Vagal afferent responses to cystometry in rat models of urinary bladder irritation: c-fos immunohistochemistry study.

PURPOSE: Although recent literature provides increasing evidence concerning urinary bladder innervation by vagal afferents, the functional aspects and the conditions at which these afferents are recruited are still unclear. METHODS: In the present study, the neuronal responses of nodose ganglion following cystometry, under different models of rat's urinary bladder irritation, cyclophosphamide (CYP), cyclophosphamide with cervical vagotomy (Vx), chronic HCl, and acute HCl, were investigated using c-fos immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The c-fos expression in the nodose ganglion, following cystometry, was increased significantly in the CYP and chronic-HCl groups compared to the intact, Vx, and acute-HCl groups. In addition, the acute-HCl group showed a significant increase compared to intact animals. Following cervical vagotomy, the expression in the Vx group decreased significantly compared to the CYP group, but was significantly higher than that in the intact group. CONCLUSION: The results of this study demonstrate the innervation of the vagus afferents to the urinary bladder. This innervation is activated under urinary bladder irritation conditions, which may indicate a possible role of the vagus nerve during urinary bladder pathology.

The Diagnostic and Prognostic Significance of EFEMP1 in Breast Cancer: An Immunohistochemistry Study.

EGF-containing fibulin-like extracellular matrix protein 1 (EFEMP1) has been associated to a variety of malignancies. Because EFEMP1 can act as both a tumor suppressor and an oncogene, this study aimed to evaluate the expression of EFEMP1 at mRNA and protein in breast cancer and to ascertain the diagnostic and prognostic value of EFEMP1 in relation to clinical features of breast cancer. Several bioinformatics websites such as GEPIA and Oncomine databases were used to analyze the mRNA level of EFEMP1. Immunohistochemistry assay was used to detect EFEMP1 immunoexpression using tissue microarray (TMA) and clinical breast cancer samples. EFEMP1 was shown to be overexpressed in breast cancer in some study cohorts while being low expressed in others. In TMA, 86 patients (39.1%) with a high H-score and 134 patients (60.9%) with a low H-score had EFEMP1 positive for breast cancer. While HER2 breast cancer and normal breast tissues had the lowest expression of EFEMP1, it was shown to be highly expressed in Luminal B, A, and TNBC. EFEMP1 H-score is associated with tumor stage and indicates poor overall survival in breast cancer. EFEMP1 H-score was high in the clinical tumor tissues compared with adjacent normal tissue (n = 20), therefore, it would to be a sensitive biomarker for breast cancer. EFEMP1 is a key indicator for assessing the clinical prognosis and diagnosis of patients with breast cancer, as evidenced by the higher expression of EFEMP1 in tumor tissue compared to normal tissue and its association with poor overall survival.

Genetic screening for AZF Y chromosome microdeletions in Jordanian azoospermic infertile men.

The azoospermia factor (AZF) region of the human Y chromosome contains essential genes for spermatogenesis. Microdeletions in AZF region has been shown to cause male infertility. The aim of this investigation was to determine the frequency of AZF microdeletions in Jordanian infertile males. A sample of 100 infertile males (36 with azoospermia and 64 with oligozoospermia) was screened for microdeletions using 16 AZF markers and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. Two subjects were found to have microdeletions in AZFc region and one subject has microdeletion that includes AZFb and part of AZFc and AZFa. The three deletions were found in azoospermic subjects (8.3%). No microdeletions were found in oligozoospermic group. The frequency of AZF microdeletions in Jordanian azoospermic infertile males is comparable to that observed in other populations (1%-15%). The results suggest the importance of AZF microdeletion analysis for genetic counseling prior to providing assisted reproduction technique.

Associations of variants in MTHFR and MTRR genes with male infertility in the Jordanian population.

Folate pathway is expected to play an important role in spermatogenesis since it is involved in DNA synthesis, repair and methylation. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between male infertility and the MTHFR (C677T and A1298C) and MTRR (A66G) polymorphisms. A group of 300 males was recruited in this study from different Jordanian infertility clinics. Of these, 150 cases of infertile men that included oligozoospermia cases (n=45), severe oligozoospermia (n=71) and azoospermia (n=34) were studied. The other 150 males were age matched fertile controls. Genotyping of MTHFR and MTRR polymorphisms was performed using PCR-RFLP technique. The results showed an association between MTHFR 677TT genotype and male infertility (P<0.05). However, the distribution of MTHFR A1298C and MTRR A66G genotypes were not different between the fertile and infertile groups (P>0.05). In addition, none of the examined polymorphisms was related to any of the semen parameters in the infertile group. In conclusion, this study showed that MTHFR C677T polymorphism is associated with male infertility in Jordanians.