Pre-transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPS) prediction of post-TIPS overt hepatic encephalopathy: the critical flicker frequency is more accurate than psychometric tests.

Unlabelled: Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPS) is a second-line treatment because of an increased incidence of overt hepatic encephalopathy (OHE). A better selection of patients to decrease this risk is needed and one promising approach could be the detection of minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE). The aim of the present prospective study was to determine whether pre-TIPS minimal hepatic encephalopathy was predictive of post-TIPS OHE and to compare Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Sum Score(PHES) and the Critical Flicker Frequency (CFF) in this setting.

Phosphoinositides regulate membrane-dependent actin assembly by latex bead phagosomes.

Actin assembly on membrane surfaces is an elusive process in which several phosphoinositides (PIPs) have been implicated. We have reconstituted actin assembly using a defined membrane surface, the latex bead phagosome (LBP), and shown that the PI(4,5)P(2)-binding proteins ezrin and/or moesin were essential for this process (). Here, we provide several lines of evidence that both preexisting and newly synthesized PI(4,5)P(2), and probably PI(4)P, are essential for phagosomal actin assembly; only these PIPs were routinely synthesized from ATP during in vitro actin assembly.

Mutagenesis of the phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP(2)) binding site in the NH(2)-terminal domain of ezrin correlates with its altered cellular distribution.

The cytoskeleton-membrane linker protein ezrin has been shown to associate with phosphatidyl-inositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP(2))-containing liposomes via its NH(2)-terminal domain. Using internal deletions and COOH-terminal truncations, determinants of PIP(2) binding were located to amino acids 12-115 and 233-310. Both regions contain a KK(X)(n)K/RK motif conserved in the ezrin/radixin/moesin family.

Presence of primitive lymphoid progenitors with NK or B potential in ex vivo expanded bone marrow cell cultures.

Objective: In previous work, we showed that CD34+ bone marrow cells can be successfully expanded along the myeloid pathway in stroma- and serum-free conditions in the presence of SCF+IL-3+IL-6+Flt3-l+G-CSF+MGDF. Due to the lack of phenotypically detectable lymphoid cells, it was necessary to address the question of the lymphoid potential of the expanded populations under these conditions.

Materials And Methods: The present report describes a long-term culture system that supports human B- and NK-cell differentiation from the day 14 fraction without further selection of the more primitive cells.

Approximation techniques for neuromimetic calculus.

Approximation Theory plays a central part in modern statistical methods, in particular in Neural Network modeling. These models are able to approximate a large amount of metric data structures in their entire range of definition or at least piecewise. We survey most of the known results for networks of neurone-like units.

CAFASP-1: critical assessment of fully automated structure prediction methods.

The results of the first Critical Assessment of Fully Automated Structure Prediction (CAFASP-1) are presented. The objective was to evaluate the success rates of fully automatic web servers for fold recognition which are available to the community. This study was based on the targets used in the third meeting on the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP-3).

Plasma total and glycosylated corticosteroid-binding globulin levels are associated with insulin secretion.

In humans, steroid hormones circulate in the blood mainly bound to specific steroid transport proteins, namely corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG) for cortisol and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) for testosterone and estradiol. The binding activities of these proteins are believed to modulate the biodisposal of steroids to target cells. It has been shown in vitro that insulin is a potent inhibitor of both CBG and SHBG secretion by a human hepatoblastoma cell (HepG2) line.

A peptide derived from a beta2-adrenergic receptor transmembrane domain inhibits both receptor dimerization and activation.

One of the assumptions of the mobile receptor hypothesis as it relates to G protein-coupled receptors is that the stoichiometry of receptor, G protein, and effector is 1:1:1 (Bourne, H. R., Sanders, D.

Improved binding of cytochrome P450cam substrate analogues designed to fill extra space in the substrate binding pocket.

Cytochrome P450cam catalyzes the 5-exo-hydroxylation of camphor. Camphor analogues were designed to fill an empty region of the substrate binding pocket with the expectation that they would bind more tightly than camphor itself due to increased van der Waals interactions with the protein and the displacement of any solvent occupying this site. A series of compounds (endo-borneol methyl ether, endo-borneol propyl ether, endo-borneol allyl ether and endo-borneol dimethyl allyl ether) were synthesized with substituents at the camphor carbonyl oxygen.

[Iridium 192 brachytherapy of supra-tentorial high grade glioma recurring in irradiated areas: technique and preliminary results of the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital group].

Unlabelled: Our aim was to analyse feasibility and preliminary results obtained with iridium 192 re-irradiation of recurrent high grade gliomas.

Material And Methods: a technique for implanting rigid plastic tubes afterloaded with iridium 192 wires was developed that utilised a stereotactic Leksell frame. Nineteen glioblastomas and one anaplastic glioma (12 males and 8 females: age: 20-69 years, median: 50) were implanted between January 1993 and December 1994.

Dosimetry of intraluminal brachytherapy.

Dose specification in intraluminal brachytherapy varies considerably in the literature. A terminology is proposed, inspired from the Paris System of interstitial brachytherapy, to define some dosimetric guidelines. The dose is specified in the central plane which is a plane perpendicular to the source and passing through its centre.

[Current indications of laparoscopy].

The authors illustrate the indications of laparoscopy by reporting their clinical experience in a Department of gastroenterology between 1982 and 1984. In addition to the clinical indications which remain valid, new indications of laparoscopy are described in cases of failure of ultrasonography and/or computerised tomography, and of direct opacification of the biliary and pancreatic ducts. Laparoscopy has been practically abandoned in the diagnosis of obstructive jaundice and pancreatic pathology.

The guide gutter or loop techniques of interstitial implantation and the Paris system of dosimetry.

The predictive dosimetry system for implants known as the Paris system can be used with either loops or hairpins. When using the guide gutter technique, implant geometry is predetermined by the inherent spacing and parallelism of the branches of the hairpins. When using loops, their branches should not be spaced too widely apart and should be parallel over an adequate distance to obtain a fairly regular dose distribution between them.