Translocation (X;12)(q27;q14) in a lipoma

Cytogenetic analysis by short-term culture of a lipoma from the posterior neck region of a 63-year-old man showed a t(X;12)(q27;q14) as the sole chromosomal abnormality. Rearrangement of band 12q14 is nonrandom in lipomas, although its involvement with a sex chromosome has not been reported earlier.     

Lack of interchangeability between visual analogue and verbal rating pain scales: a cross sectional description of pain etiology groups

Background:  

Rating scales like the visual analogue scale, VAS, and the verbal rating scale, VRS, are often used for pain assessments both in clinical work and in research, despite the lack of a gold standard. Interchangeability of recorded pain intensity captured in the two scales has been discussed earlier, but not in conjunction with taking the influence of pain etiology into consideration.     

Growth rate and sister chromatid exchange (SCE) incidence of bone marrow cells in Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia (AML)

The sister chromatid exchange (SCE) incidence and growth kinetics have been studied by means of an in vitro bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) chromosome labeling method in the bone marrow cells of 17 acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) patients with only diploid cells at diagnosis, remission, and relapse of the disease. At diagnosis, the cells tended to exhibit a low SCE frequency as compared to that during remission. An increased SCE frequency was observed after chemotherapy during remission or relapse. At diagnosis and relapse, when leukemic blast cells predominated in the marrow, they were characterized by the predominance of cells that had undergone only one cell cycle after BrdU exposure. In contrast, the marrow cells during remission tended to resemble the control pattern of growth kinetics, with a predominance of cells undergoing second and third cell cycles in the presence of BrdU. These results suggest that the growth rate of leukemic and nonleukemic cells is different, and that chemotherapy can cause an increased SCE frequency in the marrow cells of AML patients irrespective of the state of the disease.     

Complex cytogenetic changes in benign neoplasms. Report of six lipomas

We report the detailed cytogenetic findings from short-term cultures of six lipomas with complex chromosomal abnormalities. In all six cases, the abnormality occurred in two stages; an initial inversion, translocation, or insertion of the involved chromosome(s) followed by a subsequent rearrangement of the resultant derivative chromosome(s). A striking feature of these rearrangements was the consistent involvement of bands q13 - q14 on chromosome 12 in all the abnormalities. This region has been shown to be specifically rearranged in most of the lipomas studied. The other chromosomes involved in the rearrangements were chromosomes 1 in four cases, 5 and 9 in two cases each, and 2, 3, 4, 7, and 10 in one case each. Our findings and published findings show that, with a few exceptions, benign tumors that were previously considered cytogenetically normal, are characterized not only by specific numerical and structural changes but may also contain complex chromosome rearrangements that are generally considered a hallmark of advanced malignancy. In benign tumors, this suggests that the genes at the region of the breakpoints may represent proliferation-related genes or that benign tumors with such complex aberrations represent neoplasms potentially capable of undergoing transformation to malignancy, or both.     

A Primary Male Autosomal Linkage Map of the Horse Genome

A primary male autosomal linkage map of the domestic horse (Equus caballus) has been developed by segregation analysis of 140 genetic markers within eight half-sib families. The family material comprised four Standardbred trotters and four Icelandic horses, with a total of 263 offspring. The marker set included 121 microsatellite markers, eight protein polymorphisms, five RFLPs, three blood group polymorphisms, two PCR–RFLPs, and one single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP). One hundred markers were arranged into 25 linkage groups, 22 of which could be assigned physically to 18 different chromosomes (ECA1, ECA2, ECA3, ECA4, ECA5, ECA6, ECA7, ECA9, ECA10, ECA11, ECA13, ECA15, ECA16, ECA18, ECA19, ECA21, ECA22, and ECA30). The average distance between linked markers was 12.6 cM and the longest linkage group measured 103 cM. The total map distance contained within linkage groups was 679 cM. If the distances covered outside the ends of linkage groups and by unlinked markers were included, it was estimated that the marker set covered at least 1500 cM, that is, at least 50% of the genome. A comparison of the relationship between genetic and physical distances in anchored linkage groups gave ratios of 0.5–0.8 cM per Mb of DNA. This would suggest that the total male recombinational distance in the horse is 2000 cM; this value is lower than that suggested by chiasma counts. The present map should provide an important framework for future genome mapping in the horse.     

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Nef epitopes recognized in HLA-A2 transgenic mice in response to DNA and peptide immunization

We investigated the immune response against a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) nef DNA sequence administered epidermally in mice transgenic for the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecule HLA-A201. Ten potential HLA-A2 binding 9-mer Nef peptides were identified by a computer-based search algorithm. By a cell surface MHC class I stabilization assay, four peptides were scored as good binders, whereas two peptides bound weakly to HLA-A2. After DNA immunization, cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses were predominantly directed against the Nef 44-52, 81-89, and 85-93 peptides. Interestingly, the 44-52 epitope resides outside the regions of Nef where previously described CTL epitopes are clustered. Dominance among Nef-derived peptides did not strictly correlate with HLA-A2 binding, in that only one of the high-affinity binding peptides was targeted in the CTL response. The 44-52, 85-93, and 139-147 peptides also generated specific CTLs in response to peptide immunization. T helper cell proliferation was detected after stimulation with 20-mer peptides in vitro. Three Nef regions (16-35, 106-125, and 166-185) dominated the T helper cell proliferation. The implications of these results for the development of DNA-based vaccines against HIV is discussed.     

Chromosome changes associated with spontaneous phenotypic variation of transplantable melanoma

The chromosome constitutions of black-melanotic (Ma), brown-melanotic (MI), and amelanotic (Ab) melanomas of the Syrian hamster were compared. The MI and Ab melanomas arose through a spontaneous phenotypic alteration of the Ma tumor. All three variants differ in their growth rates, with MI showing the slowest, Ab the fastest, and Ma intermediate growth rate. Cytogenetic examination revealed that each tumor line shows a distinct karyotype. The Ma tumor is near-diploid, whereas, Ab and MI tumors are hypertriploid and near-tetraploid, respectively. Each tumor line shows a unique set of marker chromosomes, though some markers are shared by two different tumor lines. No single marker chromosome was common for all three melanoma variants. We conclude that the spontaneous phenotypic variation of transplantable hamster melanomas is associated with profound changes in the chromosome constitution of the neoplastic cells. The general direction of these changes is toward increased ploidy and increased complexity of the structural abnormalities.     

Effects of testosterone and prolactin on rat prostatic weight, 5alpha-reductase, and arginase.

Prostatic weights, 5alpha-reductase, and arginase activities were utilized as indexes for the effects of prolactin in short-term experiments in intact, hypophysectomized or castrated rats. Experiments were performed in which a dose-related response in the above parameters was obtained with testosterone administration in castrated mature and immature rats in order to evaluate the effects of simultaneously administered prolactin. This approach was necessitated by the failure of prolactin alone to affect the parameters listed in intact, castrated or hypophysectomized rats. It was shown that ovine prolactin may have an enhancing effect on the prostatic weight, 5alpha-reductase, and arginase activities, but that this effect is neither consistent nor striking when compared to that of testosterone.. Nevertheless, it is still possible that the long-term effects of prolactin, even if they are only of an enhancing quality, may play an important role in normal prostatic physiology and in abnormal states.