The effect of short peptides isolated from the brain of a hibernating suslik on the rat EEG and behavior

In the Drosophila embryo, at specific choice points along the major motor nerves, subsets of motor axons defasciculate and then steer into their muscle target regions. Here we describe the analysis of beaten path (beat), a gene required for the selective defasciculation of motor axons at these choice points. In beat mutant embryos, motor axons fail to defasciculate and bypass their targets. This phenotype is suppressed by mutations in FasII and conn, two genes encoding cell adhesion molecules expressed on motor axons, suggesting that beat provides an antiadhesive function. beat encodes a novel secreted protein that is expressed by motoneurons during outgrowth. Rescue and ectopic expression experiments support the model that Beat protein is secreted by motor axons where it functions to regulate their selective defasciculation at specific choice points.     

Nonmonotonous changes in erythrocyte sedimentation rate in whole blood

Scaphoid nonunion with avascular necrosis of the proximal pole remains a difficult problem. We have endeavoured to heal the fracture, restore scaphoid height and revascularize the proximal pole of the scaphoid by means of a vascularized dorsal interposition graft from the distal radius. The procedure has resulted in union of six of ten fractures. Fractures that healed had not been treated by a previous bone grafting procedure. Dissatisfaction was due to loss of motion in patients who had healed fractures, and pain in those patients with persistent non-unions.     

A neurophysiological assessment of the effect of trimetidon on brain function in the cat

Stimulation of the cat brain mesencephalic RF augmented the high-frequency activity in control animals and failed to do so after 4-oxopyrimidine administration. These and some other EEG changes suggest presence of an anxiolytic component in the trimethidone, the latter thus being similar by its effect to 1,4-benzodiazepines and endogenous pyrimidines.     

Analysis of the primary structure of the supplementary regulatory region of the riboflavin operon in Bacillus subtilis

The sequencing of a 3.5 kb EcoRI-BamHI fragment located in the 236 degrees region of the Bacillus subtilis chromosome revealed a 690-bp long open reading frame, partly similar in amino acid composition to flavokinases/FAD synthases from several microorganisms. The discovered sequence can be identified with the gene ribR, an auxiliary regulatory gene of the riboflavin operon of Bacillus subtilis.     

Transformation of serum immunoglobulins to polyreactive antibodies

In order to elucidate the mechanism of induction of serum immunoglobulins polyreactive properties by chaotropic ions, gel-chromatography of immunoglobulins in the medium containing 3.3 M KSCN, has been done. It was found that the transformation of serum immunoglobulins to polyreactive antibodies, which could react with different serological unrelated antigens, was not followed by dissociation of any hypothetical blocking factors. Instead, it was demonstrated that the appearance of polyreactive properties of immunoglobulins was likely to depend on conformational changes of immunoglobulin molecules.