Influence of the perimenopause on cardiovascular risk factors and symptoms of middle-aged healthy women

OBJECTIVE: To determine the changes in cardiovascular risk factors and psychological and physical symptoms that occur during the perimenopause. DESIGN: Cohort study of 541 healthy middle-aged premenopausal women followed up through the menopause. SETTING: General community. PARTICIPANTS: After a baseline evaluation taken at study entry, 152 women ceased menstruating for 3 months (not due to surgery) and were not using hormone replacement therapy, and were reevaluated in a similar protocol (perimenopausal examination); 105 of the 152 were evaluated a third time when they had ceased menstruating for 12 months and were not using hormone replacement therapy (postmenopausal examination). One hundred nine premenopausal women who were repeatedly tested constituted a comparison group. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Levels of lipids and lipoproteins, triglycerides, fasting glucose and insulin, blood pressure, weight, height, and standardized measures of psychological symptoms. RESULTS: Women who became perimenopausal showed increased levels of cardiovascular risk factors, which were similar in magnitude to those experienced by the comparison group of premenopausal women. Perimenopausal women reported a greater number of symptoms, especially hot flashes, cold sweats, joint pain, aches in the skull and/or neck, and being forgetful; reports of hot flashes at the perimenopausal examination were associated with low concentrations of serum estrogens. Menopausal status was not associated with depressive symptoms. Perimenopausal women who became postmenopausal showed a decline in the level of high-density lipoprotein-2-cholesterol (means, 0.53 to 0.43 mmol/L [20.6 to 16.7 mg/dL]) and a gradual increase in the level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (means, 3.14 to 3.33 mmol/L [121.3 to 128.8 mg/dL]), whereas symptom reporting declined. CONCLUSIONS: During mid-life, women experience adverse changes in cardiovascular risk factors and a temporary increase in total number of reported symptoms, with no change in depression. Preventive efforts to reduce the menopause-induced increase in cardiovascular risk factors should begin early in the menopausal transition.     

MEN1 gene mutation analysis of sporadic adrenocortical lesions

To clarify the role of the MEN1 gene in the tumorigenesis of sporadic adrenocortical tumors, we performed a molecular study on 35 adrenocortical lesions including 6 hyperplasias, 19 adenomas and 10 carcinomas. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of the MEN1 gene was assessed by PCR using an intragenic (D11S4946) and 2 flanking microsatellite markers (D11S4936, PYGM) and/or fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with a 40-kb cosmid probe containing the MEN1 gene. The complete coding sequence of the MEN1 gene was screened for mutations using non-radioactive, PCR-based single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis and MDE heteroduplex gel electrophoresis. PCR-LOH and FISH analyses performed in 29 tumors (PCR-LOH in 4, FISH in 17 and both in 8 tumors) revealed allelic deletion of the MEN1 locus in 8 (27.5%) and at 11q13 in 9 (31%) tumors. Furthermore, the frequency of LOH at 11q13 was significantly higher in adrenocortical carcinomas (60%) than in benign lesions (11%). Mutation analysis of tumor samples revealed 9 polymorphisms in 7 tumors (S145S, R171Q, R171Q together with L432L) but no mutations, with the exception of one adrenocortical adenoma. The latter tumor contained a somatic E109X stop codon mutation in exon 2 and a 5178-9G-->A splice mutation in intron 4, which was also detectable in various nontumorous tissues and blood indicative of a germ-line mutation. The patient, who had no clinical signs or family history of MEN1, later also developed a neuroendocrine carcinoma (atypical carcinoid) of the lung. Our findings indicate that inactivating mutations of the MEN1 tumor-suppressor gene appear not to play a prominent role in the development of sporadic hyperplastic or neoplastic lesions of the adrenal cortex and that the newly reported 5178-9G-->A splice mutation in intron 4 might cause a variant of the MEN1 phenotype.     

V antigen-polyhistidine fusion peptide: binding to LcrH and active immunity against plague

The structural gene for V antigen (lcrV) is known to be encoded within the lcrGVH-yopBD operon of the approximately 70-kb low-calcium-response or Lcr plasmid of Yersinia pestis. This 37-kDa monomeric peptide was reported to provide active immunity in mice, suppress inflammatory cytokines, and regulate expression of the low calcium response (Lcr+). Here we describe pVHB62, encoding a polyhistidine-V antigen fusion peptide (Vh) and linked LcrH. Vh underwent degradation from both the C terminus and N terminus during classical chromatographic fractionation but remained intact within two compartments during Ni2+ affinity chromatography. The first was homogeneous, capable of active immunization (mouse intravenous 50% lethal dose, > 10(7) bacteria), and stable at 4 degrees C. The second remained bound to the affinity column but could be eluted as a mixture of Vh, LcrH, and low-molecular-weight material by application of 6 M guanidine HCl. This mixture was dialyzed, denatured in 8 M urea, and again applied to the affinity column, which then hound Vh but not LcrH. The latter was recovered and renatured, and low-molecular-weight material was removed by biochemical fractionation. The resulting homogeneous LcrH bound protein AN antigen fusion peptide but not protein A in a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and this reaction was inhibited by Vh. These observations indicate that LcrH normally binds V antigen in bacterial cytoplasm and suggest that only free LcrH down-regulates expression of the low calcium response.     

Polyenes and vision

Hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT, E.C.2.4.2.8) from Artemia cysts exhibits maximum activity at 70 degrees C. Its thermal stability has been examined following enzymatic activity as a function of temperature. Cold-induced renaturation experiments of samples heated at increasing temperatures showed that reversibility of thermal inactivation depends on the incubation time and final temperature. Prolonged incubation of the thermoinactivated enzyme at 0 degree C did not afford any further increase of the catalytic activity at 37 degrees C. The complex substrate PRPP:Mg protects HGPRT from thermal inactivation. However, incubations with hypoxanthine rendered a less thermostable enzyme at any temperature tested. The irreversible inactivation of HGPRT proceeds in two exponential steps. The analysis of the apparent rate constants for the fast and the slow phases, lambda 1 and lambda 2 as per the Lumry and Eyring model suggests the existence of more than three states in the thermal denaturation pathway of the free enzyme. In the presence of PRPP:Mg the irreversible process follows a single exponential and proceeds very slowly below 70 degrees C. PRPP:Mg also protects the enzyme from inactivation by NEM and pCMB, suggesting that -SH groups may be in the vicinity of the active site.     

Validation of the Applied Biosystems Prism 377 automated sequencer for the forensic short tandem repeat analysis

The Applied Biosystems (ABI) Prism 377 DNA sequencer has been evaluated in an attempt to increase the throughput of samples for short tandem repeat (STR) analysis, in both forensic casework and the UK National Criminal Intelligence DNA Database. The gel system assessed consisted of 0.2 mm, 4% acrylamide 6 M urea gels, with a well-to-read distance of 36 cm. Gels were run at a constant voltage of 3 kV and constant temperature of 51 degrees C. The run time of our second generation multiplex (SGM) STR system was achieved in less than 2 h. Rigorous validation has been performed on the instrument hardware and software. Complete resolution of 1 base differences was obtained, up to and beyond 350 bases; sizing precision across gels was more than 2-fold higher than the 373A and the sensitivity was increased by one third.