Expression of the insecticidal bean alpha-amylase inhibitor transgene has minimal detrimental effect on the nutritional value of peas fed to rats at 30% of the diet.

The effect of expression of bean alpha-amylase inhibitor (alpha-AI) transgene on the nutritional value of peas has been evaluated by pair-feeding rats diets containing transgenic or parent peas at 300 and 650 g/kg, respectively, and at 150 g protein/kg diet, supplemented with essential amino acids to target requirements. The results were also compared with the effects of diets containing lactalbumin with or without 0.9 or 2.0 mg bean alpha-AI, levels equivalent to those in transgenic pea diets. When 300 and 650 g peas/kg diet were fed, the daily intake of alpha-AI was 11.5 or 26.3 mg alpha-AI, respectively. At the 300 g/kg level, the nutritional value of the transgenic and parent line peas was not significantly different. The weight gain and tissue weights of rats fed either of the two pea diets were not significantly different from each other or from those of rats given the lactalbumin diet even when this was supplemented with 0.9 g alpha-AI/kg. The digestibilities of protein and dry matter of the pea diets were slightly but significantly lower than those of the lactalbumin diet, probably due to the presence of naturally occurring antinutrients in peas. The nutritional value of diets containing peas at the higher (650 g) inclusion level was less than that of the lactalbumin diet. However, the differences between transgenic and parent pea lines were small, possibly because neither the purified recombinant alpha-AI nor that in transgenic peas inhibited starch digestion in the rat small intestine in vivo to the same extent as did bean alpha-AI. This was the case even though both forms of alpha-AI equally inhibited alpha-amylase in vitro. Thus, this short-term study indicated that transgenic peas expressing bean alpha-AI gene could be used in rat diets at 300 g/kg level without major harmful effects on their growth, metabolism and health, raising the possibility that transgenic peas may also be used at this level in the diet of farm animals.     

Olfactory esthesioneuroblastoma: scintigraphic expression of somatostatin receptors

Esthesioneuroblastoma is an uncommon tumor originating in the upper nasal cavity and constitutes 3% of all intranasal neoplasms. Few references exist about the expression of somatostatin receptors in these tumors. Our case demonstrates a good correlation between the somatostatin receptor scintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging.     

Influence of early posttraumatic hypothermia therapy on local cerebral blood flow and glucose metabolism after fluid-percussion brain injury

OBJECT: Using autoradiographic image averaging, the authors recently described prominent foci of marked glucose metabolism-greater-than-blood-flow uncoupling in the acutely traumatized rat brain. Because hypothermia is known to ameliorate injury in this and other injury models, the authors designed the present study to assess the effects of posttraumatic therapeutic hypothermia on the local cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (LCMRglu) and local cerebral blood flow (LCBF) following moderate parasagittal fluid-percussion head injury (FPI) in rats. METHODS: Either cranial hypothermia (30 degrees C) or normothermia (37 degrees C) was induced for 3 hours in matched groups of rats immediately after FPI; LCMRglu and LCBF were assessed 3 hours after concluding these temperature manipulations. In rats subjected to FPI, regardless of whether normothermia or hypothermia ensued, LCBF was reduced relative to the sham-injury groups. In addition, when FPI was followed by hypothermia (FPI-30 degrees C group), the subsequent LCBF was significantly lower (35-38% on average) than in FPI-37 degrees C rats. Statistical mapping of LCBF difference imaging data revealed confluent cortical and subcortical zones of significantly reduced LCBF (largely ipsilateral to the prior injury) in FPI-30 degrees C rats relative to the FPI-37 degrees C group. Local glucose utilization was reduced in both hemispheres of FPI-37 degrees C rats relative to the sham-injury group and was lower in the right (traumatized) hemisphere than in the left. However, LCMRglu values were largely unaffected by temperature manipulation in either the FPI or sham-injury groups. The LCMRglu/LCBF ratio was nearly doubled in FPI-30 degrees C rats relative to the FPI-37 degrees C group, in a diffuse and bihemispheric fashion. Linear regression analysis comparing LCMRglu and LCBF revealed that the FPI-37 degrees C and FPI-30 degrees C data sets were completely nonoverlapping, whereas the two sham-injury data sets were intermixed. CONCLUSIONS: Despite its proven neuroprotective efficacy, early posttraumatic hypothermia (30 degrees C for 3 hours) nonetheless induces a moderate decline in cerebral perfusion without the (anticipated) improvement in cerebral glucose utilization, so that a state of mild metabolism-greater-than-blood-flow dissociation is perpetuated.     

Blockade of neurotensin receptors suppresses the dopamine D1/D2 synergism on immediate early gene expression in the rat brain

A remarkable feature of dopamine functioning is that the concomitant activation of D1-like and D2-like receptors acts to intensify the expression of various dopamine-dependent effects, in particular the expression of the immediate-early genes, c-fos and zif268. Using non-peptide neurotensin receptor antagonists, including SR48692, we have determined that blockade of neurotensin receptors reduced the cooperative responses of direct acting D2-like (quinpirole) and partial D1-like (SKF38393) dopamine agonists on the expression of Fos-like antigens and zif268 mRNA. Pretreatment with SR48692 (3 and 10 mg/kg) reduced the number of Fos-like immunoreactive cells produced by the combined administration of SKF38393 (20 mg/kg) and quinpirole (1 mg/kg) in the caudate-putamen, nucleus accumbens, globus pallidus and ventral pallidum. High-affinity neurotensin receptors are likely to be involved in these D1-like/D2-like cooperative responses, as compounds structurally related to SR48692, SR48527 (3 mg/kg) and its (-)antipode, SR49711 (3 mg/kg), exerted a stereospecific antagonism in all selected brain regions. Pretreatment with SR48692 (10 mg/kg) also diminished Fos induction by the indirect dopamine agonist, cocaine (25 mg/kg), particularly at the rostral level of the caudate-putamen. In situ hybridization experiments in the caudate-putamen indicated that SR48692 (10 mg/kg) markedly reduced zif268 mRNA labelling produced by SKF38393 plus quinpirole in cells not expressing enkephalin mRNA, but was unable to affect the concomitant decrease of zif268 mRNA labelling in enkephalin-positive cells. Taken together, the results of the present study indicate that neurotensin is a key element for the occurrence of cooperative responses of D2-like and partial D1-like agonists on immediate-early gene expression.     

Radical prostatectomy. The surgical complications

Study of 165 patients with prostate adenocarcinoma who underwent radical prostatectomy using a retropubic approach. Mean PSA is 19 ng/ml, mean age 63 years and median follow-up 26 months. 22 patients (13.2%) reported complications during the first month post-surgery, primarily urinary fistula of more than 5 days long in 5 patients and rectal injury in 3.49 patients (29%) reported complications after the first month, mainly urinary incontinence in 26 cases and stenosis of the urethrovesical juncture in 15. The group with early complications showed no significant differences compared to those who had none, neither in PSA (p = 0.3) or a worse pathological stage (p = 0.1), and no evidence is shown in terms of biochemical progression or in disease free progression (p = 1). Patients with urethrovesical juncture stenosis have higher mean PSA (p = 0.01), greater biochemical progression (p = 0.006), worse Gleason (p = 0.03 = and worse progression free survival (p = 0.01). Patients with stress incontinence showed no differences compared to the other groups relative to the studied factors.     

Spontaneous retroperitoneal hematoma: our experience

We report 15 cases of spontaneous retroperitoneal haematoma. The etiology and the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures were evaluated. The haematoma source was the adrenal gland in 4 patients and the causes were pheochromocytoma (1), adenoma (1), myelolipoma (1) and idiopathic (1). In 10 patients the source was the kidney and the causes were angiomyolipoma rupture (6), renal cell carcinoma (3) and ureteral calculi (1). In the remaining case, the haematoma was produced by fibrinolytic and anticoagulant therapy in a patient with acute myocardial infarction. The imaging diagnostic techniques employed were abdominal ultrasonography and CT scan, which allowed the diagnosis of haematoma and showed his size and extension in all the cases. With these two techniques, and with the retrograde pyelography in one patient, we obtained the etiologic diagnosis in 12 of the 15 cases. Surgical treatment was performed in 12 patients (adrenalectomy in 2, simple nephrectomy in 3, radical nephrectomy in 5 and partial nephrectomy in 2).     

Congenital absence of portal vein in a girl with biliary atresia treated with liver transplant

The congenital absence of the portal vein is a rare malformation, which has been generally discovered in association with another anomalies like a cardiac, gastrointestinal or genitourinary defects. With portal hypertension and hepatic cirrhosis, this anomaly is similar to spontaneous porto-systemic derivation, and for that not collateral venous drainage is present. In these patients, total interruption of mesentaric venous drainage during procurement of liver transplant produce a very important bowel and mesenteric edema, which can promote an injert fatal evolution. The authors present the first paediatric liver transplant, in a patient with portal venous agenesia, with de piggy-back technique was done and this complication was obviated, and a review of the literature about this issue is done.