Intra-patient comparison of parietal pleural biopsies by rigid forceps, flexible forceps and cryoprobe obtained during medical thoracoscopy: a prospective series of 80 cases with pleural effusion.

Background: There is only few data available on the use of cryotechnique during medical thoracoscopy.

Methods: Medical thoracoscopy was performed in consecutive patients with pleural effusion. Prospectively, biopsies were taken by rigid forceps, flexible forceps and cryoprobe.

[Implementation of an early geriatric rehabilitation in acute inpatient pneumology].

Background: In order to counter the rapidly developing loss of function especially in elderly patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AE-COPD) the concept "early geriatric rehabilitation in acute inpatient pneumology" was developed. An essential aspect of the project was a targeted approach making use of multi-professional expertise and standards.

Methods: This 1-year feasibility study included a total of 58 patients with AE-COPD in advanced age (mean: 74.

Life as a cosmic imperative?

The origin of life on Earth may be divided into two stages separated by the first appearance of replicable molecules, most probably of RNA. The first stage depended exclusively on chemistry. The second stage likewise involved chemistry, but with the additional participation of selection, a necessary concomitant of inevitable replication accidents.

Local and systemic effects of angiotensin receptor blockade in an emphysema mouse model.

Objectives: COPD with emphysema causes marked neurohumoral activation. Angiotensin II receptors are highly expressed within the lung and interfere with mechanisms involved in the progression of emphysema. This study examined the effects of an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) on pulmonary and systemic manifestations of emphysema in a mouse model.

Chemistry and selection.

Life is the product of chemistry, which obeys deterministic laws, and of natural selection, which operates on variants offered to it by chance, but may, in a number of cases, have been provided with a sufficiently extensive array of variants to be optimizing. Thus, the origin and evolution of life have been largely shaped by the contingency of environmental conditions. The possibility remaining open for consideration is that certain critical conditions are sufficiently reproducible for life to arise and even to evolve into conscious, intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe.

The origin of eukaryotes: a reappraisal.

Ever since the elucidation of the main structural and functional features of eukaryotic cells and subsequent discovery of the endosymbiotic origin of mitochondria and plastids, two opposing hypotheses have been proposed to account for the origin of eukaryotic cells. One hypothesis postulates that the main features of these cells, including their ability to capture food by endocytosis and to digest it intracellularly, were developed first, and later had a key role in the adoption of endosymbionts; the other proposes that the transformation was triggered by an interaction between two typical prokaryotic cells, one of which became the host and the other the endosymbiont. Re-examination of this question in the light of cell-biological and phylogenetic data leads to the conclusion that the first model is more likely to be the correct one.

The lysosome turns fifty.

In the course of an investigation aimed at characterizing hepatic glucose 6-phosphatase, the unrelated acid phosphatase of rat liver was serendipitously observed to be latent and particle-bound in freshly prepared homogenates. Experiments designed to elucidate this intriguing finding led, 50 years ago, to the discovery of lysosomes. This could not have happened if strict adherence to a previously set programme had been mandatory.

A research proposal on the origin of life.

This paper describes some experiments the author would have liked to carry out if he had started earlier in the origin-of-life field. The proposal is preceded by a hypothetical outline of the main events in the origin of life. According to this outline, the emergence of life amounts to the transition between two kinds of chemistry: 1) cosmic chemistry, which is beginning to be understood and most likely provided the building blocks with which life was first constructed; and 2) biochemistry, the well-known set of enzyme-catalyzed metabolic reactions that support all living organisms today and must have supported the universal common ancestor, or LUCA, from which all known forms of life are derived.

Two-dimensional life?

A model [Wächtershäuser, G. (1988) Microbiol. Rev.