South African Lagerstätte reveals middle Permian Gondwanan lakeshore ecosystem in exquisite detail.

Continental ecosystems of the middle Permian Period (273-259 million years ago) are poorly understood. In South Africa, the vertebrate fossil record is well documented for this time interval, but the plants and insects are virtually unknown, and are rare globally. This scarcity of data has hampered studies of the evolution and diversification of life, and has precluded detailed reconstructions and analyses of ecosystems of this critical period in Earth's history.

Expression of CC and CXC chemokines and chemokine receptors in human leprosy skin lesions.

We have investigated the expression of chemokines and their receptors in leprosy skin lesions using immunohistochemistry. Skin biopsies from 25 leprosy patients across the leprosy spectrum, 11 patients undergoing type I reversal reactions and four normal donors were immunostained by ABC peroxidase method using antibodies against CC and CXC chemokines and their receptors. Using an in situ hybridization technique we have also studied the expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), RANTES and interleukin (IL)-8 chemokines mRNA in leprosy skin lesions.

Intra-individual variation of thyroxin, triiodothyronine, and thyrotropin in treated hypothyroid patients: implications for monitoring replacement therapy.

We measured total thyroxin (TT4), free thyroxin (FT4), total triiodothyronine (TT3), free triiodothyronine (FT3), and thyrotropin (TSH) in serum sampled before and 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 h after administration of prescribed doses of thyroxin to 12 patients with proven primary hypothyroidism. At 2, 4, and 6 h post-dose, the mean values for TT4 and FT4 and also that at 8 h for FT4 significantly (P less than 0.05) exceeded the corresponding pre-dose values.