Indicators of nutritional status among clients from a New York City methadone treatment center

As the AIDS epidemic in the United States moves steadily into the IV drug-abusing population, knowledge of factors related to immune suppression and disease progression gain in public health importance. Indicators of nutritional status, consisting of anthropometric and hematologic data as well as demographic data, were obtained from a random sample of 130 clients in a New York City methadone treatment center. Subjects for this study were selected according to the entry criteria established for inclusion in a large-scale study of the role of nutritional factors and cell-mediated immunity in a group at high risk of HIV seropositivity. Our results indicate a larger than U.S. population-average heterogeneity for Body Mass Index, hematocrit, and hemoglobin concentration, parameters which are conventionally thought to be proxies for general nutritional status. The findings indicate that while some methadone treatment clients are at low nutritional risk, others are probably at very high risk of adverse drug-nutrient and drug-body habitus interactions as well as being at high risk of acquiring infections commonly associated with HIV-related immunodeficiency.     

Spinning top urethra: not a normal variant

Spinning top urethra (STU) is a term used to describe a widened posterior urethra seen mainly in girls. It is commonly regarded as a normal variant. The authors studied 30 girls with STU using videourodynamics. Twenty-eight showed bladder instability; 21, a congenital wide bladder neck anomaly; and 20, both instability and a wide bladder neck. One patient had a sensitive bladder. All patients had a urodynamic abnormality. The authors believe that the STU is nearly always an indication of bladder instability or wide bladder neck anomaly. The most common mechanism for the dilatation of the posterior urethra is that unstable contractions are resisted by a voluntary increase in distal sphincter tension so as to prevent leakage of urine. The resulting pressure rise produces distention of the posterior urethra, which will be maximal in subjects with a weak bladder neck mechanism as in the congenital wide bladder neck anomaly. The authors believe that STU is seldom if ever a normal variant.     

Vibrio vulnificus (Lactose-Positive Vibrio) and Vibrio parahaemolyticus Differ in Their Susceptibilities to Human Serum

Eleven Vibrio vulnificus (lactose-positive vibrio) strains were less susceptible to the bactericidal activity of normal human serum or serum treated with magnesium-ethyleneglycol-bis (β-aminoethyl ether)-N,N′-tetraacetic acid than were six Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains.     

Association constants of hybridoma antibodies specific for alpha (1 leads to 6) linked dextran determined by affinity electrophoresis

Binding constants of monomers of seven BALB/c IgM, four BALB/c IgA, and one C57BL/6 IgA anti-alpha (1 leads to 6) dextran hybridoma antibodies with dextran B512 and with isomaltoheptaose were determined by affinity electrophoresis. Bindings constants to dextran range from 1.52 X 10(5) to 4.43 X 10(5) ml/g for the five IgA monomers and from 1.70 X 10(3) to 6.10 X 10(4) ml/g for the seven IgM monomers. Antibody monomers containing both specific and nonspecific (derived from the myeloma cell that was used to generate the hybridomas) light chains are shown to have association constants with dextran 6 to 30-fold lower than monomers containing only specific light chain, suggesting that the association of specific heavy chain with nonspecific light chain does not result in an anti-dextran combining site. Binding constants with isomaltoheptaose range from 1.45 X 10(4) to 7.01 X 10(4)/M for the IgA proteins and from 6.46 X 10(3) to 7.70 X 10(4)/M for the IgM proteins. The binding constants with dextran and with isomaltoheptaose, and the electrophoretic, immunochemical and idiotypic characteristics of the hybridoma proteins are discussed.     

AN ANALYSIS OF THE SEQUENCES OF THE VARIABLE REGIONS OF BENCE JONES PROTEINS AND MYELOMA LIGHT CHAINS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR ANTIBODY COMPLEMENTARITY

In an attempt to account for antibody specificity and complementarity in terms of structure, human κ-, human λ-, and mouse κ-Bence Jones proteins and light chains are considered as a single population and the variable and constant regions are compared using the sequence data available. Statistical criteria are used in evaluating each position in the sequence as to whether it is essentially invariant or group-specific, subgroup-specific, species-specific, etc. Examination of the invariant residues of the variable and constant regions confirms the existence of a large number of invariant glycines, no invariant valine, lysine, and histidine, and only one invariant leucine and alanine in the variable region, as compared with the absence of invariant glycines and presence of three each of invariant alanine, leucine, and valine and two each of invariant lysine and histidine in the constant region. The unique role of glycine in the variable region is emphasized. Hydrophobicity of the invariant residues of the two regions is also evaluated. A parameter termed variability is defined and plotted against the position for the 107 residues of the variable region. Three stretches of unusually high variability are noted at residues 24–34, 50–56, and 89–97; variations in length have been found in the first and third of these. It is hypothesized that positions 24–34 and 89–97 contain the complementarity-determining residues of the light chain—those which make contact with the antigenic determinant. The heavy chain also has been reported to have a similar region of very high variability which would also participate in forming the antibody-combining site. It is postulated that the information for site complementarity is contained in some extrachromosomal DNA such as an episome and is incorporated by insertion into the DNA of the structural genes for the variable region of short linear sequences of nucleotides. The advantages and disadvantages of this hypothesis are discussed.     

Shift work, light at night, and breast cancer on Long Island, New York

The hypothesized association between breast cancer and circadian disruption was evaluated in the Electromagnetic Fields and Breast Cancer on Long Island Study. Participants included 576 women with breast cancer diagnosed from August 1996 to June 1997 and 585 population-based controls (87% and 83% participation rates, respectively) aged < 75 years and living in the same Long Island, New York, home for > or = 15 years. An in-person interview ascertained light-at-night exposure histories through shift work (previous 15 years) and at home (previous 5 years). Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated by unconditional multivariate logistic regression. Breast cancer was not associated with overall shift work (odds ratio (OR) = 1.04, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.79, 1.38) or evening shift work (OR = 1.08, 95% CI: 0.81, 1.44). However, overnight shift workers were at lower risk than women never working shifts (OR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.32, 0.94). Women who frequently turned on lights at home during sleep hours (> or = twice/week and > or = twice/night) had increased risks (OR = 1.65, 95% CI: 1.02, 2.69). The latter results suggest positive associations with residential light-at-night exposure, or they could reflect response biases. Furthermore, overall and evening shift work were not significant factors, and analyses of overnight shift workers yielded reduced risk estimates. The study thus provides mixed evidence for the light-at-night hypothesis.