Symposium lectures on-line

Most of the lectures of the Symposium were published on-line. You can find the video presentations at the top of each lecture abstract. We hope to complete the whole on-line program in the near feature.

Pictures of Semmelweis Symposium 2008

You can find the pictures of all the three days of Semmelweis Symposium 2008 here.

Lecture of Prof. Sándor Kovács

You can find the whole video-presentation of Prof. Sándor Kovács at "Lectures" on the following page.

Summary

More than 500 participants from 20 countries attended Semmelweis Symposium 2008. You can find a detailed summary of the event here. A summary of press echo in the Hungarian media you can find here.

Poster abstracts

You can find the poster abstracts of Semmelweis Symposium 2008 here.

Scientific Program - printable version

You can download the printable version of the Scientific Program here.

Cardiovascular pharmacogenomics course

According to the program of Semmelweis Symposium, Peter Pokreisz (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) will give a lecture (in Hungarian) on cGMP regulatory mechanisms in cardiology at 18:00 Wednesday, 26 November.

Abstract submission period extended

The deadline for abstract submission was extended until 18 November 2008. More detailes on the Abstract submission form.

On-line registration

Participation in the program of Semmelweis Symposium 2008 is free.
However, completion the on-line registration form is required to attend the Symposium.

Abstract submission for poster presentation

Abstracts for poster presentation are welcome to the Semmelweis Symposium. Deadline for abstract submission  is 15 November. More detailes on the Abstract Submission Form.

PhD course registration

Semmelweis Symposium 2008 was accredited by the School of Doctoral Studies of Semmelweis University. Students attending all the three days of the Symposium will get 2 PhD credits.

OFTEX registration

Semmelweis Symposium 2008 was registred to the OFTEX system. Colleagues attending all the three days of the Symposium will get 20 OFTEX credits. For detailed information look for SE-TK/2008-07/00383 at www.oftex.hu .

Final program

The final program of the Symposium has been completed. For detailes visit to the Scientific Program pages.

Current trends in Cardiology

This year cardiology is in the focus of Semmelweis Symposium. The members of the Heart Center take the opportunity to kindly invite you to this event.

PR-39, a proline rich peptide, was initially characterized as an antibacterial factor and later suggested as a signal molecule in different biological processes. In vivo and in vitro studies provide evidences for cardioprotective effect of PR-39 in myocardial ischaemia and in the course of reperfusion. We assumed that PR-39 beside its cardioprotective effect attenuates the ischaemia-induced neuronal damage as well by reducing apoptosis. To test this assumption we investigated PR-39 as a neuroprotectant in a gerbil model of transient global brain ischaemia.

Gerbils were infected with adenovirus construct containing pr-39 gene after transient global ischaemia. The percentage of apoptosis and necrosis was calculated after TUNEL-caspase-3 double labelling with laser confocal microscopy.  The bcl-2 mRNA level was measured with real-time PCR. The gene expression levels were determined by ddCT method using TaqMan gene expression assays.
Ischaemia resulted in an increase of apoptosis in both the CA1 and CA2 regions of hippocampus as determined by TUNEL and caspase-3 analysis. The adenoviral pr-39 gene transfer decreased the number of TUNEL positive cells significantly compared to the untreated control. The decrease of the number of caspase-3 positive cells was significant in the CA2 region while in the CA1 region a decreasing tendency was found. The expression of the anti-apoptotic bcl-2 gene was upregulated by adenoviral pr-39 construct. Following transient ischaemia and pr-39 gene delivery bcl-2 gene expression increased significantly up to 400 fold compared to the control while bcl-2 has not been augmented by the ischaemia itself.
In our in vivo model, adenoviral pr-39 gene delivery was cytoprotective and it augmented bcl-2, anti-apoptotic gene expression also after ischaemic insults. These data suggest that pr-39 gene delivery may have therapeutic potential in preventing ischaemic brain damage.