Knowledge of the Brain Death Concept in Dominican Immigration Residents in Spain and Florida

The Latin American population has a double way of immigration, one toward the United States by proximity and another toward Spain by sociocultural affinity. This population increase is affecting organ donation and transplantation in receiving countries.

Panhypopituitarism as first manifestation of a lung cancer

Pituitary metastases of solid tumours are infrequent, specially as a first manifestation. When they happen, they are usually due to breast or lung cancer and are asymptomatic or produce diabetes insipidus. It is very strange that they produce hormonal deficiency. We present a case report of a bronchogenic adenocarcinoma in a 65-year-old man which began with panhypopituitarism, diabetes insipidus and visual alterations. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a large sellar mass, with clivus infiltration and invading the right cavernous sinus. The biopsy result was adenocarcinoma metastases from lung cancer.     

Cerebral venous and sagittal sinus thrombosis after transcallosal removal of a colloid cyst of the third ventricle: case report

The authors report a case of cortical vein and sagittal sinus thrombosis after a transcallosal removal of a colloid cyst of the third ventricle. Thirty-six hours after the operation, the patient developed focal seizures; after progressive deterioration, he died on the sixth postoperative day. At the autopsy, a venous hemorrhagic infarct in the right frontoparietal area and fresh thrombus occluding the sagittal sinus and cortical veins were found. The mechanism of cortical vein and sinus thrombosis subsequent to this procedure is discussed, and suggestions are made to prevent this serious complication.     

Stimulation of phagocytic function in mouse macrophages by neurotensin and neuromedin N

The neuropeptides neurotensin and neuromedin N (from 10⁻¹² M to 10⁻⁹ M) have been showed in this study to stimulate significantly in vitro several steps of the phagocytic process: adherence to substrate, chemotaxis, ingestion of inert particles (latex beads) and production of superoxide anion measured by nitroblue tetrazolium reduction in resting peritoneal macrophages from BALB/c mice. A dose-response relationship was observed, with a maximal stimulation of the phagocytic process at 10⁻¹¹ M. The two neuropeptides induced no change of intracellular cyclic AMP in murine macrophages. Moreover, adherence and chemotaxis decreased significantly in the presence of EGTA (1 mM), a chelator of extracellular Ca²⁺, or ryanodine (0.5 mM), a blocker of a Ca²⁺-gated channel from the endoplasmic reticulum, in both controls and samples with the addition of neurotensin or neuromedin N. These results suggest that there is no relation between the cAMP messenger system and the phagocytic process stimulation in murine peritoneal macrophages by neurotensin or neuromedin N. In addition, the results observed with EGTA and ryanodine could indicate that these two neuropeptides produce their effects through an increase of intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration.     

Serotonin 5- HT (2C) receptor knockout mice: autoradiographic analysis of multiple serotonin receptors.

Quantitative receptor autoradiography was used to study possible alterations of the densities of multiple serotonin (5-HT) receptor subtypes and of serotonin transporter in the brain of 5-HT(2C) receptor knockout mice. The radioligands employed were [(3)H]citalopram, [(3)H]WAY100,635, [(3)H]8-OH-DPAT, [(3)H]GR125743, [(3)H]sumatriptan, [(3)H]MDL100,907, [(125)I](+/-)DOI, [(3)H]mesulergine, [(3)H]5-HT, [(3)H]GR113808, and [(3)H]5-CT. As expected, radioligands that label 5-HT(2C) receptors showed a complete absence of labeling in mutant mice choroid plexus and significantly reduced densities in other brain regions expressing 5-HT(2C) receptors. With the rest of the radioligands, no significant alterations in the densities of labeled sites were found in any brain region. In situ hybridization showed no changes in 5-HT(2A) receptor and serotonin transporter mRNA levels, whereas 5-HT(2C) receptor mRNA levels were reduced in certain brain regions. The present results indicate that the mouse serotonergic system does not exhibit compensatory up- or down-regulation of the majority of its components (serotonin transporter and most 5-HT receptor subtypes) in response to the absence of 5-HT(2C) receptors.     

A monoclonal antibody, GR7A4, reacting with the T10 antigen

The monoclonal antibody GR7A4 was produced against a human lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL-B). Biochemical characterization of GR7A4 was carried out with Raji cells in SDS-PAGE studies. GR7A4 precipitated a 43 kd molecule. The tissue distribution and molecular weight were similar to the T10 antigen. Modulation and capping of GR7A4 antigen reduced its binding ability to cells with either GR7A4 or OKT10. However, the cell surface distribution pattern observed was somewhat different from other similar monoclonal antibodies. Thus GR7A4 reacted greatly with pre-B-cell lines, Burkitt cell lines, EBV cell lines and activated PHA, ConA and PWM lymphocytes, however reactivity with leukemic cells was very limited. The kinetics of appearance of GR7A4 antigen on PWM blasts show that this molecule seems to represent an intermediate stage in lymphocytic activation. The differences in comparison with other similar MAbs are discussed and correlated with the peculiar discontinous pattern of appearance of this antigen.