Adaptive changes in early and late blind: a FMRI study of verb generation to heard nouns

Literacy for blind people requires learning Braille. Along with others, we have shown that reading Braille activates visual cortex. This includes striate cortex (V1), i.e., banks of calcarine sulcus, and several higher visual areas in lingual, fusiform, cuneus, lateral occipital, inferior temporal, and middle temporal gyri. The spatial extent and magnitude of magnetic resonance (MR) signals in visual cortex is greatest for those who became blind early in life. Individuals who lost sight as adults, and subsequently learned Braille, still exhibited activity in some of the same visual cortex regions, especially V1. These findings suggest these visual cortex regions become adapted to processing tactile information and that this cross-modal neural change might support Braille literacy. Here we tested the alternative hypothesis that these regions directly respond to linguistic aspects of a task. Accordingly, language task performance by blind persons should activate the same visual cortex regions regardless of input modality. Specifically, visual cortex activity in blind people ought to arise during a language task involving heard words. Eight early blind, six late blind, and eight sighted subjects were studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during covert generation of verbs to heard nouns. The control task was passive listening to indecipherable sounds (reverse words) matched to the nouns in sound intensity, duration, and spectral content. Functional responses were analyzed at the level of individual subjects using methods based on the general linear model and at the group level, using voxel based ANOVA and t-test analyses. Blind and sighted subjects showed comparable activation of language areas in left inferior frontal, dorsolateral prefrontal, and left posterior superior temporal gyri. The main distinction was bilateral, left dominant activation of the same visual cortex regions previously noted with Braille reading in all blind subjects. The spatial extent and magnitude of responses was greatest on the left in early blind individuals. Responses in the late blind group mostly were confined to V1 and nearby portions of the lingual and fusiform gyri. These results confirm the presence of adaptations in visual cortex of blind people but argue against the notion that this activity during Braille reading represents somatosensory (haptic) processing. Rather, we suggest that these responses can be most parsimoniously explained in terms of linguistic operations. It remains possible that these responses represent adaptations which initially are for processing either sound or touch, but which are later generalized to the other modality during acquisition of Braille reading skills.     

Accumulation of arachidonate in triacylglycerols and unesterified fatty acids during ischemia and reflow in the isolated rat heart. Correlation with the loss of contractile function and the development of calcium overload.

Alterations in triacylglycerol and phospholipid metabolism are known to occur during the evolution of myocardial ischemic injury. The purpose of this study was to explore potential relationships between the accumulation of arachidonic acid and other fatty acids, the accumulation of triacylglycerol, and the progression of myocardial injury. Measurements of the fatty acid levels in triacylglycerol, unesterified fatty acids, and calcium content were correlated with myocardial function during ischemia and ischemia with reflow in an isolated perfused rat heart preparation. After 10 minutes of ischemia in this model, myocardial dysfunction was reversible, with recovery of left ventricular +dP/dt to 82.0% +/- 4.8% of control values upon reperfusion. Hearts did not recover with reperfusion after 30 minutes of ischemia and displayed a significant increase in tissue calcium content. A significant, nearly threefold increase in the arachidonic acid content of triacylglycerol was found after 10 minutes of ischemia and continued to increase with longer periods of ischemia and reflow. Other fatty acids also showed increased levels in triacylglycerol. The time course of accumulation of unesterified arachidonic acid paralleled the loss of myocardial function. Levels of free arachidonic acid were (in nanomoles per gram wet weight) 11.1 +/- 2.1 (SEM) for control hearts, 17.3 +/- 1.9 after 10 minutes of ischemia, and 38.4 +/- 2.5 after 30 minutes of ischemia. Increases in other free fatty acids contributed to a significant increase in total free fatty acid accumulation after 30 minutes of ischemia. Thus, the content of arachidonic and other fatty acids in triacylglycerol was found to increase early during ischemia, and a major increase in free arachidonic and other unesterified fatty acids occurred after a longer period of ischemia. These findings are consistent with an initial reincorporation of free fatty acids into triacylglycerol after release from membrane phospholipids, suggesting that membrane fatty acids may be a major source of triacylglycerol that accumulates in ischemic myocardium. In addition, these results suggest that a major increase in free fatty acids during ischemia and ischemia with reflow correlates temporally with the development of severe contractile dysfunction and accumulation of calcium in the heart.     

Use of the Doppler flowmeter in stroke prevention.

The directional Doppler flowmeter can be used to identify collateral patterns of extracanial arterial blood flow that are associated with hemodynamically significant lesions of the internal carotid artery. The use of this non-invasive technique can identify accurately those patients who are candidates for angiographic confirmation.     

Effects of placental tissue on immunological responses

Using in vivo assays for alloreactivity, the responsiveness of maternal lymph node cells was shown to be increased when cells were harvested from both syngeneically and allogeneically pregnant mice. In addition, foetal liver and thymus cells induced a state of delayed type hypersensitivity to alloantigens whereas trophoblastic tissue, in the form of 12 to 15 day metrial glands, did not.

The influence of mouse placenta on in vitro immune responses was tested using 7-day ectoplacental cones as sources of trophoblastic tissue. Ectoplacental cones increased a T cell dependent but not a T cell independent antibody response, whereas T cell dependent cytotoxicity was reduced. The findings reported in this paper suggest that murine ectoplacental cones are a particularly useful tissue with which to study both specific and non-specific immunological activities of the trophoblast in syngeneic and allogeneic pregnancies.

     

Mucin is produced by clara cells in the proximal airways of antigen-challenged mice

Airway mucus hypersecretion is a prominent feature of many obstructive lung diseases. We thus determined the ontogeny and exocytic phenotype of mouse airway mucous cells. In naive mice, ciliated (approximately 40%) and nonciliated (approximately 60%) epithelial cells line the airways, and > 95% of the nonciliated cells are Clara cells that contain Clara cell secretory protein (CCSP). Mucous cells comprise < 5% of the nonciliated cells. After sensitization and a single aerosol antigen challenge, alcian blue-periodic acid Schiff's positive mucous cell numbers increase dramatically, appearing 6 h after challenge (21% of nonciliated/nonbasal cells), peaking from Days 1-7 (99%), and persisting at Day 28 (65%). Throughout the induction and resolution of mucous metaplasia, ciliated and Clara cell numbers identified immunohistochemically change only slightly. Intracellular mucin content peaks at Day 7, and mucin expression is limited specifically to a Clara cell subset in airway generations 2-4 that continue to express CCSP. Functionally, Clara cells are secretory cells that express the regulated exocytic marker Rab3D and, in antigen-challenged mice, rapidly secrete mucin in response to inhaled ATP in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, Clara cells show great plasticity in structure and secretory products, yet have molecular and functional continuity in their identity as specialized apical secretory cells.     

Antigens of Streptococcus sanguis

An antigenic analysis of the alpha-hemolytic streptococci isolated from dental plaque was performed by use of antisera against a strain of Streptococcus sanguis (M-5) which was isolated from dental plaque. Immunoelectrophoretic and Ouchterlony tests of Rantz and Randall extracts of 45 strains gave positive reactions with the M-5 antisera. These strains represented 60% of the strains tested. The number of antigens which could be identified in these extracts varied from one to five and were designated a to e. The a antigen was found in 36 of the strains tested, including reference strains of S. sanguis and the group H streptococci. The strains reacting with the M-5 antisera were divided into two majors types: type I consisted of 23 strains in which the a antigen was found alone or with one or more of the c, d, and e antigens; type II consisted of 13 strains in which both the a and b antigens were found with or without one or more of the c, d, and e antigens. The remaining strains contained, either singly or in combination, the b, c, d, and e antigens but not the a antigen. Biochemical tests of representatives of each serotype and reference strains indicated that strains reacting with M-5 antisera were S. sanguis. These findings suggest that S. sanguis strains share common physiological and serological properties.