Quantitative three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound predicts the outcome of placental chorioangioma.

The relationship of large and vascularized chorioangiomas to adverse pregnancy outcome is well recognized. We present a patient with a large placental tumor and signs of impending fetal cardiac failure. The angioarchitecture of the tumor depicted by three-dimensional (3D) power Doppler ultrasound enabled us to accurately diagnose a placental chorioangioma. During the follow-up period, quantitative flow data obtained using 3D power Doppler indicated altered hemodynamics in the tumor and concomitant improvement in the condition of the fetus, enabling us to manage the mother conservatively. Spontaneous delivery occurred at 38 weeks without any complications. This report demonstrates the potential value of 3D power Doppler in prenatal diagnosis and monitoring of pregnancies complicated by large, vascularized chorioangioma.     

Neural network forecasts of the tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures.

A nonlinear forecast system for the sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the whole tropical Pacific has been developed using a multi-layer perceptron neural network approach, where sea level pressure and SST anomalies were used as predictors to predict the five leading SST principal components at lead times from 3 to 15 months. Relative to the linear regression (LR) models, the nonlinear (NL) models showed higher correlation skills and lower root mean square errors over most areas of the domain, especially over the far western Pacific (west of 155 degrees E) and the eastern equatorial Pacific off Peru at lead times longer than 3 months, with correlation skills enhanced by 0.10-0.14. Seasonal and decadal changes in the prediction skills in the NL and LR models were also studied.     

Physical activity and risk of prostatic cancer among college alumni.

Clinical observations and laboratory experiments have suggested a role for testosterone in the development of prostatic cancer. Since physical training may act to lower testosterone levels, men who are very active may have a reduced risk of this cancer. To test this hypothesis, the authors prospectively followed 17,719 Harvard alumni (aged 30-79 years) from 1965 or 1969 to 1977, and 1980 to 1988 for the occurrence of prostatic cancer (n = 419). Physical activity was assessed in either 1962 or 1966, and again in 1977, based on self-reported stair climbing, walking, and sports played. Alumni who expended greater than 4,000 kcal/week at both assessments were at reduced risk of developing prostatic cancer (age-adjusted rate ratio, 0.12; 95% confidence interval 0.02-0.89) compared with their inactive counterparts who expended less than 1,000 kcal/week at both assessments. These results should be interpreted cautiously, since only one case of prostatic cancer was identified among alumni highly active at both assessments, who contributed 4% of total person-years to the analysis. Among alumni aged 70 years and older, those who extended greater than 4,000 kcal/week at either assessment had about half the risk of those who expended less than 1,000 kcal/week at either assessment (age-adjusted rate ratio, 0.53; 95% confidence interval 0.29-0.95). The authors attribute these findings to the increased precision with which physical activity could be measured when combining two activity assessments. Alternatively, long-term maintenance of a high level of physical activity may be necessary for further reduction of risk. There was no evidence of a dose-response relation.     

Oral administration of an edible-mushroom-derived protein inhibits the development of food-allergic reactions in mice

BACKGROUND: Food allergy is a common disease without effective treatment. Since strict elimination of food allergens may be difficult, strategies for effective intervention are urgently needed. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to investigate the prophylactic use of orally administrated FIP-fve, an immunomodulatory protein isolated from the edible mushroom Flammulina velutipes, in a murine model of food allergy. METHODS: BALB/c mice were immunized twice intraperitoneally with ovalbumin (OVA), at an interval of 2 weeks. Before and during each period of immunization, FIP-fve (200 microg per mouse) or phosphate-buffered saline was given orally every other day with a total of five doses. Then OVA-specific antibodies and cytokine profiles were determined. Subsequently, the mice were orally challenged with OVA. Symptoms of anaphylaxis, levels of plasma histamine, and histology of intestines were examined. RESULTS: Mice receiving oral FIP-fve treatment during sensitization to OVA had an impaired OVA-specific IgE response with a Th1-predominant cytokine profile. These mice were protected from systemic anaphylaxis-like symptoms induced by subsequent oral challenge with OVA. CONCLUSION: Oral administration of FIP-fve has a Th1-skewing effect on the development of the allergen-specific immune response, and may serve the purpose of immunoprophylaxis for food allergy and other allergic diseases.     

INVOLVEMENT OF NON-NMDA AND NMDA RECEPTORS IN GLUTAMATE-INDUCED PRESSOR OR DEPRESSOR RESPONSES OF THE PONS AND MEDULLA

1. Fifty-five intact and six baroreceptor denervated and vagotomized cats of either sex were anaesthetized intraperito-neally with urethane (400 mg/kg) and a-chloralose (40 mg/kg). Responses of the systemic arterial pressure (SAP), mean SAP (MSAP) and sympathetic vertebral nerve (VNA) and renal nerve activities (RNA) were recorded. 2. In intact animals, monosodium L-glutamate (Glu, 0.1 mol/L, 50 nL) was microinjected into pressor areas of the locus coeruleus (LC), gigantocellular tegmental field (GTF), rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) and dorsomedial medulla (DM), and the depressor areas of caudal ventrolateral medulla (CVLM). The induced actions were compared before and after microinjection of either glutamate antagonists, glutamate diethylester (GDEE, 0.5 mol/L, 50–100nL), a competitive AMPA receptor blocker, or 2-amino-5-phosphonovaleric acid (D-AP5, 0.025 mol/L, 50–100 nL), a competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor blocker. GDEE completely blocked the increases of SAP and VNA elicited from all pressor areas. D-AP5 only partially blocked the pressor but slightly blocked VNA and RNA responses from LC, GTF and DM, particularly those from RVLM. Neither GDEE nor D-AP5 blocked the depressor responses of SAP and two nerve activities elicited from CVLM. 3. In baroreceptor denervated animals, NMDA (2 mmol/L, 50–100 nL) and AMPA (0.2 mmol/L, 50–100 nL) were micro-injected into the same pressor areas of GTF, RVLM and DM and the depressor area of CVLM responsive to Glu activation (0.1 mol/L, 30 nL). In RVLM, DM and CVLM, the results of either NMDA or AMPA were similar to those induced by Glu. However, in GTF, microinjection of either NMDA or AMPA did not induce similar responses to Glu. This suggests that the nature of GTF may differ from RVLM and DM. 4. The above results suggest that the Glu-induced pressor responses from LC, GTF, DM and especially RVLM, are primarily mediated through AMPA receptors. The Glu-induced depressor responses from CVLM may not be predominantly mediated by either AMPA or NMDA receptors. 5. In both baroreceptor-intact and -denervated cats stimulation of the pressor areas often produced an increase of VNA and a decrease of RNA, while in the depressor CVLM decreased both VNA and RNA. The VNA, but not RNA were positively correlated with the pressor responses, while both VNA and RNA were positively correlated with the depressor responses. This may suggest that neurons of the sympathetic vertebral and renal nerves are topographically organized in the brain.     

Ventilatory effects of dexmedetomidine, atipamezole, and isoflurane in dogs.

Dexmedetomidine (DMED) is a novel alpha 2 adrenergic agonist that has been shown to have potent analgesic and anesthetic sparing effects. This study was designed to investigate the effects of DMED, both alone and combined with isoflurane, on resting ventilation, the hypercapnic response, and the hypoxic response in dogs. When given alone, 1 microgram/kg decreased resting ventilation by 22% but at larger doses (10, 20, and 100 micrograms/kg) resting ventilation increased, doubling at 100 micrograms/kg. Doses of 10 micrograms/kg and greater caused a maximum depression of 60% in the slope of the hypercapnic response, but no dose had a significant effect on the hypoxic ventilatory response. A dose of 3 micrograms/kg of DMED reduced isoflurane MAC from 1.3% to 0.37%, and the ventilatory effects of this 1 MAC combination were intermediate between the awake values and those of isoflurane-anesthetized (1.3%) dogs. Atipamezole is a specific centrally acting alpha 2 receptor antagonist and when given with DMED in isoflurane-anesthetized dogs prevented the ventilatory depression. However, atipamezole alone also ventilatory stimulating effects, which may indicate tonic alpha 2 adrenergic activity. The ventilatory depression caused by DMED, either alone or combined with isoflurane, at doses that significantly reduce anesthetic requirements are relatively mild.     

Prostate and bone fibroblasts induce human prostate cancer growth in vivo: implications for bidirectional tumor-stromal cell interaction in prostate carcinoma growth and metastasis.

Prostate cancer selectively metastasizes to the axial skeleton to produce osteoblastic lesions, which suggests that bidirectional paracrine interactions exist between prostate cancer and bone cells. To evaluate the role of tumor-stromal cell interaction and stromal-specific growth factors in prostate cancer growth and dissemination, we coinoculated nontumorigenic human prostate cancer cells (LNCaP) and various tissue-specific fibroblasts subcutaneously in athymic mice. LNCaP tumors were induced most consistently by human bone fibroblasts (62%), followed by two prostate fibroblast cell lines (31% and 17%), but not by lung, kidney, or embryonic 3T3 fibroblasts. Carcinomas formed preferentially in male hosts, demonstrating in vivo androgen sensitivity. Immunohistochemical and biochemical techniques confirmed the human prostate component of these tumors and were paralleled by elevations in serum prostate specific antigen. In vitro mitogenic assays revealed a two-to three-fold bidirectional stimulation between LNCaP and bone or prostate fibroblast conditioned media, but not lung, kidney, or 3T3 fibroblast conditioned media. A novel method developed to deliver concentrated bone or prostate fibroblast conditioned media in vivo using a slowly absorbed matrix (gelfoam) also induced tumor formation, emphasizing the importance of fibroblast growth factors in LNCaP tumor formation. Northern analysis identified the stromal compartment as the primary source of extracellular matrix (collagen, fibronectin), while only LNCaP cells expressed transforming growth factor alpha. Although LNCaP and stromal cells express basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), the bidirectional paracrine-mediated mitogenic activity between these cells is not inhibited by anti-bFGF antibodies, suggesting that other undefined growth factors may be involved in stimulating LNCaP growth. These observations illustrate the importance of stromal-epithelial interaction in prostate tumor growth and suggest that extracellular matrix and paracrine-mediated growth factors play a role in prostate cancer growth and metastasis.     

Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis to study the genetic origin of complete hydatidiform mole.

To determine the genetic origin of the complete hydatidiform mole, 20 abnormal pregnancies were studied with restriction fragment length polymorphism with five genomic probes: EJ 6.6, beta-globin gene, 3'alpha-hypervariable region, J-Bir, and St14. In the 12 cases of molar pregnancy, pure paternal origin was proved in 11 cases, but both maternal and paternal inheritance were shown in only one case. In the cases with pure paternal origin, all of the restriction fragment length polymorphisms were homozygous, although those of the fathers were heterozygous at 15 loci. In the four cases that mimicked hydatidiform mole but were diagnosed as hydropic change of villi, both paternal and maternal inheritance were noted. In the four pregnancies with blighted ovum, both paternal and maternal inheritance were shown in three cases; and in one case with a balanced translocation between chromosomes 13 and 14, only paternal inheritance was noted. This study showed that most of the complete hydatidiform moles were caused by fertilization of an empty egg by a duplicated haploid sperm, but rare exceptions may exist.     

Status and trend of HIV-1 infection and AIDS in Taiwan, December, 1991.

From May 1, 1985 to December 31, 1991, a total of 4,962,707 serum samples from 8 population groups in Taiwan were tested for anti-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (anti-HIV-1). In total, 256 samples were seropositive; of these individuals, 43 developed acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS): 29 were homosexuals; 5 were hemophiliacs; 8 were heterosexuals and 1 was of unknown risk. Although the prevalence of HIV-1 infection and AIDS remains low compared with other countries, since 1988 the increase has been rapid. Before 1977 the majority were homosexuals and hemophiliacs; thereafter the risk groups diversified, with a trend away from homosexuals and hemophiliacs towards heterosexuals and intravenous drug abusers (IVDAs). A few patients have caused serious social problems for the public, health care workers and families. Active community efforts are needed to achieve future success in the control of HIV-1 infection and AIDS in Taiwan.     

Association between hepatitis C virus and hepatocellular carcinoma using assays based on structural and nonstructural hepatitis C virus peptides.

Stored sera from 181 Greek patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 35 patients with metastatic liver cancer, and 416 hospital controls with diagnoses other than malignant neoplasm or liver disease were examined with first and second generation hepatitis C virus (HCV) enzyme immunoassays as well as with five HCV supplemental assays based on structural and nonstructural HCV peptides. Second generation HCV enzyme immunoassays were more sensitive than first generation assays. However, both assays had suboptimal specificity using the standard reactivity criterion (absorbance of sample to cutoff greater than or equal to 1.0). Specificity was improved by centrifugation and by using a sample's optical density to cutoff ratio greater than or equal to 3.0 or supplemental assays; in this instance the prevalence of antibodies to HCV was 13.3% (24 of 181), 0 (0 of 35), and 1.4% (6 of 416) in HCC, metastatic liver cancer, and hospital controls, respectively. A similar estimation of prevalence of antibody to HCV in HCC (12.5% or 4 of 32) was obtained when the recombinant immunoblot assay, second generation, was used to screen a random sample of HCC patients. The relative risk linking HCV to HCC was estimated as 10.4 (95% confidence interval, 4.2-26.0; P less than 0.0001). These data suggest that the prevalence of antibodies to HCV in HCC using stored sera has been previously overestimated even though the evidence of a causal association of HCV with HCC persists.