Light promotion of hypocotyl gravitropism of a starch-deficient tobacco mutant correlates with plastid enlargement and sedimentation

Dark-grown hypocotyls of a starch-deficient mutant (NS458) of tobacco (Nicotiana sylvestris) lack amyloplasts and plastid sedimentation, and have severely reduced gravitropism. However, gravitropism improved dramatically when NS458 seedlings were grown in the light. To determine the extent of this improvement and whether mutant hypocotyls contain sedimented amyloplasts, gravitropic sensitivity (induction time and intermittent stimulation) and plastid size and position in the endodermis were measured in seedlings grown for 8 d in the light. Light-grown NS458 hypocotyls were gravitropic but were less sensitive than the wild type (WT). Starch occupied 10% of the volume of NS458 plastids grown in both the light and the dark, whereas WT plastids were essentially filled with starch in both treatments. Light increased plastid size twice as much in the mutant as in the WT. Plastids in light-grown NS458 were sedimented, presumably because of their larger size and greater total starch content. The induction by light of plastid sedimentation in NS458 provides new evidence for the role of plastid mass and sedimentation in stem gravitropic sensing. Because the mutant is not as sensitive as the WT, NS458 plastids may not have sufficient mass to provide full gravitropic sensitivity.     

Macrophage apoptosis in muscle tissue in experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis

BACKGROUND: In adhesive small bowel obstruction, the early recognition of complications such as strangulation or volvulus is essential to choose between surgical or conservative initial treatment. The objective of this study was to determine prospectively the contribution of computed tomography (CT) to decision making in the management of these patients. METHODS: Patients with suspected adhesive small bowel obstruction had CT at admission. Patients with CT signs of volvulus or strangulation and/or clinical signs of peritoneal irritation underwent urgent surgery; other patients had conservative initial treatment. RESULTS: Fifty-four patients were evaluated. CT demonstrated signs of strangulation or volvulus in 19 patients, including three with signs of peritoneal irritation. Within this group, urgent laparotomy was performed in 17 patients and confirmed the CT diagnosis in 16. Thirty-seven patients without clinical or CT signs of complications had initial conservative treatment; among them, seven of 12 with a distal obstruction determined by CT required a delayed operation for persisting obstruction, compared with two of 25 patients with a proximal obstruction (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: CT is useful for the evaluation of adhesive small bowel obstruction, to detect accurately patients with complications who require urgent operation and to determine the location of the adhesion, which represents a significant prognostic factor for success of conservative treatment.     

Effects of oral vanadyl treatment on diabetes-induced alterations in the heart GLUT-4 transporter

Vanadyl sulfate was administered orally during a 10-week trial period to streptozotocin-diabetic and control male rats to test the hypothesis that chronic vanadyl supplementation would prevent the decline in cardiac muscle cell glucose transporter protein (GLUT-4) that otherwise manifests in conjunction with insulin deficiency. Isolated cardiac myocytes and cardiac sarcolemmal vesicles were prepared from heart tissue of rats that had been maintained on the following regimens: untreated control, oral vanadyl-supplemented control (0.6 mg/ml), untreated diabetic (streptozotocin-induced; 60 mg/kg), and vanadyl-supplemented diabetic. Myocytes isolated from untreated diabetic rat hearts had decreased rates of glucose oxidation. Chronic, oral administration of vanadyl to diabetic rats maintained glucose oxidation rates of cardiac myocytes at control levels. Immunoblot analyses revealed that total cardiac myocyte and sarcolemmal GLUT-4 glucose transporter protein levels were significantly lower in the diabetic group relative to control. Vanadyl treatment of diabetic rats produced a normalization of both sarcolemmal GLUT-4 and total cardiac myocyte levels towards control levels. The reduction of GLUT-4 mRNA levels seen with untreated diabetes was also completely prevented with vanadyl treatment. These results demonstrate that chronic-oral vanadyl sulfate supplementation limits the decline in glucose oxidative capacity of cardiac myocytes that otherwise manifests in the untreated diabetic state. This action of vanadyl may occur via a mechanism that is linked to the preservation of sarcolemmal GLUT-4 protein levels.     

Staphylococcus aureus nasal colonization in HIV-seropositive and HIV-seronegative drug users

Five cases of adenoid basal carcinoma (ABC) of the uterine cervix were examined for the presence of p53 tumor suppressor gene, K-ras-2 oncogene, and human papillomavirus (HPV). A topographic genotyping approach was used to search for point mutations in K-ras-2 (exon 1 and 2) and p53 (exons 5 to 8) in archival formalin-fixed tissue blocks. Minute target sites were selected from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified and directly sequenced tissue sections. Tissue sections were additionally subjected to immunohistochemical staining for p53 and WAF-1 protein. Because wild type p53 induces WAF-1 gene expression, immunohistochemical staining for WAF-1 protein using monoclonal antibodies may serve as an indirect means to test for p53 mutational damage. Mutational genotype was compared to histopathologic features and immunohistochemical staining. To study the role of HPV, L1 region consensus primers were used to amplify topographic samples, followed by HPV genotyping by direct sequencing and comparison to known viral strains. ABC was found to contain HPV in all cases, proven by genotyping to be HPV type 16 in each case. The virus showed no evidence of genomic variation from prototype HPV type 16 in the L1 segment examined. No K-ras-2 point mutations were identified. p53 immunopositivity was present in all tumors, being weak and focal in 4 and strong and diffuse in 1. WAF-1 immunostaining was positive in two tumors showing weak focal p53 immunopositivity. The single strong and diffuse p53 immunopositive tumor was negative for WAF-1 and was shown to contain a missense p53 point mutation (exon 7-codon 248 tryptophan). In conclusion, ABC is characterized by the presence of HPV type 16. K-ras-2 point mutation appears to play no role in the development of this tumor. p53 gene alterations are common including wild type hyperexpression (weak focal p53 immunopositivity, WAF-1 positivity, no mutational change) and p53 point mutational damage.