Sepsis is a syndrome of life-threatening organ malfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. The complement, kallikrein/kinin, coagulation and fibrinolysis plasma cascade systems as well as the TLR system recognize and initiate the immediate responses to infection and thus play an important role in the development of sepsis. In this regard, the ubiquitous TLR co-receptor, CD14, ...

<p><i>Background:</i> Health anxiety (HA) concerns worry of disease, and has mostly been examined in people with severe HA/hypochondriasis. However, HA can be conceptualised as a continuous construct, with levels ranging from low to severe. There is little knowledge on the distribution of HA as a continuous construct in the general population, nor the association between different levels of HA and ...

Musicians are known to have an increased prevalence of hearing loss and tinnitus due to noise-induced cochlear damage. Rock music is popularly considered a major culprit in terms of excessive sound levels, but the literature on hearing in rock musicians is sparse. In this dissertation the hearing levels of a large number of rock musicians are assessed in relation to factors such as degree of exposure, ...

Background: More than half the world’s population is colonized with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) in the gastric mucosa which is the major cause of chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer. Moreover, H. pylori has been associated with the development of non-cardia gastric cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and has been linked to extra-intestinal diseases, with unsettled ...

<p><i>Paper I</i> <br>To describe hemodynamic response and phosphorylation of cardiac troponin I during rewarming from deep, stable hypothermia with use of the calcium sensitizer and PDE3 inhibitor levosimendan, compared to animals given placebo. <p> <p><i>Paper II</i> <br>To describe hemodynamic response to lowered systemic vascular resistance by nitroprusside administration during rewarming ...

The hippocampus is remarkably plastic and has the ability to modify its processes throughput the lifetime. During development, the hippocampus is exceedingly plastic as new neurons and connections are taking form. Nevertheless, the neural circuits of the hippocampus keep modifying in the adult. The factors contributing to hippocampal plasticity are still elusive. In this thesis, I present three ...

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest burden of HIV among both children and adults. Access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) has improved survival, yet data on long-term virological outcomes are scarce. In addition, recent evidence indicates that HIV-infected ART-treated children are at increased risk of lung impairment, and data on the pathological mechanisms involved are limited. ...

Scientific abstract Antibiotic resistance, especially in Gram-negative pathogens, represents a substantial clinical and financial burden to our society. The presented work investigated mechanisms and evolutionary dynamics that promote the emergence and maintenance of resistance in bacteria. In the first study, conserved collateral susceptibility changes were identified across resistant uropathogenic ...

Enterococcus faecium is a ubiquitous bacterium that only recently emerged as a nosocomial pathogen. Infections mostly affect immunocompromised patients and multi-resistance of E. faecium often hampers treatment. This thesis focuses on determinants, which give pathogenic potential to E. faecium. In the first paper, two TirE proteins are described as novel virulence factors of E. faecium. The tirE ...