The aim of our study was to ascertain the prevalence of ventricular late potentials (VLP) in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and their correlation with the immunologic patterns and cutaneous and pulmonary ...involvement of the disease. Ventricular late potentials, which are low-amplitude high-frequency signals present in the terminal portion of the QRS complex, express the delayed and fragmented depolarization of ventricular myocardial fibers. Observed in myocardial interstitial fibrosis, they are characteristic of the myocardial alterations occurring in SSc. Twenty-six patients with SSc (1 man, 25 women) with a confirmed lack of cardiac involvement (negative history and normal clinical, electrocardiographic, and echocardiographic findings) underwent signal averaged high resolution electrocardiography. Pulmonary involvement was evaluated by pulmonary function tests and high resolution computed tomography. The degree of cutaneous involvement was assessed by skin score. In the patients with SSc, VLP presence with time-domain analysis was 30.8% when a 25-250 Hz pass-band filter was used and 26.9% when a 40-250 Hz pass-band filter was used whereas with frequency domain analysis it was 23.1%. Ventricular late potentials were confirmed in 7.7% of the control subjects, no matter what filter or technique was used. No significant correlations among VLP, pulmonary involvement, skin score and specific antibody patterns were found. Although this technique requires further consolidation, it seems to have the potential for use as an early index of myocardial fibrosis.
The fibrinolytic activity (FA) has been studied on the synovial membrane obtained from 16 patients with osteoarthritis (OA), 20 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 11 control subjects. Todd's ...autohistographic method, modified by Lotti, was used to investigate the FA and the monoclonal antibodies against u-PA and t-PA were used to identify the main plasminogen activator. Our results show that the FA is increased in the synovial membrane of patients with OA in comparison with the synovial FA of control subjects. In the synovial membranes from patients with RA, the FA shows different results: in some specimens FA is increased, and in others it is diminished or similar, compared with FA of samples from healthy controls. Thus, our data on synovial FA in OA confirm the previous reports, performed in vitro, on the activation of the plasmin system in this degenerative disease. The activity of the fibrinolytic system seems to participate in the cartilage degeneration and, via the activation of collagenase, to perpetuate the cartilage damage.
The present study was undertaken to estimate the level of variation among and within thirty-one local populations belonging to six common bean landraces, by analysing the polymorphism of SSR and AFLP ...molecular markers. The nutritional seed quality of the studied landraces was also investigated. Cluster analyses based on Nei's genetic distances and Jaccard's similarity index as defined by SSR and AFLP markers, respectively, showed that all populations clustered into two groups corresponding to the Andean and the Mesoamerican gene pools. The diversity analysis revealed contrasting levels of variability depending on the landrace. The highest level of variation was evidenced for the white small-seeded landrace Fagiolo del Purgatorio, whose populations were grouped in more than one subcluster. Knowledge of the genetic structure of a landrace is fundamental to elaborate strategies that, involving the local farmers, allow to improve and, at the same time, safeguard the genetic integrity of landrace genetic resources
E' stato valutato il livello di variabilità presente in 31 popolazioni locali di fagiolo appartenenti a sei varietà indigene analizzando il polimorfismo dei marcatori molecolari SSR e AFLP. E' stata pure studiata la qualità nutrizionale dei semi. Le analisi cluster, basate sia sulle distanze genetiche di Nei, sia sull'indice di somiglianza di Jaccard, definite rispettivamente dai marcatori SSR e AFLP, hanno mostrato che tutte le popolazioni si raggruppano in due grandi gruppi corrispondenti ai pool genici Andino e Mesoamericano. L'analisi della diversità ha evidenziato livelli contrastanti di variabilità secondo la varietà. Il più alto livello di diversità genetica e la sua più articolata strutturazione sono presenti nella cultivar a semi piccoli Fagiolo del Purgatorio, le cui popolazioni erano inserite in più di un sottoinsieme. La conoscenza della struttura genetica di una varietà indigena è fondamentale per elaborare strategie che, coinvolgendo gli agricoltori locali, consentono di migliorare e, allo stesso tempo, di salvaguardare l'integrità genetica delle risorse di germoplasma locale
