Injection of substance P (SP) N-terminal fragment SP(1-7) into the ventral tegmental area modulates the levels of nucleus accumbens dopamine and dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in male rats during morphine withdrawal

The biologically active substance P (SP) N-terminal metabolite SP_1–7 has been reported to modulate several neural processes such as learning, locomotor activity and reaction to opioid withdrawal. Although all these processes are believed to be associated with dopaminergic transmission no evidence of an interaction between SP_1–7 and dopamine in the case of morphine withdrawal has so far been reported. Therefore, in this work we applied in vivo microdialysis to investigate the effect of SP_1–7 injection into the ventral tegmental area on dopamine release in nucleus accumbens of male rats during naloxone precipitated morphine withdrawal. The result showed that the heptapeptide enhances dopamine release and also elevates the level of the dopamine metabolite dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in this brain area. It was suggested that the observed action of the SP fragment on the dopamine system represents the underlying mechanism for a previously observed ability of SP_1–7 to counteract the aversion response to morphine withdrawal.     

Chromosomal factors of infertility in candidate couples for ICSI: an equal risk of constitutional aberrations in women and men

To assess the frequency of chromosomal aberrations in French candidates for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and to explore the existence of a female chromosomal factor in some cases of couple infertility, a collaborative retrospective clinical and cytogenetic study was performed, launched by the Association des Cytogénéticiens de Langue Franciaise (ACLF). The karyotypes of 3208 patients [2196 men (68.4%), 1012 (31.6%) women] included in ICSI programmes over a 3-year period in France were collected. A total of 183 aberrant karyotypes was diagnosed, corresponding to an abnormality frequency of 6.1% (134/2196) for men and 4.84% (49/1012) for women. The following frequencies of abnormalities were observed respectively for men and women: 1.23% (n = 27) and 0.69% (n = 7) for reciprocal translocations, 0.82% (n = 18) and 0.69% (n = 7) for Robertsonian translocations, 0.13% (n = 3) and 0.69% (n = 7) for inversions, 3.32% (n = 73) and 2.77% (n = 28) for numerical sex chromosome aberrations, and 0.59% (n = 13) and 0% for other structural aberrations. Among the male patients of this latter group, 0.40% (n = 9) had a Y chromosome abnormality. Among the male patients with numerical sex chromosome abnormalities, 2.23% (n = 49) were 47,XXY, 0.32% (n = 7) were 47,XYY, and 0.77% (n = 17) had a mosaicism for numerical sex chromosome anomalies. All the female patients with sex chromosome abnormalities (2.77%, n = 28) had mosaicism for numerical sex chromosome anomalies. Even if these cases-the significance of which was sometimes questioned-were disregarded in the analysis, 2.08% (21/1012) of abnormal karyotypes remained in women. An overall increased frequency of chromosomal aberrations was found, and this confirmed that in some cases of poor reproductive outcome there may be a contribution of maternal chromosome aberrations. Indeed, the existence of a chromosome abnormality in the female partner was associated with the group of infertile men in which there was no apparent cause of infertility.     

Sperm plasma membrane damage prior to intracytoplasmic sperm injection: a necessary condition for sperm nucleus decondensation

In the present study we investigated the relevance of spermimmobilization prior to intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)in the fertilization process. Using supravital staining of thespermatozoa with eosin and studying sperm decondensation with2 mM dithiothreitol (DTT) in conditions imitating sperm handlingduring ICSI, we demonstrated that immobilization of the spermatozoonby squeezing its tail between the glass pipette and the bottomof the dish damages the sperm plasma membrane. Polyvinylpyrrolidone(PVP), which is usually present in the drop with the spermatozoonto facilitate its handling, was found to impede the access ofboth eosin and DTT to the sperm nucleus. We conclude that (i)sperm immobilization prior to ICSI damages the sperm plasmamembrane, that (ii) this damage is sufficient for thiol-reducingagents to gain access to the sperm nucleus, and finally that(iii) PVP possibly interferes with sperm nucleus decondensation.     

Influence of the histamine control on skin reactivity in skin testing

We investigated the effect of the histamine control (1 mg/ml) on the results of skin prick and intradermal testing with bee and wasp venom. Skin tests were done on the patients' forearms: on the right arm the histamine control and the bee venom dilutions, on the left arm the wasp venom dilutions only, at distances of 4-5 cm. In intradermal testing 11 (9%) of 122 patients showed a positive wheal and flare reaction to the bee venom solution positioned next to the histamine control. The subsequent solutions in higher concentrations did not produce any skin reactions. The results of intradermal testing with bee venom did not occur in intradermal testing with wasp venom or in skin prick testing with both allergens. Our results show clearly that in skin prick tests a distance of 4-5 cm is sufficient to avoid false positive skin reactions. However, using the same distance in intradermal testing showed that histamine affects the skin reactions produced by adjacent allergen solutions. Therefore false positive results may occur.     

Dependence of the anterior olfactory area self-stimulation upon the lateral hypothalamic area

The functional relation between the anterior olfactory area (AO) and the lateral hypothalamic area (LH) was examined in a self-stimulation situation. Bar-pressing responses for AO sitmulation were suppressed by unilateral injection of procaine, and enhanced by glutamate, into LH. Neither procaine nor glutamate injected into AO had any influence upon LH self-stimulation. It is unlikely that the procaine effect was due to motor disturbance because similar injection of procaine into LH did not disturb the performance of a one-way avoidance task. It appears that the rewarding effect of AO stimulation is dependent upon the excitation of the more caudal structures including LH.     

Ability of rosetting or non-rosetting individual control and inflammatory macrophages to kill Escherichia coli X43 intracellularly

An autoradiographic method combined with a rosette technique was used to assess the bactericidal activity of individual control and inflammatory peritoneal macrophages (PM phi) in the presence or absence of expression of Fc receptor for IgG (FcR). There was a lack of FcR reactivity in a certain percentage of both categories of PM phi exposed to E. coli X43, a bacterium which is readily phagocytosed in the presence of specific antibody. Both rosetting and non-rosetting PM phi were capable of phagocytosing E. coli X43, but inflammatory PM phi showed a marked reduction in their capacity to ingest these bacteria compared with control PM phi. Once ingested the E. coli X43 were killed equally well by non-rosetting and rosetting control and inflammatory PM phi.     

Intraocular grafting of cultured brain tissue: growth, vascularization and neuron survival in locus coeruleus and cortex cerebri

Locus coeruleus and cortex cerebri from embryonic (ED 17) and newborn rats were kept 4 days in tissue culture under conditions maintaining organotypic features and then transplanted to the anterior chamber of the eye of adult rats. Vascularization from the host iris was delayed in pre-cultured grafts as compared to directly grafted material. In spite of this, several morphological parameters developed normally. Thus, pre-cultured grafts grew considerably in oculo. Falck-Hillarp histochemistry showed that grafts of cortex cerebri received an adrenergic innervation from the host iris and that locus coeruleus grafts contained central adrenergic neurons capable of innervating a sympathetically denervated host iris. The successful combination of tissue culture and intraocular transplantation should permit the selective advantages of both techniques to be applied to the same tissue pieces, generating new information unobtainable by either method alone.     

Dynamics of some indices of blood clotting after intraperitoneal injection of thrombin into noninbred albino rats

The possibility of giving thrombin by intraperitoneal injection as a test of the function of the blood clotting system (the in vivo thrombin test) was demonstrated in experiments on noninbred albino rats.Department of Biochemistry, Tyumen' Medical Institute. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR N. A. Fedorov.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 86, No. 12, pp. 675–677, December, 1978.     

Oocyte and embryo quality as well as pregnancy rate in intracytoplasmic sperm injection are not affected by high follicular phase serum progesterone

The effect of elevated serum progesterone concentrations (>1ng/1) on or before the day of human chorionic gonadotrophin(HCG) injection on the outcome of women receiving gonadotrophin-releasinghormone analogue (GnRHa)/ human menopausal gonadotrophin (HMG)for ovarian stimulation prior to intracytoplasmic sperm injection(ICSI) was evaluated. A total of 1275 ICSI cycles were analysedretrospectively. In 53 cycles (4.5%), serum progesterone concentrationswere > 1 ng/ml. Patients in the high progesterone group hadsignificantly higher oestradiol and luteinizing hormone concentrationson the day of HCG injection. The characteristics of the cumulus-coronacell complexes and the nuclear maturity of the oocytes weresimilar in the groups of patients with high and low serum progesteronelevels. Fertilization and cleavage rates as well as embryo qualitywere not different in the two groups. No difference in implantationor clinical pregnancy rates was observed between the high progesteroneand low progesterone groups. Moreover, the cumulative exposureto progesterone during the follicular phase, as expressed bythe area under the curve (AUC), and the duration of exposureto high serum progesterone levels (>1 ng/ml) were not significantlydifferent between pregnant and non-pregnant women in the highprogesterone group. We conclude that in ICSI cycles pretreatedwith GnRHa, increased serum progesterone concentrations on orbefore the day of HCG injection do not affect ICSI outcome.     

Desensitization to substance P following intrathecal injection

Summary The intrathecal injection of substance P (SP) (2.5–15 g) has been shown to produce hyperalgesia in the rat tail flick test. Repeated injection of SP (7.5 or 15 g) or pretreatment with two of these doses produces desensitization to this hyperalgesic response. Desensitization is doserelated with respect to degree and duration. This phenomenon is relatively specific because the hyperalgesic response to methysergide, a serotonin receptor antagonist, is unaffected, while that produced by phentolamine, an adrenergic receptor antagonist, is much less affected than that of SP. Pretreatment with a desensitizing regimen of SP potentiates the antinociceptive effect of morphine and baclofen when they are tested immediately after the regimen but if a 30 min delay is permitted, an inhibition of their effects is observed. These results support the notion that the spinal antinociceptive effect of morphine and baclofen is due to an interaction with SP mechanisms in the spinal cord, the nature of which may be more complex than is presently understood. Desensitization produces no change in baseline responsiveness in the tail flick test. This suggests that the hyperalgesic response to SP is due either to an action at a site other than the primary afferent synapse, or if it is at this site either compensatory mechanisms occur or SP is not the primary determinant of tail flick latency but may play a modulatory role.