Random positions of dendritic spines in human cerebral cortex.

Dendritic spines establish most excitatory synapses in the brain and are located in Purkinje cell's dendrites along helical paths, perhaps maximizing the probability to contact different axons. To test whether spine helixes also occur in neocortex, we reconstructed >500 dendritic segments from adult human cortex obtained from autopsies. With Fourier analysis and spatial statistics, we analyzed spine position along apical and basal dendrites of layer 3 pyramidal neurons from frontal, temporal, and cingulate cortex.

Hyperhomocysteinemia in pediatric and young adult renal transplant recipients.

Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) has been recently identified as an important and reversible cardiovascular risk factor in adult and pediatric renal transplant recipients. A retrospective cross-sectional analysis of 70 pediatric and young adult renal transplant recipients was performed to determine the prevalence, and important clinical and laboratory correlates of HHcy. Total homocysteine concentration, free and protein bound, was determined by fluorescence polarization immunoassay using an IMX analyzer.

Colonic hydrogen elimination and methane production in infants with and without infantile colic syndrome.

Our objective was to investigate the relationship between demographic factors, nutrition, stool gas production, and the existence of infantile colic (IC) syndrome. Hydrogen and methane production from stool specimens of infants with and without infantile colic was quantified at two separate time points, the age at presentation of colic (<12 weeks) and at >6 months of age. The relationship between demographic variables and IC was also studied.