Choline acetyltransferase activity and cognitive domain scores of Alzheimer's patients

Choline acetyltransferase activity and cognitive domain scores of Alzheimer's patients. Item scores from the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (MDRS) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) from 389 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease were submitted to principal component analysis with orthogonal rotation. The optimal solution identified four factors that reflected the cognitive domains of attention/registration, verbal fluency/reasoning, graphomotor/praxis and recent memory. A subgroup of patients was identified for whom both the MDRS and the MMSE had been administered within the 12 months before death. Scores were assigned to these patients for the four factors. These cognitive-domain scores were then correlated with postmortem choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity in the medial frontal cortex, inferior parietal cortex, and hippocampus. ChAT activity in both the medial frontal and the inferior parietal cortex significantly correlated with scores on the graphomotor/praxis factor. Medial frontal ChAT also correlated significantly with the attention/registration scores. Hippocampal ChAT correlated significantly only with recent memory scores. These results are consistent with current animal research regarding the effect of selective cholinergic lesions on behavior.     

Increased myeloid colony growth in vitro of precultured progenitor cells

Human peripheral blood myeloid progenitor cells (GM-CFU) form markedly more colonies in soft agar following a short-term preculture in vitro. This enhancement is independent of monocytes and T lymphocytes and reflects an alteration of progenitor cells themselves. The preculture increases the number of cells being in the S phase of cell cycle and renders them relatively independent of exogenous CSF.     

The rheumatic patient''s early needs and expectations

During the last few years, studies have revealed that the need for psychosocial support and concrete social services are great in the early stages of the treatment of rheumatic diseases. The ability to keep a job, to do household chores, to participate in leisure activities and to maintain social relations is clearly impaired. Anxiety and depression are not unusual and often associated with weak support from relatives, loneliness and disturbed family relations. Nevertheless, the patients report resilience and determination to cope with the impacts of illness. Crisis intervention, vocational guidance and counselling about problems concerning the disease should be available and offered to the patients. As the patients seem to be unaccustomed to talking about their psychosocial problems, an empathetic and information-seeking attitude on the part of the health care staff is essential.     

Class II defective avian sarcoma viruses: Comparative analysis of genome structure

The genomes of class II avian sarcoma viruses PRCII, PRCII-p, PRCIV, and Fujinami sarcoma virus (FSV), were studied by oligonucleotide fingerprinting, heteroduplex mapping, and nucleic acid hybridization. All of these viruses are genetically defective and have a small RNA genome between 4.5 and 6.1 kilobases (kb) in length. They contain helper-related sequences at both the 5′- and 3′-ends, but most of the retroviral sequences in the middle of the genome are deleted. In place of this deleted information, a contiguous stretch of transformation-specific sequences, termed fps, is found. These putative oncogenic sequences are about 1.2 kb in PRCII, and those in PRCII-p and PRCIV are roughly 2.9 kb. From the analysis of oligonucleotides, it appears that the fps sequences of PRCII represent a subset of those of PRCII-p. Most of the additional sequences present in PRCII-p but absent from PRCII are at the 5′-half of fps. The helper-related sequences in PRCII and PRCII-p are almost indistinguishable, except that PRCII-p contains slightly more retroviral information at the 3′-end of the genome. Therefore, it is possible that PRCII has been derived by deletion from PRCII-p. By contrast, PRCII-p and PRCIV were found to contain identical fps sequences, but their helper-related sequences have diverged substantially. These two sarcoma viruses either represent two independent isolates or, if derived from a single isolate, they have undergone extensive mutation and recombination with diverse avian retroviruses. FSV was found to differ to a greater extent from other class II sarcoma viruses in both helper-related and fps sequences. The difference in fps sequences is localized in the 5′-half of that region. Considering the variation in fps among all members of class II avian sarcoma viruses, it appears that the 3′-half of that genetic region is more conserved than the 5′-half.     

The effect of immunotherapy on eosinophil accumulation and production of eosinophil chemotactic activity in the lung of subjects with asthma during natural pollen exposure

Two groups of birch pollen--allergic patients with seasonal rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma were followed during two consecutive birch-pollen seasons, one group, N = 10, during a season with high pollen load, and one group, N = 15, during a season of low pollen load. Half the patients were treated with immunotherapy (IT) for 3 and 4 years, respectively. The other half of the patients served as control group (non-IT). Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed once before each season and once during the pollen season. Eosinophil (EOS) numbers in BAL were increased (p less than 0.01) during the season with high pollen load but not in the season with a low pollen load, and this increment was absent in the IT-treated group. Also, the EOS cationic protein levels were raised in the non-IT-treated group during the season with a high pollen load. The levels of EOS and neutrophil chemotactic activity were raised in BAL in both seasons in the non-IT-treated group compared with the IT-treated group (p less than 0.02, p less than 0.003, p less than 0.04, and p less than 0.005 in high- and low-load pollen season, respectively). Serum and BAL eosinophil chemotactic activity (ECA) were positively correlated (p less than 0.001). We conclude that there is an influx of active EOSs into the lung of pollen-allergic patients with asthma during a pollen season, which may be abrogated by IT. Furthermore, the generation of ECA appears to be an extremely sensitive marker of antigenic exposure, and the potent inhibition of the generation of ECA by IT may provide a clue as to the mechanism of this treatment.