Progression of atherosclerosis and increased vulnerability to plaque rupture may underlie the relationship between particulate air pollution and excess cardiovascular death.

The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor was one of the most important prognostic factors in completely resected non-small-cell lung cancer, especially in squamous cell carcinoma.

RESULTS. Thirty-one of 115 NSCLC specimens (27%) showed negative p16 staining. Department of Surgery II, School of Medicine,The frequency of negative p16 expression was significantly higher in squamous University of Occupational and Environmental cell carcinoma (39.5%) than in adenocarcinoma (20.3%) (P Å 0.026). There were Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.no statistically significant differences in the p16 status with respect to age, gender, smoking history, histologic differentiation, or stage of the disease. The KaplanMeier survival curves demonstrated that patients with negative p16 expression survived for a significantly shorter period of time than those with positive p16 expression (P Å 0.043). p16 status was a significant prognostic factor, especially in patients with early stage disease (Stages I-II) (P Å 0.039). CONCLUSIONS.A lack of p16 INK4 expression in NSCLC was observed more frequently in squamous cell carcinoma than in adenocarcinoma, and also was found to be closely related to prognosis, especially in patients with early stage squamous cell carcinoma.

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To determine which parameters are useful for the risk assessment of man-made mineral fibers (MMMFs), we examined the gene expression of interleukin-la (IL-1a), tumor necrosis factor a (TNFa), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS) in mineral fiber-exposed alveolar macrophages (AMs). Male Wistar rats were intratracheally exposed to saline or mineral fibers suspended in saline (2 mg of crocidolite, chrysotile, alumina silicate refractory fiber (RF1) or potassium octatitanate whisker (TW)). Bronchoalveolar lavage was performed 4 weeks after the fiber-instillation, and the recovered AMs were stimulated by lipopolysaccharide for 2 or 6 hours. Expression of IL-la, TNFa, IL-6 and iNOS from AMs was observed using reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The levels of IL-1a and IL-6 mRNA induced by mineral fiber exposure were greatest in AMs exposed to TW, crocidolite, chrysotile and RF1 in that order. However, both gene expression of iNOS and TNFu were not elevated in both crocidolite and TW exposure, despite their high pathological potential. These data suggested that IL-1a and IL-6 may be useful indicators for the risk assessment of MMMFs.