Antinociceptive synergy, additivity, and subadditivity with combinations of oral glucosamine plus nonopioid analgesics in mice.

Glucosamine (2-amino-2-deoxy-d-glucose) and glucosamine-containing products have been reported to have efficacy in the treatment of various musculoskeletal disorders. Glucosamine's efficacy, including reduction of pain, is attributed to disease-modifying properties, specifically to cartilage-rebuilding associated with modulation of interleukin-1-induced activation of chondrocytes and to inhibition of proinflammatory effects of the nuclear factor-kappaB pathway. However, glucosamine has not been shown to have direct analgesic activity.

Renal dysfunction and prolonged visceral ischaemia increase mortality rate after suprarenal aneurysm repair.

Background: Elective juxtarenal abdominal aneurysm repair has a significantly lower mortality rate than suprarenal repair. Identification of factors affecting outcome may lead to a reduction in mortality rate for suprarenal repair.

Methods: Data were collected prospectively between 1993 and 2000 for 130 patients who underwent type IV thoracoabdominal aneurysm (TAA) repair and 44 patients who had juxtarenal aneurysm (JRA) repair.

NMDA receptors modulate morphine-induced hyperthermia.

An accumulating body of evidence indicates that activation of NMDA receptor complexes modulates a number of morphine-induced responses. Because a single injection of morphine increases extracellular glutamate levels and downregulates NMDA receptors, acute morphine appears to increase glutamatergic transmission. On the basis of those data and the fact that morphine and glutamate induce hyperthermia, we investigated whether NMDA receptors modulate the hyperthermic effects of acute morphine in male Sprague-Dawley rats.

Germination of spores of Bacillus subtilis with dodecylamine.

Aims: To determine the properties of Bacillus subtilis spores germinated with the alkylamine dodecylamine, and the mechanism of dodecylamine-induced spore germination.

Methods And Results: Spores of B. subtilis prepared in liquid medium were germinated efficiently by dodecylamine, while spores prepared on solid medium germinated more poorly with this agent.

Annexin I is an endogenous ligand that mediates apoptotic cell engulfment.

Engulfment of apoptotic cells requires presentation of new cell surface ligands by the dying cells. Using a differential proteomics technology, we identify that annexin I is a caspase-dependent engulfment ligand; it is recruited from the cytosol and exported to the outer plasma membrane leaflet, colocalizes with phosphatidylserine, and is required for efficient clearance of apoptotic cells. Furthermore, phosphatidylserine receptor (PSR) clustering around apoptotic cells indicates a requirement for annexin I.

Buprenorphine: new pharmacological aspects.

Buprenorphine is an opioid analgesic, derived from thebaine. Buprenorphine was initially classified as a "mixed agonist-antagonist analgesic" or a narcotic antagonist analgesic. The work of Martin et al (1976) on the animal model of the chronic spinal dog substantiated the substance's action as partial agonist at the mu-opioid receptor.

A soluble protein is immobile in dormant spores of Bacillus subtilis but is mobile in germinated spores: implications for spore dormancy.

Fluorescence redistribution after photobleaching has been used to show that a cytoplasmic GFP fusion is immobile in dormant spores of Bacillus subtilis but becomes freely mobile in germinated spores in which cytoplasmic water content has increased approximately 2-fold. The GFP immobility in dormant spores is not due to the high levels of dipicolinic acid in the spore cytoplasm, because GFP was also immobile in germinated cwlD spores that had excreted their dipicolinic acid but where cytoplasmic water content had only increased to a level similar to that in dormant spores of several other Bacillus species. The immobility of a normally mobile protein in dormant wild-type spores and germinated cwlD spores is consistent with the lack of metabolism and enzymatic activity in these spores and suggests that protein immobility, presumably due to low water content, is a major reason for the metabolic dormancy of spores of Bacillus species.

Primary care pediatrician knowledge of nutritional rickets.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine primary care pediatricians' level of awareness in the diagnosis and management of rickets. The information will be useful in assessing the need for provider education related to appropriate advice regarding vitamin D supplementation for infants.

Study Design: A one-page questionnaire was sent to a sample of 510 pediatricians in states surrounding the Great Lakes.

In vitro and in vivo antitumor properties of the cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor CYC202 (R-roscovitine).

CDK2 inhibitors have been proposed as effective anti-cancer therapeutics. We show here that CYC202 (R-roscovitine) is a potent inhibitor of recombinant CDK2/cyclin E kinase activity (IC(50) = 0.10 microM) with an average cytotoxic IC(50) of 15.

Antipruritic and antihyperalgesic actions of loperamide and analogs.

Loperamide and three of its analogs were evaluated for their ability to inhibit binding to cloned human opioid receptor subtypes and to produce antipruritus and antinociception following local s.c. administration to rodents.

N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonists and WIN 55212-2 [4,5-dihydro-2-methyl-4(4-morpholinylmethyl)-1-(1-naphthalenyl-carbonyl)-6H-pyrrolo[3,2,1-i,j]quinolin-6-one], a cannabinoid agonist, interact to produce synergistic hypothermia.

CB(1) cannabinoid receptors mediate profound hypothermia when cannabinoid agonists are administered to rats. Glutamate, the principal excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (CNS), is thought to tonically increase body temperature by activating N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Because NMDA antagonists block cannabinoid-induced antinociception and catalepsy, intimate glutamatergic-cannabinoid interactions may exist in the CNS.

A practice-based, randomized, controlled clinical trial of a new resin composite restorative: one-year results.

This study evaluated the performance of a low-shrinking resin composite compared with an amalgam for restoration of Class I and II cavities of moderate size in posterior teeth in a general practice setting. Fifty-two pairs of test and control restorations were placed in 49 patients. Clinical evaluations and assessments of replica models were carried out at baseline, six months and one year.

Peptide inhibitors of CDK2-cyclin A that target the cyclin recruitment-site: structural variants of the C-terminal Phe.

A focused series of octapeptides based on the lead compound H-His-Ala-Lys-Arg-Arg-Leu-Ile-Phe-NH(2) 1, in which the C-terminal phenylalanine residue was replaced by alpha and/or beta-modified variants, was synthesized using solid-phase chemistry. Both the L-threo-beta-hydroxy-phenylalanine (beta-phenylserine, Pse) and (2S)-phenylalaninol derivatives, as competitive binders at the cyclin-recruitment site, displayed potent inhibitory activity towards the CDK2-cyclin A complex. Unexpectedly, the D-threo-Pse derivatives also showed inhibitory activity.

Single millimeter wave treatment does not impair gastrointestinal transit in mice.

Millimeter wave treatment (MWT) is based on those biological effects that develop following skin exposure to low power electromagnetic waves. This method of treatment is in wide clinical use in several Eastern European countries for treatment of a variety of conditions, including pain syndromes. However, most treatment modes of MWT were developed empirically, and certain indications and contraindications for the use of MWT remain to be established.

Studies on the mechanism of killing of Bacillus subtilis spores by hydrogen peroxide.

Aims: To determine the mechanism of killing of Bacillus subtilis spores by hydrogen peroxide.

Methods And Results: Killing of spores of B. subtilis with hydrogen peroxide caused no release of dipicolinic acid (DPA) and hydrogen peroxide-killed spores were not appreciably sensitized for DPA release upon a subsequent heat treatment.

Reciprocal regulation by estradiol 17-beta of ezrin and cadherin-catenin complexes in pituitary GH3 cells.

The antiestrogen, ICI 182780, and estradiol-17beta (E2) regulate cadherin-mediated cell adhesion in pituitary GH3 cells. Using a cDNA expression array to screen for E2-regulated genes that are associated with the cytoskeleton, we observed that E2 stimulated ezrin gene expression and confirmed that ezrin gene expression is regulated pretranslationally by ICI 182780 versus E2. E2 increased ezrin protein levels in whole-cell lysates and in the cytoskeletal-associated, detergent-insoluble fraction.

Abrupt or precipitated withdrawal from morphine induces immunosuppression.

The present studies tested the effect of withdrawal from morphine by two different paradigms, abrupt withdrawal (AW) or precipitated withdrawal (PW), on the capacity of murine spleen cells to mount an in vitro antibody response. Mice were made dependent by chronic treatment using s.c.

Characterization of the pharmacokinetics of buprenorphine and norbuprenorphine in rats after intravenous bolus administration of buprenorphine.

The purpose of this project was to characterize the dose-dependent pharmacokinetics of buprenorphine (BN) and norbuprenorphine (NBN), the primary metabolite, after intravenous administration of different doses of BN to rats. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups and received a single intravenous bolus dose of 0.1, 0.

Mechanisms of killing spores of Bacillus subtilis by acid, alkali and ethanol.

Aims: To determine the mechanisms of killing of Bacillus subtilis spores by ethanol or strong acid or alkali.

Methods And Results: Killing of B. subtilis spores by ethanol or strong acid or alkali was not through DNA damage and the spore coats did not protect spores against these agents.

A technique for the removal of restoration overhangs and finishing and polishing of restoration and preparation margins.

Restorations with marginal overhangs are frequently associated with localized periodontal defects. Access to overcontoured approximal margins of restorations can be difficult to obtain, however. A system featuring a multidirectional handpiece is an effective and efficient means of contouring, finishing, and polishing restoration surfaces and margins.

A three-year evaluation of restorations placed with a smear-layer-mediated dentin bonding agent in non-carious cervical lesions.

Purpose: To evaluate the handling characteristics, clinical behavior, and effectiveness of Coltene ART Bond/Brilliant restorations in mixed Class V preparations in maxillary premolar and canine teeth of adult patients over a three-year period.

Materials And Methods: Single-center, uncontrolled, clinical evaluation of 50 restorations in 26 patients extending over 36 months.

Results: At three years, 34 restorations, or 68% of those originally placed, in 20 patients were available for review.

Analgesic and toxic effects of neonicotinoid insecticides in mice.

Several nicotinic agonists with the 6-chloro-3-pyridinyl moiety are potent insecticides (e.g., the neonicotinoids imidacloprid and thiacloprid) while others are candidate nonopioid and nonantiinflammatory analgesics (i.