\n\nResults: The four leading symptoms were fatigue (96%), fever (86%), cough (81%), and dyspnea (79%). No significant differences in symptom prevalence were found 123 between different sexes, ages, performance statuses, ward locations, or selleck chemicals underlying diseases, except for fewer episodes of

dizziness, more frequent episodes of cough in patients older than 80 years, and more episodes of jaundice in ward service subjects. Only the presence of abdominal distension differed significantly between surviving and deceased patients (22.9% vs. 40.3%; p = 0.004). After the start of palliative care, patients’ DNR consent increased (105/115 before, 114/115 after). Patients’ recognition of the diagnosis and prognosis increased from 13 to 64, respectively, with a simultaneous increase in family members’ recognition (66 before, 114 after).\n\nConclusion: Hospice care with good symptom control is warranted for patients

with late-stage nonmalignant disease who need appropriate end-of-life care. Medical personnel need education in the importance of palliative care and the identification of patients who could click here benefit from it. In addition, patients should be informed of its availability. Copyright (C) 2012, Elsevier Taiwan LLC & Formosan Medical Association. All rights reserved.”
“Approximately 20-30% of patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux symptoms report inadequate symptom relief while on PPI therapy Persisting acid or non-acid reflux can be demonstrated in 40-50% of them suggesting that there is room for anti-reflux therapy in these patients New anti-reflux compounds

aim at decreasing the occurrence of transient lower oesophageal sphincter relaxations (TLOSRs) which represent the main mechanism of all types of reflux The most promising classes of compounds are GABA(B) agonists and mGluR5 antagonists which have been shown to reduce both reflux episodes and symptoms and are currently under evaluation in phase II and III clinical trials Compounds that target TLOSR activity represent a promising new therapeutic option for patients who suffer from GORD symptoms These drugs will probably be developed as add-on therapy in combination with PPIs provided the tolerability and safety issues are resolved (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved”
“In case of Zenker’s diverticulum, treatment is indicated as soon BMS-777607 as the diagnosis is established. Therapy should aim at the elimination of dysphagia and the symptoms of food retention and should reliably prevent recurrence. Currently, three different therapeutic approaches are applied: the classical option is open transcervical myotomy and diverticulectomy/diverticulopexy and alternatively stapled diverticulostomy with a linear stapler or flexible endoscopic diverticulostomy is propagated. As compared to the surgical (open) approach, rigid or flexible endotherapy is less invasive. However, endotherapy is not always feasible for all types of Zenker’s diverticulum and the recurrence rate is high.

aureus (hVISA) by population analysis profile area under the curve. Our results suggested that the incidence of hVISA increased rapidly when vancomycin MIC shifted from 1 to 2 mu g/mL, and at vancomycin MIC of 2 mu g/mL, the incidence of hVISA was nearly 40%. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Glycerol and oleic acid (OA) were incorporated into carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) films by an emulsification method. Films containing different amounts of glycerol

and OA were examined for mechanical properties, water vapor permeability (WVP), and moisture uptake, optical and thermal properties. Addition of OA to the CMC films significantly improved the barrier property. However, the effect of OA on the mechanical properties was lower than glycerol. By increasing Bucladesine of OA content, the cloudiness of the CMC films was intensified and Hunter value (b) of the films increased (by ca. 35.8%). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) SIS 3 harbors elaborate quality control mechanisms to ensure proper folding and post-translational modifications of polypeptides targeted to this organelle. Once an aberrant protein is detected, it is dislocated from the ER and routed to the proteasome for destruction. Autophagy

has been recently implicated in the elevation of the ER stress response; however, the involvement of this pathway in selective removal of ER-associated degradation (ERAD) substrates has not been demonstrated. In the present study, we show that an ER 432 membrane lesion, associated with the accumulation of the yeast ERAD-M substrate 6Myc-Hmg2p elicits the recruitment of Atg8 and elements of the cytosol to vacuole targeting (CVT) to the membrane, leading to attenuation in the degradation process. Deletion of peptide: N-glycanase (PNG1) stabilizes this association,

a process accompanied by slowdown of 6MycHmg2p degradation. Truncation of the unstructured C-terminal 23 amino acids of 6Myc-Hmg2p rendered its degradation PNG1-independent and allowed its partial delivery to the vacuole in an autophagy-dependent manner. These findings demonstrate a new conduit for the selective vacuolar/lysosomal removal Selleckchem 3-Methyladenine of ERAD misfolded proteins by an autophagy-related machinery acting concomitantly with the proteasome.”
“Thermosensitive gel is synthesized through controlled/”living” free radical copolymerization of styrene and DVB mediated by an alkoxyamine inimer, 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-(1 ‘-phenylethoxy)-4-(4 ‘-vinyl-benzyloxy)-piperidine (V-ET). The inimer plays the role of both incorporating “T-shaped” inter-chain linkages and mediating the polymerization. First order kinetics is observed for crosslinking polymerizations before gel point, indicating a constant concentration of propagating radicals. Monomer conversion at the gel point depends on the feed ratio of DVB to V-ET.

Beverages requested by at least 50% of the respondents included filtered water, coffee, soft drinks and various

juices. Nearly 50% requested caffeine-free beverages, and nearly 40% requested sugar-free food choices. Regarding nutrition-related services, respondents were most interested in recipes for persons with cancer, nutrition information/brochures and nutrition counselling. We found that assessing patients’ nutritional preferences through survey methodology in the oncology clinic setting was feasible. It is important to aid patients’ ability to consume food and beverages that they consider most palatable in order to maintain sufficient caloric intake during active treatment.”
“Six bacterial genera containing species commonly used as probiotics for human consumption or starter cultures for food fermentation were compared and contrasted, based on 3 publicly available complete genome sequences. The analysis included 19 Bifidobacterium Nepicastat inhibitor genomes, 21 Lactobacillus

genomes, 4 Lactococcus and 3 Leuconostoc genomes, as well as a selection of Enterococcus (11) and Streptococcus (23) genomes. The latter two genera included genomes from probiotic or commensal as well as pathogenic organisms to investigate if their non-pathogenic members shared more genes with the other probiotic genomes than their pathogenic members. The pan-and core genome of each genus was defined. selleck chemical Pairwise BLASTP genome comparison was performed within and between genera. It turned out that pathogenic Streptococcus and Enterococcus shared more gene families than did the non-pathogenic genomes. In silico multilocus sequence typing was carried out for all genomes per genus, and the variable gene content of genomes was compared within the genera. Informative BLAST Atlases were constructed to visualize genomic variation within genera. The clusters of orthologous groups

(COG) classes of all genes in the pan-and core genome of each genus were compared. In addition, it was investigated whether pathogenic genomes contain different COG classes compared to the probiotic or fermentative organisms, again comparing their pan-and core genomes. The obtained results were compared with published data from the literature. This study illustrates how over 80 genomes can be broadly compared using simple bioinformatic AG-014699 concentration tools, leading to both confirmation of known information as well as novel observations.”
“Species of the anglerfish genus Chaunax Lowe, 1846 from the New Zealand region are taxonomically reviewed with six species recognized and described: Chaunax penicillatus McCulloch; C. nudiventer Ho & Shao, a new record for New Zealand; and four species new to science. Chaunax flavomaculatus sp. nov. distinguished by having its skin covered with a mix of numerous bifurcated and simple spinules, large yellow spots on dorsal surface of fresh specimens, and brownish coloured escal cirri; Chaunax mulleus sp. nov.

aureus (hVISA) by population analysis profile area under the curve. Our results suggested that the incidence of hVISA increased rapidly when vancomycin MIC shifted from 1 to 2 mu g/mL, and at vancomycin MIC of 2 mu g/mL, the incidence of hVISA was nearly 40%. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Glycerol and oleic acid (OA) were incorporated into carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) films by an emulsification method. Films containing different amounts of glycerol

and OA were examined for mechanical properties, water vapor permeability (WVP), and 123 moisture uptake, optical and thermal properties. Addition of OA to the CMC films significantly improved the barrier property. However, the effect of OA on the mechanical properties was lower than glycerol. By increasing CT99021 of OA content, the cloudiness of the CMC films was intensified and Hunter value (b) of the films increased (by ca. 35.8%). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Bindarit in vivo harbors elaborate quality control mechanisms to ensure proper folding and post-translational modifications of polypeptides targeted to this organelle. Once an aberrant protein is detected, it is dislocated from the ER and routed to the proteasome for destruction. Autophagy

has been recently implicated in the elevation of the ER stress response; however, the involvement of this pathway in selective removal of ER-associated degradation (ERAD) substrates has not been demonstrated. In the present study, we show that an ER membrane lesion, associated with the accumulation of the yeast ERAD-M substrate 6Myc-Hmg2p elicits the recruitment of Atg8 and elements of the cytosol to vacuole targeting (CVT) to the membrane, leading to attenuation in the degradation process. Deletion of peptide: N-glycanase (PNG1) stabilizes this association,

a process accompanied by slowdown of 6MycHmg2p degradation. Truncation of the unstructured C-terminal 23 amino acids of 6Myc-Hmg2p rendered its degradation PNG1-independent and allowed its partial delivery to the vacuole in an autophagy-dependent manner. These findings demonstrate a new conduit for the selective vacuolar/lysosomal removal Torin 2 cost of ERAD misfolded proteins by an autophagy-related machinery acting concomitantly with the proteasome.”
“Thermosensitive gel is synthesized through controlled/”living” free radical copolymerization of styrene and DVB mediated by an alkoxyamine inimer, 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-(1 ‘-phenylethoxy)-4-(4 ‘-vinyl-benzyloxy)-piperidine (V-ET). The inimer plays the role of both incorporating “T-shaped” inter-chain linkages and mediating the polymerization. First order kinetics is observed for crosslinking polymerizations before gel point, indicating a constant concentration of propagating radicals. Monomer conversion at the gel point depends on the feed ratio of DVB to V-ET.

“
“We examined the expression of ezrin and moesin

in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) and their correlation with patient clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival. Immunohistochemical staining and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for ezrin and moesin were applied to 60 carcinoma tissues, adjacent normal tissues, and 33 metastatic lymph nodes. 3 Survival functions were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the log-rank test. RT-PCR demonstrated that the intensity ratios of ezrin and moesin to beta-actin were higher in LSCC than in adjacent normal mucous membrane (P smaller than 0.05). Furthermore, intensity ratios were see more higher in cervical metastatic lymph nodes than in LSCC (P smaller than 0.05). Immunohistochemical staining showed that ezrin and moesin were well distributed in the cell membrane and cytoplasm. check details Expression was significantly different between LSCC and adjacent normal tissues (P smaller than 0.05); moreover, expression in the cervical metastatic

lymph nodes was higher than in LSCC (P smaller than 0.05). Expression of ezrin and moesin was significantly related to clinical stage, T stage, and cervical lymph node metastasis (P smaller than 0.05), except that moesin showed no significant relationship with clinical stage (P bigger than 0.05). Patients with negative ezrin and moesin expression had a significantly longer overall survival time compared to patients with moderate and intense ezrin and moesin expression (P smaller than 0.001, P smaller than 0.05). Ezrin and moesin expression is related

to LSCC invasion and metastasis, and may be important molecular markers for predicting prognosis and therapeutic targets in LSCC patients.”
“Influenza A(H3N2) virus was detected in oral fluid from 16/107 children (aged 2 to 12 years) with a clinical diagnosis of mumps, who were sampled between December 2014 and February 2015 in England, during the peak of the 2014/15 influenza season. Sequence analysis of an A(H3N2) virus from a child with suspected mumps showed the virus was similar to selleckchem other circulating A(H3N2) viruses detected in winter 2014/15, which were antigenically drifted from the A(H3N2) vaccine strain.”
“Background: Several studies have applied low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) directed at the left temporoparietal area (TP) for the treatment of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), but findings on efficacy are inconsistent. Furthermore, recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies indicate that the left TP is not a general focus of activation during the experience of AVH.

Studies have been carried out on carp which have regional economical importance. Storage temperature and time are the most important factors that affect the quality of fish during sales. It was observed that the temperature varied between Crenolanib 9

and 12A degrees C in sale conditions. In addition, we assumed the arrival time of the fish at the fish market to be 0 (zero) h. Biochemical analyses [malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and catalase activity] of carp tissues (muscle, liver, heart, spleen, brain) were carried out on fish which were held for 24 and 48 h, as well as on fresh fish (0 h). In addition, sensory analysis was conducted by a panel consisting of experienced judges of sensory evaluation. Statistically significant (P < 0.05) increases in MDA levels were found in liver, muscle, brain and spleen tissues when comparing the 0- and 24-h groups. But there was no statistically significant (P > 0.05) increase in MDA

level in heart tissue of carp after 24 h. There was a statistically significant (P < 0.05) increase in MDA levels in muscle, spleen and heart tissues when comparing the 24- and 48-h groups. In the group examined at 24 h, it was observed that there were statistically significant GSK2118436 differences from the 0 h group values (P < 0.05) for catalase (CAT) activity in muscle, brain, spleen and heart tissues. The decreases in CAT activity in liver and spleen tissues were found to be statistically significant (P < 0.05) between the group examined at 24 h compared with the group examined at 48 h. Carp maintained good quality during the selling conditions up to 24 h. This experiment deals with the effects of post-slaughter time and storage temperature on carp tissues. It is concluded that by considering the storage temperature (9-12A degrees C) and storage time (post-slaughter) the product maintained acceptable quality up to 24 h. There was significant deterioration of sensory quality, as a result of changes in chemical

constituents.”
“Somitogenesis, the formation of the body’s primary segmental structure common to all vertebrate development, requires coordination between biological mechanisms at several scales. Explaining how these mechanisms interact across scales and how events are coordinated in space and time is necessary for check details a complete understanding of somitogenesis and its evolutionary flexibility. So far, mechanisms of somitogenesis have been studied independently. To test the consistency, integrability and combined explanatory power of current prevailing hypotheses, we built an integrated clock-and-wavefront model including submodels of the intracellular segmentation clock, intercellular segmentation-clock coupling via Delta/Notch signaling, an FGF8 determination front, delayed differentiation, clock-wavefront readout, and differential-cell-celladhesion-driven cell sorting.

Among the total eight known compounds, reynoutrin and luteolin were isolated for the first time from the genus Psidium.”
“By a regular embedding of a graph K in a surface we mean a 2-cell embedding of K in a compact

connected surface such that the automorphism group acts regularly on flags. In this paper, we classify the nonorientable regular embeddings of the Hamming graph H(d, n). We show that there exists such an embedding if and only if n = 2 and d = 2, or n = 3 or 4 and d >= 1, or n = 6 and d = 1 or 2. We also give constructions and descriptions of these embeddings. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“IntroductionMidwives SBE-β-CD solubility dmso in rural Ghana work at the frontline of the health care system, where they have access to essential data about the patient population. However, current methods of data capture, primarily pen and paper, make the data neither accessible nor usable for monitoring patient care or program evaluation. Electronic health (eHealth) systems present a potential mechanism for enhancing the roles of midwives by providing tools for collecting, exchanging, and viewing patient data as well as offering midwives the possibility for receiving information and decision

support. Introducing such technology in low-resource settings has been challenging because of low levels of user acceptance, software design that does not match Selleck Proteasome inhibitor the end-user environment, and/or unforeseen challenges such as irregular power availability. These challenges are often attributable to a lack of understanding

by the software developers of the end users’ needs and work Go 6983 TGF-beta/Smad inhibitor environment. MethodsA mobile health (mHealth) application known as mClinic was designed to support midwife access to the Millennium Village-Global Network, an eHealth delivery platform that captures data for managing patient care as well as program evaluation and monitoring, decision making, and management. We conducted a descriptive usability study composed of 3 phases to evaluate an mClinic prototype: 1) hybrid lab-live software evaluation of mClinic to identify usability issues; 2) completion of a usability questionnaire; and 3) interviews that included low-fidelity prototyping of new functionality proposed by midwives. ResultsThe heuristic evaluation identified usability problems related to 4 of 8 usability categories. Analysis of usability questionnaire data indicated that the midwives perceived mClinic as useful but were more neutral about the ease of use. Analysis of midwives’ reactions to low-fidelity prototypes during the interview process supported the applicability of mClinic to midwives’ work and identified the need for additional functionality. DiscussionUser acceptance is essential for the success of any mHealth implementation. Usability testing identified mClinic development flaws and needed software enhancements.”
“Anaplasma phagocytophilum, an obligate intracellular bacterium, modifies functions of its in vivo host, the neutrophil.

We used Prunier to infer the number of LGT in 579 proteins (different from those used to build the concatenated tree) present in at least 70 species, using the different hypothetical species trees as references. The best tree, with the lowest number of lateral transfers, was the one based on the concatenation of 54 proteins. In that tree, the orders Bifidobacteriales, Coriobacteriales, ‘Corynebacteriales% AZD6094 research buy ‘Micromonosporales’, ‘Propionibacteriales’, ‘Pseudonocardiales’, Streptomycetales and ‘Streptosporangiales’ were recovered while the orders ‘Frankiales’ and Micrococcales were not. It is thus proposed

that the order ‘Frankiales’, which has an effectively but not validly published name, be split into Frankiales ord. nov. (type family Frankiaceae), Geodermatophilales ord. nov. (Geodermatophilaceae), Acidothermales ord. nov. (Acidothermaceae) and Nakamurellales ord. nov. (Nakamurellaceae). The order Micrococcales should also be split into Micrococcales (genera Kocuria, Rothia, Micrococcus, Arthrobacter, Tropheryma,

Microbacterium, Leifsonia and Clavibacter), Cellulomonales (Beutenbergia, Cellulomonas, Xylanimonas, Jonesia and Sanguibacter) and Brachybacteriales (Brachybacterium) but the formal proposal for this will have to wait until more genomes become available for a significant proportion of strains BIX 01294 in vitro in this order.”
“This ASP2215 in vitro study was conducted to assess outcomes after percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation (PTSMA) treatment in 131 patients (mean age 56 +/- 16 years) with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In-hospital and follow-up complications as well as late PTSMA failure (defined as unsatisfactory clinical outcome and a significant residual outflow tract gradient, necessitating reintervention) were noted. Baseline clinical, echocardiographic, and PTSMA characteristics were examined as determinants of outcomes.

Also, the effect of ethanol volume and the role of a learning curve were investigated. PTSMA was successful in 90% of the patients. In-hospital and follow-up cardiac events were noted in 20 patients, including cardiac death (in-hospital n=4, follow-up n=1), acute myocardial infarction due to ethanol leakage (n=1), 123 coronary dissection (n=2), nonfatal cardiac tamponade (n=1), and permanent pacemaker (n=6) or cardiac defibrillator (in-hospital n=4, follow-up n=1) implantation. Late PTSMA failure was noted in 12 patients. All baseline characteristics were comparable between successful and failed PTSMA. Ethanol volume was related to peak creatinine kinase value (p < 0.

The primary objective was to determine superiority of dulaglutide 1.5 mg versus placebo in HbA(1c) change at 26 weeks. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This 52-week, multicenter, parallel-arm study (primary end point: 26 weeks) randomized patients (2: 2: 2: 1) to dulaglutide 1.5 mg,

dulaglutide 0.75 mg, exenatide 10 mg, or placebo (placebo-controlled period: 26 weeks). Patients were treated with metformin (1,500-3,000 mg) and pioglitazone (30-45 mg). Mean baseline HbA(1c) was 8.1% (65 mmol/mol). RESULTS Least squares mean 6 SE HbA(1c) change from baseline to the primary end point was -1.51 +/- VRT 826809 0.06% (-16.5 +/- 0.7 mmol/mol) for dulaglutide 1.5 mg, -1.30 +/- 0.06% (-14.2 +/- 0.7 mmol/mol) for dulaglutide 0.75 mg, -0.99 +/- 0.06% (-10.8 +/- 0.7 mmol/mol) for exenatide, and -0.46 +/- 0.08% (-5.0 +/- 0.9 mmol/mol) for placebo. Both dulaglutide doses were superior to placebo at 26 weeks (both adjusted one-sided P smaller than 0.001) and exenatide at 26 and 52 weeks (both adjusted one-sided P smaller than 0.001). Greater percentages of patients reached HbA(1c) targets with dulaglutide 1.5 mg and 0.75 mg than with placebo and exenatide (all P smaller than 0.001). At 26 and 52 Selleck GSK1120212 weeks, total hypoglycemia incidence was lower in patients receiving dulaglutide 1.5 mg than in those receiving exenatide; no dulaglutide-treated patients reported severe hypoglycemia.

The most common gastrointestinal adverse events for dulaglutide were nausea, 3 vomiting, and diarrhea. Events were mostly mild to moderate and transient. CONCLUSIONS Both once-weekly dulaglutide doses demonstrated superior glycemic control versus placebo and exenatide with an acceptable tolerability and safety profile.”
“Background: Hyperechogenicity of the substantia nigra (SN) measured by transcranial sonography (TCS) is a characteristic feature observed in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). To our knowledge, no SN hyperechogenicity

data are available for Polish population. Moreover most of studies come from few centres, which used the one type of ultrasound selleckchem device. The main aim of the study was to investigate the association between PD and SN hyperechogenicity measured by sonographic machine, not assessed so far. Materials and methods: In this study cross-sectional study SN hyperechogenicity was evaluated in 102 PD patients and 95 control subjects. Midbrain was visualised by Aloka Prosound 7 ultrasound device. SN area measurement, the relation to the clinical features of PD, inter- and intra-observer reliability were evaluated. Results: We confirmed that SN echogenicity is significantly increased in PD patients compared to control subjects (p smaller than 0.001). The area under curve for PD patients vs. controls was 0.93. Receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated a cut-offs for SN echogenicity at 0.19 cm(2) with accuracy equal to 90%, specificity – 86% and sensitivity – 93.7%. The SN hyperechogenicity was not related to PD clinical findings.

We developed a moderate-throughput in vitro model of C. difficile infection and used it to test competition between four ribotype 027

clinical isolates and clinical isolates of four other ribotypes (001, 002, 014, and 053). We found that ribotype 027 strains outcompeted the strains of other ribotypes. A similar competitive advantage was observed when two ribotype pairs were competed in a mouse model of C. difficile infection. Based upon these results, we AZD5363 order conclude that one possible mechanism through which ribotype 027 strains have caused outbreaks worldwide is their increased ability to compete in the presence of a complex microbiota.”
“Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) differentiation typically yields heterogeneous populations. Knowledge of signals controlling embryonic lineage bifurcations could efficiently yield desired cell types through exclusion of alternate fates. Therefore, we revisited signals driving induction and 432 anterior-posterior patterning of definitive endoderm to generate a coherent roadmap for endoderm differentiation. With striking temporal dynamics, BMP and Wnt initially specified anterior primitive streak (progenitor to endoderm), yet, 24 hr later, suppressed

endoderm and induced mesoderm. At lineage bifurcations, cross-repressive signals separated mutually exclusive fates; TGF-beta and BMP/MAPK respectively induced pancreas versus liver from endoderm by suppressing the alternate lineage. We systematically blockaded alternate fates throughout multiple consecutive bifurcations, thereby CX-6258 mouse efficiently differentiating multiple hPSC lines exclusively into endoderm and its derivatives. Comprehensive transcriptional and chromatin mapping of highly pure endodermal populations revealed that endodermal enhancers existed in a surprising diversity of “pre-enhancer” states before activation, reflecting the establishment of a permissive chromatin landscape as a prelude to differentiation.”
“Despite the accumulating knowledge of alterations in pancreatic cancer molecular pathways,

no substantial improvements in the clinical prognosis have been made and this malignancy continues selleck to be a leading cause of cancer death in the Western World. The orphan nuclear receptor COUP-TFII is a regulator of a wide range of biological processes and it may exert a pro-oncogenic role in cancer cells; interestingly, indirect evidences suggest that the receptor could be involved in pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of COUP-TFII in human pancreatic tumors and to unveil its role in the regulation of pancreatic tumor growth. We evaluated COUP-TFII expression by immunohistochemistry on primary samples. We analyzed the effect of the nuclear receptor silencing in human pancreatic cancer cells by means of shRNA expressing cell lines. We finally confirmed the in vitro results by in vivo experiments on nude mice.