The sample consisted of 89 patients (16 OCD-schizophrenic patients, ABT-737 research buy 30 non-OCD schizophrenic patients, 30 OCD patients with good insight, 13 OCD patients with poor insight). Neuropsychological evaluation included executive functions, verbal and visual memory and attention tasks. While schizophrenic patients with OCD did not differ from the non-OCD schizophrenia and OCD with poor insight

groups on long-term visual and verbal memory performance, they showed poorer performance than the OCD group on long-term Visual and verbal memory tests. Considering executive function, the OCD group with poor insight performed significantly worse than their counterparts with good insight, and the latter group performed better than the schizophrenia patients. The results of this study suggest that the neuropsychological performance of schizophrenia patients with OCD did not differ from that of non-OCD schizophrenic patients, and that OCD patients with poor insight

were more likely to share similar cognitive characteristics with the schizophrenia groups. Our results also provide neuropsychological support for the hypothesis that OCD and schizophrenia may be a spectrum disorders. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“RNA polymerase II (Pol II) must break the nucleosomal barrier to gain access to DNA and transcribe genes efficiently. New single-molecule techniques have elucidated many molecular details 4SC-202 concentration of nucleosome disassembly and what happens once Pol II encounters a nucleosome. Our review highlights mechanisms that Pol II utilizes to transcribe through nucleosomes, including the roles of chromatin remodelers, histone chaperones, post-translational Selleckchem Emricasan modifications of histones, incorporation of histone variants into nucleosomes, and activation of the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) enzyme. Future studies need to assess the molecular details and the contribution of each of these mechanisms, individually and in combination, to transcription across the genome to understand how cells are able to regulate transcription in response to developmental, environmental and nutritional cues.”
“Background: Intimal hyperplasia is a major obstacle to patency after vein grafting.

Several clinical trials revealed that pioglitazone, a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma ligand, exerts beneficial actions on cardiovascular complications. We investigated whether pioglitazone modulates intimal hyperplasia in experimental rabbit autologous vein grafts.

Methods: Male Japanese White rabbits were randomly divided into two groups: one group received pioglitazone as food admixture at a concentration of 0.01%, and the other did not (control). One week later, each group underwent reversed autologous vein bypass grafting of the right common carotid artery using ipsilateral external jugular vein. Pioglitazone therapy was continued after surgery and until harvest. Intimal hyperplasia of the grafted vein was assessed at 28 days.