Neonatal intracranial tumor highly suspected of teratoma in the lateral ventricle consisting of multiple cysts: case report]

The role of maternal diet in the development of the fetal brain has not been adequately explored. Marine n-3 fatty acids have, however, been proposed to be important for brain development. The present case-control study aimed to investigate the relationship between dietary intake during pregnancy and the occurrence of cerebral palsy (CP) in the offspring. Children with CP (n 109), born between 1984 and 1988 to mothers residing in the Greater Athens area, were identified at any time in 1991 or 1992 through institutions delivering care and rehabilitation. Successful nutritional interviews were conducted with ninety-one of these children. Controls were chosen among the neighbours of the CP cases or were healthy siblings of children with neurological diseases other than CP, seen by the same neurologists as the children with CP. A total of 278 control children were chosen, and 246 of them were included in the nutritional study. Guardians of all children were interviewed in person on the basis of a questionnaire covering obstetric, perinatal socioeconomic and environmental variables. A validated semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire of 111 food items was used to estimate maternal dietary intake during pregnancy. Statistical analysis was done by modelling the data through logistic regression. Food groups controlling for energy intake were alternatively and simultaneously introduced in a core model containing non-nutritional confounding variables. Consumption of cereals (mostly bread) and fish intake were inversely associated with CP (P < 0.05 and P < 0.09 respectively) whereas consumption of meat was associated with increased risk (P < 0.02). A protective effect of fish consumption and a detrimental effect of meat intake have been suggested on the basis of earlier work and appear to be biologically plausible. If corroborated by other studies, these results could contribute to our understanding of the nutritional influences on fetal brain development.     

Immobilized liposome chromatography for studies of protein-membrane interactions and refolding of denatured bovine carbonic anhydrase

Seasonal variations of pesticide residues in surface waters and ground waters of the Imathia area of Central Mecedonia (N. Greece) were determined for the period from May 1996 to April 1997. The sampling cruises included eight sites in rivers Aliakmon, Loudias, Tripotamos, Arapitsa and Canal-66, seven water springs in the mountain Vermion, seven rainfall water collection stations and one hundred underground points. Solid-phase extraction disks followed by gas chromatographic techniques with flame thermionic detection, electron capture detection and mass-selective detection were used for the monitoring of various pesticides their transformation products in environmental waters. The most commonly encountered pesticides in underground waters, were alachlor, atrazine, desethylatrazine (DEA), metolachlor, molinate, propanil, simazine, carbofuran, diazinon and parathion methyl. The above compounds including propazine, trifluralin, malathion, parathion ethyl, lindane, alpha-benzene hexachloride (alpha-BHC), beta-BHC, 4,4'-DDE and heptachlor were determined in river waters. The higher concentrations in underground waters were measured during the period from May to August, 1996, following seasonal application and diminished significantly during the autumn and winter. Water pollution by triazine and chloroacetanilides was highest in the estuarine areas; showing that many of these compounds are transported significant distances from their application sites. The major inputs of atrazine, alachlor, simazine and metolachlor occurred in May and June just after their application. Atrazine, DEA, diazinon and metolachlor were also detected in spring waters at concentration levels below 0.006 microgram/l. Finally, atrazine, DEA, carbofuran, simazine, diazinon, parathion ethyl and parathion methyl were detected in rainfall water samples collected in the agricultural area of Imathia (central part of the plain).     

Improvement in the Extinction Ratio of Output Optical PCM Signals From an Uncooled External Cavity Diode Laser by Using a Semiconductor Saturable Absorption Device

This paper describes the increase in the extinction ratio (ER) of an optical signal achieved by using a semiconductor saturable absorption device (SAD). We investigate a method for optimizing the SAD length in order to increase the ER, where we deal with the SAD characteristics phenomenologically. We then undertake a theoretical analysis of the bit error rate dependence on the ER increase. We clarify experimentally that by using a SAD with an effective length of 350 , the ER of the output optical signals from an uncooled directly modulated light source can be increased from 6.8 to 8.2 dB and, thus, conform to the synchronous optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy standard.     

Role of NK1.1+ T cells in a TH2 response and in immunoglobulin E production

Immune responses dominated by interleukin-4 (IL-4)-producing T helper type 2 (TH2) cells or by interferon gamma (IFN-gamma)-producing T helper type 1 (TH1) cells express distinctive protection against infection with different pathogens. Interleukin-4 promotes the differentiation of na?ve CD4+ T cells into IL-4 producers and suppresses their development into IFN-gamma producers. CD1-specific splenic CD4+NK1.1+ T cells, a numerically minor population, produced IL-4 promptly on in vivo stimulation. This T cell population was essential for the induction of IL-4-producing cells and for switching to immunoglobulin E, an IL-4-dependent event, in response to injection of antibodies to immunoglobulin D.     

Frequent development of murine T-cell lymphomas with TcR alpha/beta+, CD4-/8- phenotype after implantation of human inflammatory breast cancer cells in BALB/c nude mice

Tumors developed quite frequently in some of the visceral organs, including spleen and liver, in BALB/c nude mice upon subcutaneously xenografting surgical specimens from five different inflammatory breast cancer patients. All of these tumors developed within two and a half months to one year after the subcutaneous inoculation of surgical specimens. From these tumors, five independent transplantable tumors, including tMK-2, tHK-1, tYK-1, tYK-2 and tTY-1 have been established. Chromosome analysis, morphologic studies by light and electron microscopy and phenotype analysis indicated that these tumors are of mouse origin. The tMK-2 tumor was highly metastatic to the spleen and liver when it was subcutaneously transplanted into the right scapular region. In addition, the region where the tMK-2 tumor cells were subcutaneously inoculated showed an apparently inflammatory process represented by erythema. After subcutaneous inoculation into the right scapular region, tHK-1, tYK-1, 2, and tTY-1 tumors also metastasized to some of the visceral organs, including spleen and liver. From these tumors, in vitro cell lines were established. The cells grew in a stromal-cell dependent manner under in vitro culture conditions. The cells were again tumorigenic at the inoculated region and metastasized to various organs, including liver and spleen, of BABL/c nude mice. Histological examination revealed that the tumors showed features of malignant lymphoma. Phenotypically, these five tumors expressed early T lymphocyte markers as revealed by anti-mouse anti-TcR alpha/beta, anti-CD3, CD4 and CD8 monoclonal antibodies. To our knowledge, these cell lines are the first T-cell lines showing the phenotype of extrathymically differentiated T-cells in the liver.     

Coming of age in culture

Replicative senescence is a fundamental feature of most, if not all, somatic higher eukaryotic cells. The phenomenon has been studied for more than three decades, during which time the genetics and cell biology of senescent cells were characterized. In recent years, progress has been made on understanding the molecular basis for replicative senescence. At present, we now have a good, albeit still incomplete, understanding of some of the immediate causes for the growth arrest of senescent cells. The challenges for the future will be to understand the molecular bases for the prime causes of senescent phenotype, including the growth arrest and the altered differentiation.     

Suppressive effect of defatted rice bran on the oxidation of methyl linoleate

The bran collected at each of the five steps of milling yields (98–100%, 96–98%, 94–96%, 92–94% and 90–92%) was defatted. Defatted rice bran (DRB) was added to methyl linoleate (ML) under various conditions, and its suppressive effect on lipid oxidation was kinetically evaluated to investigate the effective use of surplus rice bran. The rate constant, k, empirically evaluated by the Weibull equation for the oxidation of ML with DRB, was lower than that without DRB and decreased with increasing the maximum milling yield of added DRB. The oxidation of ML strongly depended on the added amount of DRB, but the k value was almost constant for a specific amount of DBR added to ML. The dependency of the k value on relative humidity was weak, regardless of the addition of DRB. The difference between the k values for oxidation processes of ML, with and without DRB, increased with increasing temperature.