Mediators of inflammation
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Although orthodox medicine has provided a variety of topical anti-infective agents, some of them have become scarcely effective owing to antibiotic- and chemotherapeutic-resistant pathogens. For more than a century, ozone has been known to be an excellent disinfectant that nevertheless had to be used with caution for its oxidizing properties. Only during the last decade it has been learned how to tame its great reactivity by precisely dosing its concentration and permanently incorporating the gas into triglycerides where gaseous ozone chemically reacts with unsaturated substrates leading to therapeutically active ozonated derivatives. Today the stability and efficacy of the ozonated oils have been already demonstrated, but owing to a plethora of commercial products, the present paper aims to analyze these derivatives suggesting the strategy to obtain products with the best characteristics.
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Mediators of inflammation · Jan 2010
ReviewToll-like receptor 4 modulation as a strategy to treat sepsis.
Despite a decrease in mortality over the last decade, sepsis remains the tenth leading causes of death in western countries and one of the most common cause of death in intensive care units. The recent discovery of Toll-like receptors and their downstream signalling pathways allowed us to better understand the pathophysiology of sepsis-related disorders. ⋯ Since most of the clinical trial targeting single inflammatory cytokine in the treatment of sepsis failed, therapeutic targeting of Toll-like receptor 4, because of its central role, looks promising. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the recent data of various drugs targeting TLR4 expression and pathway and their potential role as adjunctive therapy in severe sepsis and septic shock.
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Mediators of inflammation · Jan 2010
Relevance of serum leptin and leptin-receptor concentrations in critically ill patients.
The adipocyte-derived cytokine leptin was implicated to link inflammation and metabolic alterations. We investigated the potential role of leptin components in critically ill patients, because systemic inflammation, insulin resistance, and hyperglycemia are common features of critical illness. Upon admission to Medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU), free leptin and soluble leptin-receptor serum concentrations were determined in 137 critically ill patients (95 with sepsis, 42 without sepsis) and 26 healthy controls. ⋯ However, serum leptin was closely associated with obesity and diabetes and clearly correlated with markers of metabolism and liver function. Leptin-receptor was an unfavourable prognostic indicator, associated with mortality during three years follow-up. Our study indicates a functional role of leptin in the pathogenesis of severe illness and emphasizes the impact of complex metabolic alterations on the clinical outcome of critically ill patients.
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Mediators of inflammation · Jan 2010
Disruption of Nrf2 enhances the upregulation of nuclear factor-kappaB activity, tumor necrosis factor-α, and matrix metalloproteinase-9 after spinal cord injury in mice.
Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) plays an important role in the acute periods of spinal cord injury (SCI), and its expression is related to the inflammation which could cause the disruption of the blood-spinal barrier (BBB). Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a key transcription factor that plays a crucial role in cytoprotection against inflammation. The present study investigated the role of Nrf2 in upregulating of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) activity, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and MMP-9 after SCI. ⋯ We detected the wet/dry weight ratio of impaired spinal cord tissue, the activation of NF-κB, the mRNA and protein levels of TNF-α and MMP-9, and the enzyme activity of MMP-9. Nrf2 (-/-) mice were demonstrated to have more spinal cord edema, NF-κB activation, TNF-α production, and MMP-9 expression after SCI compared with the wild-type controls. The results suggest that Nrf2 may play an important role in limiting the upregulation of NF-κB activity, TNF-α, and MMP-9 in spinal cord after SCI.
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Mediators of inflammation · Jan 2010
Upregulation of TLR2/4 expression in mononuclear cells in postoperative systemic inflammatory response syndrome after liver transplantation.
To explore the relationship between Toll-like rpheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in postoperative patients of liver transplantation (LT). ⋯ Upregulation of TLR2/4 expression on PBMC may contribute to the development of postoperative SIRS during perioperative period of LT.