Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional study of

Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional study of

a population sample from south of Brazil composed of 586 independent vitiligo-affected individuals. Different strategies of case-control analysis were employed to test for association between the three most common vitiligo clinical types and age of onset, family history of vitiligo, occurrence of Koebner phenomenon (KP) and presence MRT67307 of autoimmune co-morbidity.

Results: Individuals affected by segmental vitiligo showed lower average age of onset (16; years) when compared with vulgaris (23.9 years) and acrofacial cases (29 years) (p < 0.001). The distribution of occurrence of KP, family history of vitiligo and co-occurrence of autoimmune disease followed a gradient pattern, with high, intermediate and low chance of occurrence of all three variables observed for vulgaris, acrofacial and segmental vitiligo, respectively (p < 0.001 for overall distribution).

Conclusion: Results indicate a uniform pattern of association between

vitiligo clinical forms and KP, positive vitiligo family history and occurrence of co-morbidity autoimmune. The impact of the observed pattern of association over disease prognosis and classification is discussed. (C) 2011 Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology. Published by Elsevier Ireland ad. All rights reserved.”
“Study Design. We categorized the four types of ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) of the cervical spine into two groups. We biochemically investigated selleck screening library the genetic differences in the osteogenic differentiation potency between the two MK-2206 chemical structure groups.

Objective. To investigate the genetic differences in the osteogenic differentiation potency according to the OPLL classification.

Summary of Background Data. Clinical studies on OPLL have revealed that the risk of progression of the ossification area is greatest for continuous and mixed type OPLL. However, until now, these four types of OPLL have been studied as a single condition.

Methods. We categorized the four types of OPLL into the OPLL continuous (continuous or mixed type) and OPLL segmental groups (segmental or circumscribed type). Paraspinal ligaments

were aseptically obtained from OPLL patients during surgery. The fibroblast-like cells that migrated from the explants were used for experiments. The cells were placed in a 60-mm culture dishes for total ribonucleic acid preparation and 12 well microplates for alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity staining. After cultures reached confluence, the cells were cultured in osteogenic medium. The messenger ribonucleic acid expression of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), osterix, tumor necrosis factor-alpha-stimulated gene-6, and ALP was analyzed by quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction. Osteogenic differentiation of fibroblast-like cells was determined by histochemically detecting ALP production.

Results. After osteogenic induction, BMP-2 expression increased in the OPLL continuous and segmental groups.

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