Clinical biochemistry
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Clinical biochemistry · Aug 2016
Comparative StudyType VIII collagen is elevated in diseases associated with angiogenesis and vascular remodeling.
Type VIII collagen is involved in angiogenesis and remodeling of arteries. We hypothesized that type VIII collagen was upregulated in diseases associated with vascular remodeling, e.g. pulmonary fibrosis and cancer. In this paper we present the development and validation of a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) targeting type VIII collagen in serum and plasma. ⋯ The C8-C assay was technically robust and specific for type VIII collagen. Concentrations of C8-C were significantly elevated in serum from patients diagnosed with COPD and within 9 different cancer types, but not IPF. Further research is required to test C8-C as an efficacy marker for angiostatic treatments.
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Clinical biochemistry · Aug 2016
High BAX/BCL2 mRNA ratio predicts favorable prognosis in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma, particularly in patients with negative lymph nodes at the time of diagnosis.
Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), a common type of head and neck cancer, is associated with high rates of metastasis and recurrence. Therefore, accurate prognostic stratification of LSCC patients based on molecular prognostic tumor biomarkers would definitely lead to a better clinical management of this malignancy. The aim of this study was the investigation of the potential combinatorial prognostic value of BCL2 and BAX mRNA expression in LSCC. ⋯ The BAX/BCL2 mRNA ratio is a putative molecular tissue biomarker in CLL and hence deserves further validation in larger cohorts of LSCC patients.