Toxocara canis and lead alter consummatory behavior in mice

Ingestion of palatable and unpalatable solutions was measured in adult mice to which had been administered the common parasite of the dog, Toxocara canis alone, or in combination with lead. In addition, response to hot plate and susceptibility to electroconvulsive seizure were also measured. Results from the palatability test indicated that either lead or Toxocara may alter the mouse's mode of interacting with its environment. However, the two agents in combination interacted in their effects on consummatory behavior. Results from the hot plate and ECS measures were less clear with respect to how lead and/or Toxocara influence temperature reactivity and seizure susceptibility. Histological examination of the CNS in parasite infected animals revealed Wallerian Type degeneration of fiber pathways including the corpus callosum, olfactory tract, and cerebellar penduncles.     

CD83+CCR7− Dendritic Cells Accumulate in the Subepithelial Dome and Internalize Translocated Escherichia coli HB101 in the Peyer’s Patches of Ileal Crohn’s Disease

Recurrent Crohn’s disease originates with small erosions in the follicle-associated epithelium overlying the Peyer’s patches. Animal studies have illustrated mucosal immune regulation by dendritic cells located in the subepithelial dome. The aim of this study was to characterize the dendritic cells at this specific site in patients with Crohn’s disease. Ileal tissues were obtained after surgery performed on Crohn’s patients; ileal samples from noninflammatory bowel disease and ulcerative colitis served as standard and inflammatory controls, respectively. Flow cytometry of isolated intestinal mononuclear cells showed a larger subset of dendritic cells in Crohn’s samples compared with controls. This finding was corroborated by confocal microscopy, showing enhanced infiltrates of cells positive for the dendritic cell markers, DC-SIGN⁺ and CD83⁺, in the subepithelial dome. Moreover, the CD83⁺ cells in Crohn’s tissues showed reduced expression of the lymph node migratory receptor, CCR7, possibly contributing to the high numbers of dendritic cells. After exposure to nonpathogenic Escherichia coli in Ussing chambers, dendritic cells in the subepithelial dome of Crohn’s disease demonstrated increased co-localization with translocated bacteria. Immunohistochemical results revealed that DC-SIGN⁺ cells in Crohn’s tissues were found to express toll-like receptor 4 and produce tumor necrosis factor-α. In conclusion, nonmigrating dendritic cells that accumulate in the subepithelial dome and internalize nonpathogenic bacteria may be important for the onset and perpetuation of mucosal inflammation in Crohn’s disease.     

Amniotic fluid-AFP in Down syndrome and other chromosome abnormalities

80.2 Per cent of 111 Down syndrome pregnancies had anmiotic fluid (AF) alpha fetoprotein (AFP) levels on or below the median and 10.8 per cent at or below 0.5 MoM compared with 41.9 and 1.4 per cent of controls. These differences were even more striking when the gestational age was less than 18 weeks compared with greater than or equal to 18 weeks. No such association was seen for other chromosome abnormalities including trisomy 18,45,X and mosaics, 47,XXY,47,XXX, and other structural abnormalities and triploidy, even when high levels due to defects such as omphalocele and cystic hygroma were excluded. All cases of trisomy 13 and 80 per cent with 47,XYY had AF-AFP levels above the median. Selection of cases for karyotyping by a low level of AF-AFP would clearly fail to detect aneuploidies other than Down syndrome and is not recommended. A possible weak association between low maternal serum (MS) and AF-AFPs in Down syndrome was most evident at less than 18 weeks, suggesting that MS screening between 16 and 18 weeks may be the most informative time.     

Social approach-avoidance behavior of inbred mouse strains towards DBA/2 mice

Little is known about the genetics of social approach-avoidance behaviors. We measured social approach-avoidance of prepubescent female C57BL/6J, DBA/2J, FVB/NJ, AKR/J, A/J, and BALB/cJ mice towards prepubescent DBA/2J female mice. C57BL/6J mice showed the greatest predominance of approach, while BALB/cJ mice showed the greatest predominance of avoidance. Thus, this phenotype is affected by spontaneous genetic variation in mice and can be measured in an assay useful for future neurogenetic studies.     

Modification of non-conservative double-strand break (DSB) rejoining activity after the induction of cisplatin resistance in human tumour cells

The induction of collateral radioresistance after the development of cisplatin resistance is a well-documented phenomenon; however, the exact processes that are responsible for the cisplatin-induced radioresistance remain to be elucidated. There was no obvious difference in the level of radiation-induced DNA double strand breaks (DSBs), in DSB rejoining rates, or the level of the catalytic subunit of the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PKcs) in the cisplatin- and radiation-sensitive 2780/WT and cisplatin-resistant 2780/CP cell lines. However, there was a significantly (P < 0.01) lower level of DSB misrejoining activity within nuclear protein extracts derived from the cisplatin- and radiation-sensitive 2780/WT and OAW42/WT tumour cell lines than in similar extracts from their cisplatin- (and radiation-) resistant 2780/CP and OAW42/CP counterparts. All of the DSB misrejoining events involved deletions of between 134 and 444 bp that arose through illegitimate recombination at short repetitive sequences, such as those that arise through non-homologous repair (NHR). These data further support the notion that the radiosensitivity of DSB repair proficient human tumour cell lines may be partly determined by the predisposition of these cell lines to activate non-conservative DSB rejoining pathways. Furthermore, our data suggest that the induction of acquired cisplatin resistance is associated with a two- to threefold decrease in the activity of a non-conservative DSB rejoining mechanism that appears to be a manifestation of NHR.     

Effects of chicken embryo age on time to death following infection by avian influenza viruses: implications for distinguishing highly pathogenic isolates

When white leghorn (WL) chick embryos ranging in age from 8 to 13 days were inoculated with a variety of avian influenza virus (AIV) isolates, strain-specific differences in embryo mean death times (MDT) were observed. Non-highly pathogenic (nHP) strains killed 8 or 9 day-old embryos much more rapidly than 12 or 13 day-old embryos. Highly pathogenic (HP) strains, however, were less sensitive to embryo age resulting in similar MDTs in both older and younger embryos. These observations were consistent over a broad range of virus doses for both HP and nHP strains. When a HP derivative of H5N2 AIV was compared to its nHP parent, the derivative killed older embryos more rapidly than the parent virus, while MDTs in younger embryos were the same for both parent and derivative. The two strains further exhibited clear differences in the structure of their respective hemagglutinin, a previously described pathogenicity determinant for this virus. Thus it may be possible to readily demonstrate the HP phenotype in AIV strains based on MDT measurements in WL embryos.