Gender-specific symptoms of depression and anger attacks

Depression is a serious and potentially life-threatening mental illness, which does not only lead to personal suffering but also impairs social functioning and has a significant socioeconomic effect. Epidemiological studies have found a life-time prevalence of up to 17% in the general population and death due to suicides of up to 15%. As women have a two-fold higher prevalence for depressive disorder, it is noteworthy that suicide rates are consistently higher for men. Previous studies have suggested that mainly men suffer from a specific irritable depressive syndrome, which is characterized by lowered impulse control, symptomatic substance abuse, an increased readiness to take risks, and anger attacks, which present as sudden spells of inappropriate anger with vegetative hyperarousal. This article reviews gender-specific aspects of depressive disorder focussing on anger attacks and their clinical management.     

Satisfaction with medical care among elderly people in fee-for-service care and an HMO

This study investigates satisfaction with care among elderly Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in a health maintenance organization (HMO) and beneficiaries in fee-for-service (FFS) care in the same geographic area. Satisfaction with two dimensions of care, access/quality and costs, are examined, to investigate differences in enrollee/FFS evaluation of these dimensions of care as well as predictors of satisfaction with care. In addition, satisfaction among healthy and chronically ill elderly people in these two care settings is explored. Results indicate higher satisfaction with access/quality of care among those in FFS and higher satisfaction with costs among HMO enrollees. These relationships hold controlling for other variables and among the chronically ill elderly. Sources of variation in satisfaction are somewhat different among the HMO and FFS elderly. Satisfaction with paperwork and ease of getting to care, however, influences satisfaction with other aspects of care in both populations.     

Epidemiological findings of seasonal changes in mood and behavior. A telephone survey of Montgomery County, Maryland

Patterns of seasonal changes in mood and behavior in Montgomery County, Maryland, were evaluated in randomly selected household samples by lay interviewers using a telephone version of the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire. The method for selecting the sample unit was random-digit dialing. We found that 92% of the survey subjects noticed seasonal changes of mood and behavior to varying degrees. For 27% of the sample seasonal changes were a problem and 4.3% to 10% of subjects, depending on the case-finding definition, rated a degree of seasonal impairment equivalent to that of patients with seasonal affective disorder. The seasonal pattern of "feeling worst" exhibited a bimodal distribution with a greater winter and a substantially lower summer peak (ratio, 4.5:1). Younger women who have a problem with seasonal changes and who feel worse on short days tended to exhibit the highest seasonality scores. It is apparent from our study that seasonal affective disorder represents the extreme end of the spectrum of seasonality that affects a large percentage of the general population. The influence of environmental factors on mood disorders and mood changes in the general population might provide valuable insight into pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention of affective illness.     

Immunohistochemical localization of the differentiation marker E11 in dental development of rats

E11 antigen, originally characterized in a rat osteosarcoma cell line, is known to be expressed during late stages of the osteogenic cell lineage both in vitro and in vivo. The aim of the present study was to monitor the occurrence and distribution patterns of the E11 antigen using monoclonal antibodies (mAb E11 and MEP-1) during different stages of tooth germ development of new-born rats by means of immunohistochemistry. Both antibodies strongly bound to plasma membranes of ameloblasts in presecretory and secretory stages. In addition, odontoblasts and cells of the periodontium were immunoreactive for E11 and MEP-1. During maturation, the immunoreactivity of ameloblast plasma membranes decreased significantly. Our data suggest that E11 and MEP-1 might be important as markers for cell differentiation and mineralization processes during tooth germ development.     

Attachment of Toxoplasma gondii to a specific membrane fraction of CHO cells

We have observed previously that attachment of Toxoplasma gondii to synchronized host cells is considerably increased at the mid-S phase (4 h postrelease). Synchronized CHO host cells at the mid-S phase were fractionated by molecular weight, and the antigens were used to produce a panel of polyclonal mouse antisera. The polyclonal antisera raised against fraction 4 with molecular mass ranging approximately from 18 to 40 kDa significantly reduced attachment to mid-S-phase host cells. Immunofluorescence assays demonstrated strong reactivity to mid-S-phase host cells and identified a number of potential receptors on Western blots. These data indicate that there is a specific host membrane receptor for parasite attachment that is upregulated during the mid-S phase of the host cell cycle.     

Diagnostik kardiovaskulärer Erkrankungen mit Hilfe der suprasternalen M-mode Echokardiographie

Summary The suprasternal approach can be used to image the aortic arch, the right pulmonary artery and the left atrium. Dilatation or dissections involving the aortic arch were detected echocardiographically from the suprasternal notch. The echocardiogram of the right pulmonary artery is altered in cases of acute and chronic pulmonary hypertension. Intrapulmonary thrombi in patients with acute pulmonary embolism were visualized with this technique. A volume overloading of the pulmonary circulation due to a congenital left to right shunt, as well as a decreased pulmonary blood flow due to a congenital right to left shunt causes characteristic changes in the wall motion pattern of the right pulmonary artery. Hypoplasia or aplasia of the central pulmonary arteries can be diagnosed as well. Imaging of the left atrium from the suprasternal notch may help to differentiate between supraventricular and ventricular rhythm disturbances. The suprasternal approach is therefore recommended to be used as a routine part of each echocardiographic examination.

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Abkürzungen AO_d enddiastolischer Diameter der Aorta - AO_s mittsystolischer Diameter der Aorta - ASD Vorhofseptumdefekt - AO Aorta - DCM dilative Kardiomyopathie - F₄ Fallot'sche Tetralogie - LA linker Vorhof - NP Normalperson - PH pulmonale Hypertonie - PI Pulmonalinsuffizienz - PSE_AO prozentuale systolische Erweiterung der Aorta - PSE_RPA prozentuale systolische Erweiterung der rechten Pulmonalarterie - PAD_m mittlerer Pulmonalarteriendruck - PC praecordial - Q_RPA maximale Zunahme der Querschnittsfläche der rechten Pulmonalarterie während der Systole - RPA_d end-diastolischer Diameter der rechten Pulmonalarterie - RPA_s mittsystolischer Diameter der rechten Pulmonalarterie - SS suprasternal - SX subxiphoidal Teile der Arbeit wurden durch das BMFT-Projekt 01ZSO31-ZA/NT02 gefördert     

The non-immunosuppressive immunophilin ligand GPI-1046 potently stimulates regenerating axon growth from adult mouse dorsal root ganglia cultured in Matrigel

We used explant cultures of adult mouse dorsal root ganglia with spinal nerve attached growing in Matrigel to assess the effects of the non-immunosuppressive immunophilin ligand GPI-1046 [Snyder et al. (1998) TIPS 19, 21-26] on the growth rate of regenerating sensory axons and found a potent stimulation of axon growth. In these explant cultures, naked, unfasciculated axons emerge from the cut end of the spinal nerve and continue to grow in the Matrigel for up to eight days [Tonge et al. (1996) Neuroscience 73, 541-551]. Some axons are entirely smooth whilst others show prominent varicosities. Some of the former express the phosphorylated neurofilament epitope recognised by monoclonal antibody RT97, a marker for large calibre, myelinated axons, whilst the latter express calcitonin gene-related peptide, predominantly a marker for unmyelinated, and small diameter myelinated sensory axons. Many of the axons in these cultures also express the low-affinity neurotrophin receptor p75. GPI-1046 has been shown to have striking stimulatory effects on embryonic primary sensory axons growing in vitro and it was therefore of interest to see whether it could also enhance regenerating sensory axon growth from the adult ganglia in our cultures. GPI-1046 potently stimulated axon growth in our cultures in a dose-dependent manner. The stimulatory effect was not dependent on the class of sensory axon. These observations show that GPI-1046 is a potent stimulator of regenerating axons from adult, primary sensory neurones. The cellular site of action of GPI-1046 is unknown. To distinguish between a direct effect of the drug on neurones and an indirect effect we compared the effects of GPI-1046 on explant and dissociated cultures. In confirmation of previous results, we found that GPI-1046 potently stimulated axon outgrowth from explants of embryonic chick dorsal root ganglia. However, the drug was without effect on dissociated embryonic dorsal root ganglion neurones, suggesting that non-neuronal cells are important for axon growth stimulation.     

Immunogenicity and protective efficacy of the alpha C protein of group B streptococci are inversely related to the number of repeats.

Infection by group B streptococci (GBS) is an important cause of bacterial disease in neonates. Alpha C protein is a protective cell surface-associated protein of GBS. This protein contains a repeat region flanked by N and C termini. Variable expression of tandem repeating units of alpha C proteins had been found among clinical isolates of GBS. We examined the effect of the number of repeats on the immunogenicity of the alpha C protein and its ability to elicit protection from GBS infection in a neonatal mouse model. Mice were immunized with purified alpha C proteins of constructs containing various numbers of repeats (n = 1, 2, 9, and 16) and the N- and C-terminal regions. Both the N-terminal and the repeat regions contain protective and opsonic epitopes. Antibody responses to the alpha C protein constructs with various numbers of repeats were tested with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay plates coated with either native, nine-repeat alpha C protein or "repeatless" N-terminal antigen. An inverse relationship was found between the number of repeats and the immunogenicity of the alpha C protein; this effect was most pronounced on titers of antibody to the N-terminal region. An inverse relationship was also observed between the number of repeats and protective efficacy, i.e., mouse dams immunized with 5 microg of one- or nine-repeat alpha C protein transferred protective immunity to 65 or 11% of their pups, respectively (P < 0.0001). Thus, the presence of multiple repeats appears to lessen the antibody response to the complete alpha C protein, and especially the antibody response to its N-terminal region, and suggests a mechanism whereby repeat elements contribute to the evasion of host immunity.