No abstract

Results: Cardiac surgery with CPB induced down-modulation of surface molecules expression on peripheral monocytes, especially at 24 h after CPB, for CD18, CD11a, and CD11b (P < 0.003) and for the CD15 adhesive cluster (P ‫؍‬ 0.0028) and HLA-DR (P < 0.001). At 4 h after CPB, downregulation was observed for CD14 (P ‫؍‬ 0.004), CD45 (P ‫؍‬ 0.014), and CD15 (P ‫؍‬ 0.0056). A loss of MPO was detected in venous peripheral (at 24 h after CPB, P ‫؍‬ 0.01) or coronary (at reperfusion, P < 0.02) blood. The CD15 cluster complex exhibited a down-modulation in coronary blood (at reperfusion, P ‫؍‬ 0.0003). Spontaneous intracellular production of IL-1␤, IL-6, and IL-8 decreased at 24 h after CPB (P < 0.05).Conclusions: The down-modulation of integrins and adhesive receptor expression and the loss of MPO suggest a strong activation and shedding reaction of circulating monocyte after CPB, further exacerbated by contact with coronary ischemic vessels. The changes of differentiation antigens may reflect the appearance of a partially immature population immediately after CPB. The reduced proinflammatory cytokine production, observed at 24 h after CPB, suggests a functional polarization of circulating monocytes.

According to this data, our study indicates that at least two reference intervals should be used for newborns and infants. The first, with higher BNP values for neonates in the first week of extra-uterine life, and the other, with lower BNP values for infants aged 2 weeks to 12 years.

commercial device. This disadvantage is partially offset by the fact that our gels can accommodate 80 samples per run (compared with 34 for the FlashGel device). Furthermore, our method is markedly less expensive than the FlashGel device with respect to both the apparatus (613 vs 991 euros) and the agarose gels (0.08 vs 0.37 euros; cost per sample for electrophoresis on a 22-g/L NuSieve® agarose gel from Lonza Rockland).Our apparatus is currently being used for various applications, including checking the size and quality of DNAs extracted from biological materials (e.g., blood and saliva), PCR products of mitochondrial DNA before sequencing, and RFLP typing of polymorphisms within the IRS1 1 (insulin receptor substrate 1) and MCM6 (minichromosome maintenance complex component 6) genes (4, 5 ).This newly designed apparatus can be easily reproduced and used in laboratories where analytical and preparative agarose slab gel electrophoresis of nucleic acids is carried out. It has substantial advantages in terms of saving time, optimizing separations, and reducing chemical risks to the operators.

The FS valve might increase the risk of thrombocytopenia and platelet activation, in the absence of adverse clinical events. Prospective randomized studies on platelet function need to confirm our data.