Longitudinal Study of Infant Sleep: Results of 14 Subjects Studied at Monthly Intervals

The sleep of 14 normal infants was studied every month throughout the first year. A computer program incorporated an analysis of multiple variables from polygraphic data as recommended by a recently standardized new born scoring manual. Under our recording conditions, quiet sleep increased during the first 3 months but indeterminate sleep did not decline over the year as expected. This finding is incompatible with the notion that indeterminate sleep reflects immaturity or “undifferentiation” in sleep organization.     

Functional Cluster Analysis of CT Perfusion Maps: A New Tool for Diagnosis of Acute Stroke?

CT perfusion imaging constitutes an important contribution to the early diagnosis of acute stroke. Cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebral blood volume (CBV) and time-to-peak (TTP) maps are used to estimate the severity of cerebral damage after acute ischemia. We introduce functional cluster analysis as a new tool to evaluate CT perfusion in order to identify normal brain, ischemic tissue and large vessels. CBF, CBV and TTP maps represent the basis for cluster analysis applying a partitioning (k-means) and density-based (density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise, DBSCAN) paradigm. In patients with transient ischemic attack and stroke, cluster analysis identified brain areas with distinct hemodynamic properties (gray and white matter) and segmented territorial ischemia. CBF, CBV and TTP values of each detected cluster were displayed. Our preliminary results indicate that functional cluster analysis of CT perfusion maps may become a helpful tool for the interpretation of perfusion maps and provide a rapid means for the segmentation of ischemic tissue.     

Central and peripheral mediation of human force sensation following eccentric or concentric contractions

Fatigue was induced in the triceps brachii of the experimental arm by a regimen of either eccentric or concentric muscle actions. Estimates of force were assessed using a contralateral limb-matching procedure, in which target force levels (25 %, 50 % or 75 % of maximum) were defined by the unfatigued control arm. Maximum isometric force-generating capacity was reduced by 31 % immediately following eccentric contractions, and remained depressed at 24 (25 %) and 48 h (13 %) post-exercise. A less marked reduction (8.3 %) was observed immediately following concentric contractions. Those participants who performed prior eccentric contractions, consistently (at all force levels), and persistently (throughout the recovery period), overestimated the level of force applied by the experimental arm. In other words, they believed that they were generating more force than they actually achieved. When the forces applied by the experimental and the control arm, were each expressed as a proportion of the maximum force that could be attained at that time, the estimates matched extremely closely. This outcome is that which would be expected if the estimates of force were based on a sense of effort. Following eccentric exercise, the amplitude of the EMG activity recorded from the experimental arm was substantially greater than that recorded from the control arm. Cortically evoked potentials recorded from the triceps brachii (and extensor carpi radialis) of the experimental arm were also substantially larger than those elicited prior to exercise. The sense of effort was evidently not based upon a corollary of the central motor command. Rather, the relationship between the sense of effort and the motor command appears to have been altered as a result of the fatiguing eccentric contractions. It is proposed that the sense of effort is associated with activity in neural centres upstream of the motor cortex.     

Phase shifts of circadian rhythms in activity entrained to food access

Rats anticipate daily 2 hr meals with a sharp increase in activity several hours prior to food availability. The present experiment examined the response to phase shifts of food access in rats with lesions of the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN). Following entrainment of activity to 2 hr of food per day, food access was phase delayed or phase advanced by 4, 6, or 8 hr. All rats responded to phase delays of 4 or 6 hr with an increase in the duration of anticipatory activity so that transients appeared mostly in activity onset. Following 8 hr phase delays, clear delaying transients in both activity onset and end were observed. Only a few rats showed advancing transients in activity after phase advances of food access. In response to 6 hr and 8 hr phase advances, 3 different responses occurred: (a) activity re-entrained to food access by the 2nd or 3rd day without clear intervening transients, (b) activity phase shifted by means of distinct delaying transients and (c) delaying transients occurred in one component of activity while a second component of activity appeared at the new phase position by the second or third day. These results provide further evidence that anticipation of food access is mediated by a circadian mechanism which is functionally independent of the SCN and illustrate some similarities as well as considerable differences between circadian rhythms entrained by feeding and those entrained by light-dark cycles.     

Caspase inhibitors induce a switch from apoptotic to proinflammatory signaling in CD95-stimulated T lymphocytes

CD95 is a major apoptosis receptor that induces caspase activation and programmed cell death in susceptible cells. CD95-induced apoptosis can be blocked by peptidic caspase inhibitors such as benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp-fluoromethyl ketone or Ile-Glu-Thr-Asp-fluoromethyl ketone. Here we show that stimulation of CD95 in the presence of these inhibitors induces necrosis and expression of various proinflammatory cytokines in primary T lymphocytes, such as TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma and granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor. In the absence of caspase inhibition CD95 stimulation did not result in cytokine expression, indicating that this proinflammatory signaling pathway is suppressed by active caspases. Further analysis with A3.01 T cells revealed that the proinflammatory signaling activity of CD95 was mediated by MEK/ERK, p38 and NF-kappaB signaling pathways. These findings point to a pivotal role of caspases not only as mediators of apoptosis but also as enzymes that prevent proinflammatory signaling during CD95-induced apoptosis. Moreover, our findings may be useful for the development of novel pharmacological strategies.     

Transgenic rat model of Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease (HD) is a late manifesting neurodegenerative disorder in humans caused by an expansion of a CAG trinucleotide repeat of more than 39 units in a gene of unknown function. Several mouse models have been reported which show rapid progression of a phenotype leading to death within 3-5 months (transgenic models) resembling the rare juvenile course of HD (Westphal variant) or which do not present with any symptoms (knock-in mice). Owing to the small size of the brain, mice are not suitable for repetitive in vivo imaging studies. Also, rapid progression of the disease in the transgenic models limits their usefulness for neurotransplantation. We therefore generated a rat model transgenic of HD, which carries a truncated huntingtin cDNA fragment with 51 CAG repeats under control of the native rat huntingtin promoter. This is the first transgenic rat model of a neurodegenerative disorder of the brain. These rats exhibit adult-onset neurological phenotypes with reduced anxiety, cognitive impairments, and slowly progressive motor dysfunction as well as typical histopathological alterations in the form of neuronal nuclear inclusions in the brain. As in HD patients, in vivo imaging demonstrates striatal shrinkage in magnetic resonance images and a reduced brain glucose metabolism in high-resolution fluor-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography studies. This model allows longitudinal in vivo imaging studies and is therefore ideally suited for the evaluation of novel therapeutic approaches such as neurotransplantation.     

The interleukin-13 production by peripheral blood T cells from atopic dermatitis patients does not require CD2 costimulation

BACKGROUND: Although allergic mechanisms appear to be important, the pathogenesis of both extrinsic and intrinsic forms of atopic dermatitis (AD) is unknown. METHODS: We compared the cytokine production of peripheral blood mononuclear cells of extrinsic AD (EAD) and intrinsic AD (IAD) patients and normal control individuals after stimulation with anti-CD3 and/or anti-CD28 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in the presence or absence of anti-CD2-blocking mAb. The cytokine production was measured by immunoassays in supernatants of 24-hour cultures. RESULTS: EAD patients showed a decreased capacity to synthesize interferon gamma and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor upon anti-CD3 mAb stimulation as compared with IAD patients. Both EAD and IAD patients demonstrated an increased production of interleukin (IL)-5 and IL-13. As expected, interferon gamma, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and IL-5 levels were reduced in the presence of anti-CD2-blocking mAbs. CD28 costimulation restored the release in cultures with anti-CD2 mAbs added, suggesting that CD2 and CD28 have redundant functions in T cell activation and subsequent cytokine production. Strikingly, the IL-13 production was not blocked by anti-CD2 mAbs and also not increased by agonistic anti-CD28 mAb, in particular within the EAD patient group. CONCLUSION: The signalling pathway initiated by the T cell receptor complex leading to increased IL-13 production in AD patients appears to be highly sensitive and is largely independent on CD2 costimulatory signals.     

Cartilage degradation products as markers for evaluation of patients with rheumatic disease

Markers of cartilage degradation hold a great, but so far underutilized potential in the research and clinical management of joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). With the rapid pace of development of such markers, they are likely to emerge as promising clinical tools for several uses. These roles may include: improving preclinical and clinical development in arthritis research; differentiation of patients with high and low turnover states at disease diagnosis; selection of optimal therapy and therapy dose for the individual patient; monitoring disease progression; and predicting disease outcome.This review focuses on the cartilage matrix components and the metabolites from this very special tissue that have been proposed as biochemical markers. Special attention is focused on the challenges facing the development of such markers to the standards required for widespread practical use. Examples are provided on the current use of cartilage derived biochemical markers and perspectives for the future use of markers and required clinical documentation are presented.