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Background: Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are a family of highly conserved proteins found ubiquitously in mammalian cells, believed to be regulators of normal cell physiology and the cellular stress response. In addition, the small 27-kDa heat shock protein (HSP27) has previously been found to be a differentiation marker for keratinocytes and a prognostic marker associated with increased survival in certain cancerous tumors. Methods: Using immunohistochemistry on routinely processed paraffin sections, we examined skin biopsies from 15 invasive melanomas, 13 intradermal nevi, and two compound nevi immunostained with a mouse monoclonal antibody to HSP27. In addition, cultured melanocytes were heat stressed at 45degreesC for I h and then fixed and immunostained in order to localize HSP27 expression intracellularly. Results: We found cytoplasmic and strong perinuclear staining of HSP27 in melanocytes in normal skin, in melanomas, and in nevi. Nuclear reactivity was absent, In addition, in cultured non-malignant melanocytes, HSP27 expression relocated from the cytoplasm to the nucleus with heat stress. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this investigation is the first to demonstrate that HSP27 is expressed in melanocytes in normal skin, in nevi, and in non-malignant cultured melanocytes.

Background/Objectives: There are few studies of the association between low appendicular muscle mass (LAM) and clinical outcomes in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. We aimed to determine the clinical association between LAM and clinical outcomes in PD patients. Subject/Methods: We reviewed all PD patients who underwent PD between January 2001 and April 2014. Each patient's appendicular lean mass was estimated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. The appendicular muscle mass index (AMI) was calculated using total appendicular lean mass (kg) over body mass index (kg/m.sup.2). The cut-off AMI value for LAM was Results: The number of patients in the Non-LAM and LAM groups was 328 and 303, respectively. The median follow-up durations in the Non-LAM and LAM groups were 47 and 49 months, respectively. The numbers of deaths in the Non-LAM and LAM groups were 96 (29.3%) and 160 (52.8%), respectively. In a comparison with the Non-LAM group, the hazard ratio in the LAM group was 1.74 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.35-2.24) in univariate and 1.71 (95% CI, 1.28-2.26) in multivariate Cox regression analysis. In addition, the hazard ratio for a 0.1 increase in baseline AMI was 0.89 (95% CI, 0.84-0.95) in univariate analysis and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.76-0.91) in multivariate analysis. Analyses using the 1-year AMI showed trends similar to those for the initial AMI. Conclusions: Our study showed the association of LAM with mortality in the incident PD patients., Author(s): S H Kang [sup.1] , K H Cho [sup.1] , J W Park [sup.1] , J Y Do [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, [...]

The present study investigated the spatial variation of the physico-chemical characteristics of lateritic soil profiles (up to 60 cm in depth) in a sloping mango orchard (1 ha; slope gradient = 6 %) in North Peninsular Malaysia. The study revealed that horizontal variation for the exchangeable Al and Mg, and the particle size fractions in the topmost soil layer (0-15 cm) within the orchard was higher than their vertical variation within the soil profile, and that, in contrast, the opposite trend was found for the total N, cation exchange capacity, and base saturation. Furthermore, preferential accumulation of soil organic matter and nutrients such as total N and available P were found at the lower (LS) and/or middle (MS) slope positions than the upper (US) one, while the lower clay content with the higher clay activity index was observed at LS compared to MS and US. These results suggest that these variations occur by the scattered accumulation of fertilizer-derived nutrients (i.e. N, P, K, and Mg) in the surface soil layers and the translocation of the surface litter, soil and nutrients towards the downslope in addition to enhanced eluviation process with the residual of clays at the downslope in the sloping orchard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]