Association of dietary and life-style factors with sex hormones in postmenopausal women.

We examined the relations between endogenous sex hormones and alcohol intake, dietary constituents, and life-style factors in a population-based sample of 253 postmenopausal women not using replacement hormones. Estrone, dihydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), and free and total testosterone were measured in serum. Age and years since menopause were negatively associated with dihydroepiandrosterone sulfate and positively associated with sex hormone-binding globulin levels.

Recombinant chicken interferon from Escherichia coli and transfected COS cells is biologically active.

We have expressed a cDNA for virus-induced chick interferon in Escherichia coli. The product, a 19-kDa protein lacking the signal peptide, was purified to homogeneity from the bacterial inclusion bodies. Proteins in the insoluble fraction of bacterial lysates were dissolved in guanidine hydrochloride and subjected to chromatography on Q-Sepharose and MonoS columns.

Determinants of breast cancer detection among Wisconsin (United States) women, 1988-90.

Early detection is advocated widely as the best method to reduce the high rate of breast cancer mortality in women. The purpose of this study was to describe the detection histories of women with breast cancer and to identify factors related to the method of detection. During the period 1988-90, 3,197 women with invasive breast cancer, identified through the Wisconsin (United States) tumor registry, were interviewed.

Recombinant chicken interferon: a potent antiviral agent that lacks intrinsic macrophage activating factor activity.

Crude preparations of chicken interferon (ChIFN) from various sources contain both antiviral and macrophage-activating factor (MAF) activity. Previous serological data indicated that unlike mammals, birds might express only a single type of IFN in response to viruses and mitogens that exhibits both activities. We have now expressed a complementary DNA for virus-induced ChIFN in transfected COS cells and in Escherichia coli.

The association of body size and large bowel cancer risk in Wisconsin (United States) women.

Body size is associated with the risk of many diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers. To evaluate the association of body size with large bowel cancer, height and weight measurements were ascertained by telephone interview from 779 Wisconsin (United States) women with newly reported diagnoses of carcinoma of the colon and rectum. Controls (n = 2,315) interviewed for this case-control study were selected randomly from Wisconsin driver's license files and Health Care Financing Administration files.

Early adulthood physical activity and colon cancer risk among Wisconsin women.

Frequency of strenuous activity during ages 14-22 was ascertained retrospectively from 536 Wisconsin women with newly reported diagnoses of colon cancer and 2315 controls randomly selected from Wisconsin driver's license and Medicare beneficiary lists. Thirty-five % of cases and 34% of controls reported strenuous activity during this period of early adulthood. After adjusting for age, family history of large bowel cancer, history of screening sigmoidoscopy, and body mass index in logistic regression models, women who reported any strenuous activity were at a similar risk of colon cancer as women who did not report activity [odds ratio (OR), 1.

Interferon induction: regulation by both virus and cell.

Both the virus and its host cell play significant roles in the regulation of interferon (IFN) induction and production. The virus exerts a regulatory effect through variation in its capacity to deliver an IFN inducer molecule in the form of dsRNA, and by suppressing activation of the IFN gene(s) or their subsequent expression. Regulation of IFN induction by genetically closely related viruses may encompass a 10,000-fold range of IFN yields.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot and zonal winds as a self-consistent, one-layer, quasigeostrophic flow.

We present the point of view that both the vortices and the east-west zonal winds of Jupiter are confined to the planet's shallow weather layer and that their dynamics is completely described by the weakly dissipated, weakly forced quasigeostrophic (QG) equation. The weather layer is the region just below the tropopause and contains the visible clouds. The forcing mimics the overshoot of fluid from an underlying convection zone.

Chicken interferon gene: cloning, expression, and analysis.

A gene encoding chicken interferon (ChIFN) was cloned from a cDNA library made from primary chick embryo cells that had been "aged" in vitro so as to produce copious amounts of IFN upon induction. The coding region is predicted to produce a signal peptide of 31 amino acids and a mature protein of 162 amino acids with a molecular weight of 18,957. There are four potential N-glycosylation sites and six cysteine residues.

Interferon induction by viruses. XXII. Vesicular stomatitis virus-Indiana: M-protein and leader RNA do not regulate interferon induction in chicken embryo cells.

Several field isolates, strains, mutants, and revertants of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), Indiana (IN) serotype, were studied that differed greatly in their capacity to induce interferon (IFN) in aged chick embryo cells. The predicted M-protein amino acid sequence of a wild-type field isolate that induced > or = 10,000 units/ml IFN in chicken embryo cells was identical to that of a wild-type field isolate that induced < 2 units/ml and of a noninducing wild-type laboratory strain. The 47-base plus-strand leader RNA sequences were the same for five IFN-inducing, and eight noninducing independent isolates of wild-type VSV IN.