Total hemolytic complement (CH50) and its fractions (C3 and C4) in the sera of patients with carcinoma of the oral cavity,uterine cervix,and breast

The total hemolytic complement activity of CH50 and its fractions C3 and C4 was determined in the sera of 196 patients with carcinoma of the oral cavity, 172 patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix, and 166 patients with breast cancer. The values were compared with those of 18 patients with mammary dysplasia, 32 patients with mild to moderate dysplasia of the cervix, and 100 healthy, normal age- and sex-matched controls. No alterations in CH50, C3, and C4 were observed in the sera of patients with benign lesions, whereas a significant rise in the three factors was observed in all the cancer patients studied. The complement activity increased significantly with the progression of the disease up to stage III and remained persistently elevated thereafter. Patients who had a clinical cure had normal levels of CH50, C3, and C4, whereas the values remained elevated in patients who were still undergoing treatment for residual lesions.     

Retention of successive position reversals in rats with septal and fronto-polar lesions

Eight successive position reversals were given preoperatively to establish position reversal sets in rats. Six animals received septal lesions, six fronto-polar cortex ablations, and six normals served as a control group. During a series of eight postoperative reversals, rats with septal lesions committed significantly more errors and approach errors than normals while fronto-polar ablations had no detectable effect.     

食管和贲门癌原发病灶和淋巴结转移灶p53蛋白聚集变化的相关性研究

目的：通过对食管和贲门癌原发病灶和淋巴结转移病灶肿瘤抑制基因ｐ５３变化规律的研究，加深对食管和贲门癌转移发生的分子学基础的了解。方法：采用组织病理学和免疫组织化学（ＡＢＣ）方法，对３１例手术切除的食管和贲门癌原发病灶和转移病灶肿瘤抑制基因ｐ５３蛋白聚集进行比较研究。结果：３１例手术标本中，病理检查发现２４例食管鳞状细胞癌，７例为贲门腺癌。研究表明：２４例食管原发和转移鳞癌中，１１例原发和转移病灶中均出现ｐ５３蛋白聚集的变化，原发和转移病灶的一致性变化发生率为６１％（１１／１８）；在６例原发病灶ｐ５３免疫组化阴性患者中，其淋巴结转移病灶也同时出现免疫阴性反应。在７例胃贲门腺癌中，３例原发和转移病灶同时出现ｐ５３免疫阳性表达的一致率为５０％（３／６）；１例原发病灶ｐ５３免疫组化阴性患者，其淋巴结转移病灶也出现阴性反应。结论：肿瘤抑制基因ｐ５３在食管和贲门癌癌变和转移中起一定的作用。可能是食管和贲门癌侵袭与转移过程中值得重视的生物学指标之一。     

Report on two patients with Costello syndrome and sialuria

We report on 2 unrelated patients with Costello syndrome. The first is a 5-year-old girl with “coarse” face, nasal papillomata, redundant skin of feet and hands, hyperextensible hand and finger joints, curly hair, feeding problems due to oral motor apraxia, growth and psychomotor retardation. The second is a 3-year-old boy with “coarse” face, loose skin on hands and feet, curly hair, oral motor apraxia, severe growth and psychomotor retardation. In both patients urine sialic acid levels were found to be repeatedly high. The meaning of this biochemical abnormality is discussed. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Cerebellar involvement in the coordination control of the oculo-manual tracking system: effects of cerebellar dentate nucleus lesion

Summary When the hand of the observer is used as a visual target, oculomotor performance evaluated in terms of tracking accuracy, delay and maximal ocular velocity is higher than when the subject tracks a visual target presented on a screen. The coordination control exerted by the motor system of the arm on the oculomotor system has two sources: the transfer of kinaesthetic information originating in the arm which increases the mutual coupling between the arm and the eyes and information from the arm movement efferent copy which synchronizes the motor activities of both subsystems (Gauthier et al. 1988; Gauthier and Mussa-Ivaldi 1988). We investigated the involvement of the cerebellum in coordination control during a visuo-oculo-manual tracking task. Experiments were conducted on baboons trained to track visual targets with the eyes and/or the hand. The role of the cerebellum was determined by comparing tracking performance defined in terms of delay, accuracy (position or velocity tracking errors) and maximal velocity, before and after lesioning the cerebellar dentate nucleus. Results showed that in the intact animal, ocular tracking was more saccadic when the monkey followed an external target than when it moved the target with its hand. After lesioning, eye-alone tracking of a visual target as well as eye-and-hand-tracking with the hand contralateral to the lesion was little if at all affected. Conversely, ocular tracking of the hand ipsilateral to the lesion side became more saccadic and the correlation between eye and hand movement decreased considerably while the delay between target and eyes increased. In normal animals, the delay between the eyes and the hand was close to zero, and maximal smooth pursuit velocity was around 100 degrees per second with close to unity gain; in eye-alone tracking the delay and maximal smooth pursuit velocity were 200 ms and 50 deg per second, respectively. After lesioning, delay and maximum velocity were respecttively around 210 ms and 40 deg per second, that is close to the values measured in eye-alone tracking. Thus, after dentate lesioning, the oculomotor system was unable to use information from the motor system of the arm to enhance its performance. We conclude that the cerebellum is involved in the coordination control between the oculomotor and manual motor systems in visuo-oculo-manual tracking tasks.     

Changes at the glomerular tip: a feature of membranous nephropathy and other disorders associated with proteinuria

Renal biopsies and post-mortem kidneys were examined for segmental lesions at glomerular tips, consisting of adhesion of the tuft to Bowman's capsule with an area of intra-capillary foam cells or hyaline material or sclerosed material. Of 72 consecutive renal biopsies showing membranous nephropathy, 46 (64 per cent) had tip changes. Such changes were correlated with the presence of acute tubular damage and with later stages of the nephropathy, but otherwise seemed unrelated to any particular clinical or pathological feature. Fourteen other patients were identified whose renal biopsies showed tip changes in glomeruli that had segmental or global mesangial hypercellularity not of a well-recognized type such as IgA nephropathy. These patients had persistent proteinuria unresponsive to steroids. Tip changes were also seen in several miscellaneous conditions including IgA nephropathy and diabetic glomerulosclerosis. These findings demonstrate that tip changes are seen in many disorders of the kidney associated with proteinuria and represent a previously unrecognized common response of the glomerulus to some insult, the glomerular tip lesion, as originally defined, is distinguished by the apparent normality of tufts except for the tip changes and can be regarded as presumed minimal change nephropathy plus tip changes and when tip changes are seen, the most important factor determining the prognosis is the condition of the rest of the glomerular tuft.     

Balloon cell nevus of the soft palate: an immunohistochemical and ultrastructural study

An ultrastructural analysis of oral balloon cell nevus of intramucosal type complemented with an immunohistochemical study was performed for the first time. The lesion was composed of large balloon cells with an admixture of small nevus cells and melanophages at the periphery. Balloon cells showed cytoplasmic accumulation of vacuoles of varying sizes and the presence of microgranular and vacuolated melanosomes were found. Residual cytoplasm contained no identifiable organelles. A spectrum of transitional forms between balloon cells and conventional nevus cells with microvacuoles was readily observed. Both cells exhibited intense immunoreactivity to multiple melanocytic markers. Ballooning phenomenon was not evident in melanophages containing a large amount of melanosome complex. It can be inferred, from the present and previous observations, that progressive vacuolization of melanosomes in nevomelanocytes may be responsible for the formation of peculiar ballooning appearance, suggesting an aberrant melanogenesis.     

Pharmacokinetics of a novel oral slow-release form of misoprostol

BACKGROUND: The pharmacokinetics of a novel slow-release (SR) misoprostol was studied and compared to conventional misoprostol. METHODS: Thirty-one women, pregnant between 8 and 12 weeks, requesting surgical abortion were randomly allocated to receive orally 400 microg conventional misoprostol, 400 microg SR misoprostol or 800 microg SR misoprostol. Venous blood samples were taken at 0, 30, 60, 120, 240 and 360 min after the administration of misoprostol. Misoprostol acid (MPA) was determined in serum samples using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. RESULTS: Serum peak concentration (Cmax) was highest for conventional oral misoprostol. The time to peak concentration (Tmax) was similar for all groups. The area under the curve up to 360 min was similar for conventional and for 800 microg SR misoprostol and significantly greater for these groups compared to 400 microg SR misoprostol (P = 0.013). CONCLUSION: The new SR form of misoprostol demonstrated lower peak levels but longer-lasting elevation in plasma levels compared to conventional oral misoprostol. The AUC for 800 microg SR misoprostol was similar to that of 400 microg of conventional oral misoprostol. SR misoprostol may offer an alternative to repeated administration of oral misoprostol or to vaginal administration.     

Interleukin-15 is not required for the induction or maintenance of orally induced peripheral tolerance

Orally induced tolerance is a physiologically relevant form of peripheral tolerance, which is believed to be important for the prevention of pathological immune responses in the gut. Of several mechanisms proposed to mediate oral tolerance, one that has received much attention recently is the concept of regulatory CD4+ T cells. As recent studies have suggested that interleukin (IL)-15 may be important for the differentiation and maintenance of regulatory CD4+ T cells, we have examined the role of IL-15 in oral tolerance, using a soluble form of the IL-15 receptor (sIL-15R) which blocks the biological effects of IL-15 in vivo. Oral tolerance induced by feeding mice ovalbumin (OVA) in a low-dose regimen believed to induce regulatory T cell activity was not affected by the administration of sIL-15R during either the induction or maintenance phase of tolerance. Thus, oral tolerance does not involve an IL-15-dependent mechanism.     

Effect of megestrol caproate on the reproductive function of laboratory animals

In vivo experiments on rats and rabbits showed that megestrol caproate, a 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone derivative exhibits 10-fold higher gestagenic activity compared to progesterone and possesses no androgenic, anabolic, and estrogenic activities.