Earthworm species of the genus Eisenia can be phenotypically differentiated by metabolic profiling.

The universality of low molecular weight metabolites allows rapid and straightforward investigation of the biochemistry of genetically uncharacterised species. Thus ex vivo metabolic profiling in combination with multivariate data analysis (metabonomics) offers great potential in comparative biology. Here we present the first use of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to distinguish closely related animal species via their metabolic phenotype (metabotype).

Oligonucleotide mixture analysis via electrospray and ion/ion reactions in a quadrupole ion trap.

Electrospray ionization combined with ion/ion reactions in a quadrupole ion trap can be used for the direct analysis of oligonucleotide mixtures. Elements to the success of this approach include factors related to ionization, ion/ion reactions, and mass analysis. This paper deals with issues regarding the ion polarity combination, viz.

Cardiac function: MR evaluation in one breath hold with real-time true fast imaging with steady-state precession.

In 12 healthy volunteers and eight patients with cardiac disease, cine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the heart was performed with real-time true fast imaging with steady-state precession (FISP), which permitted evaluation of the entire left ventricle in one breath hold (91 msec per frame, 13 frames per section position, nine short-axis section positions per breath hold). Contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs) and left ventricular mass and function measurements with this technique were compared in all subjects with single-section true FISP imaging and, in the volunteers only, with segmented fast low-angle shot (FLASH) MR imaging. Myocardium-to-blood CNR was significantly higher for both true FISP sequences compared with the FLASH sequence.

Ion/ion chemistry as a top-down approach for protein analysis.

Developing methodology for analyzing complex protein mixtures in a rapid fashion is one of the most challenging problems facing analytical biochemists today. Recent advances in mass spectrometry for the analysis of intact proteins (i.e.

Microbial communities in different soil types do not converge after diesel contamination.

Aims: To study the comparative effect of diesel addition and simulated bioremediation on the microbial community in three different soil types.

Methods And Results: Three different soils were amended with diesel and bioremediation treatment simulated by addition of nutrients. The progress of bioremediation, and the effect on the indigenous microbial communities, was monitored using microbiological techniques.

Delineation of normal human left ventricular twist throughout systole by tagged cine magnetic resonance imaging.

Myofibril shortening and the oblique fiber orientation of the left ventricular myocardium results in a twisting motion of the left ventricle. Advances in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have made it possible to label the myocardium noninvasively and track this motion (twist) through the cardiac cycle, but little data exist on its complete systolic time course. The purpose of this study was to delineate the normal human systolic time course of ventricular twist using tagged cine-MRI.

Comparison of response of six different luminescent bacterial bioassays to bioremediation of five contrasting oils.

The performance of six different bioluminescent bacteria for the assessment of oil bioremediation was compared. Three contained lux genes linked to promoters from hydrocarbon degradation pathways: Pseudomonas fluorescens HK44 (pUTK21), Escherichia coli HMS174 (pOS25) and E. coli DH5 alpha (pGEc74, pJAMA7), responding to naphthalene, isopropylbenzene and octane, respectively.

An NMR-based metabonomic approach to the investigation of coelomic fluid biochemistry in earthworms under toxic stress.

The endogenous metabolites of the coelomic fluid of the earthworm Eisenia veneta were characterised using high-resolution one-dimensional and two-dimensional 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Signals from common organic acids, such as acetate, fumarate, malonate, malate, formate, and succinate, were identified together with adenosine and nicotinamide mononucleotide. The potential use of this information as a baseline dataset for future toxicological or physiological studies was demonstrated by a metabonomic analysis: a series of earthworms were dosed with the model compound 3-fluoro-4-nitrophenol, and toxic effects followed by multivariate analysis of the spectral data of the coelomic fluid.

Cine MR angiography of the heart with segmented true fast imaging with steady-state precession.

In five healthy subjects and 18 patients, cine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the heart was performed with a true fast imaging with steady-state precession (FISP) sequence. Results were compared both quantitatively and qualitatively with those at cine fast low-angle shot (FLASH) MR imaging. The blood-myocardial contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) was 2.

Development of QSARs to investigate the bacterial toxicity and biotransformation potential of aromatic heterocylic compounds.

A series of aromatic heterocyclic and hydrocarbon compounds were tested for toxicity and biotransformation potential against two contrasting lux-marked whole-cell microbial biosensors. Toxicity was determined by inhibition of light output of a Pseudomonas fluorescens construct that expresses lux constitutively. Biotransformation was tested by increase in light output of P.

Lectin and carbohydrate affinity capture surfaces for mass spectrometric analysis of microorganisms.

In a preliminary report (Bundy, J. L.; Fenselau, C.

Investigating the specificity of regulators of degradation of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon-based compounds using structure-activity relationships.

Microbial biosensors which have genes for bioluminescence coupled to genes that control hydrocarbon degradation pathways can be used as reporters on the specificity of regulation of those pathways. Structure-activity relationships can be used to discover what governs that specificity, and can also be used to separate compounds into different groups depending on mode of action. Published data for four different bioluminescent biosensors, reporting on toluene (two separate biosensors), isopropylbenzene, and octane, were analyzed to develop structure-activity relationships between biological response and physical/chemical properties.

An improved MR imaging technique for the visualization of myocardial infarction.

Purpose: To design a segmented inversion-recovery turbo fast low-angle shot (turboFLASH) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging pulse sequence for the visualization of myocardial infarction, compare this technique with other MR imaging approaches in a canine model of ischemic injury, and evaluate its utility in patients with coronary artery disease.

Materials And Methods: Six dogs and 18 patients were examined. In dogs, infarction was produced and images were acquired by using 10 different pulse sequences.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight analysis of Bacillus spores using a 2.94 microm infrared laser.

The performance of infrared (2.94 microm) and ultraviolet (337 nm) lasers were compared for analysis of purified spores of B. subtilis, B.

Decreased neural crest stem cell expansion is responsible for the conotruncal heart defects within the splotch (Sp(2H))/Pax3 mouse mutant.

Objective: Several mouse models of cardiac neural crest cell (NCC)-associated conotruncal heart defects exist, but the specific cellular and molecular defects within cardiac NCC morphogenesis remain largely unknown. Our objective was to investigate the underlying mechanisms resulting in outflow tract defects and why insufficient cardiac NCC reach the heart of the Splotch (Sp(2H)) mouse mutant embryo.

Methods: For this study we used in vitro cell culture techniques, in vivo mouse-chick chimeras, BrdU cell proliferation labeling, TUNEL labeling to visualize apoptosis and the molecular markers AP-2, Wnt-1 and Wnt-3a to characterize NCC morphogenesis in vivo.

Regulation of atrial natriuretic peptide gene expression in gastric antrum by fasting.

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) gene expression was localized in the rat gastric antrum using immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization to mucosal cells in the lower portion of the antropyloric glands. Colocalization of immunoreactive ANP, long-acting natriuretic peptide, i.e.

Distinct spatial and temporal distributions of aggrecan and versican in the embryonic chick heart.

Although chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) are major components of the embryonic extracellular matrix, little attention has been paid to specific CSPGs in early heart development, in part because appropriate antibodies were not available. Therefore we prepared specific polyclonal antibodies against chicken aggrecan, versican, neurocan, and phosphacan. Western blotting and immunohistochemical studies revealed the presence of aggrecan and versican in stages 12-21 chicken embryo hearts in distinctive spatial and temporal patterns.

Relationship of MRI delayed contrast enhancement to irreversible injury, infarct age, and contractile function.

Background: Contrast MRI enhancement patterns in several pathophysiologies resulting from ischemic myocardial injury are controversial or have not been investigated. We compared contrast enhancement in acute infarction (AI), after severe but reversible ischemic injury (RII), and in chronic infarction.

Methods And Results: In dogs, a large coronary artery was occluded to study AI and/or chronic infarction (n = 18), and a second coronary artery was chronically instrumented with a reversible hydraulic occluder and Doppler flowmeter to study RII (n = 8).

Sodium-calcium exchanger is initially expressed in a heart-restricted pattern within the early mouse embryo.

Although the sodium-calcium exchanger (NCX1) is encoded by a single gene, it is widely expressed in both fetal and adult tissues and functions in many diverse physiological processes to maintain intracellular calcium homeostasis. In order to determine whether NCX1 is also ubiquitously expressed in the early mouse embryo, in situ hybridization and RT-PCR were used to determine the spacio-temporal expression of NCX1. Our results indicate that NCX1 expression is present within the 7.

Identification of Bacillus spores by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-mass spectrometry.

Unique patterns of biomarkers were reproducibly characterized by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI)-mass spectrometry and were used to distinguish Bacillus species members from one another. Discrimination at the strain level was demonstrated for Bacillus cereus spores. Lipophilic biomarkers were invariant in Bacillus globigii spores produced in three different media and in B.

Roles for the winged helix transcription factors MF1 and MFH1 in cardiovascular development revealed by nonallelic noncomplementation of null alleles.

The murine Mf1 and Mfh1 genes have overlapping patterns of expression in the embryo and encode forkhead/winged helix transcription factors with virtually identical DNA binding domains. Previous studies have shown that Mfh1 null mutants have severe cardiovascular defects, including interruptions and coarctations of the aortic arch and ventricular septal defects (Iida et al., Development 124, 4627-4638, 1997).

Segmental expression of aggrecan in the non-segmented perinotochordal sheath underlies normal segmentation of the vertebral column.

The embryonic vertebral column is derived from the unsegmented axial mesenchyme surrounding the notochord, and its development and differentiation are influenced by the notochord. The role of cartilage in determining the ultimate pattern of the segmental skeleton has been well documented, but a gene whose segmental expression corresponds to the pattern of the developing skeleton has yet to be identified. We show that chick aggrecan is initially expressed within the entire length of the notochord, and as development proceeds, aggrecan expression becomes restricted to the surrounding perinotochordal sheath in a segmental pattern, mirroring the differentiated somite pattern.

The mammalian Tolloid-like 1 gene, Tll1, is necessary for normal septation and positioning of the heart.

Mammalian Tolloid-like 1 (mTLL-1) is an astacin-like metalloprotease, highly similar in domain structure to the morphogenetically important proteases bone morphogenetic protein-1 (BMP-1) and Drosophila Tolloid. To investigate possible roles for mTLL-1 in mammalian development, we have used gene targeting in ES cells to produce mice with a disrupted allele for the corresponding gene, Tll1. Homozygous mutants were embryonic lethal, with death at mid-gestation from cardiac failure and a unique constellation of developmental defects that were apparently confined solely to the heart.

Lectin-based affinity capture for MALDI-MS analysis of bacteria.

Immobilized lectins have now been incorporated into affinity surfaces that can be used to isolate broad classes of samples for mass spectrometric analysis. A carbohydrate and a bacterial species that displays the carbohydrate binding motif were isolated and concentrated out of solutions containing salt, urea, buffers, and other contaminants that are deleterious to MALDI mass spectrometry. Concanavalin A was immobilized to a gold foil via a self-assembled monolayer.

Efficacy and tolerability of cefprozil versus amoxicillin/clavulanate for the treatment of adults with severe sinusitis.

Cefprozil is a beta-lactamase-stable oral cephalosporin with an antimicrobial spectrum that includes gram-positive and gram-negative pathogens commonly associated with acute bacterial sinusitis, one of the most common upper respiratory tract infections among adults. We conducted a multicenter, open-label study to compare the efficacy and safety of cefprozil and amoxicillin/clavulanate in the treatment of adults with severe acute bacterial sinusitis diagnosed by clinical and radiographic criteria. A total of 278 patients entered the study, 140 (59 males, 81 females) in the cefprozil group and 138 (69 males, 69 females) in the amoxicillin/clavulanate group.