Effect of the hydrolysis method on the determination of the amino acid composition of proteins

Acetabular reconstruction in both primary and revision hip arthroplasty often requires reconstruction of deficient acetabular bone stock. The exact role of allografts remains controversial. Published results of structural allografting are presented. Recent literature supports the use of segmental allografts for reconstruction of large segmental and combined defects.     

Validation of a recording protocol for assessing temporomandibular sounds and a method for assessing jaw position

This purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between exposure to wheat flour, soya flour and fungal amylase and the development of work-related symptoms and sensitization in bread and cake bakery employees who have regular exposure to these substances. The study populations consisted of 394 bread bakery workers and 77 cake bakery workers whose normal jobs involved the sieving, weighing and mixing of ingredients. The groups were interviewed with the aim of identifying the prevalence, nature and pattern of any work-related respiratory symptoms. They were also skin-prick tested against the common bakery sensitizing agents, i.e., wheat flour, soya flour, rice flour and fungal amylase. The results of personal sampling for sieving, weighing and mixing operations at the bakeries from which the study groups were taken were collated in order to determine typical exposures to total inhalable dust from the ingredients, expressed as 8 hour time-weighted average exposures. Data from the health surveillance and collated dust measurements were compared with the aim of establishing an exposure-response relationship for sensitization. The prevalence of work-related symptoms in bread bakery and cake bakery ingredient handlers was 20.4% and 10.4% respectively. However, in a large proportion of those reporting symptoms in connection with work, the symptoms were intermittent and of short duration. It is considered that the aetiology of such symptoms is likely to be due to a non-specific irritant effect of high total dust levels, rather than allergy. None of the cake bakers and only 3.1% of the bread bakers had symptoms which were thought to be due to allergy to baking ingredients. Using skin-prick testing as a marker of sensitization, the prevalence of positive tests to wheat flour was 6% for the bread bakers and 3% for the cake bakers. Comparable prevalences for soya flour were 7% and 1% respectively. However, the prevalence of positive skin-prick tests to fungal amylase was 16% amongst the bread baking group with only a single employee (1%) in the cake baking group having a positive test. Furthermore, this employee had previously worked in a bread bakery. The difference in rates of sensitization to wheat flour between the bread and cake bakers is not statistically significant, whereas the difference for soya flour is at the borderline of statistical significance (p = 0.045). In contrast, the difference in fungal amylase sensitization is significant at the 0.1% level. For both bread and cake bakers, the 8 hour time-weighted average exposures for each of the activities showed a wide variation with mixing having the lowest average exposure and sieving the highest. Out of the allergens studied in this investigation, fungal amylase is the principal sensitizer in large scale bread bakeries, with the main source of exposure being the handling of bread improvers. In contrast, the risk of sensitization to wheat flour is low in both bread and cake bakeries. The absence of positive skin-prick tests in the subgroup of cake bakery employees who regularly handle fungal-amylase-containing flour suggests that their levels of exposure are below the threshold for sensitization to amylase.     

Long-term follow-up of strictureplasty in Crohn's disease

Strictureplasty is an alternative to extensive and/or multiple small bowel resections in the surgical treatment of Crohn's disease. We here report a series of 22 patients (12 M-10 F-mean age years 28). All patients had non perforative form of Crohn's disease lasting for a mean of 8 years. Nine out of 22 had previous intestinal resections. A total of 201 stenosis was identified during per-operative examination (mean per patient: 9). Only tight stenoses (diameter < 2 cm) were treated while others were left untouched. Eighty-three stenoses were treated by short strictureplasty and 24 by long strictureplasty using steel thread. One or several resections were simultaneous performed in 15 patients. Mortality was nil. A post operative abscess without loosened suture was drained. The mean follow-up in the 22 patients was 36 months (range: 12 to 96). Relief of obstructive symptoms was achieved in all patients. Symptomatic recurrence occurred in 9 patients (40%) and 5 (22%) needed reoperation. In one case haemorrhagic ulceration developed within a long strictureplasty and in 4 others stenosis developed in plasty areas but also in previous healthy areas. Thus stricture-plasty is intended not to replace resection but rather to serve as a useful adjunct to the existing surgical options in the treatment of Crohn's disease, especially when short bowel syndrome is a consideration.     

Augmentation of human and rat lenticular glutathione in vitro by prodrugs of gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteine

A marked age-related decrease in glutathione (GSH) levels as well as depression of gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase activity are factors that are believed to render the aged lens more susceptible to oxidative stress and, therefore, to cataractogenesis. Providing gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteine, the dipeptide precursor of GSH, would effectively bypass the compromised first step in its biosynthesis and should protect the lens from GSH depletion. Accordingly, some bioreversible sulfhydryl-, amino-, and C-terminal carboxyl-protected prodrug forms of this dipeptide were prepared. Sulfhydryl protection was in the form of an acetyl thioester, while the carboxyl group was protected as the ethyl ester. These prodrugs were evaluated for their GSH-enhancing activity in cultured human and rat lenses in vitro using an assay that measured the incorporation of [14C]glycine into lens GSH. Ethyl S-acetyl-gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinate (2) raised GSH levels in human lenses by 25% and in rat lenses by >150%. These data suggest that 2 may have potential as an anticataract agent since ethyl gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinate (1a), the des-S-acetyl analog of 2, had been shown (by others) to protect against experimental rodent cataracts. GSH augmentation by 1a was 2% in human lenses and 25% in rat lenses, considerably less than that shown by 2.     

Helicobacter pylori infection: prevalence and clinical relevance in a large company

Although gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses account for considerable sick absenteeism, there have been few workplace studies of GI disorders. We determined the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection by serology and assessed its relation to upper GI tract complaints, personal ulcer history, and family history of stomach cancer in 6,143 employees (mean age, 40.4 years) at BASF's main chemical production facilities in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Employees were recruited during occupational health clinic visits (n = 4,488) and through broad communications efforts (n = 1,655). Participation among clinic attendees was 66%, and this recruitment method was particularly effective in reaching shift employees. Positive immunoglobulin G (IgG) serology (38.2%), ulcers (4.9%), nonulcer dyspepsia (20.4%), and a family history of stomach cancer (6.1%) were common occurrences in this work setting. Further diagnostic evaluation and eradication therapy was recommended for 795 employees (12.9%), based on a combination of positive serology and either upper GI tract complaints or family stomach cancer history, and has been completed for 541 employees. A weak but consistent association was seen between positive serology and cigarette smoking, and shift work was found to be associated with positive serology, but not with ulcer or nonulcer dyspepsia occurrence.     

Hypoxia induces high-mobility-group protein I(Y) and transcription of the cyclooxygenase-2 gene in human vascular endothelium

BACKGROUND: Animals reconstituted with allogeneic whole bone marrow (WBM) are often tolerant of donor-specific solid organ grafts. Clinical application of bone marrow transplantation in solid organ transplantation has been limited, however, principally by graft-versus-host disease. We previously demonstrated that hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) reconstitute lethally irradiated allogeneic mice without producing graft-versus-host disease. The purpose of this study was to determine whether tolerance to solid organ grafts could be induced in mice reconstituted with HSCs. METHODS: BALB/c mice were lethally irradiated and reconstituted with allogeneic C57BL/Ka, Thy-1.1 WBM or HSCs. An isolated group was given a limited number of HSCs (250 cells) and a subpopulation of allogeneic cells known to facilitate HSC engraftment (facilitators). C57BL/Ka, Thy-1.1 neonatal heart grafts were placed in reconstituted animals either at the time of hematopoietic transplant or 35 days later. Third-party C3H grafts were placed over 2 months after hematopoietic reconstitution. Tolerance was defined as the persistence of cardiac contraction for the duration of evaluation (125-270 days). RESULTS: All surviving mice that were reconstituted with C57BL/Ka, Thy-1.1 HSCs, WBM, or HSCs and facilitators were tolerant of C57BL/Ka grafts long-term. Third-party C3H grafts placed in reconstituted animals were rejected by day 12, whereas those placed in unmanipulated mice were rejected by day 9. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that tolerance to concurrently or subsequently placed solid organ grafts can be reliably achieved with limited numbers of purified HSCs in a model where immunocompetence to third-party major histocompatibility complex antigens is delayed but intact.     

Solitary splenic metastasis of an adenocarcinoma of the ovaries

BACKGROUND: Topical application of inhibitors of HMGCoA reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme of cholesterol synthesis, has been shown to induce impairment of barrier function. OBJECTIVE: Assessing whether oral administration of statins used for reducing blood levels of cholesterol induces functional changes in stratum corneum barrier. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 69 subjects of both sexes under-going treatment for hypercholesterolemia (mean age 48 +/- 11 years) entered the study; 43 had been treated with simvastatin and 11 with pravastatin for 6 months; 15 only on dietary regimen served as controls. Efficiency of stratum corneum water barrier was evaluated by transepidermal water loss (TEWL) measurement using an evaporimeter; water-holding capacity of the stratum corneum was assessed by the sorption-desorption test measured by capacitance. Statistical analysis was performed using ANOVA. RESULTS: No differences were found between the groups (simvastatin, pravastatin, diet) concerning both basal TEWL and the dynamic of water binding in the stratum corneum. CONCLUSIONS: Prolonged treatment with cholesterol-lowering drugs based on inhibition of HMGCoA reductase does not alter the permeability barrier of the skin.     

Effect of altering the daily herbage allowance to cows in mid lactation on the composition, ripening and functionality of low-moisture, part-skim Mozzarella cheese

A retrospective chart review was used to examine sexual behavior (hypersexual, exposing, and victimizing) and cognitive impairment in 200 youth who had serious mental illness. Lower IQ was associated with increased sexual acting-out. For more serious victimizing sexual behaviors, only Verbal IQ differences reached statistical significance. Overall, sexual behavior was strongly associated with a history of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse history was significantly associated only with lower Performance IQ. Therefore, the association between low Verbal IQ and sexual victimizing behavior is distinct from the effects of sexual abuse. Results underscore the importance of verbal cognitive abilities, regardless of overall cognitive level, in the etiology and treatment of sexual behaviors, especially among individuals without a history of sexual abuse.     

Postoperative outcome of Crohn's disease in 30 children

BACKGROUND: Thirty children operated on for Crohn's disease (CD) were reviewed (1975-1994). The aim of the study was to assess their postoperative outcome. PATIENTS: 19 boys and 11 girls, aged 15.3 (2) years (range 11.3-20) at surgery were studied. RESULTS: Surgical indications were acute complications of CD and chronic intestinal illness. Six months after surgery, 11 of 12 patients had been weaned off steroids, and 22 of 23 patients were weaned off nutritional support; 17 patients without recurrence had a mean (SD) weight gain of 2.1 (8) kg and a height gain of 3.36 (3) cm. During 3.1 (2.7) years follow up, 12 patients (40%) had a recurrence of the disease after 19.4 (14) months (means (SD)): supra-anastomotic recurrence (six), severe perianal disease (two), and chronic illness (four). Six of 14 patients who were treated with mesalazine (13) or azathioprine (one) had recurrences. The postoperative recurrence rate was 50% at two years. CONCLUSION: Surgical treatment modifies the immediate outcome of severe or complicated CD, but does not prevent recurrence, despite localised resection or prophylactic postoperative treatment. Extension of the disease before surgery seems to be a major risk factor for postoperative recurrence in children.