Cardiorespiratory fitness and body mass index values in 9-year-old rural Norwegian children

Aim: To describe cardiorespiratory fitness and body mass index (BMI) values in a representative population of 9-year-old Norwegian children in two rural communities and compare present values with previous findings.
Methods: Two hundred and fifty-nine 9-year-old children were invited, and 256 participated in this study. Maximal oxygen uptake was directly measured during a continuous progressive treadmill protocol. Body mass and height were also measured.
Results: The mean ± SD relative maximal oxygen uptake was 52.8 ± 6.5 for boys and 46.9 ± 7.2 mL/kg/min for girls. Eight percent of the boys and 16.8% of the girls were classified as overweight, and 1.6% of the boys and 6.9% of the girls as obese. Mean age, body mass, height and Ponderal index were not significantly different between sexes. Girls had a higher BMI than boys (p = 0.05).
Conclusion: Compared to earlier Norwegian studies, children's BMI values seem to have increased substantially. This increase is most pronounced in girls. When assessing these differences using the PI, this increase is less marked. Comparing maximal oxygen uptake data with that in earlier Nordic studies, there is no evidence that fitness has declined among 9-year olds. However, the limitations of the few earlier studies make reliable comparisons difficult.     

Acute haemodynamic effects of oestrogen administration in male patients with chronic heart failure

BACKGROUND: Although there are many studies concerning the effects of long-term oestrogen administration on systemic haemodynamics in postmenopausal women, the effects of oestrogen in patients with chronic heart failure are not defined. AIM: The goal of this study was to evaluate the acute haemodynamic effects of oestrogen in male patients with chronic heart failure. METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied 15 men with advanced heart failure (NYHA II-IV, EF < 35%). A Swan-Ganz thermodilution catheter was advanced in their pulmonary artery and central haemodynamics were assessed at baseline, after placebo administration, and following 0.625 and 1.25 mg of oestrogen infusion. Simultaneously, all patients underwent limb plethysmography. Analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to compare the sequential measurements. Following oestrogen administration, right atrial, pulmonary artery and pulmonary capillary wedge pressures, as well as systemic, pulmonary and forearm vascular resistance were decreased; cardiac output, cardiac index, stroke volume, stroke volume index, stroke work index and forearm blood flow were increased. CONCLUSIONS: In male patients with chronic heart failure, acute oestrogen administration improves the indices of cardiac systolic performance and decreases pulmonary and systemic vascular resistance. These findings imply a beneficial effect of oestrogen in selected patients with chronic heart failure.     

Radiologically guided balloon dilation of gastrointestinal strictures. Part I. Technique and factors influencing procedural success

Radiologically guided balloon catheters were used to dilate 94 gastrointestinal strictures in 92 patients over a 6-year period. Fifty strictures were esophageal and 44 nonesophageal (22 gastroenterostomies, 11 antral-pyloric strictures, four colorectal strictures, four enteroenterostomies, and three miscellaneous strictures). Factors influencing the success of stricture intubation included patient age, stricture location (esophageal vs. nonesophageal and proximal vs. distal esophageal), and association with a surgical anastomosis. Malignancy was associated with greater postdilation irregularity and a smaller increase in stricture diameter, as measured radiographically. Procedural failures occurred in 8% of cases (2% of esophageal and 30% of nonesophageal lesions). Two small, asymptomatic mucosal tears were seen after dilation (one esophageal and one colonic); no other procedural complications occurred. Following successful dilation, 16 patients (17%; six with esophageal and ten with non-esophageal strictures) had recurrence of symptoms during short-term (30-day) follow-up.     

Flunarizine in Migraine Prophylaxis: An Indian Trial

Flunarizine, a calcium channel blocker is considered useful in migraine prophylaxis. We report the first Indian trial with this drug. Fifteen patients with migraine were studied in a 6 months double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial. Flunarizine was superior to placebo in reducing the severity and duration of the individual attacks though there was no statistically significant effect on frequency of migraine attacks. The side effects most frequently caused by flunarizine were weight gain and daytime sleepiness.     

Carrier-directed anti-hapten responses by b-cell subsets

The capacity of the trinitrophenyl (TNP) haptenic group, coupled to a series of chemically dissimilar carriers, to cross-stimulate putative T- dependent and T-independent murine B-cell subpepulations was determined by using an in vitro limiting dilution technique to generate primary IgM responses. It was found that TNP-Ficoll and TNP-dextran, two T- independent antigens with little or no polyclonal mitogenicity, stimulate the same population of anti-TNP precursors, which is distinct from the precursor population activated by TNP-bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a T-independent polyclonal mitogen, or TNP-horse erythrocytes (HRBC), a T-dependent antigen. On the other hand, TNP-LPS and TNP-HRBC activate the same precursor population, indicating that LPS can substitute for the T- cell signal in T-dependent B-cell responses, whereas nonmitogenic T- independent antigens cannot. However, the cumulative evidence from this and other laboratories strongly indicates that LPS and T-dependent antigens activate B cells by different mechanisms. Of particular interest, LPS is incapable of activating B cells responsive to weakly- or nonmitogenic T-independent antigens. Based on clonal burst size, T-dependent antigens are capable of inducing greater antigen-specific B-cell proliferation than T-independent antigens. However, TNP conjugates of Ficoll and dextran, which are relatively poor inducers of polyclonal B-cell activation, induced larger anti-TNP clones than did TNP-LPS, a strong polyclonal mitogen. The findings reinforce the evidence favoring existence of multiple B- cell subpopulations with distinctive activation pathways. They also strengthen the proposition that a given B-cell subset can be activated by more than one mechanism.     

血管内皮细胞生长因子受体KDR基因靶向RNA干扰质粒的构建

目的:应用RNA干扰技术设计构建针对血管内皮细胞生长因子受体KDR的小干扰RNA,并观察脂质体转染肺癌细胞A549后的干扰效果。方法:实验于2005-03/2006-01在沈阳医学院生物化学及分子生物学教研室完成。①设计针对KDR编码区有短发夹结构的3条mRNA序列,经退火成互补双链,克隆到pGCsi.H1/neo/GFP载体中构建3个重组质粒,分别命名为KDR-siRNA1、KDR-siRNA2和KDR-siRNA3。②设立5组:小干扰RNA组,分别转染KDR-siRNA1、KDR-siRNA2和KDR-siRNA3;阳性对照组,转染pGCsi.H1/neo/siGFP,该质粒载体中的插入序列为针对绿色荧光蛋白的小干扰RNA,不干扰待研究的内源性基因;阴性对照组,转染pGCsi.H1/neo/GFP/NON,该载体为不干扰任何内源性基因的小干扰RNA;空白对照组,转染pGCsi.H1/neo/GFP空载体;正常对照组,不进行任何转染。③对重组质粒进行酶切鉴定、DNA测序分析;脂质体法转染质粒至肺癌A549细胞株后,实时定量PCR检测KDRmRNA的水平变化;细胞计数法绘制细胞生长曲线。结果:①小干扰RNA表达载体的鉴定:KDR-siRNA1、KDR-siRNA2和KDR-siRNA3表达载体用限制性内切酶NdeⅠ和SmaⅠ进行单酶切后,均产生约713bp、5480bp和2403bp、3790bp两个片段,与预期结果相同。测序结果与设计的编码相应短发夹状KDR-小干扰RNA的寡核苷酸序列一致,证明KDR-小干扰RNA真核表达载体构建成功。②KDR-小干扰RNA对A549细胞中KDRmRNA水平的影响:与阳性对照组、阴性对照组、空白对照组和正常对照组的A549细胞相比,KDR-siRNA1,2,3表达载体转染后的A549细胞KDR基因表达水平均明显受到抑制,抑制率分别为64%、81%和72%,其中以KDR-siRNA2抑制作用最为明显。③KDR-小干扰RNA对A549细胞生长的影响:阳性对照组、阴性对照组、空白对照组、正常对照组的A549细胞生长趋势较为一致,且生长速度均明显高于转染3种KDR-小干扰RNA表达载体的A549细胞,从接种第2天开始差异有显著性意义(t=15.29～17.65,P均<0.01)。结论:血管内皮细胞生长因子受体KDR靶向RNA干扰重组质粒构建成功,该载体能有效抑制肺癌A549细胞KDR基因表达与细胞增殖。