Linkage of antisocial alcoholism to the serotonin 5-HT1B receptor gene in 2 populations

We examined the effects of repeated administration of (S)-alpha-fluoromethylhistidine (FMH), a specific inhibitor of histidine decarboxylase (HDC), on radial maze performance and brain contents of histamine and amino acids in rats. By daily subcutaneous (s.c.) administration of FMH (100 mg/kg), rats showed significant enhancement of a radial maze performance without changes in locomotion. Six days after FMH treatment, the histamine levels both in the cerebral cortex and diencephalon decreased significantly. However, the glutamate and glycine levels significantly increased in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. These results suggest that FMH enhances the acquisition phase of radial maze study with the increases in glutamate and glycine levels in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus of rats.     

Overt behavior problems and serotonergic function in middle childhood among male and female offspring of alcoholic fathers

A large body of literature indicates that the serotonergic system is involved in behavioral regulation, as evidenced by the inverse relationship between impulsive aggression and serotonergic function found in adult alcoholics and nonalcoholics. However, studies of this relationship among child and adolescent offspring of alcoholics (COAs) have not previously been done. This study examines the potentially parallel relationship between behavioral dysregulation and low serotonergic function in young COAs. The relationship is of potential interest as a phenotypic marker of biological vulnerability to aggressiveness, which itself has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for later antisocial alcoholism. The present work is part of an ongoing prospective study of the development of risk for alcohol abuse/dependence and other problematic outcomes in a sample of families subtyped by the fathers' alcoholism classification. We examined the relationship between overt behavior problems in middle childhood (mean age = 10.5 +/- 1.7 years) and whole blood serotonin (5-HT) in a subsample of the offspring (N = 32 boys and 12 girls). Using a Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) index of behavioral undercontrol, we obtained results indicating that high total behavior problem (TBP) children had lower levels of whole blood 5-HT than did low-TBP children (p < 0.01). These results support the hypothesis that there is an inverse relationship between whole blood serotonin levels and behavior problems in young male and female COAs. A father's alcoholism status was not significantly related to his child's 5-HT level, i.e., the child's phenotypic expression of behavioral dysregulation was more reliably connected to serotonergic function than was paternal alcoholism.     

Induction of ovulation in the human with centchroman: a preliminary report

After burn or resection of one submandibular salivary gland the contralateral gland responded by an increase of proliferation. The maximal mitotic index was observed 48 hours after the resection and 72 hours after the burn. Burn of the salivary gland initiated a stable, but weak compensatory hypertrophy of the contralateral gland. Hypertrophy of the gland was accompanied by an increase in the size of the cells and the nuclei whose area enlarged by 10 and 17%, respectively. Resection of the salivary gland caused an increase in the weight of the intact contralateral gland only at the early periods of the experiment. By the 30th and the 45th day after the operation the weight of the intact contralateral gland failed to differ from control. The detected differences in the compensatory growth of the intact glands in two types of action on the contralateral salivary gland depended on the quantity of the tissue degeneration products and on the period of their stay in the organism.     

Synovectomy and total joint arthroplasty for recurrent hemarthroses in the arthropathic joint in hemophilia

Severe hemophiliacs with intractable bleeding into one or more joints despite adequate clotting factor replacement therapy are difficult management problems. Synovectomy has controlled bleeding only in joints without significant arthritis destruction. Total joint replacements have been performed in arthropathic joints, but not when uncontrolled bleeding was a concurrent problem. This report describes a hemophiliac with uncontrolled bleeding into an arthritic knee who was successfully managed by combining synvectomy with total knee replacement.     

Spirochetosis in California game chickens

An outbreak of spirochetosis occurred in a flock of 75 game chickens in California during fall 1991. Affected birds were weak and anemic. Many had greenish diarrhea. Spirochetes were seen on Giemsa-stained blood smears and in silver-stained tissue sections of kidney, liver, and spleen. Splenomegaly, which is reported to be characteristic of fowl spirochetosis, was not observed in two acutely infected chickens.