Treatment of pre-invasive conditions during opportunistic screening and its effectiveness on cervical cancer incidence in one Norwegian county

OBJECTIVE: To identify a correlation between dialysis treatment duration and severity of acquired cystic disease of the end-stage kidney measured by cyst sizes; and assess its effect on spontaneous improvement of anemia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten patients, 6 males and 4 females were selected, who have been on hemodialytic treatment for more than 5 years. There was no patient selected with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. The renal evaluation has been made through ultrasonographic studies. Acquired cystic disease of the end-stage kidney was characterized by finding four or more cysts in both kidneys. The largest cysts were measured for correlation effect. The diagnosis of anemia was established by hematocrit and hemoglobin serum values. It has also been analyzed serum urea, creatinine, albumin, iron, total iron-binding capacity and the per cent saturation of serum transferrin were tested. RESULTS: The patients were properly dialysed (serum urea and creatinine = 98.7 +/- 35 mg/dL e 9.7 +/- 2.7 mg/dL, respectively). There were in good nutritional shape (serum albumin = 4.5 +/- 0.5 g/dL) and had normal serum iron level (serum iron = 80 +/- 34 mg/dL). The prevalence of acquired renal cystic disease was 80%. No finding of malignancy has been detected in these cysts. There was a significant correlation between time on dialysis treatment and hematocrit values (R = 0.70; p < 0.05). Cyst sizes had a direct and significant correlation with hematocrit levels (R = 0.74; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: These results show that spontaneous improvement on anemia seen in patients on chronic dialysis has a significant correlation with the severity of acquired cystic disease of the end-stage kidney. Our data suggest a functional role of acquired kidney cysts on endogenous erythropoietin production.     

A new skeleton bisditerpenoid alkaloid from Aconitum pukeense]

A novel bisditerpenoid alkaloid named pukeensine was isolated from Aconitum pukeense W. T. Wang (Ranunculaceae). Its proposed structure was suggested by spectral evidence. This bisditerpenoid alkaloid skeleton has not been found previously.     

Identification and characterization of genes that interact with lin-12 in Caenorhabditis elegans

We identified and characterized 14 extragenic mutations that suppressed the dominant egg-laying defect of certain lin-12 gain-of-function mutations. These suppressors defined seven genes: sup-17, lag-2, sel-4, sel-5, sel-6, sel-7 and sel-8. Mutations in six of the genes are recessive suppressors, whereas the two mutations that define the seventh gene, lag-2, are semi-dominant suppressors. These suppressor mutations were able to suppress other lin-12 gain-of-function mutations. The suppressor mutations arose at a very low frequency per gene, 10-50 times below the typical loss-of-function mutation frequency. The suppressor mutations in sup-17 and lag-2 were shown to be rare non-null alleles, and we present evidence that null mutations in these two genes cause lethality. Temperature-shift studies for two suppressor genes, sup-17 and lag-2, suggest that both genes act at approximately the same time as lin-12 in specifying a cell fate. Suppressor alleles of six of these genes enhanced a temperature-sensitive loss-of-function allele of glp-1, a gene related to lin-12 in structure and function. Our analysis of these suppressors suggests that the majority of these genes are part of a shared lin-12/glp-1 signal transduction pathway, or act to regulate the expression or stability of lin-12 and glp-1.     

Entamoeba histolytica: computer-assisted modeling of phosphofructokinase for the prediction of broad-spectrum antiparasitic agents

Approximately 34 cases of intracranial tuberculomas with paradoxical response to antituberculous chemotherapy have been documented worldwide. In most of the previously reported cases of this entity an associated tuberculous meningitis has been reported. The majority of these patients were children or young adults, who had inoperably located intracranial tuberculomas in high risk regions developing a few weeks or months after the start of appropriate chemotherapy. 53% of them recovered completely, 37% improved with mild neurological deficits and 10% died. It is interesting that these intracranial tuberculomas developed or enlarged at a stage when systemic tuberculosis was being treated successfully. We report our recent experience with these potentially curable tumours of the central nervous system. The literature is reviewed and diagnostic and therapeutic considerations are discussed. The possible immunological mechanisms of this phenomenon are analysed. In conclusion, patients, who are suspected to be suffering from CNS-tuberculosis should receive a prolonged (12-30 months) course of effective antituberculous therapy. Evidence of new intracranial tuberculomas or the expansion of older existing lesions require no change in the antituberculous drug programme. In such cases systemic dexamethasone as adjuvant therapy for 4 to 8 weeks is worthwhile and effective. Surgical intervention may be necessary in situations with acute complications of CNS tuberculosis such as shunting procedures for the treatment of hydrocephalus. When the diagnosis is not firm and there is no response to therapy within 8 weeks, a stereotactic biopsy of a suspected tuberculoma should be performed. If the largest lesion is not located in high risk deep regions of the brain, it should be total removed surgically. With this combined management, a satisfactory outcome can be obtained in the majority of cases.     

Age-related decrease of plasma testosterone in SAMP8 mice: replacement improves age-related impairment of learning and memory

Corticosterone increases with aging but pregnenolone, dehydroepiandrosterone, and testosterone decrease. The marked decrease in hormones that occurs with aging may contribute to the age-related deficit in learning and memory. Administration of these hormones after training was found to improve long-term memory processing in normal young mice. SAMP8 (P8) mice show an age-related loss of learning and memory for a variety of tasks whereas age-matched control mice of the closely related SAMR1 (R1) strain do not. In this study, we found an age-related decrease in serum testosterone levels of 71% between P8 mice 4 and 12 months of age, but only a 26% decrease between R1 mice of the same ages. The difference between the P8 mice was significant (p < 0.01) and the difference between the R1 mice was not. The decrease in testosterone in 12-month-old P8 mice was not accompanied by gross morphological change in the testes. A SC testosterone implant, sufficient to increase plasma testosterone levels to 414 +/- 25 ng/dl, alleviated impaired learning and memory of a foot shock avoidance task in P8 mice. Castration of 4-month-old P8 mice did not produce a deterioration in learning and memory, indicating that low levels of testosterone per se are not responsible for the impairment seen in 12-month-old P8 mice. This suggests that impaired cognitive functioning of the older P8 mice was due to an interaction of aging and reduced testosterone levels.