Symptomatologie und Verlauf der A-Hypervitaminose bei Ratten Infolge Enteraler,Subcutaner und Percutaner Darreichung von Vitamin A-Konzentraten

Ohne ZusammenfassungI. diese Wschr.1938, 777.     

Invasive aspergillosis in autopsy material of patients treated at the Institute of Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases during the years 1993-2000

The aim of this paper is an analysis of clinical documentation and results of autopsy of 21 patients (pts) who died of invasive aspergillosis (IA) in the Institute of Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases in years 1993-2000 and the assessment of predisposing factors for IA. In 17 pts IA was the main and in other 4 only an accessory cause of death. All pts were treated with corticosteroids and/or cytostatic drugs--because of lung cancer (11 pts), cancer in other site (2 pts), haematologic disorders (2 pts), Wegener's granulomatosis (1 pt), polymyositis (1 pt), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (1 pt) and other diseases (3 pts). In 15 out of 21 pts granulocytopenia was revealed (from 0.008 x 10(9)/L to 0.82 x 10(9)/L) on an average one month before death. In 15 pts IA was limited to the lungs, in 6 others there were also fungal lesions in brain, kidneys, liver, spleen and heart. Pts with disseminated form of IA had significantly lower granulocyte count and were treated with higher doses of corticosteroids than others. Immunosuppressive drugs and granulocytopenia can be regarded as predisposing factors. Fatal course of IA depended also on the late diagnosis.     

The development of the tongue and morphological and cytological changes in taste discs of Rana esculenta

From the 38th developmental stage of the tadpole of Rana esculenta the process of tongue formation consists in the fast growth of the lining of the oral cavity floor anteriorly and faucially. This process is accompanied by the development of taste organs on the dorsal side of the tongue. At developmental stages 39-42 taste disc anlages are covered by a layer of ordinary epithelial cells. At these stages, in some cells of a taste disc single synaptic-like vesicles with an electron-dense core appear. Apart from that, as early as at stage 42 differentiation of the cells of a taste disc can be observed at the ultrastructural level. It is only at the 44th stage that all cell types characteristic for the mature TD can be distinguished in TEM (i.e., taste cells, basal cells and three kinds of associate cells: mucous, wing and sustentacular). Starting from that stage changes in the cell membrane can be observed indicating the presence of afferent synaptic junctions. The antibody used in the experiment was raised against neuron-specific enolase (NSE). At each of the developmental stages investigated (38, 42, 45) nerve fibres within the connective tissue beneath the epithelium of a taste disc anlage were immunopositive for NSE. From stage 42 onwards neural elements present in the basal part of the epithelium of a taste disc anlage were also NSE-positive. Basal cells did not show immuno-reactivity for NSE at any of the developmental stages investigated.     

Lung cancer--differences of incidence between the sexes

During the last decade increasing incidence of lung cancer among women have been observed in Poland. The aim of the study was to demonstrate differences among men and women with lung cancer. Lung cancer was diagnosed in 785 female and 4619 male in 1995 in Pulmonary Outpatients Departments. Women were younger than man when all histologic types of lung cancer were analysed (59.7 vs 61.9 years p. < 0.001). Particularly younger subjects were those with adenocarcinoma and small cell lung cancer (56.9 and 57.4 years for women and for men respectively 60.2 and 59.6 years, p < 0.001). Although squamous lung cancer was the most prevalent histological type among men (43.7%) and women (24.7%), about two times higher percentage of men had this neoplasm (p. < 0.001). Adenocarcinoma (18% vs 6.6%, p. < 0.001) and small cell lung cancer (18.5% vs 15.5% p. < 0.001) were prevalent in significantly higher percentage among female than male. Nonsmokers were more frequently noticed among women then men (20.4% vs. 1.9%, p. < 0.001), particularly those with adenocarcinoma. Also women smoked less intensively (33.6 pack/years vs. 42.3 pack/years, p < 0.001) except those with squamous cancer. The higher incidence of cancer was observed among mothers (7% vs 3.8% p. < 0.001) and fathers (7.1% vs 5.6%, p. < 0.001) of women than men with lung cancer.     

Poly(oxyethylene)s terminated at both ends with phosphonium ion end groups, 2. Properties

Poly(oxyethylene)s with number-average degrees of polymerization (DP_n) ranging from ≈ 6 to ≈ 80, terminated at both ends with phosphonium ion end groups (diionic poly-EO), have been prepared and characterized as described in the preceding paper. Viscosities of diionic poly-EO were measured, both in solution and in bulk. In chloroform solution, at low concentration (< 1 g/100 mL), the viscosity of diionic poly-EO was lower than the viscosity of nonionic (terminated with HO-groups) poly-EO of the same DP_n. At higher concentrations, the viscosity of diionic poly-EO exceeded that of nonionic poly-EO and increased sharply with increasing concentration. At the constant weight concentration of ≈4 g/100 mL, the viscosities of short-chain diionic poly-EO were higher and those of longer chain diionic poly-EO were lower than the viscosities of the nonionic poly-EO of the same chain lengths. These results were attributed to a predominant intramolecular aggregation of terminal ionic groups at low concentration of ionic groups in solution and predominant intermolecular aggregation at higher concentration of ionic groups. The results of bulk viscosity measurements as well as the results of differential scanning calorimetry measurements of the dependence of the glass transition temperature on the DP_n of diionic poly-EO indicated that in bulk physically cross-linked networks were formed, due to intermolecular aggregation of terminal ionic groups.     

Polymerization of 3,3-bis (chloromethyl) oxetane catalyzed by i-Bu3Al in bulk. I. The conditions of high polymer formation

The high temperature (up to 220°C.) polymerization of 3,3-bis(chloromethyl)oxetane catalyzed by i-Bu₃Al was investigated. The conversion-time curves are of the autocatalytic type and the molecular weight increases lineary with conversion up to the point at which for lower temperatures, e.g. 60–80°C., the whole polymer becomes insoluble. An alternative explanation of this phenomenon is proposed; the formation of insoluble product is related to the entanglement of macromolecules of very high molecular weight and or macrocycle formation in the degradative chain transfer to polymer. The phenomenon of insoluble products formation was never observed at higher temperatures (> 150°C.). The dependence of molecular weight on catalyst and impurity concentrations as well as on the polymerization temperature was investigated. It was shown that the high molecular weight product (\documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$\overline {DP}$\end{document} = 1000–1500) can be produced at 180–220°C. even at rather high impurity level.     

Palmitic acid metabolism in the soleus muscle in vitro in hypo- and hyperthyroid rats

The aim of this study was to establish whether the rate of fatty acid (FA) incorporation and its utilization by the isolated soleus muscle is modified under conditions of thyroid hormone deficit or excess. The rate of palmitic acid (PA) uptake, oxidation and incorporation into intramuscular lipids with increasing PA concentration (0.5–1.5 mM) in the incubation medium were determined. In hypothyroid rats intramuscular triacylglycerol (TG) synthesis was increased, while the rate of PA oxidation to CO₂ and incorporation into mono- and diacylglycerols (MG/DG) and phospholipids (PL) remained unchanged. In rats with triiodothyronine (T₃) excess the rate of all processes studied was enhanced, although the percentage incorporation of PA into different classes of intramuscular lipids was fairly constant and, independently of thyroid state and FA concentration in the medium, was 56–66% for TG, 9-14% for MG/DG and 24–32% for PL. Our results thus indicate that even short-term T₃ excess accelerates the rate of FA uptake and metabolism in the oxidative soleus muscle, whereas in hypothyroid rats only intramuscular TG synthesis is affected.     

Up-regulation of tRNA biosynthesis affects translational readthrough in maf1-delta mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Maf1p is a negative effector of RNA polymerase III in yeast. The maf1-delta mutation caused an increase in the level of cellular tRNAs, but a decrease of translational readthrough at nonsense codons. Using the lacZ- luc dual gene reporter system, we detected an almost twofold diminution of UAA and UAG readthrough in maf1-delta compared with the parental strain. The maf1-delta mutation did not affect the rate of protein biosynthesis and growth at standard conditions, but resulted in temperature-sensitive growth on non-fermentable carbon sources. We examined the correlation of the temperature sensitive and antisuppression phenotypes of maf1- Delta using a colour phenotype assay in the ade2-1 SUP11 strain. Antisuppression, but not the temperature-sensitive growth defect, was compensated either by increased dosage of SUP11or by [PSI(+)], the prion form of the translation termination factor Sup35p. Summarizing, the elevated tRNA levels in maf1- Delta increase translational fidelity and, independently, affect growth under special conditions.     

Effects of social rearing conditions on conditioned suppression in rats

Twenty-two rats were reared in standard conditions during the first two months of their life. Then the animals were divided into two groups exposed to different rearing conditions. Twelve animals (Group SO) were housed socially, six animals per cage, and for three weeks they were subjected to sensory stimulation in an enriched environment. The other ten subjects were kept individually (Group IN); one rat per mesh cage, in conditions of relatively impoverished sensory stimulation. In both groups the training of the conditioned emotional response (CER) was performed when animals were three months old. In contrast to IN subjects, the rats subjected to permanent social contacts and reared in the enriched environment (Group SO) revealed almost equally low instrumental response rates in trials with the conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with nociceptive foot-shock (US), and in periods when no CS and/or US were applied. The results suggested that early exposure to an enriched environment caused a later decrease of the animals' capability to differentiate between the aversive CS and cues of the experimental context. This cognitive impairment was probably a secondary effect of fear generalized to the entire experimental situation.     

Metastatic potential of human CX-1 colon adenocarcinoma cells is dependent on the expression of sialosyl Le a antigen

Several lines of evidence indicate that sialosyl Le a , tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen present on human colon carcinoma cells, is involved in formation of metastases. To study the role of this carbohydrate structure in development of metastases, we have used the clone of human colon carcinoma CX-1 cells transfected with antisense expression vector containing fragment of cDNA for a1,3/4-fucosyltransferase (FT III), which is involved in synthesis of sialosyl Le a tetrasaccharide. It has been reported previously that, in contrast to the parental cells, the antisense-transfected CX-1.1AS5 cells do not express sialosyl Le a and do not adhere to E-selectin-expressing CHO cells. In the present work we have studied the formation of liver metastases by CX-1.1AS5 cells after their orthotopic or intrasplenic implantation into athymic nu/nu mice. After orthotopic implantation of sialosyl Le a -negative colon carcinoma CX-1.1AS5 cells, the number of mice with liver metas-tases was markedly lower (21% of mice) in comparison with their number after implantation of the parental CX-1.1 cells (86% of mice). However, no differences in ability to form colonies in liver were observed between parental CX-1.1 cells and antisense-transfected CX-1.1AS5 cells after intrasplenic inoculation. The liver metastases were formed in 89% and 84% of mice, respectively. Our data support the thesis on the importance of sialosyl Le a antigen expression in the development of liver metastases by colon cancer cells, and indicate the role of transplantation route and primary tumor localization in formation of metastases.© Kluwer Academic Publishers 1998