X-SAR interferometry: first results

Repeat-pass interferometry data were acquired during the first and second SIR-C/X-SAR missions in April and October 1994. This paper presents the first results from X-SAR interferometry at four different sites. The temporal separations were one day and six months. At two sites the coherence requirements were met, resulting in high quality interferograms. A digital elevation model in ground range geometry has been derived. The limitations of the X-SAR interferometry are discussed     

Drug treatment of Crohn's disease]

The medical management of Crohn's disease has changed in recent years, but the mainstay of treatment is still prednisone. A substantial fraction of steroid-treated patients are refractory to therapy and addition of azathioprine or methotrexate has a corticosteroid-sparing effect and increases duration of remission. Controlled ileal release budesonide (9 mg daily) induces clinical remission in 60-70% of patients with Crohn's ileitis or right-sided colitis, and continued budesonide treatment has a finite effect on the duration of remission. The efficacy of mesalazine in active Crohn's disease is limited and high doses are required (4000 mg/day). The role of mesalazine in Crohn's disease in remission is disputed, and there is no evidence of a corticosteroid-sparing effect.     

The biological properties of Aerococcus antagonists, representatives of human microbiocenoses

The paper deals with the data on biology of Aerococcus, a slightly studied group of microorganisms. Physiological-biochemical properties of Aerococcus are described, data of their distribution in nature are given. Peculiar attention is paid to the estimate of the role of Aerococcus in human microbiocenoses. As a result of the profound and all-round study of this group of microorganisms the authors have developed new bacterial drug "A-bakterin" based on the aerococcus strain. Data presented about the results of clinical tests of "A-bakterin" are presented, a possibility to use Aerococcus lysate in the elaboration of new drugs is discussed.     

Axonal regeneration and physiological activity following transection and immunological disruption of myelin within the hatchling chick spinal cord

Transections of the chicken spinal cord after the developmental onset of myelination at embryonic day (E) 13 results in little or no functional regeneration. However, intraspinal injection of serum complement proteins with complement-binding GalC or 04 antibodies between E9-E12 results in a delay of the onset of myelination until E17. A subsequent transection of the spinal cord as late as E15 (i.e., during the normal restrictive period for repair) results in neuroanatomical regeneration and functional recovery. Utilizing a similar immunological protocol, we evoked a transient alteration of myelin structure in the posthatching (P) chicken spinal cord, characterized by widespread "unravelling" of myelin sheaths and a loss of MBP immunoreactivity (myelin disruption). Myelin repair began within 7 d of cessation of the myelin disruption protocol. Long term disruption of thoracic spinal cord myelin was initiated after a P2-P10 thoracic transection and maintained for > 14 d by intra-spinal infusion of serum complement proteins plus complement-binding GalC or 04 antibodies. Fourteen to 28 d later, retrograde tract tracing experiments, including double-labeling protocols, indicated that approximately 6-19% of the brainstem-spinal projections had regenerated across the transection site to lumbar levels. Even though voluntary locomotion was not observed after recovery, focal electrical stimulation of identified brainstem locomotor regions evoked peripheral nerve activity in paralyzed preparations, as well as leg muscle activity patterns typical of stepping in unparalyzed animals. This indicated that a transient alteration of myelin structure in the injured adult avian spinal cord facilitated brainstem-spinal axonal regrowth resulting in functional synaptogenesis with target neurons.     

The molecular structure of green fluorescent protein

The crystal structure of recombinant wild-type green fluorescent protein (GFP) has been solved to a resolution of 1.9 A by multiwavelength anomalous dispersion phasing methods. The protein is in the shape of a cylinder, comprising 11 strands of beta-sheet with an alpha-helix inside and short helical segments on the ends of the cylinder. This motif, with beta-structure on the outside and alpha-helix on the inside, represents a new protein fold, which we have named the beta-can. Two protomers pack closely together to form a dimer in the crystal. The fluorophores are protected inside the cylinders, and their structures are consistent with the formation of aromatic systems made up of Tyr66 with reduction of its C alpha-C beta bond coupled with cyclization of the neighboring glycine and serine residues. The environment inside the cylinder explains the effects of many existing mutants of GFP and suggests specific side chains that could be modified to change the spectral properties of GFP. Furthermore, the identification of the dimer contacts may allow mutagenic control of the state of assembly of the protein.     

Clinical computed tomographic correlations in children from a group at high risk for schizophrenia

Computed tomography (CT) was performed in 189 individuals: in 44 children of schizophrenic parents (high risk group, HRG), in 39 parents with schizophrenia or with schizophrenic disturbance, in 56 children with schizophrenia, in 50 children with consequences of early organic damages of central nervous system (mental retardation syndrome and generalized tic syndrome). The frequency of CT changes was equal in the mentioned groups but their character was quite different. The widening of brain's liquor system (89.7%), the signs of frontal and temporal atrophia (31%), foci of decreased density of cerebral brain's matter, closer in subcortical ganglia and periventricular zone, and different anomalies of brain were observed in HRG children.     

Dynamic course of neurological syndromes in very young children with the history of intrauterine growth retardation

90 infants with intrauterine growth retardation (IGR) and 100 normal infants (control group) were followed up from 5 days till 3 years of life. In IGR infants there was a more frequent combination of several neurologic syndromes, an early manifestation of motor disorders (from the very moment of birth), a delay of neuro-psychic development (during the first year of life), a tendency to development of moderate hydrocephalus by the age of 6 months. Autonomic-visceral disorders in them were mostly characterized by the symptoms of abaissement, but not of irritation.     

Simultaneous assessments of exocrine pancreatic function by cholesteryl-[14C]octanoate breath test and measurement of plasma p-aminobenzoic acid

Two noninvasive tests for assessing pancreatic exocrine function, the cholesteryl-[14C]octanoate breath test and the HPLCN-benzoyl-tyrosyl-p-aminobenzoic acid/p-aminosalicylic acid (NBT-PABA/PAS) test, were simultaneously performed in nine patients with pancreatic exocrine insufficiency due to chronic pancreatitis and in nine healthy volunteers. 14CO2 output in breath and plasma PABA concentration rose slowly in patients but increased rapidly in healthy subjects. The measurement time giving the best discrimination between both groups was 120 min for the cholesteryl-[14C]octanoate breath test and 90 min for the plasma PABA test. At these points, both single-sample tests had essentially identical diagnostic sensitivity. The diagnostic sensitivities of the two single-sample tests were equal to that of the cumulative 6-h urinary PABA recovery and the cumulative 6-h urinary PABA/PAS ratio. We conclude that, for both the cholesteryl-[14C]octanoate breath test and the plasma PABA test, a single test sample is sufficient for rapid detection of impaired exocrine pancreatic function.