Acceptance by Swedish users of a multimedia program for primary and secondary prevention of malignant melanoma

A case control study was conducted among cases with schizophrenia (DSM IV criteria) and screened adult controls from three cohorts. Bi-allelic polymorphisms in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT) were examined in conjunction with those of the serotonin 5-HT2a receptor (HTR2). No significant association with 5-HTT was detected among US Caucasians (n = 207), African-Americans (n = 84) or Caucasians from Sweden (n = 221). However, survival analysis suggested an association with the age at onset among the Swedish cases. The association should be considered tentative as it was not evident in the smaller US samples. The following exploratory analyses among the US samples were also not significant: associations with subgroups of patients based on familiality or response to medications, or altered risk due to the joint effects of 5-HTT and HTR2 genotypes.     

Prospective psychosocial, interpersonal, and behavioral predictors of handgun carrying among adolescents

OBJECTIVES: This study identified behavioral and psychosocial/interpersonal factors in young adolescence that are associated with handgun carrying in later adolescence. METHODS: A sample of 2200 high school students was surveyed at 9th grade and again at 12th grade. RESULTS: Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that measures of risk-taking preference, depression, stress, temper, and drug use assessed while the students were in 9th grade were predictive of handgun carrying in 12th grade for both male and female students. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the need for a comprehensive approach to prevention that focuses on both individual and interpersonal factors associated with adolescents' decision to carry a handgun.     

Radiolabeling of monoclonal antibody B43.13 with rhenium-188 for immunoradiotherapy

In this study we report a novel method for direct radiolabeling of monoclonal antibody B43.13 (MAb-B43.13) with 188Re and have evaluated the product's radiochemical, biochemical, immunochemical and selected biological properties. 188Re-MAb-B43.13 was readily prepared by the addition of generator produced perrhenate to a preformulated antibody vial after an optimal amount of supplemental stannous ion, in the form of stannous tartrate, was added. The final radiolabeled product retained its biochemical purity (as determined by size-exclusion HPLC and R/NR-SDS-PAGE), its immunoreactivity (as determined by immunoassay) and presented with a typical stability (in the presence of serum and cysteine) and biodistribution (in tumored mice) profile. The evaluation of the product for immunoradiotherapy of ovarian cancer in a clinical setting requires further studies.     

Cognitive deficits induced by global cerebral ischaemia: prospects for transplant therapy

Global ischaemia induced by interruption of cerebral blood flow results in damage to vulnerable cells, notably in the CA1 and hilar hippocampal fields, and is frequently associated with memory deficits. This review examines cognitive deficits that occur in animal models of global ischaemia in rats and monkeys, the extent to which these deficits are associated with CA1 cell loss, and the evidence for functional recovery following transplants of foetal CA1 cells and grafts of conditionally immortalised precursor cells. In rats, impairments are seen most consistently in tasks of spatial learning and spatial working memory dependent on use of allocentric environmental cues. In monkeys, ischaemic deficits have been shown to a moderate extent in delayed object recognition tasks, but animals with a selective excitotoxic CA1 lesion show a profound impairment in conditional discrimination tasks, suggesting that these may be a more sensitive measure of ischaemic impairments. Several studies have reported correlational links between the extent of CA1 cell loss following two or four vessel occlusion (2 VO, 4 VO) in rats and behavioural impairments, but recent findings indicate that at intermediate levels of damage these relationships are weak and variable, and emerge clearly only when animals with maximal CA1 cell loss are included, suggesting that the deficits involve more than damage to the CA1 field. Nevertheless, ischaemic rats and CA1-lesioned marmosets with grafts of foetal CA1 cells show substantial improvements; in rats these are not found with grafts from other hippocampal fields. Conditionally immortalised cell lines and trophic grafts are currently being assessed for their functional potential in animal models, because clinical use of foetal cells will not be practicable. Recent findings suggest that an expanded population of neuroepithelial cells derived from the conditionally immortalised H-2Kb-tsA58 transgenic mouse improve spatial learning as effectively as CA1 foetal grafts in rats subjected to 4 VO, and clonal lines from the same source show similar promise. Lines derived from precursor cells have the potential to develop into different types of cell (neuronal or glial) depending on signals from the host brain. These cell lines may therefore have the capacity to repair damaged host circuits more precisely than is possible with foetal grafts, and offer a promising, approach both to functional recovery and to elucidating graft-host interactions.     

Occurrence of Prevotella nigrescens and Prevotella intermedia in infections of endodontic origin

The occurrence of Prevotella intermedia and Prevotella nigrescens in endodontic infections was studied using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) of whole cell protein to distinguish between the species. Previous studies have shown an association between black-pigmented bacteria (BPB) and endodontic infections and that Prevotella intermedia (previously known as Bacteroides intermedius) was the most commonly isolated BPB. Recently, however, strains identified as P. intermedia were shown to in fact be composed of two separate species, P. intermedia and P. nigrescens. Fifty-six strains of BPB isolated from endodontic infections and previously identified as P. intermedia were used in this study. Following SDS-PAGE, P. nigrescens showed a unique 18.6 kDa band that was used to differentiate P. nigrescens from P. intermedia. Of the 56 strains of BPB, 41 (73.2%) were identified as P. nigrescens and 15 (26.8%) as P. intermedia. This study confirms that P. nigrescens, and not P. intermedia, is the BPB most often isolated from infections of endodontic origin.