The number of cardiac myocytes in the hypertrophic and hypotrophic left ventricle of the obese and calorie-restricted mouse heart

Changes in body mass due to varying amounts of calorie intake occur frequently with obesity and anorexia/cachexia being at opposite sides of the scale. Here, we tested whether a high-fat diet or calorie restriction (CR) decreases the number of cardiac myocytes and affects their volume. Ten 6–8-week-old mice were randomly assigned to a normal (control group, n = 5) or high-fat diet (obesity group, n = 5) for 28 weeks. Ten 8-week-old mice were randomly assigned to a normal (control group, n = 5) or CR diet (CR group, n = 5) for 7 days. The left ventricles of the hearts were prepared for light and electron microscopy, and analysed by design-based stereology. In CR, neither the number of cardiac myocytes, the relationship between one- and multinucleate myocytes nor their mean volume were significantly different between the groups. In contrast, in the obese mice we observed a significant increase in cell size combined with a lower number of cardiomyocytes (P < 0.05 in the one-sided U-test) and an increase in the mean number of nuclei per myocyte. The mean volume of myofibrils and mitochondria per cardiac myocyte reflected the hypertrophic and hypotrophic remodelling in obesity and CR, respectively, but were only significant in the obese mice, indicating a more profound effect of the obesity protocol than in the CR experiments. Taken together, our data indicate that long-lasting obesity is associated with a loss of cardiomyocytes of the left ventricle, but that short-term CR does not alter the number of cardiomyocytes.     

Effect of chain composition of poly(ethylene terephthalate) structure and properties

The effect of 2,2′-oxydiethanol (diethylene glycol, DEG) content (ranging from 2 to 15 mol-%) on unit cell dimensions, density, melting point, and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) of undrawn and drawn annealed (in the range from 80 to 260°C) poly(ethylene terephthalate), (PET), is studied. It is established that the unit cell parameters are almost unaffected by the DEG content. A significant decrease of the melting point and the degree of crystallinity of PET is observed, however. A decrease of the density of fully amorphous copolyester is established too, which is important for calculating the crystallinity from density measurements. At the same time a remarkable increase of both SAXS intensity and long spacing is registered. It is assumed that the effect of bonded DEG on PET structure and properties can be explained by the predominating comonomer (DEG) units distribution in the amorphous regions–only a small portion of them is involved in the crystallites as lattice defects.     

Ueber das Verhalten des Guanidin,Dicyandiamidin und Cyanamid im Organismus

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

IgG4‐related sclerosing mastitis in a 49‐year‐old patient with multiple,tumor‐like nodules—Diagnostic accuracy of core needle biopsy

Recently, it has been reported that IgG4‐related disease may occur in the breast manifesting as nodular sclerosing interstitial mastitis. Here we report a case with multiple tumor‐like nodules in one breast. The histologic diagnosis was established on core needle biopsies, and treatment was initiated without open biopsy. Diagnosis of IgG4‐related sclerosing mastitis should be suspected in cases of tumor‐like lesions on imaging with an interstitial plasma cell‐rich sclerosing inflammation on histology.