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Background and purpose Increased interleukin 16 (IL-16) levels in carotid plaques have been associated with reduced incidence of cardiovascular (CV) events during follow-up in patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy (CEA). In the present study we aimed to determine whether high circulating levels of IL-16 also are associated with a decreased risk of CV events after CEA. Methods Patients, who

Context: Somatostatin inhibits a range of hormones, including GH, insulin, and glucagon, but little is known about its role in the development of cardiometabolic disease. Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate whether fasting plasma concentration of N-terminal prosomatostatin (NT-proSST) is associated with the development of diabetes, coronary artery disease (CAD), and mortality.

Two web-based dietary assessment tools have been developed for use in large-scale studies: the Riksmaten method (4-d food record) and MiniMeal-Q (food-frequency method). The aim of the present study was to examine the ability of these methods to capture energy intake against objectively measured total energy expenditure (TEE) with the doubly labelled water technique (TEEDLW), and to compare report

Human pluripotent stem cells provide new choices for sources of A9-type dopaminergic (DA) neurons in clinical trials of neural transplantation for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). For example, "self" and HLA-matched A9 DA neurons may improve the patient-to-patient variability observed in previous clinical trials using fetal DA neurons and obviate the need for long-term immunosuppression in

Transplanted neurons derived from stem cells have been proposed to improve function in animal models of human disease by various mechanisms such as neuronal replacement. However, whether the grafted neurons receive functional synaptic inputs from the recipient's brain and integrate into host neural circuitry is unknown. Here we studied the synaptic inputs from the host brain to grafted cortical ne

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients experience loss of normal motor function (hypokinesia), but can develop uncontrollable movements known as dyskinesia upon treatment with L-DOPA. Poverty or excess of movement in PD has been attributed to overactivity of striatal projection neurons forming either the indirect (iSPNs) or the direct (dSPNs) pathway, respectively. Here, we investigated the two pathway

IMPORTANCE In age-related macular degeneration (AMD), rare variants in the complement system have been described, but their functional consequences remain largely unexplored. OBJECTIVES To identify new rare variants in complement genes and determine the functional effect of identified variants on complement levels and complement regulation in serum samples from carriers and noncarriers. DESIGN, SE

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and premature death. However, there is limited knowledge on specific causal genes and pathways. To better understand the genetics of blood pressure, we genotyped 242,296 rare, low-frequency and common genetic variants in up to 192,763 individuals and used -1/4155,063 samples for independent replication. We identified 30 new bloo

Results of useful exergy accounting at the societal (i.e. national or global) level are potentially important for policy purposes, such as the development of energy or GHG emission scenarios, and the determination of the major energy inefficiencies (and thus improvement potentials) within a country. However, useful exergy societal studies commonly differ in their accounting methodology, which affe

Background: To investigate the effect of baseline clinical characteristics and glucocorticoid treatment on temporal artery biopsy (TAB) findings in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA). Methods: Individuals who developed GCA after inclusion in two population-based health surveys were identified through linkage to the local and the national patient registers. In addition, other patients diagnos

Objective: Preoperative pain and function is viewed as an important predictor of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) outcomes. We examined whether variations in pain and function outcomes existed at 12 months between two centres in Sweden and Australia, and whether this was explained by variations in patient presentation for TKA. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data

Background: Human fibroblasts can be directly converted to several subtypes of neurons, but cortical projection neurons have not been generated. Methods: Here we screened for transcription factor combinations that could potentially convert human fibroblasts to functional excitatory cortical neurons. The induced cortical (iCtx) cells were analyzed for cortical neuronal identity using immunocytochem

Context. Parallaxes for 331 classical Cepheids, 31 Type II Cepheids, and 364 RR Lyrae stars in common between Gaia and the Hipparcos and Tycho-2 catalogues are published in Gaia Data Release 1 (DR1) as part of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). Aims. In order to test these first parallax measurements of the primary standard candles of the cosmological distance ladder, which involve astrom

The aim was to investigate whether secular trends in sickness absence (SA) were present in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) receiving their diagnosis between 2002 and 2011. A repeated cross-sectional study design was used. Patients were identified in the Skåne Healthcare Register (SHR). A washout period of 18 months was applied. The general population seeking