Widespread serum amyloid P immunoreactivity in cortical amyloid deposits and the neurofibrillary pathology of Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative disorders

Amyloid P (AP) component is present in all types of systemic amyloid deposits. Recently, it has been shown to be also present in cerebral amyloid lesions of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we used immunocytochemical methods to extend these findings at the electron microscope level and characterize the spectrum of AP immunoreactivity in neurofibrillary pathology (NFP) of AD and other neurodegenerative disorders including Down's syndrome (DS), Creutzfeldt-Jakob, Parkinson's, Pick's and diffuse Lewy body diseases and progressive supranuclear palsy. In AD and DS, AP immunoreaction product was evident in all the classical amyloid lesions and NFP in a large sample of all cortical areas examined. The distribution and relative intensity of immunostaining was similar to that of thioflavin S staining in serial sections. In many cases, however, plaques and vessels stained by anti-AP serum were not apparent with thioflavin S. Serial sections immunostained with antiserum to amyloid A, C-reactive protein or to other proteins involved in systemic amyloidoses and the acute phase response showed no evidence of staining in any of the cerebral lesions. Electron microscopy confirmed that AP immunoreactivity was associated with the abnormal filaments characteristic of NFP as well as amyloid fibrils found in plaques and vessels showing congophilic amyloid angiopathy. Plaques of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Pick bodies of Pick's disease, tangles and Lewy bodies in Parkinson's disease and a subpopulation of Lewy bodies in the diffuse Lewy body disease coexistent with AD were also stained. With the exception of vessels in two of the five cases, AP was not detected in age-matched controls. Our observations indicate AP to be a consistent feature of cerebral NFP and amyloid deposits.     

Minimizing macrovessel signal in cerebral perfusion imaging using independent component analysis.

The pronounced susceptibility effect of macrovessels in MR bolus-tracking studies induces spots of artificially high blood flow and volume in perfusion parameter images. These high-intensity regions impede the detection of perfusion changes and lead to elevated perfusion parameters in adjacent tissues. The purpose of this work was to explore postprocessing methods to reduce the influence of macrovessel signal in dynamic MRI. After data reduction was performed with the use of a principal component analysis (PCA), an independent component analysis (ICA) was applied to separate signal components of different compartments. Based on this decomposition, the dynamic time series were reconstructed with minimized contributions of macrovessel signal and noise. The influence of the temporal resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the source data were investigated by means of a simulation study. A region-of-interest (ROI)-based analysis of corrected and uncorrected in vivo data demonstrated that the influence of arteries and veins was reduced at least by 50%, while gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) tissues were nearly unaffected by the correction process. Hemodynamic parameter images of the cerebral blood volume (CBV), cerebral blood flow (CBF), and mean transit time (MTT) were calculated from corrected and uncorrected scans. The corrected parameter images showed a clearly reduced macrovessel signal and an improved perceptibility of microvascular perfusion changes compared to the uncorrected ones.     

Secretion and function of the third component of complement (C3) by murine leukocytes.

Our new finding of de novo synthesis and secretion of C3 by both murine peritoneal macrophages and polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) was confirmed by the incorporation of [35S]methionine into C3 molecules and their complete inhibition by cycloheximide. The methods of secretion of C3 from these two types of cells were compared by examining the C3 contents in their culture supernatants. Completely different modes of secretion were observed, i.e. although macrophages synthesize and secrete C3 constitutively, PMN has a mechanism to store the already synthesized C3 in the cell and secrete it in response to stimuli. Protein kinase C (PKC) activators, e.g. 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol 13-acetate, dioctanoyl glycerol, and mezerein, as well as calcium ionophore A23187 stimulate the secretion of C3 from PMN. These results suggest the involvement of PKC and the calmodulin pathway. A very sensitive method for measuring C3 activity was developed which enabled us to show for the first time that C3 secreted by PMN had opsonizing activity and that particles cultured with PMN were phagocytosed effectively.     

茶叶多糖的研究进展

茶叶多糖是一种复合杂多糖，具有许多生物活性。作者系统地介绍了茶叶多糖的提取、分离、纯化、纯度鉴定及相对分子质量测定的方法，以及其含量和组成、理化性质、化学结构及空间构象、生物活性等方面的研究进展，并对上述方法及研究进展进行了分析和评述。     

青豌豆气调包装工艺及其质量评价

摘要：包装内气氛与包装材料选择性透气性是影响果蔬气调包装质量的主要因素。对青豌豆采用6组不同初始气体组分、3种包装材料进行气调包装，在5℃，相对湿度85％的环境下贮藏7d后，测定青豌豆的相关质量指标，并与未包装产品进行比较，结果表明气调包装对青豌豆保鲜效果显著；在此基础上，用主成分分析法构造了气调包装产品质量的综合评价模型，对气调包装青豌豆质量进行综合评价，得出青豌豆气调包装的最佳初始气体组分，分析了不同包装材料对青豌豆气调包装质量的影响。     

吸附澄清法在中药水提液澄清中的应用研究

采用吸附澄清法使中药水提液澄清,从工艺稳定性,成分分析,药效学实验及效益分析四方面分析了两种工艺,吸附澄清法同水提醇沉法相比,能更有效地保留中药总固体物含量及有效成分,提高制剂成品的内在质量;成品稳定性好;成本低;生产周期短;劳动强度低,可望产生良好的社会经济效益。     

Plasma kinetics of 125I-labelled amyloid P component in {beta}2M amyloidosis: A possible approach to quantitate disease activity

Dialysis amyloidosis is one of the most incapacitating complicationsof long-term dialysis treatment. Quantitative assessment ofamyloid deposition using radiolabelled tracers has been recentlyproposed but convincing evidence of its validity in uraemicpatients remains to be provided. We studied the plasma kineticsof i.v. administered ¹²⁵I-labelled serum amyloid P component(¹²⁵I-SAP) in 20 chronic haemodialysis patients compared withthose of nine healthy volunteers and three non-dialysed patientswith systemic amyloidosis. Plasma clearance of the tracer wasabnormal in 17 of 20 dialysis patients in whom plasma radioactivitydeclined in a bi-exponential mode, in contrast to the single-exponentialslope observed in all healthy controls. ¹²⁵I-SAP plasma half-lifeof the second component, probably reflecting metabolic clearance,was significantly prolonged in these dialysis patients comparedwith the healthy controls (35.3 versus 24.6 h, P<0.001).Among the long-term haemodialysis patients the calculated extravasculardistribution of ¹²⁵I-SAP was significantly greater in thosewith severe arthropathy than in asymptomatic patients. Thesefindings demonstrate for the first time that SAP clearance isdisturbed in haemodialysis patients due to both failing renalelimination and retention in extravascular sites. The extravasculardiffusion is greatly enhanced in patients with clinical evidenceof amyloidosis. Therefore the study of plasma ¹²⁵I-SAP kineticspromises to be a valuable tool to quantitate the extent of amyloidosis.     

The inheritance of microstructure variation in the song of four generations of Roller canaries

The microstructure of the calls and songs of four generations of Roller canaries was analyzed and compared. Many of the characteristics of the internal structure of the syllable show distributions in the progeny that suggest quantitative inheritance. The presence or absence of an underharmonic and the presence of a block underharmonic show a qualitative type of inheritance.     

Ethylene–Propylene Copolymerisations: Effect of Metallocene Structure on Termination Reactions and Polymer Microstructure

Summary: Ethylene–propylene (EP) copolymerisations were performed with two sterically different metallocenes activated by methylaluminoxane (MAO) in an attempt to better understand the effect of catalyst structure on termination reactions and polymer microstructure. The metallocene precursors under investigation were rac‐dimethylsilylbis(2‐methyl‐4‐phenyl‐1‐indenyl)zirconium dichloride ( 1 ) and a more sterically hindered counterpart rac‐dimethylsilylbis(2‐isopropyl‐4‐[3,5‐dimethylphenyl]indenyl) zirconium dichloride ( 2 ). For both catalyst systems, the most common termination mechanism was chain transfer to aluminium. In addition, for polymer samples polymerised with 1 /MAO, chain growth was terminated by chain transfer to Zr metal in propylene‐rich polymerisations and by chain transfer to ethylene monomer in ethylene‐rich polymerisations. The steric hindrance of 2 was able to suppress the chain transfer to the ethylene monomer, and chain transfer to Zr metal was also found in the ethylene‐rich polymerisations. The greater steric hindrance of 2 also affected the EP copolymer microstructure: regioregularity in the propylene‐rich copolymers was greater and isotacticity less with 2 /MAO than with 1 /MAO.

The catalyst precursors used: rac‐dimethylsilylbis(2‐methyl‐4‐phenyl‐1‐indenyl)zirconium dichloride ( 1 ) and rac‐dimethylsilylbis(2‐isopropyl‐4‐[3,5‐dimethylphenyl]indenyl) zirconium dichloride ( 2 ).