Use of multivariate statistical methods to identify immunochemical cross‐reactants

Quantitative competition immunoassays with appropriate combinations of antibodies give consistent dose‐response patterns which may be used to identify and estimate amounts of cross‐reacting compounds. Previously reported methods of analyzing cross‐reaction patterns include multiple regression, principal components analysis and minimum estimates of variance (MEV). Four other techniques which are preferable in theory have been surveyed: discriminant analysis (DA), maximum likelihood estimates (MLE), classification and regression trees (CART), and computational neural networks (NN). MLE and simple back‐propagation neural networks can estimate the concentration, as well as the identity, of individual compounds. These four methods worked well with unfitted, unscaled data from monoclonal assays of triazines, phenylureas and avermectins. Immunoassays must be properly designed to provide adequate data for pattern recognition. Cross‐reactivity pattern analysis will make multi‐analyte, multi‐antibody immunoassays feasible for many applications in toxicology and hazard assessment.     

Glia cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor mediates survival of murine sympathetic precursors

During embryonic development, neurons are first produced in excess, and final numbers are adjusted by apoptosis at later stages. Crucial to this end is the amount of target‐derived growth factor available for the neurons. By this means, the target size correctly matches the innervating neuron number. This target‐derived survival has been well studied for sympathetic neurons, and nerve growth factor (NGF) was identified to be the crucial factor for maintaining sympathetic neurons at late embryonic and early postnatal stages, with a virtual complete loss of sympathetic neurons in NGF knockout (KO) mice. This indicates that all sympathetic neurons are dependent on NGF. However, also different glia cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) KO mice consistently presented a loss of sympathetic neurons. This was the rationale for investigating the role of GDNF for sympathetic precursor/neuron survival. Here we show that GDNF is capable of promoting survival of 30% sympathetic precursors dissociated at E13. This is in line with data from GDNF KOs in which a comparable sympathetic neuron loss was observed at late embryonic stages, although the onset of the phenotype was unclear. We further present data showing that GDNF ligand and canonical receptors are expressed in sympathetic neurons especially at embryonic stages, raising the possibility of an autocrine/paracrine GDNF action. Finally, we show that GDNF also maintained neonatal sympathetic neurons (40%) cultured for 2 days. However, the GDNF responsiveness was lost at 5 days in vitro. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

HLA investigations in cardiomyopathies

Typization of HLA A, B and C antigens of peripheral lymphocytes was performed in 14 patients suffering from cardiomyopathy and in 10 family members from 10 families. Among the antigens of locus A, the most frequent were the subgroups of HLA A9 (A23 and A24) in 7/14, and those of HLA A10 (A25 and A26) in 3/14; frequent antigens of locus B were the types B5, B7, B12 and B35. In 2 of 10 families the cardiomyopathy was transmitted by autosomal dominant genes, while the other cardiomyopathy cases were sporadic. The HLA B8 antigen was not observed in any case of cardiomyopathy.     

Surgical treatment of decubitus ulcers of the pelvic area in patients with spinal cord injury

Pressure sores in spinal cord-injured patients can be treated by either conservative or surgical methods. Shortened healing period and long lasting results can be achieved by surgery. Between 1993 and 2001 the authors performed 64 operations with musculocutaneous or musculo-fasciocutaneous flaps in all cases. All patients healed primary except one, whose 20-year-old pressure sore transformed malignant and gave metastasis. The complication rate was 21.42%, that equals with the data of the literature. Measuring the late postoperative results by follow-up questionnaire, a 9.52% ratio of recurrence was found, which was significantly smaller than data of the literature (19-82%). Authors analyse the causes of their (good) results.     

Grammatical morphology and perception of synthetic and natural speech in children with specific language impairments.

Studies investigating the relationship between the use of inflectional morphology and speech-perception abilities in children with SLI traditionally have employed synthetic speech stimuli. The purpose of this study was to replicate the findings reported in Leonard, McGregor, and Allen (1992) with an older group of children with SLI and to determine if the pattern of deficits seen for synthetic speech extends to perception of natural speech stimuli. The speech-perception abilities of 27 children between the ages of 6;11 and 8;11 (15 SLI and 12 NL) were compared using natural and synthetic versions of the [das]-[daS], [dabiba]-[dabuba], and [i]-[u] contrast pairs originally used in Leonard et al. The findings reported by Leonard et al. were replicated with synthetic speech but not for the natural speech. Use of inflectional morphology in obligatory contexts by the children with SLI was not significantly correlated with their perception abilities for any of the natural or synthetic speech-contrast pairs. Further, although both groups' ability to maintain the target contrast in memory declined over the span of the trials for all target contrasts for both natural and synthetic speech, the rate of decline did not differ significantly between the SLI and NL groups. Findings are discussed with respect to possible deficits in linking phonological representations to grammatical representations in children with SLI.     

Role of primary photoacceptors in low-power laser effects: action of He-Ne laser radiation on bacteriophage T4-Escherichia coli interaction

The effect of He-Ne laser radiation (lambda = 632.8 nm) on bacteriophage T4-Escherichia coli WP2 interactions was studied. Irradiation of bacteria having respiratory chain components as primary photoacceptors accelerated their division in a dose-dependent manner, but irradiation had no effect on the properties of the phage (measured as its ability to infect host cells). At the same time, exposure of bacteria to stimulating doses of He-Ne laser radiation (from 10(3) to 6 x 10(4) J/m2) increased their ability to promote the growth of unexposed phages. These results clearly indicate that low-power laser effects require primary photoacceptors (phage contains no chromophores for red light).