Heavy and light chain sequences of four monoclonal antibodies that bind galactosylgloboside (GalGb4)

We recently described IgM monoclonal antibodies directed against the glycospingolipid galactosylgloboside (GalGb4; Marcus, M. D. et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys, 1988.262: 620). We now present the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of the heavy and light chains of these antibodies. The antibodies were generated in a single fusion, their heavy as well as their light chains are almost identical, and they appear to be clonally related. The light chains were encoded by J kappa 5 and a V kappa gene belonging to the Ox1 family, but they are only 93% homologous to the most closely related germ-line gene, and they are probably encoded by a germ-line gene that has not yet been identified. The heavy chains were all encoded by VH441 and JH2, and have identical N segments. The VH441 germ-line gene encodes a potential glycosylation site at Asn58 in the complementarity-determining region 2. This site, which has been retained in all VH441-encoded monoclonal antibodies sequenced previously, was mutated out by a single base change in all four anti-GalGb4 antibodies.     

Absence of mutations in human ubiquitin fusion-degradation protein gene in tetralogy of Fallot

Congenital defects in human chromosome 22q11 deletion syndromes are associated with the 3rd and 4th pharyngeal pouch during fetal development. In the cardiovascular system, these disorders are usually apparent as conotruncal heart defects and aortic arch anomalies. UFD1L, a gene that is downregulated in dHAND-deficient mice, expressed in the mouse embryo at the branchial arch and mapped to human chromosome 22q11, has recently been strongly suspected to be responsible for the phenotypes expressed in 22q11 deletion syndromes. Its putative causal role in relevant congenital cardiovascular malformations was studied by gene dosage analysis, mutation screening and sequence analyses. Sixty cases of tetralogy of Fallot with no detectable chromosome deletion at 22q11 or 10p13 were examined, including 51 cases of simple tetralogy of Fallot, and 9 cases of tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia. None of these patients revealed deletion limited to a portion of the UFD1L gene. Although mobility shift was found by heteroduplex analysis in 24 cases at exon 4 and flanking sequences, further sequence analysis demonstrated only two silent nucleotide variations and a single nucleotide polymorphism in intron 4. Our data suggest that, although the UFD1L gene is mapped to 22q11 and is expressed during early murine development at both cardiac and cranial neural crests, it is not responsible for the majority of tetralogy of Fallot cases in humans.     

《解剖学杂志》5年引文分析和评价

利用文献计量学方法和引文分析法,对《解剖学杂志》1989～1993年5年论著引文的平均值、引文的类型进行统计分析,并找到该领域文献的半衰期.旨在揭示我国解剖学领域论文引文的一般规律,提高论文水平,并按照布拉德福的文献离散规律,找出该领域的核心期刊.     

Inhibition of reporter gene and Iridovirus-tiger frog virus in fish cell by RNA interference

We describe the specific silencing of reporter gene lacZ in FHM cells (muscle cells of fathead minnow, a fish cell line) by either expressing small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) from plasmids or transfecting small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) transcribed in vitro. Two types of dsRNAs could inhibit reporter gene expression, and siRNAs were more effective, while both of them worked very well in HeLa cells. siRNAs were tested for silencing expression of the major capsid protein (MCP) encoded by tiger frog virus (TFV), an iridovirus causing severe disease in fish. siRNAs targeting mcp gene effectively inhibited TFV replication in fish cells as demonstrated by reduced mcp RNA level, postponed emergence of cytopathogenic effect, as well as reduced TFV titer and particles in cells. The results suggest that the siRNA method suppressed TFV efficiently in fish cells, providing a potential approach to the therapy of aquaculture viral diseases.     

自然流产次数与染色体着丝粒点变化程度关系探讨

本文对５０对不明原因自然流产次数不同的夫妇和３０对已生育正常胎儿无流产史的夫妇染色体着丝粒点（Ｃｄ）进行了研究，其中流产夫妇按流产次数１、２、３及以上分为流产Ⅰ、Ⅱ、Ⅲ组。结果：Ｃｄ消失频率：流产组Ⅱ（０．３７±０．２０／细胞）和流产组Ⅲ（０．４２±０．２２／细胞）分别与正常对照组（０．７１±０．１２／细胞）比较差异有极显著意义（Ｐ＜０．０１）。Ｃｄ变异频率：流产组Ⅰ（０．６９±０．２８／细胞）、流产组Ⅱ（０．６７±０．２８／细胞）和流产组Ⅲ（０．６７±０．２１／细胞）分别与正常对照组比较差异有极显著意义（Ｐ＜０．０１）。Ｃｄ－ＮＯＲ融合频率：流产组Ⅱ（０．４０±０．２０／细胞）和流产组Ⅲ（０．４１±０．１９／细胞）与正常对照组（０．１９±０．１８／细胞）比较差异有极显著意义（Ｐ＜０．０１）。Ｃｄ融合频率：流产组Ⅱ（０．３５±０．１７／细胞）和流产组Ⅲ（０．３７±０．１３／细胞）分别与对照组（０．２６±０．１８／细胞）比较差异有显著意义（Ｐ＜０．０５）。总体趋势表现为流产组ⅡＣｄ变化的各项指标有较显著的提高，提示：不明原因流产２次以上的夫妇Ｃｄ的变化可能是导致流产的重要原因之一。     

Data mining for indicators of early mortality in a database of clinical records

This paper describes the analysis of a database of diabetic patients' clinical records and death certificates. The objective of the study was to find rules that describe associations between observations made of patients at their first visit to the hospital and early mortality.Pre-processing was carried out and a knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) package, developed by the Lanner Group and the University of East Anglia, was used for rule induction using simulated annealing.The most significant discovered rules describe an association that was not generally known or accepted by the medical community, however, recent independent studies confirm their validity.     

CD4+ T cells in adoptive immunotherapy and the indirect mechanism of tumor rejection

Tumor-specific CD4+ effector T cells often play a decisive role in immunologic tumor rejection, in some cases without evident co-participation of CD8+ T cells. During such CD4+ T-cell-mediated rejection there is often no detectable direct contact between T cells and tumor cells. Optimally prepared, adoptively transferred CD4+ T cells can reject established tumors with great efficiency even when targeted tumor cells express no MHC Class II molecules, implying that recognition of tumor antigen (Ag) occurs via MHC Class II-expressing host antigen-presenting cells (APC) within the tumor. Because consequent rejection also excludes Ag-specific contact between CD4+ T cells and MHC Class IIneg tumor cells, the most critical CD4+ T-cell-mediated event is likely cytokine release, resulting in an accumulation and activation of accessory cells such as tumoricidal macrophages and lymphokine-activated killer cells. Although such an indirect rejection mechanism may appear antithetical to popular strategies centered on CD8+ cytotoxic T cell (CTL), current evidence suggest that even CD8+ T-cell-mediated recognition/rejection often bypasses direct tumor cell contact and is largely cytokine mediated. While CTL are likely to participate prominently in many models of tumor rejection, indirect mechanisms of recognition/rejection have the theoretical advantage of remaining operative even when individual tumor cells evade direct contact by down-regulating MHC and/or Ag expression.     

Supra-acetabular line is better than supra-iliac line for coronal balance referencing—a study of perioperative whole spine X-rays in degenerative lumbar scoliosis and ankylosing spondylitis patients

Background Context

The aim of spinal deformity correction is to restore the spine's functional alignment by balancing it in both the sagittal and coronal planes. Regardless of posture, the ideal coronal profile is straight, and therefore readily assessable.

T9 versus T10 as the upper instrumented vertebra for correction of adult deformity—rationale and recommendations

Background Context

Adult spinal deformity correction sometimes involves long posterior pedicle screw constructs extending from the lumbosacral spine to the thoracic vertebra. As fusion obliterates motion and places supraphysiological stress on adjacent spinal segments, it is crucial to ascertain the ideal upper instrumented vertebra (UIV) to minimize risk of proximal junctional failure (PJF). The T10 vertebra is often chosen to allow bridging of the thoracolumbar junction into the immobile thoracic vertebrae on the basis that it is the lowest immobile thoracic vertebra strut by the rib cage.