Cancer--a matter of life and cell death

PURPOSE: To evaluate during various intervals of time the escape of long-acting gases contained in a plastic syringe closed with a stopcock or a plastic cap. METHODS: A 60-ml plastic syringe was filled or partially filled with a long-acting gas, either sulfur hexafluoride or perfluoropropane. The tip of the syringe was closed with either a stopcock or the syringe's plastic cap. After various intervals of time, the concentration of the long-acting gas in the syringe was measured by gas chromatography. RESULTS: The concentration of both long-acting gases was higher than 98% at 24 hours after filling when the syringe was closed with a stopcock; however, it was less than 41% when the syringe was filled and capped tightly with its plastic cap. CONCLUSION: The proportion of long-acting gases escaping in 24 hours from a filled syringe capped with a stopcock is clinically insignificant.     

Prolonging life and allowing death: infants

Dilemmas about resuscitation and life-prolonging treatment for severely compromised infants have become increasingly complex as skills in neonatal care have developed. Quality of life and resource issues necessarily influence management. Our Institute of Medical Ethics working party, on whose behalf this paper is written, recognises that the ultimate responsibility for the final decision rests with the doctor in clinical charge of the infant. However, we advocate a team approach to decision-making, emphasising the important role of parents and nurses in the process. Assessing the relative burdens and benefits can be troubling, but doctors and parents need to retain a measure of discretion; legislation which would determine action in all cases is inappropriate. Caution should be exercised in involving committees in decision-making and, where they exist, their remit should remain to advise rather than to decide. Support for families who bear the consequences of their decisions is often inadequate, and facilitating access to such services is part of the wider responsibilities of the intensive care team. The authors believe that allowing death by withholding or withdrawing treatment is legitimate, where those closely involved in the care of the infant together deem the burdens to be unacceptable without compensating benefits for the infant. As part of the process accurate and careful recording is essential.     

Evolution: the dialogue between life and death

Organisms have the ability to harness energy from the environment to create order and to reproduce. From early error-prone systems natural selection acted to produce present day organisms with high accuracy in the synthesis of macromolecules. The environment imposes strict limits on reproduction, so evolution is always accompanied by the discarding of a large proportion of the less fit cells, or organisms. Sexual reproduction depends on an immortal germline and a soma which may be immortal or mortal. Higher animals living in hazardous environments have evolved aging and death of the soma for the benefit of the ongoing germline.     

The life and death of project Camelot.

Article explains that Project Camelot was a project for measuring and forecasting the causes of revolutions and insurgency in underdeveloped areas of the world. It also aimed to find ways of eliminating the causes, or coping with the revolutions and insurgencies. Camelot was sponsored by the US Army on a four to six million dollar contract, spaced out over three to four years, with the Special Operations Research Organization (SORO). This agency is nominally under the aegis of American University in Washington, D. C., and does a variety of research for the Army. This includes making analytical surveys of foreign areas; keeping up-to-date information on the military, political, and social complexes of those areas; and maintaining a "rapid response" file for getting immediate information, upon Army request, on any situation deemed militarily important. Latin America was the first area chosen for concentrated study, but countries on Camelot's fouryear list included some in Asia, Africa, and Europe. In a working paper issued on December 5, 1964, at the request of the Office of the Chief of Research and Development, Department of the Army, it was recommended that "comparative historical studies" be made in: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela; Egypt, Iran, Turkey; Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand; and France, Greece, and Nigeria. The article then explains how Chile, a country not on the list of nations recommended for study, came to be involved in the pursuant foreign policy furor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between individual attitudes toward life and death.

Administered the Purpose in Life Test and Lester's Fear of Death Scale to 80 college and 40 high school students. Significant negative correlations between the 2 measures support Frankl's notion that the meaning of life is enhanced as one finds meaning in suffering and death. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Capital punishment: Arguments for life and death.

Investigated the effects that argument position (for or against the death penalty and type of justification for punishment (deterrence, morality, rehabilitation, incapacitation, economic, and possibility of mistake) have on the sentence recommendations of 305 university students (aged 17–54 yrs) for a defendant found guilt of 1st-degree murder. Only those arguments in favor of the death penalty, based on retribution, economics, and impossibility of mistake were effective in influencing Ss to recommend that the accused be sentenced to death. None of the arguments used to persuade participants to choose a life sentence rather than a death sentence had any significant effect. Compared to Ss who recommended a life sentence, Ss who recommended the death penalty were found to have significantly higher scores on a measure of vengeance. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A matter of death and life: the significance of germ cell death during spermatogenesis

The significance of cell death occurring during spermatogenesis is a subject of interest because of its potential medical importance. Unfortunately, the field has been difficult for andrologists to penetrate, in part because of the difficulties of studying germ cells in vitro and the complexity of designing suitable models in which to dissect the molecular signalling pathways involved in control of germ cell apoptosis. As a result, the reasons for these deaths remain unclear despite considerable investigative effort. As developments which have occurred over the last few years in understanding of apoptosis can shed light on this important topic, this review focuses on what is currently known about germ cell apoptosis and outlines the emerging picture of what might be the causes and biological role of germ cell deaths in spermatogenesis.     

Modulation of life and death by the TNF receptor superfamily

The tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR) superfamily represents a growing family, with over 20 members having been identified thus far in mammalian cells. These proteins share significant homologies in their extracellular ligand binding domains and intracellular effector (death) domains. These receptors appear to transmit their signals via protein-protein interactions, which convey either a death or survival signal. Isolation and characterization of death domain containing proteins (TRADD, FADD/MORT-1, RIP), TRAF domain containing proteins (TRAF1-6) as well as new members and adaptor proteins such as DAXX have provided new insights to our understanding of signaling mechanisms associated with this family of receptors. While the death signals seem to be associated with the activation of both the caspase and JUN kinase pathways, the survival signals are mediated via the activation of the NF-kappaB pathway.     

Liver transplantation: the death/life paradox

Chronic encapsulated intracerebral hematoma (CEIH) is a rare disease which is believed to be caused by angiographically negative vascular malformations. CEIH has the following characteristic findings: 1. It affects all age groups 2. Clinical symptoms progress slowly after sudden onset. Often there is a latency of months or years 3. There is no correlation with arterial hypertension 4. Imaging reveals a typical fibrous capsule with enclosed blood contents and signs of recurrent bleedings 5. Cavernoma was identified histologically as the cause of bleeding in 30% of cases. 6. All patients had a primary diagnosis of intracerebral tumor. To the best of our knowledge, 27 cases have been reported in the literature. We now add two cases, one of which is the first in the available literature which was not operated and could be followed by imaging.     

Transforming growth factor beta: a matter of life and death

A wide variety of functions, many of which represent opposing activities, have been attributed to TGF-beta, a molecule implicated in embryogenesis, development, and immune and inflammatory processes. This paradoxical behavior of promoting or inhibiting cell growth and function, while important in normal physiology and homeostasis, can contribute to or interrupt pathologic sequelae, making TGF-beta a particularly intriguing molecule for study. New transgenic mouse models displaying targeted alterations in TGF-beta 1 expression offer novel and unique opportunities to determine the essential function(s) of TGF-beta.     

TNF receptor death domain-associated proteins TRADD and FADD signal activation of acid sphingomyelinase

Sphingomyelinase (SMase) activation and ceramide generation have emerged as an important signaling pathway transducing diverse biological effects of cytokine receptors like p55 tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor or Fas. Here we describe the TNF-dependent activation of acid SMase (A-SMase) through the p55 TNF receptor-associated proteins TRADD and FADD. Overexpression of TRADD and FADD in 293 cells did not change basal activity of A-SMase but enhanced TNF-induced stimulation of A-SMase. Other TNF R55-associated proteins like TRAF2 and RIP, which were reported to mediate TNF R55-mediated activation of nuclear factor kappaB, did not affect activation of A-SMase. Caspase inhibitors markedly reduced A-SMase activity, suggesting the involvement of an ICE-like protease in TRADD/FADD-mediated activation of A-SMase. Overexpression of caspase-8/a (FLICE/MACH) or caspase-10/b (FLICE2) did not change A-SMase activity, suggesting that TRADD/FADD-mediated activation of A-SMase involves a yet to be defined caspase-like protease distinct from caspase-8/a or -10/b.     

Apoptosis and the pathogenesis of IDDM: a question of life and death

In type 1 diabetes, an immune-mediated process leads to the destruction of pancreatic beta-cells. In the last decade, considerable progress has been made in understanding the cellular and biochemical pathogenic processes of the disease. However, more needs to be learned about the immune mechanisms leading to the development of autoreactive immune cells and the molecular mechanisms of beta-cell death. The study of apoptosis of autoreactive lymphocytes as well as apoptosis of beta-cells may give answers to many still unsolved questions. This review focuses on the possible role of apoptosis both in the regulation of immune mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes and as a way for beta-cells to die. The advancement in the knowledge of the possible role of apoptosis and its regulation in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes may provide new therapeutic tools for the prevention of the disease.