This study showed reduced skin vasoreactivity in the hypertensive patients, confirming that antihypertensive treatment negatively affects skin microcirculation. The short period of efficacious antihypertensive treatment resulted in normalization of skin vasoreactivity in hypertensive patients who completed the follow-up, suggesting that antihypertensive treatment affects positively skin microcirculation in AH. The SBFO increase in untreated hypertensive patients, and its almost complete normalization in treated hypertensive patients, suggests that SBFO enhancement in untreated hypertensive patients could be an adaptive reversible response to AH.

No abstract

Skin malignant melanoma is a highly angiogenic cancer, necessitating early diagnosis for positive prognosis. The current diagnostic standard of biopsy and histological examination inevitably leads to many unnecessary invasive excisions. Here, we propose a non-invasive method of identification of melanoma based on blood flow dynamics. We consider a wide frequency range from 0.005–2 Hz associated with both local vascular regulation and effects of cardiac pulsation. Combining uniquely the power of oscillations associated with individual physiological processes we obtain a marker which distinguishes between melanoma and atypical nevi with sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 90.9%. The method reveals valuable functional information about the melanoma microenvironment. It also provides the means for simple, accurate, in vivo distinction between malignant melanoma and atypical nevi, and may lead to a substantial reduction in the number of biopsies currently undertaken.

Obesity-associated microvascular dysfunction (MVD) involves different body tissues, including skin, and concurs to increased cardiovascular risk in obese patients (Ob-P). Generalized improvement of MVD is an important goal in obesity treatment. Since skin MVD mirrors generalized systemic MVD, skin microvascular investigation in prospective studies in Ob-P may surrogate microvascular investigation in organs more important for cardiovascular risk of the studied patients. In this prospective study, we measured forearm skin post-occlusive reactive hyperaemia (PORH), as percentage flow increase from baseline, and skin vasomotion in 37 Ob-P before Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), and in 24 of them about 1 year after RYGB, using laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF). The spectral contribution of skin LDF signal oscillations in the frequency intervals of 0.01-0.02 Hz, 0.02-0.06 Hz, and 0.06-0.2 Hz--corresponding to endothelial-, sympathetic-, and myogenic-dependent vasomotion, respectively, was measured by means of spectral Fourier analysis. The same measurements were also performed in 28 healthy, lean subjects (HLS). Before RYGB, Ob-P had a significant reduction in PORH and in the all vasomotion parameters investigated, compared with HLS. After RYGB, Ob-P who completed the follow-up, had a significant weight loss (∼40 kg on average), together with a full normalisation in PORH and in vasomotion parameters, regardless of diabetes status. Surgically induced sustained weight loss resulted in full normalisation of skin microvascolar function in Ob-P about 1 year after RYGB. This result suggests a beneficial effect of sustained weight loss on generalized MVD of the studied Ob-P.

In human prostate cancer (PCa), the neuroendocrine cells, expressing the prostate cancer stem cell (CSC) marker CD44, may be resistant to androgen ablation and promote tumor recurrence. During the study of heterogeneity of the highly aggressive neuroendocrine PCa cell lines PC3 and DU-145, we isolated and expanded in vitro a minor subpopulation of very small cells lacking CD44 (CD44neg). Unexpectedly, these sorted CD44neg cells rapidly and spontaneously converted to a stable CD44high phenotype specifically expressing the CD44v8-10 isoform which the sorted CD44high subpopulation failed to express. Surprisingly and potentially interesting, in these cells expression of CD44v8-10 was found to be induced in stem cell medium. CD44 variant isoforms are known to be more expressed in CSC and metastatic cells than CD44 standard isoform. In agreement, functional analysis of the two sorted and cultured subpopulations has shown that the CD44v8-10pos PC3 cells, resulting from the conversion of the CD44neg subpopulation, were more invasive in vitro and had a higher clonogenic potential than the sorted CD44high cells, in that they produced mainly holoclones, known to be enriched in stem-like cells. Of interest, the CD44v8-10 is more expressed in human PCa biopsies than in normal gland. The discovery of CD44v8-10pos cells with stem-like and invasive features, derived from a minoritarian CD44neg cell population in PCa, alerts on the high plasticity of stem-like markers and urges for prudency on the approaches to targeting the putative CSC.