Beyond TGFβ--novel ways to target airway and parenchymal fibrosis

Within the lungs, fibrosis can affect both the parenchyma and the airways. Fibrosis is a hallmark pathological change in the parenchyma in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), whilst in asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) fibrosis is a component of the remodelling of the airways. In the past decade, significant advances have been made in understanding the disease behaviour and pathogenesis of parenchymal and airway fibrosis and as a result a variety of novel therapeutic targets for slowing or preventing progression of these fibrotic changes have been identified. This review highlights a number of these targets and discusses the potential for treating parenchymal or airway fibrosis through these mediators/pathways in the future.

Psychosexual functioning of childhood cancer survivors

PURPOSE

The objective of the study is to explore psychosexual functioning and its relationship with quality of life in survivors of cancer in childhood.

METHODS

Sixty childhood cancer survivors completed two questionnaires: psychosexual and social functioning questionnaire and MOS-SF-36.

RESULTS

Psychosexual problems were frequent. About 20% of the survivors felt a limitation in their sexual life due to their illness. Older survivors (> or =25 years) had significantly less experience with sexual intercourse than their age-matched peers in the Dutch population (p = 0.010). Survivors treated in adolescence had a delay in achieving psychosexual milestones compared with those treated in childhood: dating (p<0.025), touching under clothes (p<0.025), masturbation (female) (p<0.05) and sexual intercourse (p<0.025). No differences were found for sexual fantasies, kissing, masturbation (male) and oral sex. The total survivor group appraised their quality of life as less positive than their Dutch peers for the subscales of general and mental health (both p<0.001), physical and social functioning (p<0.01; p<0.001), bodily pain and vitality (both p<0.001). However, quality of life was not more affected adversely in survivors with psychosexual problems compared with survivors without these problems.

CONCLUSION

In this cohort of childhood cancer survivors, psychosexual problems were frequent. Treatment in adolescence is a risk factor for a delay in psychosexual development.

Canine prostate carcinoma: epidemiological evidence of an increased risk in castrated dogs

The present retrospective study investigated the frequency of prostate carcinoma (PCA) among prostate abnormalities in dogs and determined whether castration influences the incidence of PCA in dogs. During the years 1993-1998, 15,363 male dogs were admitted to the Utrecht University Clinic of Companion Animals, and of these dogs 225 were diagnosed with prostatic disease. In addition, another 206 male dogs were diagnosed as having prostatic disease based on cytologic examination of aspiration biopsies submitted by referring veterinarians. Benign prostatic hyperplasia was diagnosed in 246 dogs (57.1%), prostatitis in 83 dogs (19.3%), and PCA in 56 dogs (13%). Dogs with PCA were significantly older (mean age=9.9 years) than dogs with other prostatic diseases (mean age=8.4 years). The Bouvier des Flandres breed had an increased risk (odds ratio (OR)=8.44; 95% CI 4.38-16.1) of having PCA. Castration (26/56) increased the risk (OR=4.34; 95% CI 2.48-7.62) of PCA. The mean age at diagnosis of PCA in castrated dogs and in intact male dogs was not significantly different. The interval between castration and onset of prostatic problems was highly variable, suggesting that castration does not initiate the development of PCA in the dog, but it does favour tumor progression.

The nature of fluorescence emission in the red fluorescent protein DsRed, revealed by single-molecule detection

Recent studies on the newly cloned red fluorescence protein DsRed from the Discosoma genus have shown its tremendous advantages: bright red fluorescence and high resistance against photobleaching. However, it has also become clear that the protein forms closely packed tetramers, and there is indication for incomplete protein maturation with unknown proportion of immature green species. We have applied single-molecule methodology to elucidate the nature of the fluorescence emission in the DsRed. Real-time fluorescence trajectories have been acquired with polarization sensitive detection. Our results indicate that energy transfer between identical monomers occurs efficiently with red emission arising equally likely from any of the chromophoric units. Photodissociation of one of the chromophores weakly quenches the emission of adjacent ones. Dual color excitation (at 488 and 568 nm) single-molecule microscopy has been performed to reveal the number and distribution of red vs. green species within each tetramer. We find that 86% of the DsRed contain at least one green species with a red-to-green ratio of 1.2-1.5. On the basis of our findings, oligomer suppression would not only be advantageous for protein fusion but will also increase the fluorescence emission of individual monomers.