An Improved Method for the Synthesis of the of Indole[2,3-a]Pyrrolo[3,4-c]Carbazole-5,6-Dione N-Glycosides and their Cytotoxic Activity

Pharmaceutical Chemistry Journal - Use of formylindolylacetic acid as a reagent at the stage of preparing the glycosides of bis(indolyl)furan-2,5-diones and dioxane as solvent increased yields from...     

Comparison between a swim-up and a Percoll gradient technique for the separation of human spermatozoa

Two methods of separating human sperm were compared using twenty-two semen samples. The sperm were separated by a swim-up technique or by self-migration on a Percoll gradient followed by medium change. After separation, the sperm obtained were assessed for progressive motility, ATP content, energy charge index ([ATP + 0.5 ADP]/[ATP + ADP + AMP]) and morphology. In general, and especially for semen samples containing less than 20 X 10(6) sperm/ml, separation by Percoll gradient selected sperm that were superior to those separated by the swim-up technique. The relatively high energy charge index (greater than 0.8) showed that the sperm tolerated the separation conditions well. It is suggested that self-migration on a Percoll gradient should prove useful for obtaining sperm of high quality.     

Characteristics of peripheral blood lymphoid subpopulations of shigellosis patients

Chelyabinsk Medical Institute. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR A. D. Ado.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 113, No. 3, pp. 299–301, March, 1992.     

Effect of single-stranded breaks on ultrastructural organization and cytochemistry of tumor cell chromatin

Laboratory of Chemistry of the Cancer Cell, Latvian Research Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Ministry of Health of the Latvian SSR, Riga. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR I. B. Zbarskii.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 106, No. 11, pp. 591–593, November, 1988.     

Hospital versus population controls in a retrospective study on diet and stomach cancer

The aim of the present study is to evaluate drawbacks and advantagesof the choice of hospital versus population controls in a casecontrol study on diet and cancer through the analysis of a retrospectivestudy on diet and gastric cancer (GC) conducted in Forli, Italy,involving 232 cases, 430 population controls and 252 hospitalizedcontrols. The present paper reports the comparison of resultson diet and GC risk obtained using the 2 types of controls.Population controls tended, in general, to eat all kinds offoods slightly more frequently (bread, pasta, cold cuts, freshfish, seasoned cheeses, legumes, garlic, onions and preservedfruits), with the exception of cooked vegetables, which werereported less frequently by population than by hospital controls.ORs for specific foods adjusted for confounders and other foodswere consistent in the separate models including populationand hospital controls respectively for all food groups, withthe exception of cooked vegetables which represented a protectivefactor only when hospital controls were considered (high consumers,population controls: adjusted, OR=0.9, trend p value 0.54; highconsumers, hospital controls, adjusted OR=0.5, trend p value<0.01). Hospital controls were slightly less often currentsmokers (22.6 versus 30.0%) and more often regular wine drinkers(57.5 versus 47.8%) compared with population controls, but noneof these variables was associated with GC risk. The main resultsin this study were consistent using both types of controls,nevertheless the distribution of some dietary variables notrelated to the disease under study differed between the 2 controlgroups, suggesting some caution in the use of hospital controlswhen studying diseases other than GC.     

Essential Nature of Choline with Implications for Total Parenteral Nutrition

Choline is known to be important in many metabolic pathways; at this time, however, it is not considered an essential nutrient for human beings. Current evidence strongly suggests that choline is “conditionally essential,” particularly for patients receiving total parenteral nutrition (TPN). Studies in patients receiving long-term TPN have shown that low levels of plasma choline are common and can be associated with hepatic steatosis. Treatment of these patients with oral administration of choline improved plasma levels and decreased hepatic fat content; however, oral choline supplements are associated with poor compliance. More recently, investigators have evaluated intravenous administration of choline as a treatment for TPN-associated hepatic steatosis in patients with documented subnormal plasma free-choline levels. Initial results indicate that intravenous administration of choline may be an effective treatment for TPN-associated hepatic dysfunction.