Among gynaecological cancers, epithelial ovarian cancers are the most deadly cancers while endometrial cancers are the most common diseases. Efforts to establish relevant novel diagnostic, screening and prognostic markers are aimed to help reduce the high level of mortality, chemoresistance and recurrence, particularly in ovarian cancer. MicroRNAs, the class of post-transcriptional regulators, have emerged as the promising diagnostic and prognostic markers associated with various diseased states recently. Urine has been shown as the source of microRNAs several years ago; however, there has been lack of information on urine microRNA expression in ovarian and endometrial cancers till now. In this pilot study, we examined the expression of candidate cell-free urine microRNAs in ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer patients using quantitative real-time PCR. We compared the expression between pre- and post-surgery ovarian cancer samples, and between patients with ovarian and endometrial cancers and healthy controls, within three types of experiments. These experiments evaluated three different isolation methods of urine RNA, representing two supernatant and one exosome fractions of extracellular microRNA. In ovarian cancer, we found miR-92a significantly up-regulated, and miR-106b significantly down-regulated in comparison with control samples. In endometrial cancer, only miR-106b was found down-regulated significantly compared to control samples. Using exosome RNA, no significant de-regulations in microRNAs expression could be found in either of the cancers investigated. We propose that more research should now focus on confirming the diagnostic potential of urine microRNAs in gynaecological cancers using more clinical samples and large-scale expression profiling methods.

During the process of intra-uterine mammalian fetal development, the oxygen supply in growing fetus is low. A rapid switch from glycolysis-based metabolism to oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) must proceed during early postnatal adaptation to extra-uterine conditions. Mitochondrial biogenesis and mammalian mitochondrial FOF1-ATP synthase assembly (complex V, EC 3.6.3.14, ATPase) are complex processes regulated by multiple transcription regulators and assembly factors. Using RNA expression analysis of rat liver and skeletal tissue (Rattus norvegicus, Berkenhout, 1769), we describe the expression profiles of 20 genes involved in mitochondrial maturation and ATP synthase biogenesis in detail between the 16th and 22nd day of gestation and the first 4 days of life. We observed that the most important expression shift occurred in the liver between the 20th and 22nd day of gestation, indicating that the fetus prepares for birth about two days before parturition. The detailed mechanism regulating the perinatal adaptation process is not yet known. Deeper insights in perinatal physiological development will help to assess mitochondrial dysfunction in the broader context of cell metabolism in preterm newborns or neonates with poor adaptation to extra-uterine life.

Tissue differentiation and proliferation throughout fetal development interconnect with changes in the oxidative phosphorylation system (OXPHOS) on the cellular level. Reevaluation of the expression data revealed a significant increase in COX4 and MTATP6 liver transcription levels after the 22nd gestational week (GW) which inspired us to characterize its functional impact. Specific activities of cytochrome c oxidase (COX), citrate synthase (CS), succinate-coenzyme Q reductase (SQR) and mtDNA determined by spectrophotometry and RT-PCR were studied in a set of 25 liver and 18 skeletal muscle samples at 13th to 29th GW. Additionally, liver hematopoiesis (LH) was surveyed by light microscopy. The mtDNA content positively correlated with the gestational age only in the liver. The activities of COX, CS and SQR in both liver and muscle isolated mitochondria significantly decreased after the 22nd GW in comparison with earlier GW. A continuous decline of LH, not correlating with the documented OXPHOS-specific activities, was observed from the 14th to the 24th GW indicating their exclusive reflection of liver tissue processes. Two apparently contradictory processes of increasing mtDNA transcription and decreasing OXPHOS-specific activities seem to be indispensable for rapid postnatal adaptation to high energy demands. The inadequate capacity of mitochondrial energy production may be an important factor in the mortality of children born before the critical developmental point of the 22nd GW.

Background Gene polymorphisms encoding the enzyme NADPH–cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (POR) contribute to inter-individual differences in drug response. Aim To estimate polymorphic allele frequencies of the POR gene in a Czech Slavic population. Materials & Methods The gene POR was analyzed in 322 Czech Slavic individuals from a control cohort by sequencing and HRM analysis. Results Twenty-five SNP genetic variations were identified. Of these variants, 7 were new, unreported SNPs, including two SNPs in the 5´flanking region (g.4965 C>T and g.4994 G>T), one intronic variant (c.1899 −20C>T), one synonymous SNP (p.20Ala=) and three nonsynonymous SNPs (p.Thr29Ser, p.Pro384Leu and p.Thr529Met). The p.Pro384Leu variant exhibited reduced enzymatic activities compared to wild type. Conclusion New POR variant identification indicates that the number of uncommon variants might be specific for each subpopulation being investigated, particularly germane to the singular role that POR plays in providing reducing equivalents to all CYPs in the endoplasmic reticulum.

Reflectance spectroscopy is a non-invasive method that is based on the fact that a specific object/material provides various reflectances in different wavelengths across the spectral range. It can provide unique information regarding the material composition of the object of interest and has been used in many fields in recent years. Determining composition of historical plaster is very important when defining its individual components and possibly place of origin or even its age. This information can be a key issue for its future repairs that are desired to be done as similar to the original method as possible.For a precise reflectance spectroscopy material detection, a fine spectral library is needed. Special mathematical methods are used for comparison of measured spectral curve with individual spectral curves stored in the used spectral library. The spectral analysis then shows similarity of the measured curve with the reference ones.This paper introduces results of the new plaster composition spectral library created by Department of Geomatics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague within the Czech Ministry of Culture Project (DF13P01OVV002). This spectral library has been tested on two historical plaster samples.

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At the end of the mammalian intra-uterine foetal development, a rapid switch from glycolytic to oxidative metabolism must proceed. Using microarray techniques, qPCR, enzyme activities and coenzyme Q content measurements, we describe perinatal mitochondrial metabolism acceleration in rat liver and skeletal muscle during the perinatal period and correlate the results with those in humans. Out of 1546 mitochondrial genes, we found significant changes in expression in 1119 and 827 genes in rat liver and skeletal muscle, respectively. The most remarkable expression shift occurred in the rat liver at least two days before birth. Coenzyme Q-based evaluation in both the rat model and human tissues showed the same trend: the total CoQ content is low prenatally, significantly increasing after birth in both the liver and skeletal muscle. We propose that an important regulator of rat coenzyme Q biosynthesis might be COQ8A, an atypical kinase involved in the biosynthesis of coenzyme Q. Our microarray data, a total of 16,557 RefSeq (Entrez) genes, have been deposited in NCBI’s Gene Expression Omnibus and are freely available to the broad scientific community. Our microarray data could serve as a suitable background for finding key factors regulating mitochondrial metabolism and the preparation of the foetus for the transition to extra-uterine conditions.

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