Low frequency of TEL/AML1 in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Translocation (12;21)(p13;q22) is a recently characterized aberration in acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and results in the fusion of the TEL and the AML1 genes. It is the most common translocation in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), occurring in about one third of the cases. To determine the frequency of TEL/AML1 in adult ALL, we studied 4 cases of T lineage ALL and 26 cases of B lineage ALL. Only one positive case was identified, giving a very low frequency of 3.3%. In this patient, TEL/AML1 was still detectable in complete hematologic remission. The apparent age predilection of t(12;21) warrants further investigations.     

Comparative incidence of the rearrangements of TEL/AML1 and ALL1 genes in pediatric precursor B acute lymphoblastic leukemias in India

We conducted an in vivo study with the mouse model of Vibrio vulnificus infection to evaluate the efficacies of therapy with minocycline or cefotaxime alone and in combination. V. vulnificus was introduced subcutaneously into the area over the right thigh. The inoculum size ranged from 1.0 x 10(3) to 1.2 x 10(8) CFU from experiment to experiment but was constant for all animals in the same experiment. Antibiotics were given intraperitoneally 2 h after the bacteria were inoculated. In experiments 1 to 4, the standard dose for humans was used to treat the infection, while in experiment 5, five times the standard dose for humans was used to treat the infection. In experiment 1, with a small inoculum of 5 x 10(3) CFU, all mice in the saline-treated control group and the cefotaxime-, minocycline-, and combined antibiotic-treated groups survived. In experiment 2, with a moderate inoculum of 1.2 x 10(5) CFU, all the mice in the three antibiotic-treated groups survived, while only two of nine mice in the control group survived. In experiment 3, with a large inoculum of 8.0 x 10(7) CFU, six of nine mice in the combined antibiotic-treated group survived, while only one of nine mice in the cefotaxime-treated group and none of the mice in the control and minocycline-treated groups survived. In experiment 4, with a large inoculum of 1.2 x 10(8) CFU, 8 of 20 mice in the combined antibiotic-treated group survived, while none of the 20 mice in the control group, the group treated with cefotaxime alone, and the group treated with minocycline alone survived. In experiment 5, in which mice were infected with a large inoculum of 6.6 x 10(7) CFU and treated with five times the standard human dose of antibiotics, 10 of 12 mice in the combined antibiotic-treated group survived, while only 4 of 12 mice in the minocycline-treated group, 1 of 12 mice in the cefotaxime-treated group, and none of the mice in the control group survived. In experiments 3 to 5, the difference in the survival rates between the combined antibiotic-treated and minocycline-treated groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05). These results indicate that combination therapy with cefotaxime and minocycline is distinctly more advantageous than therapy with the single antibiotic regimen for the treatment of severe experimental V. vulnificus infections.     

Comparison of karyotype analysis and RT-PCR for AML1/ETO in 204 unselected patients with AML

Clinical isolates of Microsporum canis and M. gypseum from humans, dogs and cats were examined by random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Southern hybridization analyses. The RAPD band patterns of six clinical isolates of M. canis were identical to those of standard strains of Arthroderma otae. Of nine clinical isolates of M. gypseum seven and two isolates showed RAPD patterns identical to those of standard strains of A. gypseum and A. incurvatum respectively. Southern blot analysis using a probe (C3) obtained from A. otae DNA revealed that six clinical isolates of M. canis showed specific bands identical to those detected in the standard strains of A. otae. Of nine clinical isolates of M. gypseum, seven and two isolates showed bands hybridized by the C3 probe identical to those detected in A. gypseum and A. incurvatum respectively. Furthermore, the results from mating experiments on these nine clinical isolates of M. gypseum showed complete agreement with the results from RAPD and Southern hybridization analyses. These findings clearly indicate that RAPD and Southern hybridization analyses are very useful in the identification of clinical isolates of M. canis and M. gypseum.     

Lexical and conceptual processing in Chinese-English bilinguals: further evidence for asymmetry

According to the asymmetry model of bilingual representation (Kroll & Stewart, 1994), the first language (L1) lexicon is closely tied to an underlying conceptual memory, whereas second language (L2) items are mostly associated with their L1 equivalents. An outcome of this architecture is that L1-to-L2, or forward, translation must be mediated by the conceptual memory, whereas L2-to-L1 (backward) translation takes a direct lexical path. Some predictions derived from this hypothetical structure were tested in the present study, which took into account, through analysis of covariance, variations in response production time, concept retrieval time, and some other characteristics associated with the individual test items. Proficient Chinese-English bilinguals were tested on delayed production (Balota & Chumbley, 1985), picture naming, word translation, and category matching. The expected asymmetrical pattern of translation latencies (i.e., forward > backward) was demonstrated, although it could be statistically explained by the item characteristic of familiarity; matching an L1 item to a category name was faster than matching an L2 item, suggesting relatively strong L1 conceptual links. The present results are best accommodated by a form of asymmetry that allows for nondominant L2-concept linkage, the use of which is conditional upon the familiarity of the test item to the bilingual.     

Lack of morphine and enkephalin tolerance in 129/SvEv mice: evidence for a NMDA receptor defect

Pregnancies in outbred mammals may be regarded as successfully developed homografts. One of the hypotheses that attempts to answer the enigma of why the fetus is not rejected (fetal-maternal relationships are based on reciprocal expressions of foreign transplantation antigens) claims for the existence of possible evolutionary links between invertebrate allorecognition and mammalian implantation, based on some cellular similarities. This essay further discusses the possible evolutionary perspectives between vertebrates and invertebrates alloimmunities from a different viewpoint. We discuss similarities between natural transplantation in colonial marine invertebrates, which are followed by chimerism and a state of tolerance, and two natural transplantation events in the mammalian systems which both have records for prolonged chimerism and tolerance: the phenomenon of dizygotic twin fusions and the situation of fetal cells implantation. Earlier comparative evolutionary perspectives are revisited.     

Feeling-of-knowing in fact retrieval: further evidence for preservation in early Alzheimer's disease

The ability to retrieve and monitor factual information varying in datedness (i.e., dated vs. contemporary) was examined in healthy older adults and patients in an early phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Subjects were given free recall and multiple-choice recognition tests of 48 general knowledge questions. For all questions not responded to in recall, subjects made feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments. Results indicated dementia-related deficits in both recall and recognition, although both groups showed better recall and recognition with the dated compared with the contemporary questions. Importantly, despite deficits in fact retrieval, the AD patients showed intact monitoring of stored knowledge, as indicated by equivalent FOK accuracy for both groups. In addition, FOK accuracy was similar for the dated and the contemporary information in both groups, suggesting independence between level of general knowledge and the ability to supervise information stored in memory.     

Gompertzian growth curves in parathyroid tumours: further evidence for the set-point hypothesis

BACKGROUND: Clinical and cell kinetic data in parathyroid tumours show that their rate of growth slows down progressively and that tumour size approaches an asymptotic value. The Gompertz equation has been widely used in oncology to model growth retardation in malignant tumours; we describe its first application to a benign tumour. METHODS: In 41 patients with radiation associated hyperparathyroidism, individual solutions were derived for the Gompertz equation: Nt = Exp[A/ a(1 - Exp - at)], where A is the rate constant (years-1) for initial exponential growth and a is the rate constant (years-1) for exponential decline in A. Input data comprised three estimates of tumour age at surgery, 100%, 75% and 50% of the time since irradiation, cell number estimated from tumour weight, and current tumour growth rate, representing the difference between current cell birth rate, estimated from the prevalence of mitotic figures, and an assumed mean rate of cell loss of 5%. RESULTS: With 100% tumour age, geometric mean values were 2.76 for A, 0.134 for a, and 0.87 g for the growth asymptote. As assumed tumour age decreased, the rate constants increased and the growth asymptotes declined from 22% to 9% greater than the geometric mean tumour weight. Depending on assumed tumour age, the rate constants were about 15-45 times smaller than in myeloma and in testicular tumours, and the growth asymptotes about 2500 and about 60 times smaller, respectively. A and a were highly correlated (r2 = 0.993), with a slope of 20.9 and no significant intercept. Depending on assumed tumour age, the geometric mean time from the initial mutation to the first cell division ranged from 39 to 92 days, much longer than in malignant tumours. CONCLUSIONS: (1) The Gompertz modelling demonstrates that both the nonprogressive clinical course and the slow growth of parathyroid tumours can be accounted for by a single mutation. (2) The extremely low values for A and a, and consequent very long delay before the first cell division, support the notion that the initial mutation does not affect a growth regulatory gene, but increases growth indirectly via an increase in secretory set-point, the clone of mutant cells behaving as if they were in a hypocalcaemic environment until the plasma calcium rises to the new set-point. (3) The clinical characteristics of radiation-induced parathyroid tumours are modelled more closely if there is a substantial delay between time of irradiation and onset of tumour growth. (4) The rate constants A and a are highly correlated because the variability of tumour weight on a logarithmic scale is much lower than the variability of the rate constants.     

Judgmental overshadowing: further evidence of cue interaction in contingency judgment

We investigated a phenomenon called judgmental overshadowing. Subjects predicted whether each of several patients had a disease on the basis of whether or not the patient had each of two symptoms. For all the subjects, the presence of the disease was moderately contingent on the presence of one of the symptoms (S1). In Condition 1 of our first experiment, the presence of the disease was highly contingent on the presence of the other symptom (S2). In Condition 2, the presence of the disease was independent of S2. Judgmental overshadowing occurred in that the S1-disease contingency was judged to be stronger in Condition 2 than in Condition 1. Subsequent experiments showed that judgmental overshadowing depends little on the form of the judgment, is not due to a response bias or contrast effect, and does not depend on subjects' actively diagnosing each patient. These results are consistent with, and are generally predicted by, an associative-learning model of contingency judgment.     

Lack of evidence for inhibition of ovulation by aspirin in women

Prostaglandin synthetase inhibitors such as aspirin and indomethacin inhibit ovulation in experimental animals. The effect of therapeutic doses of aspirin on ovulation has been studied in 5 women. Ovulation, as assessed by measurements of urinary LH and plasma progesterone levels, basal body temperature and cervical mucus changes occured in all the control and treatment cycles. Serial sections of the corpora lutea failed to show any entrapped ova. The significance of finding a prostaglandin synthetase inhibitor which acts specifically at the ovarian level is discussed.