An epidemic outbreak of papular and follicular contact dermatitis to tocopheryl linoleate in cosmetics. Swiss Contact Dermatitis Research Group.

Background: In Spring 1992, an epidemic outbreak of papular and follicular rashes caused by a new line of cosmetics occurred throughout Switzerland.

Objective: Epidemiological and clinical data were collected in order to identify the offending agent and to specify the pathophysiological mechanisms.

Methods: The data concerning 263 patients seen by dermatologists plus 642 additional cases directly reported by consumers to the manufacturer were analyzed.

Bent DNA is a structural feature of scaffold-attached regions in Drosophila melanogaster interphase nuclei.

In this study the SAR DNA (scaffold attached region DNA) of some Drosophila genes was analyzed. Bent DNA regions were found to be present in all SAR DNA fragments analyzed here. Bent non-SAR DNA exhibits SAR-like properties when it is exogenously added to lithium 3,5-di-iodosalicylate-extracted Drosophila nuclear scaffolds.

The integrity of the histone-DNA complex in chromatin fibres is not necessary for the maintenance of the shape of mitotic chromosomes.

In this study we addressed the question of whether scaffold structures produced from purified mitotic chromosomes are an artefact of dehistonization, and whether the integrity of the chromatin fibres is necessary for the maintenance of the well-known shape of mitotic chromosomes. Purified mitotic chromosomes from Friend erythroleukemia cells were treated either with increasing NaCl concentrations up to 500 mM, or with 6 M urea in the presence or absence of 10 mM 2-mercaptoethanol. The main criterion for the intactness of the overall chromosome shape as seen by electron microscopy was the characteristic X- or U-like appearance with clearly discernable chromatid axes.