[Clinical case of the month. A recurrent chylothorax in Bourneville tuberous sclerosis].

Bourneville's disease, first described in 1862, is a phacomatosis that is either autosomal dominant or sporadic. Its typical clinical signs include mental retardation, epilepsy and cutaneous adenomas. The pulmonary form is rare, less than 1%, and is secondary to occlusion of the bronchus, vascular and lymphatics by immature smooth muscle cells.

Brusatol-mediated induction of leukemic cell differentiation and G(1) arrest is associated with down-regulation of c-myc.

Employing the natural product quassinoid brusatol, we currently report cellular and molecular events leading to cell death or terminal differentiation in a panel of leukemic cells. Brusatol and bruceantin exerted significant cytotoxic effects with several leukemic cell lines, but not with K562 or normal lymphocytic cells. Cell lines that were less sensitive to the cytotoxic effects of brusatol responded primarily through induction of terminal differentiation.

Estimation of mercury vapor flux from natural substrate in Nevada.

The contribution of mercury to the atmosphere from natural sources is not well-quantified, particularly at the regional scale. This modeling study employed a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach to estimate mercury flux from substrate in Nevada, which lies within one of the global belts of geologic Hg enrichment. In situ mercury flux measurements were taken from a variety of substrate types with a wide range of mercury concentrations.

Review and discussion of the complications of minimally invasive pectus excavatum repair.

Purpose: To review and discuss the complications of minimally invasive pectus excavatum repair.

Methods: 329 patients underwent minimally invasive pectus repair between January 1987 and August 2000, including 14 patients who recurred after previous Ravitch repairs, 10 failed Nuss repairs (eight done elsewhere) and two failed Leonard repairs. All patients received antibiotics and vigorous incentive spirometry to prevent atelectasis, pneumonia and bar infection.

Signals that instruct somite and myotome formation persist in Xenopus laevis early tailbud stage embryos.

Somite formation is a lengthy process that begins at gastrulation and continues through tailbud stages to form approximately 50 pairs of somites in the frog, Xenopus laevis. In Xenopus, the somite primarily gives rise to myotome. We sought to determine whether the formation of somites and myotome requires a transient signal active during gastrulation or a constitutive signal active throughout development to instruct dorsal mesodermal cells to form the posterior somites.

Inhibition of nuclear import and alteration of nuclear pore complex composition by rhinovirus.

Nucleocytoplasmic trafficking pathways and the status of nuclear pore complex (NPC) components were examined in cells infected with rhinovirus type 14. A variety of shuttling and nonshuttling nuclear proteins, using multiple nuclear import pathways, accumulated in the cytoplasm of cells infected with rhinovirus. An in vitro nuclear import assay with semipermeabilized infected cells confirmed that nuclear import was inhibited and that docking of nuclear import receptor-cargo complexes at the cytoplasmic face of the NPC was prevented in rhinovirus-infected cells.

Scaling of atmospheric mercury emissions from three naturally enriched areas: Flowery Peak, Nevada; Peavine Peak, Nevada; and Long Valley Caldera, California.

With the development of analytical capabilities that allow for almost real time measurement of mercury concentrations in air, the fluxes of mercury between environment compartments is being more carefully scrutinized. Recent advances have demonstrated that the mercury cycle is much more complicated than previously realized. This study quantified the mercury emissions from three areas with low levels of mercury enrichment associated with precious and base metal mineralization and recent volcanic/geothermal activity.

Blood oxygen binding in hypoxaemic calves.

Blood oxygen transport and tissue oxygenation were studied in 28 calves from the Belgian White and Blue breed (20 healthy and 8 hypoxaemic ones). Hypoxaemic calves were selected according to their high respiratory frequency and to their low partial oxygen pressure (PaO2) in the arterial blood. Venous and arterial blood samples were collected, and 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, adenosine triphosphate, chloride, inorganic phosphate and hemoglobin concentrations, and pH, PCO, and PO2 were determined.

An NMR method for assigning relative stereochemistry to beta-hydroxy ketones deriving from aldol reactions of methyl ketones.

We describe a simple 1H NMR analysis that permits the stereochemistry of beta-hydroxy ketones to be assigned by visual inspection of the ABX patterns for the alpha-methylene unit of the beta-hydroxy ketone in the 1H NMR spectra. This method has been verified by application to a wide range of beta-hydroxy ketones deriving from aldol reactions of chiral aldehydes with a variety of chiral and achiral methyl ketone enolates (see Tables 1 and 2). The stereochemistry of 54 of these compounds have been assigned by rigorous chemical methods.

Traumatic false aneurysm of the middle meningeal artery causing an intracerebral hemorrhage: case report and literature review.

Background: Traumatic false aneurysms of the meningeal arteries are rare. We report an unusual case of an intracerebral hematoma caused by the rupture of a traumatic aneurysm of the middle meningeal artery.

Case Description: A 64-year-old woman suffered a massive spontaneous intracerebral fronto-temporal hemorrhage.

Application of molecular biology studies to gene therapy treatment strategies.

The diagnosis of pancreatic cancer continues to produce fear in both patients and practitioners in large part owing to the likely incurability in all for whom the diagnosis is made. It is this reality that continually motivates the surgical and medical oncologists who endeavor to treat these patients. Currently, the cure rate for pancreatic cancer has improved only minimally, and the overall survival of patients remains dismal, with fewer than 5% of patients alive at 5 years and 92% of these patients dead at 2 years.

Investigation of effects of trifluoroacetate on vernal pool ecosystems.

Trifluoroacetate (CH3COO-, TFA) is a breakdown product of hydrochlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons and is released by the heating of Teflon products. Because of its chemical properties, concentrations in evaporative wetlands are predicted to increase with time. This study focused on assessing the impact of this haloacetic acid on vernal pool soil microbial communities as well as vernal pool and wetland plant species.

The Drosophila inebriated-encoded neurotransmitter/osmolyte transporter: dual roles in the control of neuronal excitability and the osmotic stress response.

Water reabsorption by organs such as the mammalian kidney and insect Malpighian tubule/hindgut requires a region of hypertonicity within the organ. To balance the high extracellular osmolarity, cells within these regions accumulate small organic molecules called osmolytes. These osmolytes can accumulate to a high level without toxic effects on cellular processes.

Quantitation of cytosine deaminase mRNA by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction: a sensitive method for assessing 5-fluorocytosine toxicity in vitro.

Cytosine deaminase/5-fluorocytosine (CD/5-FC) is a promising strategy for local cancer gene therapy. We hypothesized that CD expression within tumor cells would be directly related to efficacy and that quantitation of markers of CD expression such as mRNA, protein, and enzyme activity would therefore facilitate prediction of 5-FC toxicity. These three markers were thus quantitated by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (Q-RT-PCR), semiquantitative immunocytochemistry (ICC), and 5-[(3)H]FC enzyme assay, respectively.

Antiproliferative effect of octreotide in somatotroph pituitary adenomas: discussion from a single case report.

The case of a 20-year-old man presenting with a rapidly expanding pituitary somatotrophic adenoma with a tumour volume doubling time of 426 days is reported. Preoperative octreotide therapy induced a 45% tumour shrinkage and proliferating cells were absent at the time of tumoural resection. The correlation between clinical and proliferation markers data in this single case report affords an opportunity to discuss the antitumoral effect of octreotide on somatotrophic adenomas which may result from a suppression of cell proliferation.

Beat-to-beat stroke volume estimation from aortic pressure waveform in conscious rats: comparison of models.

Several methods for estimating stroke volume (SV) were tested in conscious, freely moving rats in which ascending aortic pressure and cardiac flow were simultaneously (beat-to-beat) recorded. We compared two pulse-contour models to two new statistical models including eight parameters extracted from the pressure waveform in a multiple linear regression. Global as well as individual statistical models gave higher correlation coefficients between estimated and measured SV (model 1, r = 0.

Role of bradykinin and tachykinins in the potentiation by enalapril of coughing induced by citric acid in pigs.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are among the first-choice drugs for treating hypertension and congestive heart disease. It has been reported, however, that these drugs could induce chronic cough and airway hyperresponsiveness. The aim of this work was to assess in pigs the effects of bradykinin and tachykinins on citric-acid-induced coughing after ACE inhibitor pretreatment.

Effects of 8-epi-PGF2alpha on isolated bronchial smooth muscle of healthy and heaves-affected horses.

8-Epi-PGF2alpha, a prostaglandin-like compound generated by oxidative stress, has been shown to be an in vitro bronchoconstrictor in airways from healthy laboratory animals and healthy humans, but it has never been studied in diseased airways. Here, the bronchoconstrictive capacity of 8-epi-PGF2alpha on isolated bronchial rings (BR) of healthy and heaves-affected horses was evaluated by comparing the maximal effect and the potency of 8-epi-PGF2alpha to those of (1) acetylcholine (ACh), (2) its stereoisomer PGF2alpha and (3) its synthetic receptor agonist, U46619. Furthermore, the potential capacity of 8-epi-PGF2alpha to enhance the cholinergic (ACh) responsiveness of bronchial smooth muscle was investigated.

Expression, crystallization and derivatization of the complete extracellular domain of the beta(c) subunit of the human IL-5, IL-3 and GM-CSF receptors.

The major signalling entity of the receptors for the haemopoietic cytokines granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-3 (IL-3) and interleukin-5 (IL-5) is the shared beta(c) receptor, which is activated by ligand-specific alpha receptors. The beta(c) subunit is a stable homodimer whose extracellular region consists of four fibronectin domains and appears to be a duplication of the cytokine receptor homology module. No four domain structure has been determined for this receptor family and the structure of the beta(c) subunit remains unknown.

The PTEN tumor suppressor protein inhibits tumor necrosis factor-induced nuclear factor kappa B activity.

Nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) transcriptionally activates genes that promote immunity and cell survival. Activation of NF-kappaB is induced by an IkappaB kinase (IKK) complex that phosphorylates and promotes dissociation of IkappaB from NF-kappaB, which then translocates into the nucleus. Activation of phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase/Akt signaling by tumor necrosis factor (TNF) activates IKK and NF-kappaB.

Blood oxygen binding in calves with naturally occurring diarrhea.

Objective: To assess blood oxygen binding in calves with diarrhea.

Animals: 22 dairy and 26 double-muscled calves with diarrhea, 31 healthy dairy calves and 37 healthy double-muscled calves.

Procedure: Severity of disease, including the ability of affected calves to stand, was evaluated.

Effect of convection on osteoblastic cell growth and function in biodegradable polymer foam scaffolds.

Culture of seeded osteoblastic cells in three-dimensional osteoconductive scaffolds in vitro is a promising approach to produce an osteoinductive material for repair of bone defects. However, culture of cells in scaffolds sufficiently large to bridge critical-sized defects is a challenge for tissue engineers. Diffusion may not be sufficient to supply nutrients into large scaffolds and consequently cells may grow preferentially at the periphery under static culture conditions.

A phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt/mTOR pathway mediates and PTEN antagonizes tumor necrosis factor inhibition of insulin signaling through insulin receptor substrate-1.

Tyrosine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) by the insulin receptor permits this docking protein to interact with signaling proteins that promote insulin action. Serine phosphorylation uncouples IRS-1 from the insulin receptor, thereby inhibiting its tyrosine phosphorylation and insulin signaling. For this reason, there is great interest in identifying serine/threonine kinases for which IRS-1 is a substrate.

[Selective fasicular neurotomy for spastic equinovarus foot deformity in cerebral palsy children].

Spasticity is usually treated by rehabilitation, orthosis, chemical denervations, orthopaedic surgery and neurosurgery. Selective fascicular neurotomy is a neurosurgical procedure consisting in partial section of selected motor nerves innervating spastic muscles. Neurotomy is indicated in cases of localised disabling spasticity without musculotendinous shortening, resistant to chemical denervation and for which a motor nerve block with anaesthetic has given a good functional result.