Predictors of talc slurry pleurodesis success in patients with malignant pleural effusions.

INTRODUCTION: Malignant pleural effusions are an important burden of malignant disease. Slurry talc pleurodesis remains one of the most common and effective therapeutic options. AIM: Investigate the predictive factors related with the efficacy of this technique in malignant pleural effusions. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of all pleurodesis performed during a 10-year period in a Pulmonology Unit. All demographic and clinical data were collected, including the histologic tumoral type and the biochemical, microbiological and cytological fluid features. Efficacy was defined as the lack of recurrence of pleural effusion. It was used Kaplan-Meyer analysis to estimate overall survival. RESULTS: From a total of 202 patients submitted to pleurodesis (47% men; mean age 66.9±12.02 years). Light's criteria identified 86.6% as exudates. We found 85.1% survival at 30-day post-pleurodesis, which means the therapy used has significant success. A logistic regression model applied explained that variance in post-pleurodesis events was mostly due to age and gender rather than pleural biochemical factors (X2(5)=44.648, p<0.001, R2 28.3%). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that clinical evaluation of biochemical values, bacteriological results and malignant tumor diagnosis may not be enough to predict post-pleurodesis relapse with high accuracy. Furthermore, we observed, in ten years of pleurodesis performed in our Hospital, that pleurodesis is an effective life prolonging therapy for patients that fit the criteria for this intervention.

White-to-brite conversion in human adipocytes promotes metabolic reprogramming towards fatty acid anabolic and catabolic pathways.

OBJECTIVE: Fat depots with thermogenic activity have been identified in humans. In mice, the appearance of thermogenic adipocytes within white adipose depots (so-called brown-in-white i.e., brite or beige adipocytes) protects from obesity and insulin resistance. Brite adipocytes may originate from direct conversion of white adipocytes. The purpose of this work was to characterize the metabolism of human brite adipocytes. METHODS: Human multipotent adipose-derived stem cells were differentiated into white adipocytes and then treated with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)γ or PPARα agonists between day 14 and day 18. Gene expression profiling was determined using DNA microarrays and RT-qPCR. Variations of mRNA levels were confirmed in differentiated human preadipocytes from primary cultures. Fatty acid and glucose metabolism was investigated using radiolabelled tracers, Western blot analyses and assessment of oxygen consumption. Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4) knockdown was achieved using siRNA. In vivo, wild type and PPARα-null mice were treated with a ß3-adrenergic receptor agonist (CL316,243) to induce appearance of brite adipocytes in white fat depot. Determination of mRNA and protein levels was performed on inguinal white adipose tissue. RESULTS: PPAR agonists promote a conversion of white adipocytes into cells displaying a brite molecular pattern. This conversion is associated with transcriptional changes leading to major metabolic adaptations. Fatty acid anabolism i.e., fatty acid esterification into triglycerides, and catabolism i.e., lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation, are increased. Glucose utilization is redirected from oxidation towards glycerol-3-phophate production for triglyceride synthesis. This metabolic shift is dependent on the activation of PDK4 through inactivation of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. In vivo, PDK4 expression is markedly induced in wild-type mice in response to CL316,243, while this increase is blunted in PPARα-null mice displaying an impaired britening response. CONCLUSIONS: Conversion of human white fat cells into brite adipocytes results in a major metabolic reprogramming inducing fatty acid anabolic and catabolic pathways. PDK4 redirects glucose from oxidation towards triglyceride synthesis and favors the use of fatty acids as energy source for uncoupling mitochondria.

Topological Crystalline Insulator in a New Bi Semiconducting Phase.

Topological crystalline insulators are a type of topological insulators whose topological surface states are protected by a crystal symmetry, thus the surface gap can be tuned by applying strain or an electric field. In this paper we predict by means of ab initio calculations a new phase of Bi which is a topological crystalline insulator characterized by a mirror Chern number nM = -2, but not a strong topological insulator. This system presents an exceptional property: at the (001) surface its Dirac cones are pinned at the surface high-symmetry points. As a consequence they are also protected by time-reversal symmetry and can survive against weak disorder even if in-plane mirror symmetry is broken at the surface. Taking advantage of this dual protection, we present a strategy to tune the band-gap based on a topological phase transition unique to this system. Since the spin-texture of these topological surface states reduces the back-scattering in carrier transport, this effective band-engineering is expected to be suitable for electronic and optoelectronic devices with reduced dissipation.

Effect of endurance training on skeletal muscle myokine expression in obese men: identification of apelin as a novel myokine.

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that the metabolic benefits of physical exercise could be mediated by myokines. We examined here the effect of exercise training on skeletal muscle expression of a panel of myokines in humans. Pathways regulating myokine expression were investigated in human myotubes. METHODS: Eleven obese non-diabetic male subjects were enrolled in an 8-week endurance training program. Insulin sensitivity was assessed by an oral glucose tolerance test. Subcutaneous adipose tissue and Vastus lateralis muscle biopsy samples were collected before and after training. RNAs were prepared from adipose tissue and skeletal muscle. Primary culture of myoblasts was established. RESULTS: As expected, exercise training improved aerobic capacity and decreased fat mass. No significant change in interleukin 6, fibroblast growth factor 21, myostatin (MSTN) or irisin mRNA level was found in muscle after training. A twofold increase in apelin mRNA level was found in muscle but not in adipose tissue. No change in circulating myokine and adipokine plasma levels was observed in the resting state in response to training. Interestingly, apelin was significantly expressed and secreted in primary human myotubes. Apelin gene expression was upregulated by cyclic AMP and calcium, unlike the other myokines investigated. Importantly, changes in muscle apelin mRNA levels were positively related to whole-body insulin sensitivity improvement. CONCLUSION: Collectively, our data show that exercise training upregulates muscle apelin expression in obese subjects. Apelin expression is induced by exercise signaling pathways and secreted in vitro in human primary myotubes, and may behave as a novel exercise-regulated myokine with autocrine/paracrine action.

Construction of the B88 Exchange-Energy Functional in Two Dimensions.

We construct a generalized-gradient approximation for the exchange-energy density of finite two-dimensional systems. Guided by nonempirical principles, we include the proper small-gradient limit and the proper tail for the exchange-hole potential. The observed performance is superior to that of the two-dimensional local-density approximation, which underlines the usefulness of the approach in practical applications.

Probing time-dependent molecular dipoles on the attosecond time scale.

Photoinduced molecular processes start with the interaction of the instantaneous electric field of the incident light with the electronic degrees of freedom. This early attosecond electronic motion impacts the fate of the photoinduced reactions. We report the first observation of attosecond time scale electron dynamics in a series of small- and medium-sized neutral molecules (N(2), CO(2), and C(2)H(4)), monitoring time-dependent variations of the parent molecular ion yield in the ionization by an attosecond pulse, and thereby probing the time-dependent dipole induced by a moderately strong near-infrared laser field. This approach can be generalized to other molecular species and may be regarded as a first example of molecular attosecond Stark spectroscopy.

Comment on "Topological insulators in ternary compounds with a honeycomb lattice".

A Comment on the Letter by Zhang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 156402 (2011).

[Visualization of deep lung lymphatic network using radioliposomes]. / Visualização da rede linfática pulmonar profunda usando radioliposomas.

Deep lymphatic drainage plays an important role in the lung, as it removes foreign materials laying on the airways surface, such as pathogenic microorganisms. This drainage is also associated with lung tumour dissemination route. Liposomes with a specially tailored membrane were used as foreign particles to be removed by the lung lymphatics. We aim to obtain images of deep lung lymphatics in baboons using liposomes encapsulating (99m)Tc-HMPAO, as aerosols. Axillary lymph nodes were visualized 30 min post-inhalation, becoming more evident 1 hour after, when abdominal aortic and inguinal lymph nodes were also observed. Late images added no additional information. ROI's and their time-activity curves were drawn to obtain biokinetic information. In conclusion, we can say that the proposed technique enables visualization of the deep lymphatic lung network and lymph nodes. This methodology may be an important tool for targeted lung delivery of cytotoxic drugs.