In all cases it led to the production of the corresponding aglyco

In all cases it led to the production of the corresponding aglycone via deglycosylation. The deglycosylated flavonoids turned out to display significant beneficial effects on the hyphal growth of germinated spores. Our finding, along with the known allelopathic role of flavonoids, illustrates the chemical cooperation underlying the mutualistic relationship between the plant and the endophyte. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

reserved.”
“The present study employed light and electron microscopic methods to investigate the ontogenetic origin of the olfactory organ in bichirs (Cladistia: Polypteridae) and explore its evolution among osteichthyans. In former studies we demonstrated that in teleosts a subepidermal layer gives rise to the olfactory placode

which Epoxomicin cell line in turn builds all types of olfactory cells (basal, receptor, supporting, ciliated non-sensory cells). In contrast, the olfactory placodes in sturgeons (Chondrostei: Acipenseridae) as well as in the clawed frog Xenopus laevis (Anura: Pipidae) originate from two different layers. Receptor neurons derive from cells of the subepidermal (sensory) layer and supporting cells from check details epidermal cells. As sturgeons and amphibians in some characters show a more primitive condition than teleosts, we extended our study to Polypterus to allow for an approach at the basic osteichthyan pattern. In Polypterus, an internal lumen occurs in early ontogenetic stages surrounded by the epithelium of the olfactory placode. Kinase Inhibitor Library Two different populations of supporting cells follow one another: a primary population derives from the subepidermal layer. Later supporting cells develop from epidermal cells by transdifferentiation. The primary opening of the internal lumen to the exterior develops by invagination from the epidermal surface and simultaneously by a counter-directed process of cell dissociation and fragmentation inside the olfactory placode. Our results indicate

the following features to be plesiomorphic actinopterygian character states: The primary olfactory pit (prospective olfactory cavity) is formed by invagination of the epidermal and the subepidermal layer (as in Acipenser and Xenopus). The incurrent and excurrent nostrils derive from a single primary opening which elongates and is then separated by an epidermal bridge into the two external openings (as in Acipenser and many teleosts). The olfactory epithelium derives from an epidermal and a subepidermal layer (as in Acipenser and Xenopus). Apomorphic (derived actinopterygian) features are: (1) an internal lumen as primordium of the future olfactory chamber; (2) a subepidermal layer gives rise to the olfactory epithelium and its constituents (Polypterus and teleosts). As to the origin of the olfactory supporting cells in Polypterus we assume a combination of plesiomorphic and apomorphic characters.

These ILDs emerged relatively early after introduction of TMP/SMX

These ILDs emerged relatively early after introduction of TMP/SMX, which is consistent with buy Screening Library the former case report of drug-induced ILD (DI-I) caused by TMP/SMX. Therefore DI-ILDs caused by TMP/SMX were suspected in these cases. In most of these cases, the ILDs were clinically mild and disappeared immediately although administration of TMP/SIVIX was continued.”
“Purpose. Although pulmonary torsion is a rare complication after lung resection, thoracic surgeons should always consider the risk of this development. We describe a new prophylactic

method to repair the residual lobe by using an absorptive sheet and fibrin glue.\n\nDescription. Between January 2009 and March 2010, 6 patients underwent this simple prophylactic fixation for lung torsion, and their clinical records were retrospectively reviewed.\n\nEvaluation. No postoperative complications were observed in this series.\n\nConclusions. This technique is satisfactorily effective and does not result in any complications. (Ann Thorac Surg 2010;90:2028-30) (C) 2010 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons”
“Production CX-6258 price of ethanol by bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass has attracted

much interest in recent years. However, the pretreatment process for increasing the enzymatic digestibility of cellulose has become a key step in commercialized production of cellulosic ethanol. During the last decades, many pretreatment processes have been developed for decreasing the biomass recalcitrance, but only a few of them seem to be promising. From the point of view for integrated utilization of lignocellulosic biomass, organosolv www.selleckchem.com/products/cbl0137-cbl-0137.html pretreatment provides a pathway for biorefining of biomass. This review presents the progress of organosolv pretreatment

of lignocellulosic biomass in recent decades, especially on alcohol, organic acid, organic peracid and acetone pretreatments, and corresponding action mechanisms. Evaluation and prospect of organosolv pretreatment were performed. Finally, some recommendations for future investigation of this pretreatment method were given.”
“P>Background\n\nFour cardiac hormones synthesized by the same gene, i.e. atrial natriuretic peptide, vessel dilator, long acting natriuretic peptide and kaliuretic peptide, have anticancer effects in vitro.\n\nMaterials and methods\n\nThese cardiac hormones were infused subcutaneously for 28 days with weekly fresh hormones at 0 center dot 3 nM kg-1 body weight in athymic mice bearing human squamous cell carcinomas.\n\nResults\n\nVessel dilator, atrial natriuretic peptide and kaliuretic peptide each eliminated one in six (17%) of the human squamous cell lung carcinomas.

The rate of cleavage was observed to be a function of the conform

The rate of cleavage was observed to be a function of the conformation of the dipeptide promoiety and the strength of the cyclization nucleophile.

Through the careful selection of chemical functionality, a set of GLP ester prodrugs of variable half-lives has been identified. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers (Pept Sci) 94: 448-456,2010.”
“Systematic structure-activity RepSox price relationship studies of caprazamycin (CPZ) analogs, including the aminoribose-truncated 5 and the uridine-truncated 6, have been carried out. Both 5 and 6 were synthesized efficiently via diazepanone ring construction by intramolecular reductive alkylation of aminoaldehyde derivatives. The antibacterial activity of a range of analogs,

including 5 and 6, against Mycobacteriumosis was evaluated, and it was found that the uridine, the aminoribose, and the fatty acyl side chains are crucial for antibacterial activity. This study would be a guide for designing novel anti-tuberculosis agents based on the 6′-N-alkyl-5′-beta-O-aminoribosyl-glycyluridine class of antibiotics including the CPZs. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Extracellular carbonic anhydrase was purified from Pseudomonas fragi isolated from CaCO(3) enriched soil samples. The enzyme is induced in presence of CaCO(3) and is envisaged to play an important role in bicarbonate ion transport. The 75% ammonium sulphate dialysate was purified by single step affinity Gamma-secretase inhibitor chromatography with

86% yield. It is a trimeric protein having a subunit molecular weight of 31.0 kDa and was stable at pH 7.0-8.5 and temperature 35-45 degrees C. Lead, mercury and EDTA had an inhibitory effect on CA activity, whereas zinc, iron and cadmium increased it. The presence of esterase activity along with IC(50) of sulphonamides and anionic inhibitors indicated that CA from P. fragi belonged to a-class. The CA stability in presence of different Ro 61-8048 salts, as well as in alkaline pH and high temperature makes it a potential candidate to be exploited for biomimetic CO(2) sequestration. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Tracking eye-movements provides easy access to cognitive processes involved in visual and sensorimotor processing. More recently, the underlying neural mechanisms have been examined by combining eye-tracking and functional neuroimaging methods. Apart from extracting visual information, gaze also serves important functions in social interactions. As a deictic cue, gaze can be used to direct the attention of another person to an object. Conversely, by following other persons’ gaze we gain access to their attentional focus, which is essential for understanding their mental states. Social gaze has therefore been studied extensively to understand the social brain.

Conclusions: The results show that our method is highly effec

\n\nConclusions: The results show that our method is highly effective in finding functional modules from real microarray data. Our application on Arabidopsis leads to the discovery of the largest number of annotated Arabidopsis functional modules in the literature. Given the high statistical significance of functional enrichment and the agreement between cis-regulatory and functional annotations,

we believe our Arabidopsis gene modules can be used to predict the functions of unknown genes in Arabidopsis, and to understand the regulatory mechanisms of many genes.”
“This study investigated the feasibility of using the Napabucasin chemical structure values of tissue Doppler imaging (TDI)-derived myocardial velocity during isovolumic relaxation (V(IR)) and myocardial acceleration during isovolumic relaxation (ACC) obtained from the left ventricular Vorinostat price (LV) free wall to evaluate LV relaxation in normal dogs. Seven dogs were anesthetized, and dobutamine or esmolol was infused at a rate of 5.0 and 10.0 mu g/kg/min or 100 and 500 mu g/kg/min, respectively, via a cephalic vein. The order of drug administration (dobutamine or esmolol) was assigned to each dog. Simultaneous pulsed-Doppler (PD) echocardiography, TDI and hemodynamic measurements were performed.

Compared with the baseline values, dobutamine significantly increased dP/dt min, but significantly shortened tau (tau). Similarly, esmolol significantly decreased dP/dt min, but significantly prolonged tau compared with the baseline values, dobutamine significantly increased V(IR) and A-CC, and esmolol significantly STAT inhibitor decreased V(IR) and ACC. Both dP/dt min and tau were significantly correlated with TDI-derived IVRT (r=-0.43 and 0.74), V(IR) (r=0.85 and -0.49) and ACC (r=0.84 and -0.52). These results indicate that the TDI-derived V(IR)

and ACC values obtained from the LV free wall call potentially be used to assess LV relaxation in dogs.”
“The objective this study was to evaluate the effects of incidence of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) and overall incidence of pathogenic diseases (IPD) on carcass traits. Two independent populations were used. The first population included crossbred steers (GPE7; n = 642) derived from sires of 7 Bos taurus breeds: Angus, Charolais, Gelbvieh, Hereford, Limousin, Red Angus, and Simmental. The second population included crossbred steers (GPE8; n = 621) derived from tropically adapted Bos taurus breeds and Bos indicus-influenced breeds: Beefmaster, Brangus, Bonsmara, and Romosinuano, as well as Hereford and Angus. Treatment records for BRD, infectious keratoconjunctivitis, and infectious pododermatitis were available for these populations. Incidence of BRD was treated as an independent effect.

Body size and shape were plastic and sexually dimorphic, but plas

Body size and shape were plastic and sexually dimorphic, but plasticity did not differ between the sexes, opposite buy Fer-1 to the male-larger turtle Chelydra serpentina. Maternal effects (egg size) were significant on size and shape, suggesting that females increase their fitness by allocating greater energy to enhance offspring growth. Results ruled out the sex-specific plasticity hypotheses in

P. expansa, indicating that SSD and SShD do not derive form differential responses to identical drivers but from sex-specific selective pressures. Our results indicate that differential plasticity does not favor males inherently, nor the larger sex, as would be expected if it was a pervasive driver of macroevolutionary patterns of sexual dimorphism across turtle lineages.”
“Fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) are one of the new and very promising biocompatible nanomaterials that can be used both as a fluorescence imaging agent and a highly versatile platform for controlled functionalization to target and deliver a wide spectrum of therapeutic agents. Among the remarkable fluorescence

Selleckchem NSC 23766 properties are excellent photostability, emission between 600-700nm, quantum yield of 1 and moderately long fluorescence lifetimes. However the low absorption cross section of fluorescent (N-V)-centers limits FNDs’ brightness. In this work we show that an approach based on the Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) may significantly enhance the fluorescence signal observed from a single ND. We demonstrate that organic dyes (fluorophores) attached to the FND surface can efficiently transfer the excitation energy to (N-V)-centers. Multiple dyes positioned in close proximity to the ND facile surface may serve as harvesting antennas transferring excitation

energy to the fluorescent centers. We propose that, with the help of some of the functional groups present on the FND surface, SCH727965 nmr we can either directly link flurophores or use scalable dendrimer chemistry to position many organic dyes at a calibrated distance. Also, the remaining multiple functional groups will be still available for particle targeting and drug delivery. This opens a new way for designing a new type of theranostics particles of ultra-high brightness, high photostability, specific targeting, and high capacity for drug delivery.”
“Constitutive NF-B-K signaling promotes survival in multiple myeloma (MM) and other cancers; however, current NF-B-K-targeting strategies lack cancer cell specificity. Here, we identify the interaction between the NF-B-K-regulated antiapoptotic factor GADD45 beta and the JNK kinase MKK7 as a therapeutic target in MM. Using a drug-discovery strategy, we developed DTP3, a D-tripeptide, which disrupts the GADD45 beta/ MKK7 complex, kills MM cells effectively, and, importantly, lacks toxicity to normal cells. DTP3 has similar anticancer potency to the clinical standard, bortezomib, but more than 100-fold higher cancer cell specificity in vitro.

03% agenesis respect the total number of teeth Statistical analy

03% agenesis respect the total number of teeth. Statistical analyses did not show significant differences at 95% level, with agenesis of third

molar prevalence in females, in maxilla, in the left side, simple, being the left maxillary third molar the tooth that present many number of agenesis.”
“We assessed the predictive value added by Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) to currently validated live birth (LB) prediction models. Based on recent data from our center, we compared the external validity of the Templeton Model (TM) and its recent improvement (TMA) to select our model of reference. The added predictive value GW786034 mw of AMH was assessed in testing the likelihood ratio significance and the Net Reclassification Index (NRI). The surrogate utility of AMH was tested by conducting an exploratory stepwise logistic regression. Based on 715 cycles, the original TM had poor performances (auROC Vactosertib order C = 0.61 [0.58, 0.66], improving by fitting TM to our data (C = 0.71[0.66, 0.75]. TMA fitting proved better (C = 0.76; 95 %CI: 0.71, 0.80) and was selected as model of reference. Adding AMH to TMA or TM had no effect on discrimination (C = 0.76; 95 %CI: 0.72, 0.80),

the likelihood ratio test was significant (p = 0.023), but the NRI was not (6.7 %; p = 0.055). A stepwise exploratory logistic regression identified the effects of age, previous IVF resulting in LB, time trend and AMH, leading to a prediction model reduced to four predictors (C = 0.75 [0.70, 0.81]). The added predictive value of AMH is limited. A possible surrogate/simplifying effect of AMH was found in eliminating 9/13 predictors from the model of reference. We conclude that whereas AMH does not add significant predictive value to the existing model, it contributes to simplifying the equation to reliable, www.selleckchem.com/products/blz945.html easy

to collect, and available in all databases predictors: age, AMH, time trend and female previous fertility history.”
“Metabolic syndrome (MS) has 2 conflicting factors: obesity known to be protective against osteoporosis and an inflammation that activates bone resorption. The aim of this study was to evaluate the difference of bone mineral density (BMD) in women with or without MS according to menopausal state. This is a cross-sectional study of 2,265 women (1,234-premenopausal, 931-postmenopausal) aged over 20 years who visited the Health Promotion Center from January 2006 to December 2009. We measured BMD at the lumbar spine and femoral neck. MS was defined according to the American Heart Association/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (AHA/NHLBI) criteria. The prevalence of MS was 5.5% in the premenopausal group and 13.5% in the postmenopausal group. In the postmenopausal group, C-reactive protein (CRP) was significantly higher in subjects with MS than those without MS, but it was not in the premenopausal group. In the postmenopausal group, women with MS had a lower BMD at the lumbar spine and femoral neck before or after adjustment.

The efficacy of hemin infusion is due mainly, if not entirely, to

The efficacy of hemin infusion is due mainly, if not entirely, to its inhibition of hepatic delta-aminolevulinic acid synthase-1, the enzyme that catalyzes delta-aminolevulinic acid formation. Delta-aminolevulinic acid synthase-1 is a rational target for additional therapies to control symptoms in acute porphyria. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) are

known to promote skeletal muscle formation. However, their mechanisms that include effects on the expression of major muscle components such as the dystrophin-associated proteins complex (DAPC) or myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of HDACIs on skeletal muscle formation using the C2C12 cell culture system. C2C12 myoblasts learn more were exposed to

trichostatin A (TSA), one of the most potent HDACIs, and differentiation was subsequently induced. We found that TSA enhances the expression of myosin heavy chain without affecting DAPC expression. In addition, TSA increases the expression of the early MRFs, Myf5 Fludarabine cell line and MEF2, whereas it suppresses the expression of the late MRF, myogenin. Interestingly, TSA also enhances the expression of Id1, Id2, and Id3 (Ids). Ids are myogenic repressors that inhibit myogenic differentiation. These findings suggest that TSA promotes gene expression in proliferation and suppresses it in the differentiation stage of muscle formation. Taken together, our data demonstrate that TSA enhances myogenesis by coordinating the expression of MRFs and myogenic repressors. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.”
“Insect odorant-binding proteins function in the sensing of odors, tastes, and pheromones. Genes encoding two odorant-binding

proteins, Obp57d and Obp57e, were identified to be involved in the LY411575 manufacturer behavioral adaptation of Drosophila sechellia to its host plant. The two genes are expressed in cells associated with taste sensilla on the legs, and the expression pattern in the legs is conserved among closely related species. To identify the cis-regulatory elements necessary for the expression in the leg sensilla, the promoter sequences of Obp57d and Obp57e were compared among species. Two types of conserved sequence-motifs were found as candidate cis-regulatory elements. Functions of these conserved elements in the promoters of D. melanogaster Obp57d and Obp57e were examined by using a newly constructed vector that combines the advantages of phi C31 integrase-based transformation and gypsy transposable-element-derived insulators. By GFP-reporter assay using the new vector, it was confirmed that these conserved elements are necessary for the expression in the legs, working synergistically with each other to affect the expression level. Single-nucleotide substitutions in these elements dramatically changed the promoter activity.

Compounds 3 and 4 exhibited significant inhibitory activity again

Compounds 3 and 4 exhibited significant inhibitory activity against BLZ945 nitric oxide production from activated macrophages with IC50 values of 0.31 and 3.60 mu M, respectively.”
“Analysis of the cDNAs of granule-bound starch synthase I (GBSSI) in sweet potato indicated that six types of GBSSI were expressed in the tuberous root, and that the poly(A) sites in GBSSI were highly heterogeneous. Several poly(A) sites were located within or downstream of the polymorphic TA repeat. The GBSSI gene has a 23-nucleotide A-rich sequence in the 3′ untranslated region, and we believe

that the main near-upstream elements of the poly(A) signal are included in this sequence.”
“Atomic force microscopy (AFM) indentation has become an important technique for quantifying the mechanical properties of live cells at nanoscale. However, determination of cell elasticity modulus from the force-displacement curves measured in

the AFM indentations is not a trivial task. The present work shows that these force-displacement curves are affected by indenter-cell adhesion force, while the use of an appropriate indentation model may provide information on the cell elasticity and the work of adhesion of the cell membrane to the surface of the AFM probes. A recently proposed indentation model (Sirghi, Rossi in Appl Phys Lett 89:243118, 2006), which accounts for the effect of the adhesion force in nanoscale indentation, is applied to the AFM indentation experiments performed on live cells with pyramidal indenters. The model considers that the indentation force equilibrates the elastic force of the cell cytoskeleton and the adhesion Selleck Sapanisertib force of the cell membrane. It is assumed that the indenter-cell contact area and the adhesion force decrease continuously during the unloading part of the indentation (peeling model). Force-displacement curves measured in indentation experiments performed with silicon nitride

AFM probes with pyramidal tips on live cells (mouse fibroblast Balb/c3T3 clone A31-1-1) in physiological medium at 37 degrees C agree well with the theoretical prediction and are used to determine the cell elasticity modulus and indenter-cell work of adhesion.”
“Background: Myocardial bridge (MB) is regarded as a common benign lesion on MK 2206 coronary angiography (CAG). It is known to be harmless but may cause several cardiac events and recurrent hospitalization, so in the present study the long-term clinical course of patients with isolated MB and predictors of readmission were investigated.\n\nMethods and Results: Total 684 patients (343 males, 60.5 +/- 11.2 years) with persistent chest pain without critical stenosis on CAG were enrolled. The patients were divided into 2 groups according to the presence of MB. Clinical follow-up was performed with respect to readmission after baseline CAG. At a mean follow-up of 37 months, 92 patients (13.3%) were re-admitted because of 79 recurrent chest pain refractory to medication (11.

Insulin sensitivity was evaluated

Insulin sensitivity was evaluated SRT2104 by an insulin sensitivity index derived from OGTT (IS(OGTT)), whereas insulin secretion was calculated as a ratio of the total

area under the insulin curve to the total area under the glucose curve (AUC(ins/glu)). Beta cell function in relation to insulin sensitivity (i.e. disposition index) was derived from the product of insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion (i.e. AUC(ins/glu) x IS(OGTT)). In women diagnosed with GDM (n=57), the disposition index was significantly lower than that in those without GDM, irrespective of obesity. The disposition index in women with GDM was significantly correlated with levels of fasting and mean preprandial capillary glucose and HbA1c before initiating insulin therapy (r = -0.45, -0.38, -0.49, respectively). Furthermore, there was a significant correlation

between the disposition selleck chemicals index and total insulin dosage to achieve glycemic goal (r = -0.41). In conclusion, we demonstrated beta cell dysfunction in Japanese women with GDM irrespective of obesity. The level of beta cell dysfunction in GDM was associated with the severity of glucose intolerance and total insulin dosage required. These findings underpin clinical significance of beta cell dysfunction in GDM.”
“Metallothioneins (MTs) are ubiquitous cysteine-rich proteins with a high affinity for divalent metal ions such as Zn-II, Cu-I and Cd-II that are involved in metal ion homeostasis and detoxification, as well as protection against reactive oxygen species. Here we show the NMR solution structure

of the beta(E)-domain of the early cysteine-labeled protein (E-c-1) from find more wheat (beta(E)-E-c-1), which represents the first three-dimensional structure of a plant MT. The beta(E)-domain comprises the 51 C-terminal residues of E-c-1 and exhibits a distinctive unprecedented structure with two separate metal-biricling centers, a mononuclear Zn-II binding site constituted by two cysteine and two highly conserved histidine residues as found in certain zinc-finger motifs, and a cluster formed by three Zn-II ions coordinated by nine Cys residues that resembles the cluster in the beta-domain of vertebrate MTs. Cys-metal ion connectivities were determined by exhaustive structure calculations for all 7560 possible configurations of the three-metal cluster. Backbone dynamics investigated by N-15 relaxation experiments support the results of the structure determination in that beta(E)-E-c-1 is a rigidly folded polypeptide. To further investigate the influence of metal ion binding on the stability of the structure, we replaced Zn-II with Cd-II ions and examined the effects of metal ion release on incubation with a metal. ion chelator. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Conclusion: There was no recurrence of cam deformity at 2 years a

Conclusion: There was no recurrence of cam deformity at 2 years after femoral neck osteoplasty for femoroacetabular impingement. PRO scores were improved at the 3-month and 2-year postoperative time points.”
“Selenium (Se) is a nutritional trace mineral

essential for various aspects of human health that exerts its effects mainly through its incorporation into selenoproteins as the amino acid, selenocysteine. Twenty-five Selleckchem Crenolanib selenoprotein genes have been identified in humans and several selenoproteins are broadly classified as antioxidant enzymes. As progress is made on characterizing the individual members of this protein family, however, it is becoming clear that their properties and functions are quite diverse. This review summarizes recent insights into properties of individual selenoproteins such as tissue distribution, subcellular localization, and regulation of expression. Also discussed are

potential roles the different selenoproteins play in human health and disease.”
“Background Biomass fuels are used selleckchem for cooking in the majority of rural households worldwide. While their use is associated with an increased risk of lung diseases and all-cause mortality, the effects on cardiovascular disease (CVD) are not well characterised. Exposure to biomass fuel smoke has been associated with lung-mediated inflammation and oxidative stress, which may increase the risk of atherosclerosis as evaluated by carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), SNS-032 solubility dmso carotid atherosclerotic plaque prevalence and blood pressure.\n\nMethods A cross-sectional study was performed in 266

adults aged >= 35 years in Puno, Peru (3825 m above sea level). We stratified participants by their long-term history of exposure to clean fuel (n=112) or biomass fuel (n=154) and measured 24 h indoor particulate matter (PM2.5) in a random subset (n=84). Participants completed questionnaires and underwent a clinical assessment, laboratory analyses and carotid artery ultrasound. The main outcome measures were CIMT, carotid plaque and blood pressure.\n\nResults The groups were similar in age and gender. The biomass fuel group had greater unadjusted mean CIMT (0.66 vs 0.60 mm; p<0.001), carotid plaque prevalence (26% vs 14%; p=0.03), systolic blood pressure (118 vs 111 mm Hg; p<0.001) and median household PM2.5 (280 vs 14 mu g/m(3); p<0.001). In multivariable regression, the biomass fuel group had greater mean CIMT (mean difference=0.03 mm, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.06; p=0.02), a higher prevalence of carotid plaques (OR=2.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 6.0; p=0.03) and higher systolic blood pressure (mean difference=9.2 mm Hg, 95% CI 5.4 to 13.0; p<0.001).\n\nConclusions Chronic exposure to biomass fuel was associated with increased CIMT, increased prevalence of atherosclerotic plaques and higher blood pressure. These findings identify biomass fuel use as a risk factor for CVD, which may have important global health implications.