Search

USP28 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma and generation of an Usp28 knockout mouse.

Recent studies suggest that the ubiquitin-specific protease USP28 plays an important role in cellular repair and tissue remodeling, which implies that it has a direct role in carcinogenesis. The carcinogenic potential of USP28 was investigated in a comprehensive manner using patients, animal models, and cell culture. The findings demonstrate that overexpression of USP28 correlates with a better survival in patients with invasive ductal breast carcinoma. Mouse xenograft experiments with USP28-deficient breast cancer cells also support this view. Furthermore, lack of USP28 promotes a more malignant state of breast cancer cells, indicated by an epithelial-to-mesenchymal (EMT) transition, elevated proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis as well as a decreased adhesion. In addition to breast cancer, lack of USP28 in mice promoted an earlier onset and a more severe tumor formation in a chemical-induced liver cancer model. Mechanistically, the angio- and carcinogenic processes driven by the lack of USP28 appeared to be independent of HIF-1α, p53, and 53BP1.Implications: The findings of this study are not limited to one particular type of cancer but are rather applicable for carcinogenesis in a more general manner. The obtained data support the view that USP28 is involved in tumor suppression and has the potential to be a prognostic marker. Mol Cancer Res; 16(6); 1000–12. ©2018 AACR.

Overview of macroscopic changes in liver morphology.

Primers used for qRT-PCR

This study presents a flipped classroom approach tailored to provide dynamic instructional learning of one translation module in Vietnam. The model took consideration of relevant factors of Activity theory (instruments, rules, community and division of labour) to (1) investigate how it could re-orientate learners’ translation habits, and (2) find out the mitigated challenges encountered by Vietnamese learners. 39 junior students at a public university in Vietnam participated in the study. The research implemented a case study design, using semi-structured interviews to examine in depth the benefits of this flipped setting and its actual challenges. The collected findings revealed that this approach could not only bridge the gaps in the relevant literature of flipped learning, but also could improve learners’ habits to use appropriate translation strategies. Finally, challenges faced by learners during the implementation were minimised, thanks to the systematic structure of the flipped classroom procedure and Activity theory.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a huge challenge to the world in recent years. The development of vaccines that are as effective as possible and accessible to society offers a promising alternative for addressing the problems caused by this situation as soon as possible and to restore the pre-epidemic system. The present study investigated the preferences of residents in Hungary’s second-largest city (Debrecen) for the COVID-19 vaccine. To achieve this aim, a discrete choice experiment was conducted with 1011 participants, and the vaccine characteristics included in the design of the experiment were determined by qualitative methods and a pilot survey: (1) country of origin; (2) efficiency; (3) side effect; and (4) duration of protection. During the data collection at three vaccination sites, respondents were asked to choose between three vaccine alternatives and one “no choice” option in eight decision situations. Discrete choice model estimations were performed using a random parameter logit (RPL) specification with the final model extended to include a latent variable measuring pandemic awareness. The results showed that the vaccine with a Chinese country of origin is the least preferred among the respondents, while the Hungarian and the European vaccines are the most preferred. Furthermore, the increase in the vaccine efficiency level increased the respondents’ sense of utility for the vaccine; the short-term side effect was preferred to the long-term one; and the increase in the duration of protection provided by the vaccine increased the respondents’ sense of utility for the vaccine. Based on the parameter estimated for the latent variable, it can be concluded that as the level of pandemic awareness (which is more positive among people with chronic diseases and less important among health workers) increases, the choice of a vaccine option becomes more preferred among respondents compared to the “no choice“. The results of our investigation could contribute towards increasing compliance in the case of the vaccination-rejecting population, not only for COVID-19, but for any kind of vaccination procedure.

There are 2 main reasons why pig gait is analysed. First, assessment of a pig's health and welfare is major reason for gait analysis. Also, the pig, as a large animal model, has become important in biomedical research, especially in preclinical testing of therapeutics. Gait is an essential part of pig movement and its analysis is of great interest, especially when following the phenotype and the effectivity of treatment in pig models for movement and neurological disorders. The aim of this state-of-the-art review is 3-fold: (1) to present and summarize the current instrument base used in pig gait assessment, (2) to point out promising technologies for pig gait analysis, and (3) to outline the suitability of technology for pig gait analysis. The review encompasses 27 studies in total. We included papers published since 2010 and classified them according to which type of measurement instrument was used: 2D camera systems, 3D camera systems, force plates and pressure sensitive mats. In each category we reviewed the data acquisition systems, utilized signals and gait parameters used. An analysis of the literature showed that video-based systems and pressure sensitive mats were the most frequently used. The utilization of 3D camera systems was less common. Force plates were only used occasionally. In conclusion, despite growing interest in using inertial sensor units in movement analysis, they were missing in pig gait analysis. Along with the progress in instrumentation and its ability to produce a huge amount of information, simpler and more user-friendly tools should be developed to provide easy interpretation of the data captured by pig practitioners in the pig industry, or by scientists.

Wnt11 regulates early cardiac development and left ventricular compaction in the heart, but it is not known how Wnt11 regulates postnatal cardiac maturation and response to cardiac stress in the adult heart. We studied cell proliferation/maturation in postnatal and adolescent Wnt11 deficient (Wnt11−/−) heart and subjected adult mice with partial (Wnt11+/−) and complete Wnt11 (Wnt11−/−) deficiency to cardiac pressure overload. In addition, we subjected primary cardiomyocytes to recombinant Wnt proteins to study their effect on cardiomyocyte growth. Wnt11 deficiency did not affect cardiomyocyte proliferation or maturation in the postnatal or adolescent heart. However, Wnt11 deficiency led to enlarged heart phenotype that was not accompanied by significant hypertrophy of individual cardiomyocytes. Analysis of stressed adult hearts from wild-type mice showed a progressive decrease in Wnt11 expression in response to pressure overload. When studied in experimental cardiac pressure overload, Wnt11 deficiency did not exacerbate cardiac hypertrophy or remodeling and cardiac function remained identical between the genotypes. When subjecting cardiomyocytes to hypertrophic stimulus, the presence of recombinant Wnt11 together with Wnt5a reduced protein synthesis. In conclusion, Wnt11 deficiency does not affect postnatal cardiomyocyte proliferation but leads to cardiac growth. Interestingly, Wnt11 deficiency alone does not substantially modulate hypertrophic response to pressure overload in vivo. Wnt11 may require cooperation with other noncanonical Wnt proteins to regulate hypertrophic response under stress.

Recent studies suggest incidental vocabulary learning (IVL) through audio-visual input to be effective for ESL vocabulary development. However, no research has been conducted on IVL gains from academic videos, an accessible, cost- and time-efficient educational tool. Furthermore, as studies suggest that students tend to have high motivation when videos are used during teaching, it is suggested that IVL gains could vary according to student motivation levels. Therefore, this research intends to address the gap of potential IVL gains for ESL learners through academic videos and its possible relationship with motivation. A total of 56 ESL pre-university students in an English-medium university in Malaysia participated in this study. IVL gains were measured through a modified Vocabulary Size Test including a target words test before and after watching the 10-minute academic video. Students’ motivation level was measured using a video motivation questionnaire. The results indicated a significant IVL gain with 0.78 (3.9%) of the target words learned on an average. However, no correlation was found between student motivation level and IVL gains. Therefore, results from this study may give an insight on how TESOL educators can integrate academic videos into innovative, formal and informal teaching practices to develop the vocabulary of ESL students through IVL.

Health and sustainability problems have become a central theme in dialogue in both the scientific community and the public. Our individual choices have a profound, advantageous or disadvantageous impact on our health; the same can be said about our environmental footprint. In this area, we can also make decisions that affect the physical environment positively or negatively. Our narrative review aims to demonstrate that healthy plant-based choices in our diet are linked to choices beneficial for our environment and that these two seemingly distant aspects converge in the context of plant-based diets. We have collected, compared and discussed the results of life cycle analysis (LCA) articles on the current state of the effect of food choice on our environment. Furthermore, we would like to show the opportunities and constraints of implementing plant-based diets.

Background: Cardiac fibrosis stiffens the ventricular wall, predisposes to cardiac arrhythmias and contributes to the development of heart failure. In the present study, our aim was to identify novel miRNAs that regulate the development of cardiac fibrosis and could serve as potential therapeutic targets for myocardial fibrosis. Methods and results: Analysis for cardiac samples from sudden cardiac death victims with extensive myocardial fibrosis as the primary cause of death identified dysregulation of miR-185-5p. Analysis of resident cardiac cells from mice subjected to experimental cardiac fibrosis model showed induction of miR-185-5p expression specifically in cardiac fibroblasts. In vitro, augmenting miR-185-5p induced collagen production and profibrotic activation in cardiac fibroblasts, whereas inhibition of miR-185-5p attenuated collagen production. In vivo, targeting miR-185-5p in mice abolished pressure overload induced cardiac interstitial fibrosis. Mechanistically, miR-185-5p targets apelin receptor and inhibits the anti-fibrotic effects of apelin. Finally, analysis of left ventricular tissue from patients with severe cardiomyopathy showed an increase in miR-185-5p expression together with pro-fibrotic TGF-beta 1 and collagen I. Conclusions: Our data show that miR-185-5p targets apelin receptor and promotes myocardial fibrosis.

Idiopathic rapid eye movement sleep behaviour (iRBD) is considered as a risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD) development. Evaluation of repetitive movements with finger tapping, which serves as a principal task to measure the extent of bradykinesia in PD, may undercover potential PD patients. The aim of this study was to explore whether finger tapping abnormalities, evaluated with a 3D motion capture system, are already present in RBD patients.Finger tapping data was acquired using a contactless 3D motion capture system from 40 RBD subjects and compared to 25 de-novo PD patients and 25 healthy controls. Objective assessment of amplitude decrement, maximum opening velocity and their combination representing finger tapping decrement was performed in the sequence of the first ten tapping movements. The association between instrumental finger tapping data and semi-quantitative clinical evaluation was analyzed.While significant differences between PD and controls were found for all investigated finger tapping measures (p 0.002), RBD differed from controls in finger tapping amplitude (p = 0.004) and velocity (p = 0.007) decrement but not in maximal opening velocity. A significant relationship between the motor score from the Movement Disorders Society - Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale and finger tapping decrement was shown for both patient groups, ie RBD (r = 0.36, p = 0.02) and PD (r = 0.60, p = 0.002).In our group of RBD patients we demonstrated amplitude decrement of repetitive movements, which may correspond with prodromal bradykinesia. Our findings suggest instrumental analysis of finger tapping abnormalities as a potential novel clinical marker reflecting subclinical motor disturbances in RBD.

Previous studies on the academic achievement (AA) of students who pursue education in English-medium instruction settings indicate that standardised international language tests demonstrate low predictive power for study success. Consequently, there seems to be clear value in exploring alternative means of determining influential correlators between language proficiency and academic performance, especially in countries where international tests are neither a prerequisite for university admission nor a cost-effective option. This study explored Hungarian native-speakers, members of a linguistic minority living in Romania, studying for a degree in English Language and Literature. English (L3) and Romanian (L2) form-meaning based receptive vocabulary tests have been employed to explore the extent to which they predict AA. The results show significant positive correlations between lexical knowledge in the tested languages and AA. However, regression analyses indicate that English vocabulary scores emerge as the best single predictors and explain over 30% of variance. This suggests that, in the case of typologically close languages, lexical tests are likely measuring the same underlying trait. Given the relatively high predictive power of vocabulary tests in relation to AA, we conclude that lexical knowledge is an important explanatory factor of AA, even in the case of multilinguals.

Signaling through activin receptors regulates skeletal muscle mass and activin receptor 2B (ACVR2B) ligands are also suggested to participate in myocardial infarction (MI) pathology in the heart. In this study, we determined the effect of systemic blockade of ACVR2B ligands on cardiac function in experimental MI, and defined its efficacy to revert muscle wasting in ischemic heart failure (HF). Mice were treated with soluble ACVR2B decoy receptor (ACVR2B-Fc) to study its effect on post-MI cardiac remodeling and on later HF. Cardiac function was determined with echocardiography, and myocardium analyzed with histological and biochemical methods for hypertrophy and fibrosis. Pharmacological blockade of ACVR2B ligands did not rescue the heart from ischemic injury or alleviate post-MI remodeling and ischemic HF. Collectively, ACVR2B-Fc did not affect cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, fibrosis, angiogenesis, nor factors associated with cardiac regeneration except modification of certain genes involved in metabolism or cell growth/survival. ACVR2B-Fc, however, was able to reduce skeletal muscle wasting in chronic ischemic HF, accompanied by reduced LC3II as a marker of autophagy and increased mTOR signaling and Cited4 expression as markers of physiological hypertrophy in quadriceps muscle. Our results ascertain pharmacological blockade of ACVR2B ligands as a possible therapy for skeletal muscle wasting in ischemic HF. Pharmacological blockade of ACVR2B ligands preserved myofiber size in ischemic HF, but did not compromise cardiac function nor exacerbate cardiac remodeling after ischemic injury.

Doxorubicin is a widely used anticancer drug that causes dose-related cardiotoxicity. The exact mechanisms of doxorubicin toxicity are still unclear, partly because most in vitro studies have evaluated the effects of short-term high-dose doxorubicin treatments. Here, we developed an in vitro model of long-term low-dose administration of doxorubicin utilizing human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). Moreover, given that current strategies for prevention and management of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity fail to prevent cancer patients developing heart failure, we also investigated whether the GATA4-targeted compound 3i-1000 has cardioprotective potential against doxorubicin toxicity both in vitro and in vivo. The final doxorubicin concentration used in the chronic toxicity model in vitro was chosen based on cell viability data evaluation. Exposure to doxorubicin at the concentrations of 1–3 µM markedly reduced (60%) hiPSC-CM viability already within 48 h, while a 14-day treatment with 100 nM doxorubicin concentration induced only a modest 26% reduction in hiPCS-CM viability. Doxorubicin treatment also decreased DNA content in hiPSC-CMs. Interestingly, the compound 3i-1000 attenuated doxorubicin-induced increase in pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (proBNP) expression and caspase-3/7 activation in hiPSC-CMs. Moreover, treatment with 3i-1000 for 2 weeks (30 mg/kg/day, i.p.) inhibited doxorubicin cardiotoxicity by restoring left ventricular ejection fraction and fractional shortening in chronic in vivo rat model. In conclusion, the results demonstrate that long-term exposure of hiPSC-CMs can be utilized as an in vitro model of delayed doxorubicin-induced toxicity and provide in vitro and in vivo evidence that targeting GATA4 may be an effective strategy to counteract doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00204-020-02711-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

In this study, we investigated whether local intramyocardial GATA4 overexpression affects the left ventricular (LV) remodelling process and the importance of phosphorylation at serine-105 (S105) for the actions of GATA4 in an angiotensin II (AngII)-induced hypertension rat model. Adenoviral constructs overexpressing wild type GATA4 or GATA4 mutated at S105 were delivered into the anterior LV free wall. AngII (33.3 µg x kg-1 x h-1) was administered via subcutaneously implanted minipumps. Cardiac function and structure were examined by echocardiography, followed by histological immunostainings of LV sections and gene expression measurements by RT-qPCR. The effects of GATA4 on cultured neonatal rat ventricular fibroblasts were evaluated. In AngII?induced hypertension, GATA4 overexpression repressed fibrotic gene expression, reversed the hypertrophic adult-to-foetal isoform switch of myofibrillar genes and prevented apoptosis, whereas histological fibrosis was not affected. Overexpression of GATA4 mutated at S105 resulted in LV chamber dilatation, cardiac dysfunction and had minor effects on expression of myocardial remodelling genes. Fibrotic gene expression in cardiac fibroblasts was differently affected by overexpression of wild type or mutated GATA4. Our results indicate that GATA4 reduces AngII-induced responses by interfering with pro-fibrotic and hypertrophic gene expressions. GATA4 actions on LV remodelling and fibroblasts are dependent on phosphorylation site S105.

Comparative glycosylation analysis of biopharmaceuticals requires the development of methods that deliver the necessary throughput, support structural elucidation and relative quantitation of glycans released from therapeutics. The current study presents the development and applicability assessment of a twoplex approach using light and heavy isotopolouges of 3-aminobenzenesulfonic acid (3-ASA) under wet labeling conditions followed by UHPLC-MS analysis in data dependent acquisition mode. Excellent labelling efficiency, >90%, was achieved for both the light and heavy variants of the reagent. Glycan distributions of two human IgG lots labeled by light and heavy isotopolouges were identical, demonstrating no labeling bias introduced by either of the isotopologues. Peak area distributions of glycan profiles of two human IgG lots were compared to 2-aminobenzamide (2-AB) and RapiFluor-MS protocols. The comparison led to identical results in peak area distribution across the three dyes, but differences in chromatographic selectivity attributed to the different tags. MS1 based relative quantitation was further validated by releasing glycans from the same lot of human IgG, with glycan pools obtained labeled with light and heavy isotopologues separately, followed by mixing and clean-up of the same amount of light and heavy labeled glycan pools. MS analyses of each glycan resulted in a ratio of light and heavy XIC in the range of 0.97 ≤ x ≤ 1.05, demonstrating the method is amenable for the relative quantitation of glycans. Excellent correlation between the relative quantitation data of N-glycans from two human IgG N-glycan pools using the twoplex approach and ratios from peak area distribution calculated from the fluorescent chromatogram was observed (r = 0.986), further corroborating the reliability of the method and its potential applicability in the biopharmaceutical industry. Highly informative HCD-MS2 spectra dominated mostly by Y- and Z-type single and double glycosidic fragment ions facilitate structural interpretation of the oligosaccharides.

The Timed Up & Go (TUG) test is a simple test for gait and balance that requires no special equipment and can be part of a routine clinical examination. Combined with the development of motion capture technologies, the possibilities of assessing individual TUG sub-components (i.e. sit-to-stand, gait, turn, turn-to-sit) are increasing. The clinical evaluation of an instrumented TUG requires reliable values. We analysed the intra-session repeatability of the iTUG sit-to-stand, gait and turn parameters in three conditions: (1) single, (2) cognitive dual-tasks, and (3) manual dual-tasks in older adults and Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. The repeatability coefficient (RC) was calculated for each of the 18 parameters. The repeatability varied across subject groups, the performed tasks, and the TUG subcomponent. The gait subcomponent had 6 non-repeatable spatio-temporal parameters and 2 non-repeatable parameters for the arm swing. The parameters of the turn subcomponent can be considered as non-repeatable in both groups under the manual dual-task condition and in HC under the single-task condition. When comparing PD to HC, the repeatability of the majority of the single-task parameters was higher in PD whereas lower under dual-tasks. In PD, the major part of gait parameters had a higher repeatability under single-tasks than dual-tasks. In contrast, HC exhibited better repeatability of dual-tasks than single-tasks. Repeatability can be used to assist researchers and clinicians to select adequate parameters with respect to the purpose of motion assessment.

Complex dynamic systems displaying interdependency between nitroaldol and boronic ester reactions have been demonstrated. Nitroalkane-1,3-diols, generated by the nitroaldol reaction, were susceptible to ester formation with different boronic acids in aprotic solvents, whereas hydrolysis of the esters occurred in the presence of water. The boronic ester formation led to significant stabilization of the nitroaldol adducts under basic conditions. The use of bifunctional building blocks was furthermore established, allowing for main chain nitroaldol-boronate dynamers as well as complex network dynamers with distinct topologies. The shape and rigidity of the resulting dynamers showed an apparent dependency on the configuration of the boronic acids.

OBJECTIVETo report clinical, surgical, and pathological findings in client-owned rabbits with histologically confirmed appendicitis.ANIMALS19 rabbits.PROCEDURESMedical records for client-owned rabbits that had a histologic diagnosis of appendicitis were reviewed.RESULTSMedian age of the rabbits at presentation was 24.0 months (range, 4 to 84 months). Seventeen cases occurred during the summer and fall seasons. Decreased appetite (17/19 rabbits), abnormal rectal temperature (hyperthermia, 9/16 rabbits; hypothermia, 4/16 rabbits), hypocalcemia (8/11 rabbits), and hypoglycemia (7/15 rabbits) were common signs. Abdominal ultrasonography and CT findings were suggestive of appendicitis in 6 of 8 rabbits and in 1 of 2 rabbits, respectively. Of the 6 rabbits that received medical treatment, 3 died at 48 hours, 1 died at 24 hours after hospitalization, and 1 died at 10 days after presentation; 1 rabbit was alive at 1,030 days after presentation. Of the 8 rabbits that underwent appendectomy, 3 died before discharge from the hospital and 1 died 113 days after surgery; 4 rabbits were alive at 315, 334, 1,433, and 1,473 days after presentation. The remaining 5 rabbits either died or were euthanized before treatment could be instituted. In each of the 19 rabbits, the appendix had evidence of severe inflammation with mucosal ulceration, heterophilic inflammation, and necrotic debris.CLINICAL RELEVANCEFor rabbits with decreased appetite and an apparently painful abdomen, hyperthermia, hypocalcemia, or hypoglycemia, appendicitis should be considered as a differential diagnosis. Further comparisons of medical and surgical treatments are required to establish treatment recommendations for rabbits with appendicitis.

This paper evaluates variations in solar activity and their impact on the human nervous system, including the manner in which human behavior and decision-making reflect such effects in the context of (symmetrical) social interactions. The relevant research showed that solar activity, manifesting itself through the exposure of the Earth to charged particles from the Sun, affects heart variability. The evaluation methods focused on examining the relationships between selected psychophysiological data and solar activity, which generally causes major alterations in the low-level electromagnetic field. The investigation within this paper revealed that low-level EMF changes are among the factors affecting heart rate variability and, thus, also variations at the spectral level of the rate, in the VLF, (f = 0.01–0.04 Hz), LF (f = 0.04–0.15 Hz), and HF (f = 0.15 až 0.40 Hz) bands. The results of the presented experiments can also be interpreted as an indirect explanation of sudden deaths and heart failures.

Exploration of motor cortex activity is essential to understanding the pathophysiology in Parkinson's Disease (PD), but only simple motor tasks can be investigated using a fMRI or PET. We aim to investigate the cortical activity of PD patients during a complex motor task (gait) to verify the impact of deep brain stimulation in the subthalamic nucleus (DBS-STN) by using Near-Infrared-Spectroscopy (NIRS). NIRS is a neuroimaging method of brain cortical activity using low-energy optical radiation to detect local changes in (de)oxyhemoglobin concentration. We used a multichannel portable NIRS during finger tapping (FT) and gait. To determine the signal activity, our methodology consisted of a pre-processing phase for the raw signal, followed by statistical analysis based on a general linear model. Processed recordings from 9 patients were statistically compared between the on and off states of DBS-STN. DBS-STN led to an increased activity in the contralateral motor cortex areas during FT. During gait, we observed a concentration of activity towards the cortex central area in the "stimulation-on" state. Our study shows how NIRS can be used to detect functional changes in the cortex of patients with PD with DBS-STN and indicates its future use for applications unsuited for PET and a fMRI.

This paper generalizes the bordered-algebraic knot invariant introduced in an earlier paper, giving an invariant now with more algebraic structure. It also introduces signs to define these invariants with integral coefficients. We describe effective computations of the resulting invariant.

Turning is an essential part of human movement. Turning manoeuvres are affected by age, neurological disorders, or frailty. Analyses of the walking turn and its alterations could provide valuable information about functional independence. Most studies involving wearable sensors quantify the turn by descriptive statistical values such as the mean or maximum of the signal. Along with growing interest in walking turn analysis, new parameters should be proposed. From statistics we adapted a parameter, referred to as waveform skewness, that describes the shape of the 180 ° turn signal. This parameter is then compared to established ones and an intraclass-correlation is calculated. The mutual relationship between the proposed parameter and established ones is investigated via correlation. In addition, the effect of different circumstances (temporal alignment, signal scaling and time shift) to the proposed parameter is quantified. Waveform skewness showed a moderate intra-class correlation and a high correlation with the signal peak value. The results showed that waveform skewness is not sensitive to the time shift but is sensitive to signal scaling and temporal alignment. Comparing the waveform skewness between the two subject groups revealed significant differences between Parkinson disease patients and the control group. Quantitative assessment of the 180 ° turn may allow for more objective and sensitive determinations of movement disorders and pathologies.

The Timed Up & Go test (TUG) is functional test and is a part of routine clinical examinations. The instrumented Timed Up & Go test enables its segmentation to sub-tasks: sit-to-stand, walking forward, turning, walking back, stand-to-sit, and consequently the computation of task-specific parameters and sub-tasks separately. However, there are no data on whether walking forward parameters differ from the walking back parameters. This study tested the differences between walking forward and walking back in the TUG extended to 10 m for 17 spatio-temporal gait parameters. All parameters were obtained from a GAITRite® pressure sensitive walkway (CIR Systems, Inc.). The differences were assessed for healthy controls and Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. None of investigated parameters exhibited a difference between both gait subtasks for healthy subjects group. Five parameters of interest, namely velocity, step length, stride length, stride velocity, and the proportion of the double support phase with respect to gait cycle duration, showed a statistically significant difference between gait for walking forward and walking back in PD patients. Therefore, we recommend a separate assessment for walking forward and walking back rather than averaging both gaits together.

Visual Abstract, Highlights • To study the role of CTGF in post-MI cardiac repair and LV remodeling, we antagonized the function of CTGF with a mAb. • Treatment of mice with CTGF mAb during post-MI cardiac repair improved survival and resulted in better preserved LV systolic function. • Treatment with CTGF mAb during post-MI LV remodeling reduced the heart weight to body weight ratio, LV mass, cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, and fibrosis in the remote nonischemic myocardium. • CTGF mAb treatment induced c-Jun N-terminal kinase phosphorylation in ischemic hearts in vivo and in cultured human cardiac fibroblasts. • In conclusion, treatment of mice with CTGF mAb in a model of MI enhances cardiac repair and reduces adverse post-MI LV remodeling., Summary Myocardial infarction (MI)−induced cardiac fibrosis attenuates cardiac contractile function, and predisposes to arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Expression of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is elevated in affected organs in virtually every fibrotic disorder and in the diseased human myocardium. Mice were subjected to treatment with a CTGF monoclonal antibody (mAb) during infarct repair, post-MI left ventricular (LV) remodeling, or acute ischemia−reperfusion injury. CTGF mAb therapy during infarct repair improved survival and reduced LV dysfunction, and reduced post-MI LV hypertrophy and fibrosis. Mechanistically, CTGF mAb therapy induced expression of cardiac developmental and/or repair genes and attenuated expression of inflammatory and/or fibrotic genes.

The authors describe 3 cases of squamous cell carcinoma in chinchillas. The neoplasms were diagnosed by histological examination. All 3 animals were older than 15 years and had ulcerative skin masses involving one or more limbs. Automutilation was present in all 3 cases, and the owners noticed the masses when they were already of significant size (2 to 5 cm in diameter). All 3 animals were euthanized within 2 months after the first presentation. Papillomavirus polymerase chain reaction assay were performed on all 3 tumors, but did not find papillomavirus DNA in the samples. Practitioners should consider squamous cell carcinoma as the potential cause of ulcerative skin lesions and automutilation in aged chinchillas. Neoplasms are generally considered to be rare in this species, and this is the first description of squamous cell carcinoma in chinchillas to the authors’ knowledge.

In the paper are shown the results of chemical quality parameters of meat preparations, sampled on the domestic market, which were analyzed from the aspect of regulations that define the quality of meat products as well as product labeling. A total of 30 samples of meat preparations including Minced meat with ingredients, Cevapcici, Pljeskavica, Barbecue meat, Fresh sausages, and fresh sausages under another name were investigated. The highest percentage of non- compliant samples concerning meat protein content as well as the content of collagen in meat proteins were determined in Fresh sausages (33 %). The highest percentage of the label non-compliances (60%) was concerning the missing nutritive declaration but also a huge problem seems to be inadequate specifying of proteins where 54 % of label errors referred to proteins such as missing information about meat protein content, use of non-meat protein sources where it is not allowed and inapropriate protein content designation. Other errors were represented in a smaller extent and refer to improper designation of the product group and additives, as well as missing information about the producer.