The Effect of Set Up Position on EMG Amplitude, Lumbar Spine Kinetics, and Total Force Output During Maximal Isometric Conventional-Stance Deadlifts.

The purpose of this study was to examine the biomechanical differences between two set up variations during the isometric initiation of conventional barbell deadlifts (DL): Close-bar DL (CBDL), where the bar is positioned above the navicular, and far-bar DL (FBDL), where the bar is placed above the 3rd metatarsophalangeal joint. A cross-sectional, randomized, within-participant pilot study was used. Experienced powerlifters and weightlifters ( = 10) performed three individual isometric pulls of the initiation of both conditions.

Color discrimination in carriers of color deficiency.

Carriers of X-linked color vision deficiencies have previously been reported to exhibit mild abnormalities of color matching and discrimination. In a sample of 55 carriers of protan and deutan deficiencies and 55 age-matched normal controls, we measured chromatic discrimination along a red-green axis. We found that discrimination was impaired in the case of carriers of deutan deficiencies (which affect the middle-wave-sensitive cones of the retina), but was normal in the case of carriers of protan deficiencies (which affect the long-wave-sensitive cones).

Mortality and the nature of metabolic acidosis in children with shock.

Hypothesis: Mortality in children with shock is more closely related to the nature, rather than the magnitude (base deficit/excess), of a metabolic acidosis.

Objective: To examine the relationship between base excess (BE), hyperlactataemia, hyperchloraemia, 'unmeasured' strong anions, and mortality.

Design: Prospective observational study set in a multi-disciplinary Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

Correction of the anion gap for albumin in order to detect occult tissue anions in shock.

Background: It is believed that hypoalbuminaemia confounds interpretation of the anion gap (AG) unless corrected for serum albumin in critically ill children with shock.

Aim: To compare the ability of the AG and the albumin corrected anion gap (CAG) to detect the presence of occult tissue anions.

Methods: Prospective observational study in children with shock in a 22 bed multidisciplinary paediatric intensive care unit of a university childrenrsquo;s hospital.

A novel BCR-ABL rearrangement in a Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myelogenous leukaemia variant with thrombocythaemia.

Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to detect an unusual BCR/ABL transcript in a patient who presented with thrombocythaemia and was Philadelphia chromosome positive but weakly reactive to conventional BCR/ABL fusion probes. Sequencing revealed the presence of a 12 bp insert between BCR exon2 (b2) and ABL exon2 (a2). In such cases the use of conventional BCR/ABL probes may lead to false negative results.

Acetylcholinesterase of human intestinal tissue affected by Hirschsprung's disease: effect of magnesium chloride on isoforms.

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) molecular isoforms from anglionic and adjacent unaffected (control) colonic tissue in patients with Hirschsprung's disease (HD) were analysed by density gradient centrifugation in order to determine the major AChE isoforms and the effect of a reported MgCl2 inactivation assay method upon them, with a view to improving the AChE assay used in the diagnosis of Hirschsprung's disease. The total AChE level was greater in the HD-affected colonic tissue than the control tissue (HD: 9.0 vs.

Periodate modification of human serum transferrin Fe(III)-binding sites. Inhibition of carbonate insertion into Fe(III)- and Cu(II)-chelator-transferrin ternary complexes.

Periodate modification of human serum transferrin produces a species that binds Fe(III) weakly at pH 7.4 contrary to previous reports that Fe(III)-binding activity is completely lost. Ternary complexes of periodate-modified transferrin and either Fe(III) with nitrilotriacetate (NTA), oxalate, citrate, or EDTA, or of Cu(II) with oxalate could be formed.

Fibrin and fibrinogen degradation products with an intact D-domain C-terminal gamma chain inhibit an early step in accessory cell-dependent lymphocyte mitogenesis.

Although the low molecular weight degradation products of fibrinogen (FgDP) and fibrin (FbDP) are known to inhibit lymphocyte blastogenesis, the effect of purified macro-molecular FgDP and FbDP (molecular weight, 90 to 200 Kd) is unclear. We have examined the effect of these latter FgDP and FbDP and find that products that contain the D domain inhibit lymphocyte proliferation in response to T-cell mitogens, allogeneic mononuclear leukocytes, and anti-CD3 in vitro. Plasmic digestion of D1 in the absence of calcium with removal of the C-terminal end of the gamma chain or disruption of the gamma-gamma C-terminal cross-link site of D-dimer (DD) by puffadder venom (PAV-D) abrogates their inhibitory potential.

Robust and inexpensive equipment design for polymerase chain reaction detection of sequence mutations. Cystic fibrosis in a mother and 2 children analysed.

Every polymerase chain reaction (PCR) requires use of a temperature cycler for about 3 hours. Since there are many diagnostic tests using this technology, it is important that robust but inexpensive machinery is available. Such a stand-alone machine has been designed and used to analyse an interesting family in which a mother and her 2 children were diagnosed as having cystic fibrosis.

Zinc binding by fibrin facilitates proteolysis by a snake (puffadder) venom protease.

PAV protease is able to cleave between the crosslinked sites of the gamma-chain of fibrin and fibrin-derived D-dimer. The rate of digestion can be increased fourfold to tenfold by the addition of zinc ions. Although the PAV protease is a zinc-containing metalloenzyme, the enhanced rate of cleavage can be shown to be due to histidine-specific zinc binding by D-dimer.

Reticuloendothelial function and plasma fibronectin in a murine model of intra-abdominal sepsis.

The lung is the target organ most frequently involved in the early phase of multiple organ failure. Microembolisation of the pulmonary vasculature by bacterial and non-bacterial particles and debris with failure of the clearance mechanism of the reticuloendothelial system (RES) and depletion of plasma fibronectin have been implicated in the pathogenesis. The present study examined the concurrent changes in plasma fibronectin, RES phagocytic function, organ localisation of bacterial and non-bacterial particles and the levels of circulating endotoxin and fibrin degradation products in a clinically relevant murine model of severe intra-abdominal infection.

Properties of the transferrin associated with rat intestinal mucosa.

The transferrin that is isolated from washed intestinal mucosal cell preparations consists partly of a fraction that has properties distinguishing it from serum transferrin. The serum transferrin contaminating mucosal preparations, even when fully saturated with iron and in the presence of proteinase inhibitors, also acquires the properties of the mucosal transferrin when the mucosa is homogenised. The mucosal transferrin is modified by a single cleavage of the polypeptide chain yielding a disulphide-linked peptide of 6550 daltons linked to the parent protein by a disulphide bridge.

Cleavage of fibrin-derived D-dimer into monomers by endopeptidase from puff adder venom (Bitis arietans) acting at cross-linked sites of the gamma-chain. Sequence of carboxy-terminal cyanogen bromide gamma-chain fragments.

Puff adder venom contains a protease capable of cleaving the gamma-chain of cross-linked D-dimer, derived from the plasmin digestion of fibrin, into apparently symmetrical monomers. The cross-linked gamma-chains are separated in the process without apparent loss of mass and without loss of the substituent at the glutamine cross-link site, if fluorescent D-dimer (the lysine analogue dansylcadaverine used as substituent) is used as substrate [Purves, L. R.

A diazophenylthio-ether-IgG probe for analysing fibrin- and fibrinogen-related antigens.

A technique for identifying and quantitating fibrin- and fibrinogen-related antigens (FRAs) in serum is described. Panspecific antifibrinogen IgG is bound covalently to diazotized aminophenylthio-ether cellulose paper discs. Under conditions of antibody excess, a disc probe extracts 95% of all fibrinogen-related antigen from appropriately diluted serum samples.

The effects of cytoskeletal inhibitors on intestinal iron absorption in the rat.

An established and validated method using loops of intestine in vivo in rats was used to study the effects of cytoskeletal inhibitors on iron absorption. Radioactive iron instilled into the loop of intestine pretreated with test substance was monitored in the blood and, after death, ferritin loading with radioactive iron was measured on density gradients of mucosal cell homogenates and absorbed iron in the carcass was determined. Colchicine, vincristine and cytochalasin B all caused dose- and time-dependent inhibition of iron absorption, and the effects of cytochalasin B were reversible within 1 h.

Plasma cell infiltration of the small bowel: lack of evidence for a non-secretory form of alpha-heavy chain disease.

Eight patients with diffuse plasma cell infiltration of the small bowel who had the clinical features of immunoproliferative small intestinal disease (IPSID), but whose serum was negative for free alpha-heavy chains, were investigated for evidence of a non-secretory form of alpha-chain disease (alpha-CD). Molecular sieving and immunoblotting of serum, immunoperoxidase staining of biopsy specimens, and in vitro protein synthesis studies utilising an immunoprecipitation technique and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, failed to detect any new cases of alpha-CD. Four of the eight cases were found to have diffuse intestinal lymphoma.

Octamer reconstitution from acid-extracted chicken erythrocyte histones.

Histone octamers have been reconstituted from acid-extracted chicken erythrocyte histones. By the criteria of molecular size on exclusion chromatography as well as sedimentation velocity and conformational properties established by circular dichroism, fluorescence spectroscopy and imido-ester cross-linking, the reconstituted octamers have a structure identical to that of salt-extracted octamers.

Iron binding proteins of iron-absorbing rat intestinal mucosa.

The distribution and quantitation of the iron-binding proteins of rat small intestinal mucosa was studied, in iron-deficient and replete animals, to explore their role in the absorption of iron. Adsorption (mucosal uptake) of iron in in situ ligated loops of small intestinal mucosa was found to be uniform throughout the length of the small intestine whereas absorption (carcass uptake) showed a steep decreasing gradient from the duodenum to the ileum. The disrupted, in vivo labeled mucosal cells were fractionated by isopycnic centrifugation and transferrin and ferritin were quantitated by radioimmunoassay.

The effect of Ca2+ on the stability of chicken erythrocyte histone octamers.

Histones can be extracted from chicken erythrocyte chromatin with 2 M CaCl2 10 mM Tris (pH 7.4). The core histones so extracted exist as H3-H4 tetramers and H2A-H2B dimers since calcium at greater than 0.

The reconstitution of histone H3-H4 tetramer from acid extracted histones in the absence of urea.

Simple mixing of acid purified histones H3 and H4 in equimolar quantities at low ionic strength near pH 7 does not yield the tetramer but rather a high Mr aggregate. Dialysis of acid extracted total or core histones into 2 M NaCl 150 mM phosphate (pH 7.4) followed by fractionation of the histone complexes at lower ionic strength (150 mM NaCl) results in an H3-H4 tetramer of a structure identical to that derived from salt-extracted histones.

Fibronectin levels in normal subjects and patients admitted to a respiratory intensive care unit.

The mean serum fibronectin level of normal subjects, measured by radio-immunoassay, was 363 micrograms/ml (+/- 72 micrograms/ml; 1 SD). The levels were lower in younger subjects and in females using oral contraceptives. In most patients admitted to a respiratory intensive care unit fibronectin levels were low initially, and only remained low in those cases in which severe complications developed.

Effect of fibrinogenolytic products D and E on fibrinogen and albumin synthesis in the rat.

Previous studies are in conflict over the effect of infusing mixed fibrinogen-fibrin degradation products on fibrinogen synthesis, as determined by changes in fibrinogen concentration or by incorporation of labeled amino acids into fibrinogen. We have injected purified homologous fragments D1 and E into rats and measured their fibrinogen and albumin synthetic rates by the [14C]carbonate technique, a method that provides quantitative estimates of hepatic secretory protein synthesis. Fibrinogen fractional synthetic rates were increased 2.