Normal rates of forgetting of verbal and non-verbal material in Alzheimer's disease

Recent work has suggested that patients with damage to temporal lobe structures, such as patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD), lose information from memory at an abnormally rapid rate. In contrast, data from other studies suggest that the rate of forgetting in AD is normal. In the present study, 62 patients with mild to moderate AD and 64 elderly controls were tested for their immediate and delayed recall of a short verbal passage and a modified Rey complex figure. The results suggest that although AD patients recalled less than controls, they did not forget at a faster rate during the 30 minute retention interval, supporting the finding that these memory impaired patients do not have an abnormal rate of forgetting. The data also suggest that poor initial encoding of the stimuli may be the cause of the AD patients' impaired recall.     

Über die Ausscheidung von Vitamin A im Harn

Ohne ZusammenfassungI. Mittg.1936, 1106 dieser Wschr.     

A short C-terminal sequence is necessary and sufficient for the targeting of chitinases to the plant vacuole.

Tobacco contains different isoforms of chitinase (EC 3.2.1.14), a hydrolase thought to be involved in the defense against pathogens. Deduced amino acid sequences for putatively vacuolar, basic chitinases differ from the homologous extracellular, acidic isoforms by the presence of a C-terminal extension. To examine the role of this C-terminal extension in protein sorting, Nicotiana silvestris plants were stably transformed with chimeric genes coding for tobacco basic chitinase A with and without the seven C-terminal amino acids. In plants expressing unmodified chitinase A, the enzyme activity was low in the intercellular wash fluid but high in protoplasts and isolated vacuoles. In contrast, in plants expressing mutant chitinase lacking the C terminus, the activity was high in the intercellular wash fluid but low in protoplasts. N. silvestris plants were also transformed with similar constructions coding for a structurally unrelated, extracellular cucumber chitinase. In plants expressing unmodified cucumber chitinase, its activity was present in the intercellular wash fluid and absent from protoplasts. In plants expressing cucumber chitinase with the C-terminal extension from tobacco chitinase A, activity was low in intercellular wash fluids but high in protoplasts and vacuoles. These results demonstrate that the C-terminal extension of tobacco chitinase A is necessary and sufficient for the vacuolar localization of chitinases and, therefore, that it comprises a targeting signal for plant vacuoles.     

Der intrasplenale Adrenalintest,ein einfaches Verfahren zur Feststellung portocavaler Anastomosen

Zusammenfassung Es wird über die Technik und Anwendung des an einem Krankengut von 120 Fällen ausgearbeiteten intrasplenalen Adrenalintestes berichtet, mit dem man in der Lage ist, durch eine einfache Milzpunktion am Krankenbett1. Aufschluß über Kollateralvenen und deren Ausmaß bei Lebercirrhosen zu bekommen;2. venöse von arterieller Blutung im Intestinaltrakt zu differenzieren;3. nach portokavaler Shuntoperation die Durchgängigkeit der Anastomose zu überprüfen.(Eine ausführliche Publikation wird in den Acta Radiologica erscheinen.)     

Platelet membrane fluidity in Alzheimer's disease and major depression

Double-blind fluorescence studies of platelet membrane fluidity were conducted at 37 degrees C for 51 patients with Alzheimer-type dementia, 24 nondemented depressed patients, and 50 neurologically healthy subjects. The fluidity of the hydrocarbon region of platelet membranes from the demented group, as reflected by the steady-state anisotropy of the fluorescent probe 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH), was significantly greater than that for the depressed and normal control subjects. Within the demented group, platelet membrane fluidity was significantly correlated with severity of dementia but not with duration of illness or age at onset. Demented patients with "increased" platelet membrane fluidity had an earlier onset, were more severely demented, and deteriorated more rapidly.     

Learning deficit in Parkinson's disease. Comparison with Alzheimer's disease and normal aging

The learning ability of 12 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) was studied using a verbal paired-associate learning task, and was compared with that of ten patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and 12 controls (NC). Overall, the PD patients performed significantly better than the AD patients but significantly worse than the NC subjects. Their performance was not related to their overall level of cognitive functioning as measured by the Mattis' Dementia Rating Scale, but was unequally distributed suggesting that the PD population actually consisted of more than one subgroup. A low error group performed like controls, while a high error group had a learning impairment comparable to that of AD patients. It is concluded that PD patients may have three patterns of neuropsychologic performance: some are unimpaired, some have "focal" abnormalities, and some have a generalized impairment of cognitive function.     

The growing threat of AIDS: how marketers must respond

The authors attempt to expand the dialogue between the health care industry and the marketing discipline on perhaps the most crucial issue facing health care marketers today--AIDS. They offer a critique of a JHCM article by Ronald Paul Hill. Their intent is to prompt a reconsideration of the normative propositions Hill suggests for health care marketers in response to the AIDS crisis.     

The protein phosphatase inhibitor calyculin A mimics elicitor action in plant cells and induces rapid hyperphosphorylation of specific proteins as revealed by pulse labeling with [33P]phosphate

Suspension-cultured tomato cells react to microbial signals, so-called elicitors, with rapid alkalinization of the growth medium and increased biosynthesis of the stress hormone ethylene. These responses to elicitors can be blocked by staurosporine and K-252a, two specific inhibitors of protein kinases. Here we show that calyculin A, a potent inhibitor of protein phosphatases, mimics the action of elicitors and, at nanomolar concentrations, induces medium alkalinization as well as a strong increase in the activity of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase, the key enzyme of ethylene biosynthesis. Both responses were strongly inhibited by K-252a, and calyculin A induced both responses more rapidly than did a fungal elicitor, xylanase. For example, the lag phase for medium alkalinization was only 0.2-0.4 min for calyculin A, compared with 2 min for xylanase. To study changes in the dynamics of protein phosphorylation, cells were labeled with 30-sec pulses of [33P]orthophosphate. Calyculin A strongly increased phosphorylation of several polypeptide bands within 40 sec of treatment. The same phosphorylated bands also appeared in response to xylanase, but only after a lag phase of 2-3 min. These results show that the protein phosphatase inhibitor calyculin A leads to rapid hyperphosphorylation of specific proteins in cultured cells and indicate that elicitor action could be based on inhibition of a protein phosphatase as well as on activation of a protein kinase.     

Remote memory in Alzheimer's disease

The authors examined the severity and type of deficits in remote memory in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the first study, 40 AD patients showed significantly more severe deficits on both the free-recall and the recognition sections of the Remote Memory Scale (which measures memory for famous people and well-known events) compared with normal control subjects. In the second study, 25 AD patients showed significantly more deficits on the free-recall section of the Autobiographical Memory Scale compared with normal control subjects. Remote memory deficits in AD may be related to both retrieval deficits and damage to memory traces.