Anticonvulsant effects of neurotropin

Department of Normal Physiology, N. I. Pirogov Odessa Medical Institute. Department of Normal Physiology, I. M. Sechenov First Moscow Medical Institute. Laboratory of General Pathology of the Nervous System, Research Institute of General Pathology and Pathophysiology, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 111, No. 1, pp. 49–52, January, 1991.     

In vitro evaluation of ablation parameters of normal and fibrous aorta using smooth excimer laser coronary angioplasty

A modified exeimer laser energy delivery system was used to irradiate 100 segments of normal and fibrous aorta in vitro. The laser beam was scanned into 8 fiber bundles consisting of 50 fibers each resulting in a reduction of the applied pulse energy. The total repetition rate was increased to 150 Hz in order to keep the repetition rate per fiber bundle close to 20 Hz and to minimize thermal injury. The results demonstrate that effective ablation (etch rate per 8 pulses > 2.0 μm) occurred at an energy fluency of 50 mJ/mm² in both normal and fibrous aorta. Tissue damage (carbonization, tissue separation, fissures, cracks, and vacuolization) was in a range of 100 ± 28 to 152 ± 30 μm for normal aorta and in a range of 57 ± 35 to 110 ± 39 μm for fibrous aorta. We conclude that effective ablation of normal and fibrous human aorta can be achieved by the application of smooth excimer laser coronary angioplasty. This improvement of excimer laser technology may result in a reduction of shock wave- and cavitation-induced damage leading to a reduction of tissue injury. However, this awaits further in vitro and in vivo confirmation. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Catecholamines in the adrenals of August and Wistar rats with acute emotional stress

Acute emotional stress caused by immobilization and cutaneous electrical stimulation increases the relative weight of adrenals in Wistar rats and decreases it in August rats. The epinephrine and norepinephrine contents of the adrenals in control and stressed August rats are higher than in Wistar rats. Acute stress lowers the levels of these biogenic amines in the adrenals of both strains, particularly in Wistar rats. The left adrenal gland of control and stressed August rats, but not of Wistar rats, has a higher content of biogenic amines than the right, and both adrenals of stressed August rats contained higher dopamine concentrations than those of stressed Wistar rats. Presumably, epinephrine and norepinephrine are resynthesized in the adrenals of stressed August rats at higher rates than they are released from these glands, while the adrenals of Wistar rats respond to stress by rapidly releasing these catecholamines and resynthesizing them at a slow rate. Translated fromByulleten' Eksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 123, No. 6, pp. 645–648, June, 1997     

Infection of the Laboratory Mouse with the Intracellular Pathogen Ehrlichia chaffeensis

To determine the basis of susceptibility and resistance to human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), immunocompetent and immunocompromised mice were infected with Ehrlichia chaffeensis and bacterial loads were measured by PCR and by immunohistochemistry. Immunocompetent (C.B-17 and C57BL/6) mice cleared the bacteria within 10 days, but immunocompromised SCID and SCID/BEIGE mice developed persistent infection in the spleen, liver, peritoneal cavity, brain, lung, and bone marrow and became moribund within 24 days. Both immunocompromised strains lack T and B lymphocytes, but the SCID/BEIGE strain is also deficient in natural killer (NK) cell function. During advanced stages of disease, the infections were associated with wasting, splenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, liver granulomas and necroses, intravascular coagulation, and granulomatous inflammation. Histochemical and immunohistochemical localization studies confirmed the presence of bacteria in tissues, and viable bacteria were cultured from infected animals. The data reveal that T and/or B cells play an essential role during resistance of immunocompetent mice to infection with E. chaffeensis and demonstrate the utility of immunocompromised mice as an experimental model for the study of HME.     

Fiber optic probe for polarized reflectance spectroscopy in vivo: design and performance

We present the design and construction of a fiber optic probe for elastic light scattering spectroscopy in vivo with polarized excitation and polarization sensitive detection. The performance of the fiber probe is evaluated using a suspension of polystyrene spheres placed atop a diffusely scattering substrate, and it demonstrates that the size-dependent characteristics of the scatterers can be extracted in the presence of a highly diffusely scattering background using a linear combination of forward and backward Mie scattering components of the scatterers. Subsequently, Mie theory calculations are performed over a broad range of diagnostically relevant parameters of nuclei-mean diameter, size distribution, and relative refractive index-to understand how the polarized reflectance measurements with the fiber probe can be used to extract morphological information about epithelial tissue. Finally, the feasibility of in vivo measurements with the fiber optic based polarization sensitive light scattering spectroscopy is demonstrated.     

Association of tuberculin-boosted antibody responses with pathology and cell-mediated immunity in cattle vaccinated with Mycobacterium bovis BCG and infected with M. bovis

Vaccine development and our understanding of the pathology of bovine tuberculosis in cattle would be greatly facilitated by definition of the immunological correlates of protection and/or pathology. In this study we analyzed humoral immune responses in Mycobacterium bovis BCG-vaccinated and control cattle (in particular, the relationship between the intradermal comparative tuberculin skin test and serum immunoglobulin G [IgG] responses) against a range of mycobacterial antigens (MPB59, MPB64, MPB70, MPB83, ESAT-6, CFP-10, Acr1, and PstS-1) by multiantigen print immunoassay and conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Following M. bovis infection, the comparative tuberculin skin test strongly boosted IgG, IgG1, and IgG2 antibody responses, particularly against MPB83 and MPB70, in unvaccinated cattle but failed to boost these responses, or did so only weakly, in BCG-vaccinated calves. In addition, the skin test-induced increases in MPB83-specific IgG responses correlated positively with bacterial loads and ESAT-6-induced in vitro gamma interferon responses. In conclusion, both the negative correlation of skin test-enhanced MPB83-specific antibody responses with BCG-induced protection and their positive correlation with bacterial loads can serve as useful markers for vaccine efficacy after challenge.     

Enzymes in polymer chemistry, 5. Radical polymerization of different 11-methacryloylamino-undecanoic acid esters and oligoesters esterfied by lipases

11-Methacryloylaminoundecanoic acid ( 1 ) was esterified with the monoalcohols isobutyl alcohol, cyclohexanol, DL -menthol, cholesterol, testosterone and an excess of 12-hydroxylauric acid in the presence of lipase as catalyst. The kinetics of the esterification reactions were followed by ¹H NMR spectroscopy and the results were correlated with sterical effects. The monomers were polymerized radically. The monomeric 12-hydroxylauric acid oligoester 11 as well as its homopolymer 12 were characterized by DSC and viscosity measurements.     

Multilocus haplotype analyses reveal association between 5 novel IL-15 polymorphisms and asthma

BACKGROUND: IL-15 is a T(H)1-related cytokine that is involved in the inflammatory response in various infectious and autoimmune diseases. IL-15 has recently been shown to be upregulated in T-cell-mediated inflammatory disorders. The observations suggest a potential role for this cytokine in a variety of pathologic conditions, including T(H)1-mediated and T(H)2-mediated inflammatory diseases. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we searched for single nucleotide polymorphisms in the whole IL-15 gene and investigated their association with inflammatory and/or atopic phenotypes. METHODS: The screening for single nucleotide polymorphisms was performed by single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis. Genotyping of the identified polymorphisms was performed by restriction fragment length polymorphism. Genotypic association analysis used the Armitage trend test. Haplotype frequency estimation and subsequent testing for differences between cases and controls were performed by using the programs FASTEHPLUS and FAMHAP. RESULTS: We identified 5 novel noncoding nucleotide sequence variants, all of which were typed in our asthmatic, our atopic, and our control population. According to the Armitage trend test, none of the 5 polymorphisms is associated with the phenotype bronchial asthma or atopy. However, multilocus haplotype analysis based on simulations to find out whether the haplotype frequencies differed between cases and controls by using the program FAMHAP yielded a P value of 6.1 x 10(-5) in the asthmatic versus the control population, which is highly significant. Furthermore, we obtained a nominally significant result of P=.0232 for the atopic versus the control population by using FAMHAP. CONCLUSION: These results strongly underscore previous findings that suggest a potential role of this cytokine in allergic diseases.