Formation of unilamellar liposomes from total polar lipid extracts of methanogens

Unilamellar liposomes were formed by controlled detergent dialysis of mixed micelles consisting of acetone-insoluble total polar lipids extracted from various methanogens and the detergent n-octyl-beta-D-glucopyranoside. The final liposome populations were studied by dynamic light scattering and electron microscopy. Unilamellar liposomes with mean diameters smaller than 100 nm were obtained with lipid extracts of Methanococcus voltae, Methanosarcina mazei, Methanosaeta concilii, and Methanococcus jannaschii (grown at 50 degrees C), whereas larger (greater than 100-nm) unilamellar liposomes were obtained with lipid extracts of M. jannaschii grown at 65 degrees C. These liposomes were shown to be closed intact vesicles capable of retaining entrapped [14C]sucrose for extended periods of time. With the exception of Methanospirillum hungatei liposomes, all size distributions of the different liposome populations were fairly homogeneous.     

Motor recovery after stroke depends on intact sustained attention: A 2-year follow-up study.

The functional recovery of 47 right-brain-damaged stroke patients was studied over a 2-year period. The researchers hypothesized that sustained attention capacity should predict the degree of motor and functional recovery over this period because of a proposed privileged role of sustained attention in learning-based recovery of function. As predicted, significant correlations were found between sustained attention capacity at 2 months and functional status (including the Barthel Index) at 2 years. This relationship was shown to exist independently of 2-month functional status. Furthermore, compared with a left-brain-damaged group of cerebrovascular accident (CVA) patients, the right-brain CVA group did not recover functional ability as well over the 2-year period. This increasing difference in functional status over a 2-year period was mirrored by an emerging difference in sustained attention capacity, in favor of the left-brain CVA group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Myosin isoforms in skeletal muscle in patients with chronic heart decompensation: distribution and correlation with with exercise tolerance

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is accompanied by a reduced exercise capacity, and the symptoms can be at least in part explained by qualitative and quantitative changes in the skeletal muscle composition and metabolism. We have correlated the myosin heavy chain (MHC) composition of the gastrocnemius in 20 patients with different degrees of CHF to expiratory gases measured during maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing, NYHA functional class and echocardiographic parameters. MHC composition was determined electrophoretically in skeletal muscle needle microbiopsies and the percent distribution calculated by laser densitometry. There was no correlation between ejection fraction, left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic diameters and MHC composition. The percentage of MHC 1 (slow aerobic isoform) was positively correlated with peak VO2 (r2 = 0.5, p = 0.0004), ventilatory threshold (VT, r2 = 0.33, p = 0.008), and O2 pulse (peak VO2/HR, r2 = 0.40, p = 0.003). There was a negative correlation between MHC 2a and 2b (fast isoforms) and peak VO2 (r2 = 0.38 and 0.37, p = 0.004, respectively), VT (r2 = 0.2, p = 0.05; r2 = 0.34, p = 0.007, respectively) and O2 pulse (r2 = 0.39, p = 0.003; r2 = 0.23, p = 0.03, respectively). NYHA functional class was also negatively correlated with the same parameters (r2 = 0.2, p = 0.01; r2 = 0.4, p = 0.001; r2 = 0.34, p = 0.006, respectively) as well as with MHC 1 (r2 = 0.62, p = 0.0001). A positive correlation was found between NYHA functional class and MHC 2a and 2b (r2 = 0.46, p = 0.001; r2 = 0.41, p = 0.002, respectively). The severity of heart failure is paralleled by a shift of the MHC pattern toward the fast MHC 2b. The correlation between the magnitude of the MHCs shift, from the slow aerobic to the fast type, with both clinical parameters (NYHA functional class) and functional measurements (peak VO2, VT, O2 pulse) of exercise capacity seem to suggest that changes in skeletal muscle composition may play a key role in exercise tolerance in patients with CHF.     

Biodistribution of radiolabeled monoclonal antibody E48 IgG and F(ab'')2 in patients with head and neck cancer

The amphibian pronephros is fated to die during early development. Pronephric cells undergo apoptosis and their function is replaced by the mesonephros, which becomes the functional kidney of the adult frog. Tadpoles of the northern leopard frog, Rana pipiens, were inoculated with a Lucké tumour herpesvirus (LTV) preparation. Most of the animals developed typical Lucké renal carcinomas at metamorphosis. Fewer developed carcinomas of the pronephric cell type. A pronephric carcinoma, rescued from apoptosis by the herpesvirus, was harvested from a post-metamorphic frog. The tumour was judged to be pronephric by its anatomical location (in the anterior part of the body) and because both mesonephric kidneys were intact and tumour-free upon removal of the tumour mass. A tumour fragment was fixed for histological examination, which confirmed that the tissue was a renal carcinoma. A further fragment was subjected to short-term culture in order to produce metaphase cells for cytogenetical analysis. Based upon silverstained nucleolar organizing region numbers, 14 of 15 metaphase cells were estimated to have the diploid number (2N = 26) of chromosomes and a karyotype was constructed which did not appear to differ from that of normal cells. A single cell was estimated to be tetraploid (4N = 52). This is the first report of chromosomes of a pronephric Lucké carcinoma. LTV replicates only in tumour tissue maintained in the cold. Because the frog in this study had been maintained in the laboratory at 22 degrees C for about 10 months, no viruses would have been detectable with electron microscopy. However, the presence of Lucké herpesvirus DNA was detected in tumour homogenates by polymerase chain reaction amplification of a 1.2 kbp Hind III restriction fragment of the LTV DNA. The presence of LTV DNA provided assurance that the rescued pronephric tumour was indeed a Lucké carcinoma.     

Poly(adenosine diphosphoribose) polymerase in peripheral blood leukocytes from normal donors and patients with malignancies

A two-color flow cytometric technique was developed to analyze poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PADPRP) in different individuals as a function of different physiological or pathological conditions and to establish the basis for determining whether enzyme deficiency may predispose to degenerative or malignant disorders. Peripheral blood granulocytes were devoid of enzyme activity, whereas mononuclear cells had variable amounts. PADPRP was highest in B cells, intermediate in T cells, and lowest in monocytes. This pattern of enzyme distribution and relative enzyme content of different types of cells was remarkably constant in normal subjects. In a series of 66 normal donors there was no significant biological variation in enzyme content as a function of age, race, or sex. The mean PADPRP values in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 81 random patient samples obtained from an ambulatory oncology clinic did not differ significantly from normal subjects. However, groups of patients with breast cancer, lymphocytic malignancies, and esophageal cancer were observed to have below normal levels for peripheral blood mononuclear cell PADPRP.     

Expression of a hypoglycosylated form of CD86 (B7-2) on human T cells with altered binding properties to CD28 and CTLA-4

CD80 (B7-1) and CD86 (B7-2) on APC provide a major costimulatory signal through interactions with CD28 on T cells. Absent from resting human T cells, CD86 is up-regulated early upon T cell activation, whereas CD80 expression appears later. Whereas T cell expression of CD80 has been implicated in costimulation, the functional significance of CD86 expression on T cells is unclear. We now demonstrate that CD86 expressed on human CD4+ T cell clones does not provide a costimulatory signal for other CD4+ T cell clones. Binding studies using CD28-Ig and CTLA-4-Ig fusion proteins demonstrate that CD86 expressed on T cells has significantly reduced binding affinity for CTLA-4 and no detectable binding to CD28. Biochemical analysis demonstrates that post-translational modifications of CD86 in human T cells are different from those of CD86-transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells or EBV-transformed B cells, in that T cells express a hypoglycosylated form of CD86 on the surface membrane. Thus, our results suggest that while CD86 is expressed on a number of different cell types, its costimulatory function and affinity for its ligands may be regulated by cell type-specific post-translational modifications.     

You can't take it with you: Why ability assessments don't cross cultures.

A central thesis of this article is that ability tests can be analyzed as items of symbolic culture. This theoretical perspective, based in cultural psychology, provides psychological researchers and clinicians with the tools to detect, correct, and avoid the cross-cultural misunderstandings that undermine the validity of ability tests applied outside their culture of origin. When testers use tests developed in their own culture to test members of a different culture, testees often do not share the presuppositions about values, knowledge, and communication implicitly assumed by the test. These cross-cultural issues have important relevance for ability testing in an ethnically diverse society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)