Ophthalmologic findings in Usher syndrome type 2A

Thirty-seven patients, comprising 24 familial cases and 13 isolated patients with Usher syndrome type II (USH2), underwent ophthalmologic examination. Based on the degree of hearing loss, normal vestibular function, and gene-linkage analysis, familial cases were assumed to have USH2A. An analysis of genetic heterogeneity failed to reveal the presence of a second locus in the Dutch population. Although the patients appear to belong to a genetically homogeneous group, remarkable ophthalmologic variability was found. Corrected visual acuity decreased with age and remarkable differences in visual acuity were found within one family. Fundoscopic findings were classified as type A if attenuated vessels and bone corpuscles in all quadrants were found or as type B if findings other than these were found. The prevalence of type A significantly increased with age.     

The effect of a split in WAIS-R VIQ and PIQ scores on patients with cognitive impairment and psychiatric illness

To determine the most effective treatment for acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans, several clinical trials were undertaken in recent years to evaluate whether a 2-week course of ceftriaxone would be superior to oral antibiotics. Of the 46 patients suffering from acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans, 14 were treated with ceftriaxone 2g for 15 days. The remaining patients received either oral penicillin V 1.5 million IU t.i.d. or doxycycline 100 mg b.i.d. for 20 to 30 days. Patients were followed up for at least 1 year. Of the 14 ceftriaxone-treated patients four showed incomplete regression of the inflammatory skin changes after 6 to 12 months. Two out of five patients who were monitored for Borrelia burgdorferi DNA excretion were still positive after 12 months as compared to none of six patients who were treated orally for 20-30 days. Six out of 11 patients treated orally for only 20 days needed retreatment after 6 months because of continuing skin manifestations, neuropathy or arthralgia. A 30-day duration of treatment with oral antibiotics and not the chosen antibiotic is crucial for curing acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans. The duration of treatment with ceftriaxone needed for eradication of Borrelia in acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans has yet to be determined in future studies.     

Identification, ontogeny, and regulation of an interleukin-6-like factor in the rat seminiferous tubule

The present study's aims are to search for the presence of interleukin-6 bioactivity (IL-6) in medium conditioned by various testicular cell types and to investigate the cellular and hormonal regulation of testicular IL-6 production. Sertoli cells prepared from rats of increasing ages (20, 35, and 45 days) secreted IL-6 in vitro, whereas medium conditioned by pachytene spermatocytes, early spermatids, and peritubular cells showed no activity. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and latex beads, two known stimulators of monocyte/macrophage IL-6 production, markedly stimulated IL-6 secretion by Sertoli cells at all the ages investigated. Maximum levels of IL-6 were reached after 6 h of culture of Sertoli cells with LPS and after 24 h with latex beads. When Sertoli cells were cocultured with pachytene spermatocytes, early spermatids, or fractions containing residual bodies and cytoplasts from elongated spermatids, only the latter significantly stimulated IL-6 levels. Maximum levels of IL-6 were attained by adding 2 x 10(6) residual bodies to Sertoli cells; a significant increase in IL-6 secretion was seen after 6 h, and maximum levels were observed after 24 h. The levels of IL-6 varied throughout different stages of the seminiferous epithelium cycle; highest levels were observed in stages II-VI and lowest in stages VII-VIII. IL-6 bioactivities induced by LPS and residual bodies and cytoplasts from elongated spermatids could be totally neutralized with a specific monoclonal antibody at all of the ages studied. FSH, phorbol myristate acetate, and IL-1 alpha augmented Sertoli cell IL-6 secretion in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, FSH and (Bu)2cAMP differentially stimulated IL-6 secretion during the seminiferous epithelial cycle. It is concluded that the release of IL-6 from Sertoli cells is regulated by a complex interplay between residual bodies and humoral factors.     

Do chart reviews and interviews provide the same information about breast and cervical cancer screening?

Magnetic resonance imaging allows a noninvasive assessment of myelination during normal brain maturation as well as the detection of genetically determined and acquired diseases that affect the synthesis and maintenance of myelin. If this high sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging for white matter changes is completed by adequate clinical and biochemical information, a unique diagnostic tool is available to gain new insights in the formation of myelin and pathogenesis of myelin disorders.     

Structure-function relationships in membrane segment 5 of the yeast Pma1 H+-ATPase

Membrane segment 5 (M5) is thought to play a direct role in cation transport by the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase and the Na+, K+-ATPase of animal cells. In this study, we have examined M5 of the yeast plasma membrane H+-ATPase by alanine-scanning mutagenesis. Mutant enzymes were expressed behind an inducible heat-shock promoter in yeast secretory vesicles as described previously (Nakamoto, R. K., Rao, R., and Slayman, C. W. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 7940-7949). Three substitutions (R695A, H701A, and L706A) led to misfolding of the H+-ATPase as evidenced by extreme sensitivity to trypsin; the altered proteins were arrested in biogenesis, and the mutations behaved genetically as dominant lethals. The remaining mutants reached the secretory vesicles in sufficient amounts to be characterized in detail. One of them (Y691A) had no detectable ATPase activity and appeared, based on trypsinolysis in the presence and absence of ligands, to be blocked in the E1-to-E2 step of the reaction cycle. Alanine substitution at an adjacent position (V692A) had substantial ATPase activity (54%), but was likewise affected in the E1-to-E2 step, as evidenced by shifts in its apparent affinity for ATP, H+, and orthovanadate. Among the mutants that were sufficiently active to be assayed for ATP-dependent H+ transport by acridine orange fluorescence quenching, none showed an appreciable defect in the coupling of transport to ATP hydrolysis. The only residue for which the data pointed to a possible role in cation liganding was Ser-699, where removal of the hydroxyl group (S699A and S699C) led to a modest acid shift in the pH dependence of the ATPase. This change was substantially smaller than the 13-30-fold decrease in K+ affinity seen in corresponding mutants of the Na+, K+-ATPase (Arguello, J. M., and Lingrel, J. B (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 22764-22771). Taken together, the results do not give firm evidence for a transport site in M5 of the yeast H+-ATPase, but indicate a critical role for this membrane segment in protein folding and in the conformational changes that accompany the reaction cycle. It is therefore worth noting that the mutationally sensitive residues lie along one face of a putative alpha-helix.     

Analysis of Electromagnetic Scattering from an Eccentric Multilayered Sphere

An exact analytic solution of a plane electromagnetic (EM) wave scattered by an eccentric multilayered sphere (EMS) is obtained. It is assumed that the layers are perfect dielectrics and that the innermost core is a perfectly conducting sphere. Each center of a layer is translated along the incident axis. All fields are expanded in terms of the spherical vector wave functions with unknown expansion coefficients. The addition theorem for spherical wave functions is used prior to applying the boundary conditions. The unknown coefficients are determined by solving a system of linear equations derived from the boundary conditions. Numerical results of the scattering cross sections are presented on the plane of φ=0 degrees and φ=90 degrees. The convergence of modal solutions and the characteristics of patterns are examined with various geometries and permittivity distributions