Early Vascular Aging in Children With Type 1 Diabetes and Ambulatory Normotension.

Preliminary data suggest that target organ damage (TOD) and early vascular aging (EVA) may occur in children with normal blood pressure (BP). To analyze TOD and EVA in normotensive (BP <95th percentile on ambulatory BP monitoring) type 1 diabetes children (T1D) in comparison to healthy controls (C). 25 T1D aged 13.

Extra-pair fertilizations contribute to selection on secondary male ornamentation in a socially monogamous passerine.

Despite considerable research effort, it remains unclear whether extra-pair fertilizations (EPF) drive the evolution of male secondary ornamentation in socially monogamous systems. In this study, we test the hypothesis that EPF contribute to the evolution or maintenance of male feather ornamentation in a sexually dichromatic passerine, the Scarlet Rosefinch, Carpodacus erythrinus. We show that the colouration of ornamental breast feathers is a good predictor of basic sources of variation in male annual reproductive output in rosefinches and that the annual realized reproductive success of males is positively associated with measures of ornamental colouration only when gains and losses because of EPF are considered.

Age-dependent changes in proteoglycan biosynthesis in human intervertebral discs.

Proteoglycans from annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus of human intervertebral disc were investigated by electrophoresis in a composite agarose-polyacrylamide gel and immunohistochemically using various monoclonal antibodies against components of extracellular matrix. There were at least five different populations of proteoglycans in both annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus. Proteoglycans represented by individual electrophoretic bands differed from each other in hydrodynamic size but all of them contained epitopes present in keratan sulphate.