Neuropsychiatric aspects of concussion.

Over the past decade, concussion has become the most widely discussed injury in contact sports. However, concussions also occur in several other settings, such as non-contact sports, elderly individuals, young children, military personnel, and victims of domestic violence. Concussion is frequently undiagnosed as a cause of psychiatric morbidity, especially when the patient has no history of loss of consciousness or direct head trauma.

Psychopharmacologic Management in Integrated Care: Challenges for Residency Education.

The integration of psychiatric care in primary care is becoming a reality. Psychiatric training programs are facing multiple challenges to accommodate this transition. We here present the perspectives of Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Committee on Psychopharmacology.

The importance of understanding the psychological meaning of Angelina Jolie's surgery.

The recent announcement by the high profile actress, Angelina Jolie, that she had had a preventive double mastectomy because she had a high genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancer will lead other women who are at risk to consider similar operations. Psychiatrists and other physicians are likely to be asked to advise women concerning this decision. This column discusses the psychological impact of mastectomy and breast reconstruction for women and encourages clinicians to have an empathic and understanding attitude and allow patients to talk openly about their fears, doubts, concerns about sexual intimacy, and other issues.

Surface proteome analysis of a natural isolate of Lactococcus lactis reveals the presence of pili able to bind human intestinal epithelial cells.

Surface proteins of Gram-positive bacteria play crucial roles in bacterial adhesion to host tissues. Regarding commensal or probiotic bacteria, adhesion to intestinal mucosa may promote their persistence in the gastro-intestinal tract and their beneficial effects to the host. In this study, seven Lactococcus lactis strains exhibiting variable surface physico-chemical properties were compared for their adhesion to Caco-2 intestinal epithelial cells.

Low efficiency of homology-facilitated illegitimate recombination during conjugation in Escherichia coli.

Homology-facilitated illegitimate recombination has been described in three naturally competent bacterial species. It permits integration of small linear DNA molecules into the chromosome by homologous recombination at one end of the linear DNA substrate, and illegitimate recombination at the other end. We report that homology-facilitated illegitimate recombination also occurs in Escherichia coli during conjugation with small non-replicative plasmids, but at a low frequency of 3×10(-10) per recipient cell.

Hypermethylation of the progesterone receptor A in constitutive antiprogestin-resistant mouse mammary carcinomas.

Most breast carcinomas that are estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) positive respond initially to an endocrine therapy, but over time, they develop resistance (acquired hormone resistance). Others, however, fail to respond from the beginning (constitutive resistance). Overcoming hormone resistance is one of the major desirable aims in breast cancer treatment.

Teaching psychodynamic psychotherapy in the 21st century.

Special challenges face the 21st century teacher of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Time for careful psychodynamic reflection, of necessity, competes for space with the current explosion of psychiatric knowledge in psychopharmacology, genetics, health care policy and multiple other agendas. Thus educators must be clear about the goals of psychodynamic psychotherapy, engage students in the special interviewing techniques to elicit sensitive information and appreciate the special needs of today's physicians launching into this field.

Effects of antiprogestins RU486 and ZK98299 on the expression of cell cycle proteins of a medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA)-induced murine mammary tumor.

This study links the tumor inhibitory effect of anti-progestins RU486 and ZK98299 to the expression of cell cycle proteins. Medroxyprogesterone acetate-induced ductal mammary adenocarcinoma-bearing female BALB/c mice were treated daily either with RU486 or ZK98299, observing tumor growth retardation. p21 increased after 24 h treatment, peaked at day 4 and returned to control levels at day 7.

Differential expression of and responsiveness to transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) isoforms in hormone-dependent and independent lines of mouse mammary tumors.

Transforming growth factor-beta2 (TGF-beta2) and -beta3 mRNA expressions were studied in ductal hormone-dependent (HD) and -independent (HI) in vivo lines of the medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA)-induced mammary tumor model in Balb/c mice. MPA treatment of HD tumors induced a significant decrease in TGF-beta2 and -beta3 mRNA levels. Progression to an HI phenotype of ductal tumors was associated with reduced TGF-beta2 and -beta3 expressions, as compared with their HD counterparts.

Prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha) triggers protein kinase C (PKC) and tyrosine kinase activity in cultured mammalian cells.

Prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha) added to confluent resting Swiss 3T3 cells triggers tyrosine kinase (PTK) activation characterized by the phosphorylation of a set of 75, 86, 110 and 140 kD proteins. PGF2 alpha induces this event independently of PKC activation. However, both PKC and PTK activities appear to act concertedly to cause mitogenesis.

A mitogenic and hormonal signalling network regulate mammalian cell division commitment time.

A basic property of mammalian cells is to retain the mitogenically induced "commitment" to undergo DNA replication even in the absence of stimuli. Recent findings on PGF2 alpha and hormone-induced Swiss 3T3 cell multiplication, reveal that this crucial cell cycle event can be regulated by several signalling mechanisms.

Mevalonate dependency of the early cell cycle mitogenic response to epidermal growth factor and prostaglandin F2 alpha in Swiss mouse 3T3 cells.

Lovastatin (LOV), a hydroxy-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMGCoA) reductase competitive inhibitor, blocks epidermal growth factor (EGF)- or prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha)-induced mitogenesis in confluent resting Swiss 3T3 cells. This inhibition occurs even in the presence of insulin, which potentiates the action of these mitogens in such cells. LOV exerts its effect in a 2-80 microM concentration range, with both mitogens attaining 50% inhibition at 7.

Transforming growth factor beta 1, insulin and prostaglandin E1 enhance prostaglandin F2 alpha mitogenic action in Swiss 3T3 cells via separate events.

Transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF beta 1) had no mitogenic effect in Swiss 3T3 cells, but could increase prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha)-induced DNA synthesis. Insulin, but not prostaglandin E1 (PGE1), further enhanced PGF2 alpha action at low TGF beta 1 concentrations. TGF beta 1 also acted concertedly with the protein kinase C (PKC) activator 1-oleoyl-2-acetylglycerol to induce mitogenesis.

[Recurrence of nasosinusal polyposis after ethmoidectomy by endonasal approach. Functional, endoscopic, x-ray tomographic aspects and surgical implications].

Recurrent polyposis after 116 endonasal ethmoidectomies performed in 61 patients were investigated on the basis of functional, endoscopic and tomodensitometric data. The results of the endoscopic examinations revealed that the anterior ethmoid was involved most often (41%) with either a single localization or in combination with other sites in the sinuses. Functional rhinosinus symptomatology was satisfactory in most cases after a mean follow-up of 22 months, especially for nasal obstruction which was initially predominant (91%).