A QTL for the degree of spotting in cattle shows synteny with the KIT locus on chromosome 6.

The proportion of unpigmented coat on the trunk was determined from photographs of 38 German Simmental and 627 German Holstein bulls distributed over three generations. All 665 animals were members of 18 Holstein and 3 Simmental half-sib families. A Bayesian estimation of heritability yielded a posterior mean of 0.

Dose-wall histograms and normalized dose-surface histograms for the rectum: a new method to analyze the dose distribution over the rectum in conformal radiotherapy.

Purpose: To develop an accurate method to generate a dose-volume histogram (DVH) of the rectum wall, solely based on the outer contours of the rectum wall.

Methods And Materials: A mathematical model for the rectum wall is developed, incorporating the stretching of the rectum wall due to variable rectal filling and neighboring structures. The model is based on the assumption that the amount of intersected rectum wall tissue normal to the central axis of the rectum is constant.

Angiotensin II stimulates gene expression of cardiac insulin-like growth factor I and its receptor through effects on blood pressure and food intake.

Angiotensin II (Ang II) is known to act as a growth factor and may be involved in cardiac remodeling. We have shown that insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is an autocrine mediator of growth responses to Ang II in vascular smooth muscle cells in vitro, and we hypothesized that IGF-I also serves as an important modulator of cardiovascular growth in vivo. To study the effect of Ang II on cardiac IGF-I, we infused rats for 3, 7, or 14 days with Ang II through osmotic minipumps.

Concanavalin A-binding cholesterol crystallization inhibiting and promoting activity in bile from patients with Crohn's disease compared to patients with ulcerative colitis.

Background/aims: Crohn's disease is a risk factor for gallstone formation. In contrast, patients with ulcerative colitis have an incidence of gallstone formation comparable to the general population. The reason for this difference is not known.

Requirement for Shc in TCR-mediated activation of a T cell hybridoma.

Engagement of the TCR determines the fate of T cells to activate their functional programs, proliferate, or undergo apoptosis. The intracellular signal transduction pathways that dictate the specific outcome of receptor engagement have only been partially elucidated. The adapter protein, Shc, is involved in cytokine production, mitogenesis, transformation, and apoptosis in different cell systems.

IL-11 separates graft-versus-leukemia effects from graft-versus-host disease after bone marrow transplantation.

We recently showed that IL-11 prevents lethal graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in a murine bone marrow transplantation (BMT) model of GVHD directed against MHC and minor antigens. In this study, we have investigated whether IL-11 can maintain a graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect. Lethally irradiated B6D2F1 mice were transplanted with either T cell-depleted (TCD) bone marrow (BM) alone or with BM and splenic T cells from allogeneic B6 donors.

Enterohepatic cycling of bilirubin: a putative mechanism for pigment gallstone formation in ileal Crohn's disease.

Background & Aims: Patients with ileal disease, bypass, or resection are at increased risk for developing gallstones. In ileectomized rats, bilirubin secretion rates into bile are elevated, most likely caused by increased colonic bile salt levels, which solubilize unconjugated bilirubin, prevent calcium complexing, and promote its absorption and enterohepatic cycling. The hypothesis that ileal disease or resection engenders the same pathophysiology in humans was tested.

The extracellular signal-regulated kinase pathway is required for activation-induced cell death of T cells.

T cells can undergo activation-induced cell death (AICD) upon stimulation of the T cell receptor-CD3 complex. We found that the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway is activated during AICD. Transient transfection of a dominant interfering mutant of mitogen-activated/extracellular signal-regulated receptor protein kinase kinase (MEK1) demonstrated that down-regulation of the ERK pathway inhibited FasL expression during AICD, whereas activation of the ERK pathway with a constitutively active MEK1 resulted in increased expression of FasL.

Host reactive donor T cells are associated with lung injury after experimental allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

Noninfectious lung injury is common after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), but its association with acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is unclear. Using a murine BMT system where donor and host differ by multiple minor histocompatibility (H) antigens, we investigated the nature of lung injury and its relationship both to systemic GVHD and host-reactive donor T cells. Lethally irradiated CBA hosts received syngeneic BMT or allogeneic (B10.

Ursodeoxycholic acid and cholesterol induce enterohepatic cycling of bilirubin in rodents.

Background & Aims: Oral administration of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and cholesterol causes bile salt malabsorption; the former by competition for and the latter by down-regulation of ileal bile acid transporters. Because ileectomy in rats induces enterohepatic cycling of bilirubin, the hypothesis that dietary steroids might have the same effect was tested.

Methods: Male inbred C57L/J mice and Sprague-Dawley rats were fed low doses of UDCA, chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), or cholesterol added to laboratory chow with simultaneous chow-fed controls.

Estimation of the incidence of late bladder and rectum complications after high-dose (70-78 GY) conformal radiotherapy for prostate cancer, using dose-volume histograms.

Purpose: To investigate whether Dose-Volume Histogram (DVH) parameters can be used to identify risk groups for developing late gastrointestinal (GI) and genitourinary (GU) complications after conformal radiotherapy for prostate cancer.

Methods And Materials: DVH parameters were analyzed for 130 patients with localized prostate cancer, treated with conformal radiotherapy in a dose-escalating protocol (70-78 Gy, 2 Gy per fraction). The incidence of late (>6 months) GI and GU complications was classified using the RTOG/EORTC and the SOMA/LENT scoring system.

Compositional dependence of bioactivity of glasses in the system Na2O-K2O-MgO-CaO-B2O3-P2O5-SiO2.

The bioactivity, i.e., bone-bonding ability, of 26 glasses in the system Na2O-K2O-MgO-CaO-B2O3-P2O5-SiO2 was studied in vivo.

The influence of alkali and alkaline earths on the working range for bioactive glasses.

Viscosity-temperature dependence has been investigated for glasses in a system where bioactive compositions are found. A glass is called bioactive when living bone can bond to it. In this work, high-temperature microscopy was used to determine viscosity-temperature behaviour for 40 glasses in the system Na2O-K2O-MgO-CaO-B2O3-P2O5-SiO2.

Casein kinase 2 associates with and phosphorylates dishevelled.

The dishevelled (dsh) gene of Drosophila melanogaster encodes a phosphoprotein whose phosphorylation state is elevated by Wingless stimulation, suggesting that the phosphorylation of Dsh and the kinase(s) responsible for this phosphorylation are integral parts of the Wg signaling pathway. We found that immunoprecipitated Dsh protein from embryos and from cells in tissue culture is associated with a kinase activity that phosphorylates Dsh in vitro. Purification and peptide sequencing of a 38 kDa protein co-purifying with this kinase activity showed it to be identical to Drosophila Casein Kinase 2 (CK2).

Comparative analysis of antibiotic resistance, immunofluorescent colony staining, and a transgenic marker (bioluminescence) for monitoring the environmental fate of rhizobacterium.

Field releases of the wild-type plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens 89B-27, its bioluminescent derivative GEM-8 (89B-27::Tn4431), and a spontaneous rifampin-resistant variant estimating the wild-type population. Seed and root samples were taken 0, 7, 14, 21, or 28, 35 or 42, and 70 days after planting in each year and processed for enumeration by spiral plating or immunofluorescent colony staining (IFC). In both years, the populations of 89B-27, R34, and GEM-8, as measured by IFC, were not significantly different (P > 0.

Interactions between organic anions, micelles and vesicles in model bile systems.

Biliary lipid secretion probably involves both 'micellization' and 'vesiculization' of bile-canalicular membrane lipids. Several hydrophilic organic anions inhibit the secretion of lipids into the bile without altering bile salt secretion [Verkade, Vonk and Kuipers (1995) Hepatology 21, 1174-1189]. Hydrophobic organic anions do not interfere with biliary lipid secretion.

Angiotensin II Modulation of Insulin-like Growth Factor I Expression in the Cardiovascular System.

The renin-angiotensin system is important in the pathophysiology of hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure, and vascular remodeling. Angiotensin II is a growth factor for vascular smooth muscle cells and for cardiac myocytes and non-myocytes. Recently, angiotensin II has been shown to interact at multiple levels with the insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) system.

Localization of the angiotensin II receptor subtypes in the human atrium.

Angiotensin II has two major receptor subtypes, designated AT1 and AT2. Both have been detected in the heart of several species, but most of the known functions of angiotensin II seem to be mediated through the AT1 receptor. The major objective of this study was to specify the cell type on which the AT2 receptor is located in the atrium of human heart.

A new member of the frizzled family from Drosophila functions as a Wingless receptor.

Receptors for Wingless and other signalling molecules of the Wnt gene family have yet to be identified. We show here that cultured Drosophila cells transfected with a novel member of the frizzled gene family in Drosophila, Dfz2, respond to added Wingless protein by elevating the level of the Armadillo protein. Moreover, Wingless binds to Drosophila or human cells expressing Dfz2.

Bilirubin cycles enterohepatically after ileal resection in the rat.

Background & Aims: Patients with ileal disease, resection, or bypass are at increased risk of developing pigment gallstones, but the pathophysiological mechanisms are unknown. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that ileectomy induces enterohepatic cycling of bilirubin.

Methods: Ileectomy or sham operation was performed in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats with the following control procedures: no operation, ileal transection, proximal or distal jejunectomy, ileocolonic transposition, and ileocecectomy.