Lost for words or loss of memories? Autobiographical memory in semantic dementia.

Recent reports have suggested that patients with semantic dementia show a loss of early (remote) auto-biographical memories with pronounced sparing of recent memories (Graham & Hodges, 1997; Snowden, Griffiths, & Neary, 1996), i.e., a 'reversed' temporal gradient or 'Ribot effect'.

Diagnosis of complete mainstem bronchus avulsion by 3-dimensional spiral CT scan of the chest.

Tracheobronchial injury (TBI) after blunt trauma of the chest is a rare life-threatening entity that can be successfully managed by surgery if there is an early diagnosis. A 18-year-old man was injured in a motocycle accident. Three consecutive flexible bronchoscopies risulted negative for tracheo-bronchial lesions.

Unsuspected ileal stenosis causing obscure GI bleeding in patients with previous abdominal surgery--diagnosis by capsule endoscopy: a report of two cases.

Peri-anastomotic ulcerations may occur in patients with previous abdominal surgery. They may present only with obscure GI bleeding. We report two cases in whom capsule endoscopy identified postsurgical stenoses with ulcers as the cause of obscure GI bleeding.

Gene electro-transfer improves transduction by modifying the fate of intramuscular DNA.

Background: Intramuscular gene delivery through injection of plasmid DNA has long been considered a promising approach for safe and simple in vivo gene expression for vaccination and gene therapy purposes. Recently, intramuscular gene delivery has been improved by applying low-voltage electric pulses after plasmid injection, a procedure that has been variably called gene electro-transfer, in vivo electroporation or electrical stimulation. Different types of electrical treatments have been used with excellent results both in terms of transgene expression levels and immunization outcome.

Transesophageal atrial pacing in the management of re-entry supraventricular tachyarrhythmias occurring during general anesthesia.

Background: Supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (SVTs) represent an intraoperative risk factor that should be always prevented/managed. The commonly used anti-arrhythmic drugs are accompanied by intrinsic hazards, such as pro-arrhythmic and toxic effects or unpredictable onset and duration of action. We underline the therapeutic use of transesophageal atrial pacing (TAP) for the interruption of particular re-entry SVTs occurred during surgical procedures in general anaesthesia.

Why semantic dementia drives you to the dogs (but not to the horses): A theoretical account.

This paper describes a patient (IH) with semantic dementia and severe impairment in all semantic categories except for numerical knowledge, which was preserved. IH showed a severe deficit in reading and writing non-number words (e.g.

Spared numerical abilities in a case of semantic dementia.

We report a case study of a patient (IH) with a progressive impairment of semantic memory affecting all categories of knowledge apart from numbers. Pictorial material was better understood than words, but was still severely impaired. The selective preservation of nearly all aspects of numerical knowledge suggested that this domain might have different neuropsychological status from other aspects of semantic memory.

Category specificity in reading and writing: the case of number words.

In standard models, word meanings contribute to reading words aloud and writing them to dictation. It is known that categories of knowledge and the associated word meanings can be spared or impaired selectively, but it has not been possible to demonstrate that category-specific effects apply to reading and writing. Here we report the case of a neurodegenerative patient with selectively spared numerical abilities whose brain damage left him able to read and write only number words.

Gene electrotransfer results in a high-level transduction of rat skeletal muscle and corrects anemia of renal failure.

We have investigated the efficacy of a gene transfer strategy based on plasmid DNA electroinjection for the correction of anemia associated with renal failure. An expression plasmid encoding the rat erythropoietin (EPO) cDNA under the control of the CMV promoter as constructed and utilized for this work. Electroinjection of pCMV/rEPO in different rat muscles yielded sustained and long-term EPO production and secretion.

Esophagobronchial fistula after thoracoscopic resection of an epiphrenic diverticulum.

We report a case of a 54-year-old man presenting with recurrent epiphrenic diverticulum and esophagobronchial fistula 3 years after thoracoscopic diverticulectomy. Surgical correction required transhiatal stapling of the pouch combined with distal esophageal myotomy and Dor fundoplication.

[Prognostic criteria in ruptured aneurysm of the abdominal aorta].

A logistic regression analysis of risk factors affecting the mortality on 69 cases of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (RAAA), treated between 1988-1996, has been carried out. Mortality was 33.3%.

Efficient and regulated erythropoietin production by naked DNA injection and muscle electroporation.

We show that an electric treatment in the form of high-frequency, low-voltage electric pulses can increase more than 100-fold the production and secretion of a recombinant protein from mouse skeletal muscle. Therapeutical erythopoietin (EPO) levels were achieved in mice with a single injection of as little as 1 microgram of plasmid DNA, and the increase in hematocrit after EPO production was stable and long-lasting. Pharmacological regulation through a tetracycline-inducible promoter allowed regulation of serum EPO and hematocrit levels.

Development of animal models for adeno-associated virus site-specific integration.

The adeno-associated virus (AAV) is unique in its ability to target viral DNA integration to a defined region of human chromosome 19 (AAVS1). Since AAVS1 sequences are not conserved in a rodent's genome, no animal model is currently available to study AAV-mediated site-specific integration. We describe here the generation of transgenic rats and mice that carry the AAVS1 3.

Impaired Stat3 activation following localized inflammatory stimulus in IL-6-deficient mice.

Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and related gp130-signalling cytokines rapidly activate latent cytoplasmic Stat transcription factors and these are believed to play pivotal roles in the expression of downstream cytokine-responsive genes. We have previously shown in IL-6-deficient (-/-) mice that IL-6 is absolutely required for the transcriptional induction of acute phase response (APR) genes in the liver following localized tissue damage caused by subcutaneous injection of turpentine oil, but is not required when the inflammatory stimulus is administered systemically by intraperitoneal injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In this paper we show that Stat3 is the only Stat factor induced in liver tissue upon localized inflammatory stimuli, and that its activation is virtually absent in IL-6 deficient mice.

[The use of mesh in abdominal wall defects].

Today abdominal wall defect repair can't prescind from the use of prosthetic materials. Inguinal, femoral and incisional hernias represent more frequent events in which, only using prosthetic materials is it possible to perform "tension-free" repair. Prosthetic repairs "agree with" abdominal, wall physio-pathology, guarantee results and prevent recurrences.

Defective development of pristane-oil-induced plasmacytomas in interleukin-6-deficient BALB/c mice.

Interleukin (IL)-6 is known to be an essential growth factor for myeloma cells, both in vitro and in vivo. In mice, IL-6 is required for development of B cell tumors upon infection with a retrovirus expressing the myc/raf oncogenes. In the present study, we used the pristane-oil-induced plasmacytoma model, which more closely mimics tumor transformation and progression in human multiple myeloma.

The grammatical properties of mass nouns: an aphasia case study.

A patient (F.A.) is described who, as a consequence of brain damage, shows an isolated deficit concerning the use, across a series of tasks, of the grammatical properties of mass/non-countable nouns.

Inactivation of the IL-6 gene prevents development of multicentric Castleman's disease in C/EBP beta-deficient mice.

Castleman's disease is a lymphoproliferative disorder thought to be related to deregulated production of IL-6. We have previously shown that mice lacking the trans-acting factor C/EBP beta, a transcriptional regulator of IL-6 and a mediator of IL-6 intracellular signaling, develop a pathology nearly identical to multicentric Castleman's disease, together with increasingly high levels of circulating IL-6. We describe here how the simultaneous inactivation of both IL-6 and C/EBP beta genes prevents the development of pathological traits of Castleman's disease observed in C/EBP beta-deficient mice.

Six different cytokines that share GP130 as a receptor subunit, induce serum amyloid A and potentiate the induction of interleukin-6 and the activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis by interleukin-1.

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) potentiate the elevation of serum corticosterone induced by suboptimal doses of interleukin-1 (IL-1). CNTF also potentiates IL-1-induced serum IL-6. Here, we report that four other cytokines (leukemia inhibitory factor [LIF], oncostatin M [OSM], interleukin-11 and cardiotrophin-1) also potentiated the elevation of serum corticosterone and IL-6 levels induced by IL-1.

C/EBPbeta is required for the late phases of acute phase genes induction in the liver and for tumour necrosis factor-alpha, but not Interleukin-6, regulation.

C/EBPbeta is a leucine-zipper transcription factor believed to play an important role in the control of liver functions, and in particular in the transcriptional regulation of acute phase genes in response to several inflammatory stimuli and to recombinant cytokines. Moreover, this factor has been proposed as an important activator of several cytokine genes. We recently described the generation of mice in which the C/EBPbeta gene has been inactivated by gene targeting, showing that they are viable, but present specific defects in the myeloid and lymphoid compartments.

Defective inflammatory response in interleukin 6-deficient mice.

Systemic and localized inflammation elicit a number of host responses which include fever, cachexia, hypoglycemia, and major changes in the concentration of liver plasma proteins. Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is considered an important mediator of the inflammatory response, together with IL-1 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha). The purpose of this study was to unequivocally determine the role of IL-6 in these phenomena making use of IL-6-deficient mice that we have recently generated by gene targeting.