Experimental studies on the hemitrichosis and the nervous influences on the hair growth

Summary In patients with chest disease or after thoracic surgery, the body hair on diseased or operated side was often richer, but rarely poorer, in relation with the other side. Such a asymmetrical hair growth was termed hemitrichosis. The hemitrichosis could be experimentally produced on dogs by unilateral excision of skin strip of the back followed by the suture of the wound, or by momentary opening the thorax cavity or by chronic stimulation of pleura.The hair growth of the back of dogs is suppressed by the section of the cutaneous nerve, and posterior root. The section of the anterior root has little effect on the hair growth.It is suggested that the hemitrichotic reaction is a reflex phenomenon caused by chronic stimulation of skin or pleura. The pathway of it may be supposed as follows: Afferent fibers may ascend in the cutaneous and visceral sensory nerves and in the posterior root to the spinal cord. Efferent fibers may descend in the posterior root, and most of them in the cutaneous nerve and a part in the nerves coiled round the blood vessel, to the hair follicles. Reflex center is not clarified.Sympathetic system seems to have an intimate relation to the hair growth, but its significance has not yet been ascert ained.

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Zusammenfassung Bei Thoraxkranken oder daselbst Operierten kann man einen asymmetrischen Haarwuchs beobachten. Dieser ist an der erkrankten oder operierten Seite oft dichter, selten schütterer als an der Gegenseite. Dieser asymmetrische Haarwuchs wird Hemitrichose genannt.Durch einseitige Streifenresektion und Zunähen der Rückenhaut kann die Hemitrichose am Hund experimentell ausgelöst werden. Chronische Reize auf die Pleura oder plötzliches Eröffnen des Thorax können ebenfalls Hemitrichose verursachen.Durchschneiden der Hautnerven oder der hinteren Wurzeln verhindert beim Hund den Haarwuchs am Rücken. Durchtrennung der vorderen Wurzel hat wenig Einfluß auf die Haarentwicklung.Wir stellen uns vor, daß die hemitrichotische Reaktion eine Reflexerscheinung ist, die von langdauernden Reizen auf die Haut, die Pleura und andere Organe hervorgerufen wird. Die afferente Bahn dürfte durch die sensiblen Hautnerven und die hinteren Wurzeln aufsteigen, die efferente durch die hinternn Wurzeln und dann vornehmlich durch die Hautnerven teils durch die die Blutgefäße begleitenden vegetativen Nervenfasern zur Haut gelangen. Das Reflexzentrum ist noch unbekannt.Das sympathische System scheint zu dem Haarwuchs enge Beziehung zu haben, aber seine funktionelle Bedeutung ist noch nicht geklärt.

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Résumé Chez des personnes avec une maladie ou une opération thoracale on peut constater une pousse de cheveux asymétrique. Celle-ci est parfois plus dense, mais rarement clairsemée sur la partie thoracale affligée ou opérée. Cette pousse de cheveux asymétrique fut nommée hemitrichose.Par résection lamellée unilatérale et suture de la peau dorsale l'hémitrichose peut être démontrée expérimentalement chez le chien. Aussi des irrtations chroniques unilatérales de la plèvre peuvent évoquer une hémitrichose.La séction des nerfs cutanés et de la racine dorsale empèche chez le chien la pousse de cheveux thoracales et de la racine dorsale empèche chez le chien la pousse de cheveux thoracales. La séction de la racine antérieure a peu d'influence sur la pousse de cheveux.Nous croyons que la réaction hémitrichotique est une action réflexe, laquelle est provoquée par des irritations de longue durée sur la peau, la plèvre et sur d'autres organes. La voie afférente est peut Être représentée par les nerfs sensitifs de la peau et les racines postérieures, la voie efférante gagne probablement par les racines postérieures et surtout par les nerfs de la peau, partiellement par les nerfs végétatifs des vaisseaux sanguins de la peau. Le centre-réflexe est encore unconnu.Le système nerveux sympathiques semble avoir une connexion étroite à la pousse de cheveux, mais son importance fonctionelle n'est pas encore vérifiée.

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With 16 Figures     

Update on the language disorders of individuals on the autistic spectrum

Inadequate language is a defining feature of the autism spectrum disorders (autism). Autism is a behaviorally and dimensionally defined developmental disorder of the immature brain that has a broad range of severity and many etiologies, with multiple genes involved. Early studies, which focused on the language of verbal children on the autistic spectrum, emphasized aberrant features of their speech such as unusual word choices, pronoun reversal, echolalia, incoherent discourse, unresponsiveness to questions, aberrant prosody, and lack of drive to communicate. Persistent lack of speech of some individuals was attributed to the severity of their autism and attendant mental retardation rather than possible inability to decode auditory language. Clinical study of unselected children with autism indicated that the language deficits of preschoolers fall into two broad types, perhaps with subtypes, those that involve reception and production of phonology (sounds of speech) and syntax (grammar), and those that do not but involve semantics (meaning) and pragmatics (communicative use of language, processing, and production of discourse). Except for the preschoolers' universally deficient pragmatics and comprehension of speech, many of their language deficits parallel those of non-autistic preschoolers with developmental language disorders. There is now biological support for the clinical observation that young autistic children are language disordered as well as autistic. Recent electrophysiological studies disclose auditory input abnormalities in lateral temporal cortex even in verbal individuals on the autistic spectrum. Severe receptive deficits for phonology enhance the risk for epilepsy. Genetic studies indicate that linkage to chromosome 7q31-33 is limited to families with evidence for phonologic impairment as well as autism. Clearly, social and cognitive disorders alone provide an inadequate explanation for the range of language deficits in autism.     

Competing on the edge

Fast-acting neurotransmitters can exit the synaptic cleft and bind to extrasynaptic receptors. This process is modulated by transmitter uptake mechanisms (transporters). A new study focusing on glutamate-mediated transmission in the cerebellum describes the specific role of neuronal transporters in modulating the access of glutamate to extrasynaptic metabotropic glutamate receptors, and reveals important consequences of extrasynaptic signaling on synaptic plasticity.     

Studies on the prothrombin--complex

According to the theory of Seegers the clotting factors VII, IX, and X may generate from prothrombin during blood coagulation or purification procedures. For testing of this hypothesis prothrombin and the factors VII, IX and X were separated by BaSO₄ absorption and DEAE-cellulose column chromatography from blood with and without addition of protease inhibitors DFP or heparin-SBTI-benzamidine. The formation of thrombin and factors IXa and Xa was impeded by the inhibitors, whereas the factors II, VII, IX, and X were found in the same position whether inhibitors were present during the separation procedure or not. It is concluded that these factors exist in native blood as separate entities.     

Observations on the Effect of Morphine on Thalamocortical Excitability in the Cat

The acute effects of morphine on the thalamocortical augmenting response in the cat were evaluated. The thalamocortical augmenting response was elicited by delivering pairs of pulses to the ventrolateral thalamus and recording from ipsilateral sensorimotor cortex. A biphasic, dose-related, naloxone-attenuable effect on the augmenting response elicited by pulse pairs was observed. Although the clinical significance of those morphine-induced changes is currently uncertain, they can be correlated with the convulsant and anticonvulsant effects of different doses of morphine.