Spontaneous and coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy of human gastrocnemius muscle biopsies in CH-stretching region for discrimination of peripheral artery disease.

Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) is a common manifestation of atherosclerosis, characterized by lower leg ischemia and myopathy in association with leg dysfunction. In the present study, Spontaneous and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectroscopic techniques in CH-stretching spectral region were evaluated for discriminating healthy and diseased tissues of human gastrocnemius biopsies of control and PAD patients. Since Raman signatures of the tissues in the fingerprint region are highly complex and CH containing moieties are dense, CH-stretching limited spectral range was used to classify the diseased tissues. A total of 181 Raman spectra from 9 patients and 122 CARS spectra from 12 patients were acquired. Due to the high dimensionality of the data in Raman and CARS measurements, principal component analysis (PCA) was first performed to reduce the dimensionality of the data (6 and 9 principal scores for Raman and CARS, respectively) in the CH-stretching region, followed by a discriminant function analysis (DFA) to classify the samples into different categories based on disease severity. The CH2 and CH3 vibrational signatures were observed in the Raman and CARS spectroscopy. Raman and CARS data in conjunction with PCA-DFA analysis were capable of differentiating healthy and PAD gastrocnemius with an accuracy of 85.6% and 78.7%, respectively.

Correlation of manganese contents of soils and wheat plants (Triticum spelta) in the Cukurova Region of Turkey.

In this study, the statistical analysis of manganese contents for soil, leaf and grain samples of the wheat plants, Triticum spelta, in the Cukurova Region of Adana in Turkey was performed to determine the relationship among the variables and correlation coefficients of manganese (Mn) contents. The soil samples were taken from the plant rhizosphere. Leaf samples at the stem elongation time and grain samples at the physiological maturity stage were analysed for Mn contents. The Mn contents of soil (MnS) were between 1.47 and 3.80 mg kg(-1), but the MnS of some samples were measured below the critical level of soil (1.00 mg kg(-1)). Whereas Mn contents of leaves (MnL) were obtained between 47.55 and 126.40 mg kg(-1). The Mn contents of grain (MnG) were obtained between 20.16 and 49.08 mg kg(-1). Direct correlation was found between MnL and MnG. But indirect correlations between was found MnS and MnG. Correlation between MnL and MnG was significant at the 0.01 level according to statistical analysis.

Effects of different parent material on the mineral characteristics of soils in the arid region of Turkey.

Physical, chemical and mineralogical characteristics of seven soils developed on four different parent materials such as basalt, limestone, marine and alluvium were studied to determine the effect of parent material on the soil characteristics in the arid and semiarid regions in the Southeast Anatolia Region of Turkey. Parent material have affected the morphology and chemistry of the soils. Carbonate contents of the soils are changing between 14.1 and 42.6%. The high carbonate contents of the soils, developed on the basalt rocks, might be attributed to eolian additions from calcareous soils. The red colour of basaltic soils might be associated with the Fe2O3 content of the parent material. Available Fe2O3 content of the basaltic soils was relatively higher than other soils and measured between 0.56 and 2.05%. Available Fe2O3 content of the soils on the marine was very low and changed between 0.26 and 0.37%. Total Fe2O3 content of the basaltic soils was higher than other soils and changed between 4.36 and 6.70%. The total Al2O3 content of the basaltic soils was obtained relatively higher than other soils and changed between 4.92 and 8.72%. The high Al2O3 and Fe2O3 contents of the basaltic soils may be associated with the weathering of basalt rocks. Also analysis of the basaltic rock samples has showed similar mineralogical composition. X-Ray diffraction analysis data showed that smectite was the dominant clay mineral in all the soils. Palygorskite was the second most abundant mineral after smectite. Moreover, some mineralogical properties reflected the traces of climatic changed during the Holocene. The leaching factor were determined as >1 in the Profile PL2 and as < 1 in the Profiles PL1, PL3, PL4, PL5; PL6 and PL7. The low leaching factor (< 1) may be attributed to weathering of parent material. The soils were classified according to Soil Taxonomy as Aridisol, Entisol, Vertisol and Inceptisol.

CEA-related cell adhesion molecule-1 is involved in angiogenic switch in prostate cancer.

We demonstrate here that epithelial carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-related cell adhesion molecule-1 (CEACAM1) downregulation in prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) is inversely correlated with its upregulation in adjacent blood vessels. CEACAM1 silencing in prostate cancer cell line DU-145 via small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) increased but its overexpression suppressed the expression of angiogenic/lymphangiogenic factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A, -C and -D, and angiogenic inhibitor collagen 18/endostatin. Furthermore, CEACAM1 overexpression in DU-145 cells increased but CEACAM1 silencing reduced angiopoietin-1 expression. Inverse relation was found for angiopoietin-2. Supernatant of CEACAM1-overexpressing DU-145 suppressed but that of CEACAM1-silenced increased the VEGF-induced endothelial tubes. Electron microscopically the majority of PIN-associated blood vessels was structurally destabilized exhibiting endothelial fenestration, trans- and inter-endothelial gaps. In some PIN areas, invasion of single tumor cells into the destabilized blood vessels was observed. These data show that disappearance of epithelial CEACAM1 in PIN is accompanied by its upregulation in adjacent vasculature which apparently correlates with vascular destabilization and increased vascularization of prostate cancer. Strategies to either conserve the epithelial CEACAM1 or to target endothelial CEACAM1 might be useful for an anti-angiogenic therapy of prostate cancer.