies were obtained endoscopically. In miniaturised Ussing chambers, short circuit current, flux measurements and impedance spectroscopy were performed. Histological analysis including apoptosis staining and characterisation of intraepithelial lymphocytes was performed. Tight junction proteins were quantified by immunoblotting. Results: In norovirus infection, epithelial resistance decreased from (mean (SEM)) 24 (2) Omega cm(2) in controls to 10 (1) Omega cm(2). Mannitol flux increased from 113 (24) nmol h(-1) cm(-2) in controls to 242 (29) nmol h(-1) cm(-2). Microdissection revealed a villus surface area reduced by 47% (6.6%). Intraepithelial lymphocytes were increased to 63 (7) per 100 enterocytes, with an increased rate of perforin-positive cytotoxic T cells. Expression of tight junctional proteins occludin, claudin-4 and claudin-5 was reduced. The epithelial apoptotic ratio was doubled in norovirus infection. Furthermore, the basal short circuit current was increased in norovirus infection and could be reduced by bumetanide and 5-nitro-2-(3-phenylpropylamino) benzoic acid (NPPB). Conclusions: Norovirus infection leads to epithelial barrier dysfunction paralleled by a reduction of sealing tight junctional proteins and an increase in epithelial apoptosis, which may partly be mediated by increased cytotoxic intraepithelial lymphocytes. Furthermore, active anion secretion is markedly stimulated. Thus, the diarrhoea in norovirus infection is driven by both a leak flux and a secretory component.

Background: Myocardial infarction (MI) and left ventricle remodeling (LVR) are two of the most challenging disease entities in developed societies. Since conventional treatment cannot fully restore heart function new approaches were attempted to develop new strategies and technologies that could be used for myocardial regeneration. One of these strategies pursued was a cell therapy - particularly applying skeletal muscle stem cells (SkMCs). Methods and results: Using NOD-SCID murine model of MI and human skeletal myoblast transplantation we were able to show that SkMC administration significantly affected gene expression profile (p < 0.05) (NPPB, CTGF, GATA4, SERCA2a, PLB) of the heart ventricular tissue and this change was beneficial for the heart function. We have also shown, that the level of heart biomarker, NT-proBNP, decreased in animals receiving implanted cells and that the NT-proBNP level negatively correlated with left ventricle area fraction change (LVFAC) index which makes NT-proBNP an attractive tool in assessing the efficacy of cell therapy both in the animal model and prospectively in clinical trials. Conclusions: The results obtained suggest that transplanted SkMCs exerted beneficial effect on heart regeneration and were able to inhibit LVR which was confirmed on the molecular level, giving hope for new ways of monitoring novel cellular therapies for MI. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.