Ewald Hering und die Gegenfarbtheorie

Ewald Hering's color-opponent-theory is still considered one of the foundations of the visual sciences. Prior to Hering, Hermann v. Helmholtz introduced a theory of color appearance, which was based primarily on the physical aspects of the stimulus. In contrast to Helmholtz, Hering's theory strongly emphasized the subject's perception of color. As a consequence, Hering considered Helmholtz' theory inadequate. Contrary to some historical accounts, he did not object to Helmholtz's three-receptor explanation for color-mixture. Instead of Helmholtz' fundamental colors red, green, and blue, Hering suggested that the colors possess opponent character: blue-yellow; red-green; and, black-white. Helmholtz, on the other hand, refused to accept Hering's theory. Finally, a student with Helmholtz, Johannes v. Kries, developed the so-called “zone-theory”, which combines both, Young-Helmholtz's and Hering's theory at different stages of the visual information processing system.     

International collaboration: Will it be keeping alive East European research?

International scientific collaboration is very sensitive to political and economic changes in a country or a geopolitical region. Collaboration in research is reflected by the corresponding coauthorship of the published results which can be analysed with the help of bibliometric methods. Based on data from theScience Citation Index (SCI), the change of annual international coauthorship patterns ofBulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland andRomania have been analysed for the periods 1981–1985 and 1984–1993, respectively. It is shown that international collaboration was not developing similarly in the countries under study. Whilst scientific communities of Hungary and Poland have already been opening in the early 80s, the international collaboration of the other East-European countries was still dominated by COMECON relations till 1989. As expected, since 1990 an increasing scientific collaboration with highly developed countries can be observed in all five countries. At the same time, scientific collaboration with the former communist countries shows a clear decline. The great share of international co-authorship links is some countries reflect various tendencies part of which are interpreted with the help of a cardiologic model.     

Interleukin 10 (IL-10) upregulates functional high affinity IL-2 receptors on normal and leukemic B lymphocytes

Interleukin 10 (IL-10) has recently been shown to induce normal human B lymphocytes to proliferate and differentiate into immunoglobulin (Ig)-secreting cells. Herein, we show that IL-10 also promotes DNA synthesis and IgM production by anti-CD40 activated B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). Most strikingly, IL-2 and IL-10 were found to synergize to induce the proliferation and differentiation of B-CLL cells. This synergy between IL-2 and IL-10 was also observed with normal B cells which proliferated strongly and secreted large amounts of IgM, IgG, and IgA. The observed synergy is likely to be due to the IL-10-induced increase of high affinity IL-2 receptors on both normal and leukemic B cells. This increase of high affinity receptor is associated to an increase of Tac/CD25 expression that can be detected by flow cytometric analysis. Taken together, these results indicate that IL-10 permits anti-CD40 activated B cells to respond to IL-2 through an induction of high affinity IL-2 receptors. This effect of IL-10 may partly explain how T cells, which activate B cells in a CD40-dependent fashion, induce B cell proliferation and differentiation mostly through IL-2.     

Placental and fetal cardiac laminin are targets for cross-reacting autoantibodies from mothers of children with congenital heart block

The association of congenital heart block (CHB) with maternal autoantibodies to the Ro and La ribonucleoprotein antigens may be due to cross-reactions between maternal anti-La antibodies and fetal cardiac specific antigens. One of the major components of cardiac myocytes, laminin, is accessible for binding by maternal autoantibodies and we have previously reported cross-reactivity of mouse laminin with anti-La antibodies affinity purified from the sera of patients with primary Sj?gren's syndrome. Affinity purified anti-La antibodies from ten women who had at some time given birth to a child with CHB were examined for cross-reactivity with human placental laminin, which shares structural similarities with cardiac laminin. All ten anti-La antibodies bound to the surface of cryosections of normal full term placental trophoblasts. Binding could be inhibited by pre-incubation of antibodies with either La or placental laminin. Eight anti-La antibodies also reacted with placental laminin by ELISA and La inhibited up to 82% of binding to laminin while laminin inhibited up to 85% of binding to La in a dose dependent manner. Eight anti-La antibodies also bound to the surface of fetal cardiac myocytes at 10.3 weeks of gestation and five showed lower levels of reactivity with the surface of fetal cardiac myocytes at 16.5 weeks of gestation. None showed any surface staining of normal adult heart. These data confirm the cross-reactivity of anti-La antibodies with laminin and may support a placental role in preventing the majority of potentially pathogenic antibodies from reaching the fetal circulation.     

Multiplexed biochemical assays with biological chips

High density peptide and oligonucleotide chips are fabricated using semiconductor-based technologies. These chips have a variety of biological applications.     

Accurate detection of coronary artery disease by integrated analysis of the ST-segment depression/heart rate patterns during the exercise and recovery phases of the exercise electrocardiography test

In this comparative cross-sectional study, we evaluated whether a novel computerized diagnostic variable, ST-segment depression/heart rate ST/HR analysis during both the exercise and postexercise recovery phases of the exercise electrocardiography (ECG) test, can detect coronary artery disease more accurately than methods using either exercise or recovery phase alone. The study population comprised 347 clinical patients referred for a routine bicycle exercise ECG test at Tampere University Hospital, Finland. Of these, 127 had angiographically proven coronary artery disease, whereas 13 had no coronary artery disease according to angiography, 18 had no perfusion defect according to technetium-99m sestamibi single-photon emission computed tomography, and 189 were clinically normal with respect to cardiac diseases. For each patient, the maximum values of the ST/HR hysteresis, ST/HR index, end-exercise ST depression, and recovery ST depression were determined from the Mason-Likar modification of the standard 12-lead exercise electrocardiogram [aVL, aVR, and V1 excluded]. The diagnostic performance of these continuous diagnostic variables was compared by means of receiver-operating characteristic analysis. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of the ST/HR hysteresis was 89%, which was significantly larger than that of the end-exercise ST depression (76%, p < or = 0.0001), recovery ST depression (84%, p = 0.0063), or ST/HR index (83%, p = 0.0023), indicating superior diagnostic performance of the ST/HR hysteresis independent of the partition value selection. In conclusion, computerized analysis of the HR-adjusted ST depression pattern during the exercise phase, integrated with the HR-adjusted ST depression pattern during the recovery phase after exercise, can significantly improve the diagnostic performance and clinical utility of the exercise ECG test for the detection of coronary artery disease.     

The possible influence of the menstrual cycle on the adherence of Candida albicans to human buccal epithelial cells in vitro

Although the influence of the menstrual cycle on both vaginal candidosis and Candida albicans adherence to vaginal epithelial cells in vitro has been shown to be significant, similar studies have not been made on oral candidosis and adherence to buccal epithelial cells. The aim of this study was therefore to use an in vitro adherence assay to investigate the possible influence of the menstrual cycle on the adherence of C. albicans to buccal epithelial cells. Epithelial cells were collected from a single, healthy, female volunteer on days 5, 15, 22 and 28 of six menstrual cycles. Adherence of C. albicans was significantly higher to buccal epithelial cells collected on day 5 of the menstrual cycle when compared with days 15, 22 and 28, both in terms of the percentage of buccal epithelial cells with adherent C. albicans and the number of C. albicans adhering per 200 buccal epithelial cells in four out of six menstrual cycles (p < 0.001). This result indicates that hormonal influences should be considered when buccal epithelial cells are used in vitro to assess candidal adherence and may implicate hormonal factors in the aetiology of oral candidosis.