The effects of functional knee braces on speed in collegiate basketball players

Knee braces are worn by many athletes following injury. The purpose of this study was to determine whether two functional knee braces (noncustom design) significantly affected straight line and successive turning trial running times in noninjured collegiate basketball players. Twenty-five coed basketball players completed 2 days of running trials. Subjects ran three full lengths of a basketball court and 10 lengths between the baseline and the foul line first without wearing a brace, then wearing either a DonJoy GoldPoint brace or an Omni OS-5 brace, and finally wearing the other brace. The results indicated no significant difference (p < .05) in straight line or successive turning running times when the two braces were compared with the nonbraced condition and when the two braces were compared with each other. The results implied that speed was not significantly affected by a functional knee brace in noninjured collegiate basketball players.     

Effects of exercise-induced oxidative stress on nitric oxide release and antioxidant activity

This study shows that acute exercise in healthy subjects is a modest oxidative stress, which may be related to an increase in antioxidant activity and down-regulation of nitric oxide formation.     

Physical mapping of the Tec and Gabrb1 loci reveals that the Wsh mutation on mouse chromosome 5 is associated with an inversion

In the mouse, mutations in the c-Kit proto-oncogene, a member of the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) gene family, have pleiotropic effects on hematopoiesis, pigmentation and fertility (dominant spotting, W). However, in the Wsh allele the defect is confined to abnormal pigmentation caused by the disruption of 5' regulatory sequences of Kit leaving an intact structural gene. In this report, the previously published physical map around the Pdgfra-Kit-Flk1 RTK loci is extended by mapping the loci encoding the GABAA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) receptor subunit beta 1, Gabrb1 and a cytoplasmic kinase (Tec) 3 Mb proximal to Kit. PFGE analysis of the wild-type (C57BL/6J) chromosome demonstrates the following gene order: cen-Gabrb1-Tec-Pdgfra-Kit, whereas the analysis of Wsh/Wsh DNA is consistent with the order: cen-Gabrb1-Pdgfra-Tec-Kit. This altered physical map can be explained by an inversion on the Wsh chromosome located proximally to the Kit locus and spanning the 2.8 Mb Pdgfra-Tec chromosomal segment. This high resolution physical mapping study identifies large DNA fragments that span the two inversion breakpoints and potentially carry Kit upstream regulatory elements involved in the control of Kit expression during embryonic development.     

3H]paroxetine binding is altered in the hippocampus but not the frontal cortex or caudate nucleus from subjects with schizophrenia

[3H]Paroxetine binding to particulate membrane from tissue, obtained at autopsy, from the hippocampus, frontal cortex, and caudate nucleus from subjects who had or had not had schizophrenia was measured. The density of [3H]paroxetine binding to membranes from subjects who had or had not had schizophrenia did not differ. Similarly, the affinity of [3H]paroxetine binding in the frontal cortex and caudate nucleus was not different. By contrast, the affinity of [3H]paroxetine binding to hippocampal membrane from subjects who had schizophrenia was significantly lower than the affinity of binding for the nonschizophrenic subjects (0.40 +/- 0.06 vs. 0.26 +/- 0.02; p < 0.05). As [3H]paroxetine binds to the serotonin transporter, these data suggest that the serotonin transporter is altered in the hippocampus in subjects with schizophrenia.     

Methanogenium frigidum sp. nov., a psychrophilic, H2-using methanogen from Ace Lake, Antarctica

Methanogenium frigidum sp. nov. was isolated from the perennially cold, anoxic hypolimnion of Ace Lake in the Vesfold Hills of Antarctica. The cells were psychrophilic, exhibiting most rapid growth at 15 degrees C and no growth at temperatures above 18 to 20 degrees C. The cells were irregular, nonmotile coccoids (diameter, 1.2 to 2.5 microns) that occurred singly and grew by CO2 reduction by using H2 as a reductant. Formate could replace H2, but growth was slower. Acetate, methanol, and trimethylamine were not catabolized. Cells grew with acetate as the only organic compounds in the culture medium, but growth was much faster in medium also supplemented with peptones and yeast extract. The cells were slightly halophilic; good growth occurred in medium supplemented with 350 to 600 mM Na+, but no growth occurred with 100 or 850 mM Na+. The pH range for growth was 6.5 to 7.9; no growth occurred at pH 6.0 or 8.5. Growth was slow (maximum specific growth rate, 0.24 day-1; doubling time, 2.9 days). This is the first report of a psychrophilic methanogen growing by CO2 reduction.