The aim of this study was to examine the effect of allopurinol, a xanthine oxidase inhibitor, on oxidative stress and physical performance after swimming until exhaustion in rats. Blood and gastrocnemius muscle samples were collected before, immediately after, and 5 h after exercise and the respective timepoints after allopurinol administration. Xanthine oxidase and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were determined in plasma and muscle, whereas catalase activity and reduced (GSH) and oxidized (GSSG) glutathione were measured in erythrocytes and muscle. Thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) and protein carbonyls (PC) were determined in plasma, erythrocytes, and muscle. As expected, allopurinol inhibited xanthine oxidase activity. Compared with their nonallopurinol-treated counterparts, rats treated with allopurinol showed a 35% decrease in physical performance, as indicated by the shorter swimming time to exhaustion. Exercise alone increased PC and TBARS concentration in plasma, erythrocytes, and gastrocnemius muscle. Similarly, allopurinol alone increased PC and TBARS concentration in erythrocytes and gastrocnemius muscle, decreased TAC in plasma and gastrocnemius muscle, and decreased the GSH:GSSG ratio in erythrocytes. Our data illustrate that, in general, exercise and allopurinol alone increased the levels of most of the oxidative stress markers measured in plasma, erythrocytes, and gastrocnemius muscle. Xanthine oxidase inhibition provoked a marked reduction in physical performance.

Ectopic pancreas is defined as pancreatic tissue found outside the usual anatomic location of the pancreas. It is often an incidental finding and can be found at different sites in the gastrointestinal tract. It may become clinically evident when complicated by pathologic changes such as inflammation, bleeding, obstruction, and malignant transformation. In this report, a 40 years old woman with epigastric pain due to ectopic pancreatic tissue in the stomach is described. The difficulty of making an accurate diagnosis is highlighted. The patient has remained free of symptoms since she underwent wedge resection of the lesion three years ago. Frozen sections may help in deciding the extent of resection intraoperatively. Although ectopic pancreas is rare, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a submucosal gastric tumour.

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Neoangiogenesis has been documented in small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC). In addition, antiangiogenic therapies are being tested in clinical trials that involve SCLC. However, study of the underlying mechanisms has been performed almost exclusively in cell lines. In the current study, we immunostained 30 biopsy samples of SCLC with antibodies to hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), vascular endothelial growth factor-receptor 1 (VEGF-R1/flt-1) and vascular endothelial growth factor-receptor 2 (VEGF-R1/flk-1). The immunoreactivity was analyzed using a bivariate Spearman correlation test and linear regression analysis. We found significant correlation between HIF-1 alpha nuclear staining and VEGF staining. Moreover HIF-1 alpha+/VEGF+ cases were associated with poor survival. We also found a positive correlation between VEGF and VEGF-R2 expression. We suggest that a HIF-1 alpha/VEGF angiogenic pathway may exist in vivo in SCLC, similar to that in non-SCLC. Our data also suggest a potential VEGF/VEGFR-2 autocrine pathway in SCLC. The inclusion of novel inhibitors to HIF-1 alpha and other factors may optimize antiangiogenic interventions in SCLC.

The prevalence of celiac disease (CD) and the prevalence and clinical significance of anti-tissue transglutaminase (tTG) antibodies (tTGAbs) in a large series of patients with chronic liver diseases were assessed. We studied 738 patients (462 with chronic viral hepatitis, 117 with autoimmune liver diseases, 113 with alcoholic or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and 46 with other liver disorders) and 1,350 healthy controls (HC). Immunoglobulin A (IgA) tTGAbs were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and a microspherebased flow cytometric assay. Positive sera were investigated for IgA antiendomysial antibodies (EmA). IgA tTGAb-positive subjects were invited to undergo a small-intestinal biopsy and HLA-DQ allele typing. Four of 1,350 HC (0.3%) tested tTGAb ؉ EmA ؉ and underwent a biopsy (CD confirmation in all). Four of 738 liver disease patients tested tTGAbs ؉ EmA ؉ (0.54%; not statistically significant). Two were HCV infected (1.24%; not statistically significant), and two had transaminasemia of unknown origin. Forty-three patients tested tTGAbs ؉ EmA ؊ (5.8%; P < 0.001 compared to HC). Inhibition experiments verified the existence of specific IgA anti-tTG reactivity. Twenty-six of 43 patients underwent a biopsy (all negative for CD). Binary logistic regression analysis revealed age (P ‫؍‬ 0.008), cirrhosis (P ‫؍‬ 0.004), alkaline phosphatase (P ‫؍‬ 0.026), and antinuclear antibodies (P ‫؍‬ 0.012) as independent risk factors for tTGAb reactivity among the patients. It was concluded that CD prevalence is the same in HC and patients with chronic liver diseases. The prevalence of tTGAbs is higher in hepatic patients compared to HC, but their specificity for CD diagnosis in this group of patients is low. tTGAbs in patients appear to be associated with the presence of autoimmunity, cirrhosis, and cholestasis, irrespective of the origin of the liver disease.Over the past few years, the identification of tissue transglutaminase (tTG) as the main, if not the sole, autoantigen recognized by antiendomysial antibodies (EmA) in celiac disease (CD) patients (12) allowed an increased number of asymptomatic and oligosymptomatic patients to be diagnosed and numerous associations of the disease with a range of conditions to be unveiled (15). Despite, however, the fact that the association between CD and various hepatic diseases has been extensively investigated (8, 9, 11, 16-19, 23, 26, 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 48), a definite correlation between these pathological conditions has not been unequivocally established.Conflicting results have been reported that, at least in part, can be attributed to differences in the performance of serological tests used by different investigators for initial screening for CD. Patients with chronic liver diseases frequently have immunological and other disturbances, like hypergammaglobulinemia, that might interfere with the detection of serological markers for CD. Another reason underlying the discordant data may be related to the emergence of anti-tTG antibodies in some patients with chronic...