Brain perfusion territory imaging applying oblique-plane arterial spin labeling with a standard send/receive head coil.

A new method for the selective spin labeling of left- or right-sided supplying arteries of the brain without the need for additional RF coils is demonstrated. A clinical 1.5 T scanner was used. The spatial selectivity of the labeling process is based on the limited coverage of the excitation field of a standard send/receive head coil together with an oblique positioning of the labeling plane. A computer simulation was used to optimize key labeling parameters under the condition of laminar flow. The validity of the computer model results was confirmed by MRI measurements with a flow model. For human studies, a double-inversion continuous arterial spin labeling (CASL) sequence was modified to allow for arbitrary positioning of the labeling plane. The obtained perfusion-weighted images showed a clear delineation of the perfusion territories of the selected arteries in the anterior circulation of the brain and good gray/white matter contrast.     

Nonlinear excitation profiles for three-dimensional inflow MR angiography

An RF excitation pulse for three-dimensional (3D) time-of-flight (TOP) MR angiography (MRA) with a nonlinear excitation profile was numerically calculated under the condition of uniform vessel signal across the excitation volume (slab), and the superiority of the optform pulse as compared with conventional RF pulses and TONE pulses was demonstrated. For this purpose we acquired MRA of the lower leg and of the carotid and vertebral arteries in a 30-year-old healthy volunteer. Although the flow velocity ranges in these two anatomic locations are different by about a factor of 10, in both cases the corresponding optform pulse provided the best signal homogeneity at the highest level.     

Protection of the ischemic myocardium from reperfusion injury by prostaglandin E1 inhibition of ischemia-induced neutrophil activation

Summary This study investigates the action of intravenous PGE₁ on myocardial reperfusion injury and the possible involvement of antineutrophil activities. Cats were subjected to 3 h of temporary ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery, followed by 2 h of reperfusion. Animals were treated with PGE₁ (5 g/kg x min) or vehicle (saline solution), starting 0.5 h after coronary artery occlusion. Vehicle-treated cats exhibited a significant loss of cardiac creatine phosphokinase specific activity at 5 h, accompanied by a significant ischemia-induced rise in the ST segment of the ECG and development of a Q wave after starting reperfusion. All of these alterations were largely prevented by PGE₁ treatment. PGE₁ exerted some blood-pressurelowering activity at 5 h (P > 0.05) but did not reduce myocardial contractile force and oxygen consumption. PGE₁ modestly antagonized ischemia-induced formation of platelet aggregates. However, PGE₁ prevented the rise in peripheral white blood cell count during ischemia and reperfusion and inhibited the generation of reactive oxygen species (myeloperoxidase assay) from zymosan-stimulated whole blood ex vivo. The ratio of generation of reactive oxygen species/white blood count remained unchanged. It is concluded that PGE₁ protects the ischemic myocardium from acute reperfusion injury and that this effect involves an action of the compound on neutrophils, probably by improved myocardial tissue preservation, resulting in reduced formation of chemotactic products and, consequently, less local neutrophil accumulation and release of noxious metabolites.Parts of these results have been presented to the 29th Spring meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Mainz, 1988 Send offprint requests to K. Schrör at the above address     

Assay for the specificity of monoclonal antibodies in crossed immunoelectrophoresis

A method is described based on crossed immunoelectrophoresis of a complex antigen mixture in agarose gel followed by incubation of the gel with the monoclonal antibody. The bound monoclonal antibody is detected by the use of a secondary enzyme-labelled antibody.Using this technique we have been able to identify the precipitate arc in crossed immunoelectrophoresis of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules in a mixture of all detergent solubilized cell membrane molecules by means of a monoclonal antibody, the specificity of which was known independently to be against MHC class I molecules. In other experiments using the same technique we demonstrated the reaction of a monoclonal antibody specific for chicken Ig light chains.     

A recent polyploidy superimposed on older large-scale duplications in the Arabidopsis genome

The Arabidopsis genome contains numerous large duplicated chromosomal segments, but the different approaches used in previous analyses led to different interpretations regarding the number and timing of ancestral large-scale duplication events. Here, using more appropriate methodology and a more recent version of the genome sequence annotation, we investigate the scale and timing of segmental duplications in Arabidopsis. We used protein sequence similarity searches to detect duplicated blocks in the genome, used the level of synonymous substitution between duplicated genes to estimate the relative ages of the blocks containing them, and analyzed the degree of overlap between adjacent duplicated blocks. We conclude that the Arabidopsis lineage underwent at least two distinct episodes of duplication. One was a polyploidy that occurred much more recently than estimated previously, before the Arabidopsis/Brassica rapa split and probably during the early emergence of the crucifer family (24-40 Mya). An older set of duplicated blocks was formed after the monocot/dicot divergence, and the relatively low level of overlap among these blocks indicates that at least some of them are remnants of a larger duplication such as a polyploidy or aneuploidy.     

Carcinoembryonic antigen like antigen in granular cell myoblastomas

Summary A series of granular cell myoblastomas (GCM) and other benign and malignant tumours of soft tissue were examined for cytoplasmic content of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) by the two-layer conjugated immunoperoxidase technique. Using a commercial rabbit anti-CEA serum only granular cell myoblastomas showed positive cytoplasmic reaction. Pretreatment with periodic acid made this reaction less intense, but when the commercial rabbit anti-CEA serum was absorbed with tissue powder from normal human spleen the positive reaction was totally abolished. It is concluded that the positivity of GCM for CEA using commercial rabbit anti-CEA serum is due to the content of non-specific cross-reacting antigen (NCA) and maybe other cross-reacting glycoproteins in this tumour, and not to CEA as claimed in a previous study.     

Evaluation of two chromogenic agar media for recovery and identification of Staphylococcus aureus small-colony variants

To identify the most rapid and reliable technique for recovery and identification of Staphylococcus aureus small-colony variants (SCVs), the colonial appearance of 106 isolates representing SCVs and the normal phenotype were evaluated on two newly described chromogenic agar media. Although almost all of the SCVs grew on the chromogenic agar media, they did not exhibit a change of color. In comparison with conventional media, S. aureus ID agar (SAID; bioMerieux, La Balme Les Grottes, France) showed the most reliable results, with 49 of 53 SCVs tested growing either as an SCV colony or with a normal phenotype after only 24 h of incubation. Growth of SCVs was often not detected before 72 h of incubation on some of the media tested. In conclusion, the most accurate and rapid method to detect both the species S. aureus and the SCV phenotype is to inoculate specimens onto both Columbia blood agar and SAID.