Mouse antisera specific for desmosomal adhesion molecules of suprabasal skin cells, meninges, and meningioma.

Mouse polyclonal antisera were raised to the Mr 130,000 and Mr 115,000 cell surface glycoproteins, desmocollins, of desmosomes from bovine nasal epithelium. Immunoblotting confirmed that the antisera were specific for the desmocollins. An immunofluorescence study showed that the antisera distinguished between the basal and suprabasal layers of bovine and human epidermis. The antibodies reacted with cultured keratinocytes only after calcium-induced stratification. In epidermis, therefore, there appears to be a difference between the desmocollins of basal and suprabasal cells that may be important in relation to epidermal differentiation. Previous work has shown that polyclonal antisera raised in other animals (guinea pigs and rabbits) against desmocollins, as well as against other desmosomal components, react with all desmosome-containing epithelia. In contrast, an immunofluorescence survey of bovine, rat, and human tissues showed that the present mouse antisera stained only suprabasal skin cells and the arachnoid layer of the meninges, demonstrating that these have common determinants that distinguished their desmocollins from those of all other tissues. The antibodies also stained 11 of 12 meningiomas and, therefore, may be useful as a marker not only for the diagnosis of these tumors but also for investigation of their histogenesis.     

The effect of concomitant disorders in childhood depression on predicting treatment response

Children with pure depression or depression plus an anxiety-related disorder (n = 14) had a higher drug response rate (57%) and a lower placebo response rate (20%) when compared to children with depression plus a concomitant conduct or oppositional disorder (n = 17) (33% drug response rate and 67% placebo response rate). These findings could explain why studies of prepubertal-onset depression found no differences between drug and placebo treatment assuming that a large percentage of the studies' subjects had concomitant conduct or oppositional disorders. The children with pure depression or depression plus an anxiety-related disorder had different symptom clusters from those with depression plus a concomitant conduct or oppositional disorder. The former had more severe CDRS ratings on sleep, appetite disturbance, depressed feelings, and psychomotor retardation. In contrast, those with a concomitant conduct or oppositional disorder had shorter attention spans and were more likely to disturb other children (based on Conners scale scores).     

FEASIBILITY OF CONDUCTING CARDIOVASCULAR OUTCOME RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIAN GENERAL PRACTICE: RESULTS FROM THE ANBP2 PILOT STUDY

1. The present study aimed to determine the feasibility of conducting a 5 year cardiovascular outcome trial of the treatment of 6000 elderly hypertensive patients in Australian general practices. 2. General practitioners (GPs) were invited to participate by mail and personal follow-up. Patient records were reviewed to identify subjects for a blood pressure (BP) screening programme. Blood pressure was measured on three occasions and eligible subjects were included if the average BP was 160 mmHg systolic or 90 mmHg diastolic if systolic BP was 140 mmHg. 3. Seven hundred and forty-one GPs were approached and 89 were enrolled in the study (12% of mail invites and 75% of those receiving a personal contact). In 16 practices where screening was completed, 82 000 records were reviewed to identify 4% patients eligible for screening. Twenty-two per cent of eligible subjects attended screening. Of 1938 subjects screened, 180 (9%) had BP 5=160/90 mmHg. Forty-seven percent of subjects (n = 916) were receiving antihypertensive therapy and 184 (20%) were withdrawn from therapy. One hundred and sixteen (63%) of these subjects had BP return to study entry levels within 6 weeks. Fifty-seven newly diagnosed and 81 previously treated subjects were randomized (7% of the screened population). 4. Based on the high participation rate of GPs, the response rate of patients to attend a BP screening programme and the 7% randomization to screening ratio for entry into the study, the ANBP2 pilot study has demonstrated that it is feasible to recruit subjects from Australian general practices to a cardiovascular outcome trial.     

Limited proteolysis of single-chain tetanus toxin by tissue enzymes,in cultured brain tissue and during retrograde axonal to the spinal cord

Summary Single-chain toxin was investigated in vitro and in vivo for limited proteolysis into the fully active two-chain toxin. Plasmin from serum, elastase and gelatinase from leucocytes, as well as clostripain from C. histolyticum cleaved single-chain toxin and increased by that way its ability to inhibit [³H]noradrenaline release in vitro. Cultured mouse brain generated fragments from ¹²⁵I-single-chain toxin which were cell-associated. Some of them comigrated in electrophoresis with light and heavy chain after mercaptolysis. When injected i. v. into rats, ¹²⁵I-single-chain-toxin disappeared from the blood with a half-life of about 11 h without signs of nicking. However, after its injection into the triceps surae muscle both single- and two-chain toxin were found in the ipsilateral ventral horn of the spinal cord. Thus single-chain toxin is subjected to limited proteolysis by enzymes involved in tissue damage, by cultured brain tissue, and during or after its retrograde axonal transport to the spinal cord. Limited proteolysis is necessary for the release of the light chain known to mediate the action of toxin on several systems.     

The orthopan tomoscintigram — a new application of emission computed tomography for facial bone scanning

The exact regional correlation of findings of facial bone scans, planar or SPECT, to dental orthopan X-ray films (OPT) is difficult because of the very different projection techniques. To improve correlative imaging in this regard a projection algorithm was developed that uses SPECT data of the skull for reconstructing an orthopan tomoscintigraphic projection. Fourteen conventional SPECT slices of the upper and lower jaws were obtained during bone scanning. All mandibular slices were superimposed resulting in a horseshoe shaped structure, which was marked by an ROI which was divided into segments. All 14 SPECT slices were then masked by this segmental ROI, thereby marking the teeth-carrying bone in all slices. The information from this horseshoe like ROI is then transformed into lines. Line by line arrangement results in an orthopan projection, the orthopan tomoscintigram. This new display allows 1:1 true scale superimposition with the X-ray OPT and markedly facilitates correlative imaging.