TATA-box mutant in the promoter of the uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase gene in Italian patients with Gilbert's syndrome.

Background: A mutation in the promoter of the uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase gene has been described in patients with Gilbert's syndrome from Northern Europe.

Aims: To assess the frequency of this mutation in Italian patients with Gilbert's syndrome and in normal controls, in order to establish the molecular basis and molecular epidemiology of the syndrome in Italy.

Patients: Forty-six patients with a clinical diagnosis of Gilbert's syndrome and 44 individuals from the general population unselected for bilirubin levels.

Carbohydrate binding activity in human spermatozoa: localization, specificity, and involvement in sperm-egg fusion.

Sperm carbohydrate binding activity is involved in gamete recognition. We identified a human sperm protein extracted under reducing conditions, and with a molecular mass of 65 kDa on sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and which binds D-mannose coupled to albumin (DMA) in presence of cations and a neutral pH. Epifluorescence microscopy showed that fluorescein-DMA binds to dead or permeabilized sperm heads.

[Creating an integrated nursing curriculum].

During the last two decades, Brazilian society has gone through great changes into political, ideological and economical fields. These changes left their strings into society, specially in population health. The nurse formation based on the Law n(o) 5540/68 and on the Statement n(o) 163/72, no more meets population demands.

Interference of antisperm antibodies with the induction of the acrosome reaction by zona pellucida (ZP) and its relationship with the inhibition of ZP binding.

Objective: To determine whether antisperm antibodies can interfere with the induction of the acrosome reaction (AR) by the zona pellucida (ZP) and whether this interference also can occur in the absence of an inhibitory effect on ZP binding.

Design: Prospective in vitro study.

Setting: A tertiary care center, the Andrologic Clinic, University of L'Aquila.

Occurrence of the interference of sperm-associated antibodies on sperm fertilizing ability as evaluated by the sperm-zona pellucida binding test and by the TEST-yolk buffer enhanced sperm penetration assay.

Problem: This study was performed to evaluate the occurrence as well as the level of the interference of sperm-associated antibodies on fertilization process.

Method: Motile sperm suspensions from 28 infertile patients with high degree of autoimmunization against the sperm head were tested with the zona pellucida (ZP) binding test and with the sperm penetration assay (SPA) enhanced with TEST-yolk buffer. Both tests were also performed using donor sperm exposed and non-exposed to the patients' circulating sperm antibodies.

Complement and neutrophil activation during cardiopulmonary bypass: a randomized comparison of hypothermic and normothermic circulation.

Objective: Activation of both complement and neutrophils has been demonstrated to be involved in many pathological reactions following cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effect of normothermic and hypothermic CPB on both complement and neutrophil activation.

Methods: Two groups of patients (n = 20 each) scheduled for elective coronary artery bypass grafting, underwent CPB with intermittent warm or cold blood cardioplegia.

Protection by coenzyme Q10 of tissue reperfusion injury during abdominal aortic cross-clamping.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of coenzyme Q10 in reducing the skeletal muscle reperfusion injury following clamping and declamping the abdominal aorta.

Methods: 30 patients undergoing elective vascular surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysm or obstructive aorto-iliac disease were randomly divided into two groups: patients in group I were treated with coenzyme Q10 (150 mg/day) for seven days before operation, and those in group II received a placebo. We studied the hemodynamic profile in each patient during clamping and declamping of the abdominal aorta.

Reconstruction of function and aesthetics of the maxillary anterior region: a combined periodontal/orthodontic therapy.

Severe cases of periodontal disease often require periodontal surgery. Techniques have been developed attempting to minimize the postsurgical gingival recession and compromise of the interdental papillae. This article presents a case report in which soft tissue regenerative surgery was minimized through combined utilization of periodontal and orthodontic principles.

Genetic hemochromatosis in Italian patients with porphyria cutanea tarda: possible explanation for iron overload.

Background/aims: Mild to moderate iron overload is found in most patients with porphyria cutanea tarda. This study aimed to evaluate whether iron overload in patients with porphyria cutanea tarda is related to the presence of a coexistent genetic hemochromatosis gene.

Methods: A cohort study of 94 Italian patients with porphyria cutanea tarda (90 men and 4 women) and 20 relatives of five patients with iron overload were studied.

Changes in the proportion of types I and III collagen in the left ventricular wall of patients with post-irradiative pericarditis.

Pericardiectomy for post-irradiative constrictive pericarditis achieves poor results because of the extensive damage to the heart and pericardium caused by ionizing radiation. The extracellular structural protein, collagen, is responsible for the functional integrity of the myocardium and allows reversible interdigitation and the transmission of force between contracting myocytes. Collagen concentration and composition were examined in the cardiac tissue of three patients undergoing pericardiectomy and post-irradiative pericarditis.

Collagen network remodelling and left ventricular function in constrictive pericarditis.

Objective: To investigate whether patients with constrictive pericarditis have changes in collagen content and architecture that could influence left ventricular function.

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: University teaching hospital.

Improved beta-adrenergic receptor function after coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with congestive heart failure.

Background: To evaluate whether coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) modifies beta-adrenergic receptor dysfunction, we measured lymphocytic beta-adrenergic receptor density and function, and plasma catecholamine levels in patients with congestive ischaemic disease scheduled for CABG.

Methods: Assays were performed on 20 patients with CHF at admission and 6 months following CABG; 20 age-matched healthy subjects served as the control group.

Results: Preoperative lymphocyte beta-adrenergic receptor density was significantly reduced in patients with CHF compared with the control group.

Portal hypertension and iron depletion in patients with genetic hemochromatosis.

Clinically, portal hypertension has been considered to be less common and less severe in patients with cirrhosis resulting from iron overload in homozygotes for genetic hemochromatosis than in patients with cirrhosis of other causes. To characterize the prevalence and progression of portal hypertension in genetic hemochromatosis (GH), 120 cirrhosis and iron-overloaded patients were compared with a control group of 120 patients with postnecrotic cirrhosis (PNC) who were matched for gender, age, Child's class, and alcohol abuse. Gastroesophageal endoscopy and abdominal ultrasonography were performed at diagnosis and repeated every 12 months and every 6 months, respectively, to evaluate the presence and severity of varices, the caliber of the portal vein and its collaterals, and splenic size.

Relationship between acrosome reactions and hamster egg penetration after ionophore challenge in absence of teratozoospermia.

Objective: To determine the relationship between acrosome reactions and hamster egg penetration after ionophore challenge in nonteratozoospermic semen samples.

Setting: A tertiary care center, the Andrologic Clinic, Department of Internal Medicine, University of L'Aquila.

Patients: Twenty-five nonteratozoospermic patients with infertile marriages and nine fertile men.

Sperm-zona pellucida binding of human sperm is correlated with the immunocytochemical presence of proacrosin and acrosin in the sperm heads but not with the proteolytic activity of acrosin.

Objective: To determine whether the sperm-zona pellucida (ZP) binding is related to the presence of immunoreactivity for proacrosin and acrosin and/or to the proteolytic activity of acrosin.

Setting: The Andrology Clinic, University of L'Aquila, Italy.

Patients: Thirty-five infertile couples and 15 men of proven fertility.

Protection by coenzyme Q10 from myocardial reperfusion injury during coronary artery bypass grafting.

To evaluate the effect of coenzyme Q10 in reducing postoperative cardiac complications after ischemia and reperfusion, we randomly divided 40 patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass into two groups: patients in group 1 received coenzyme Q10 (150 mg/day) for 7 days before operation, and those in group 2 were the control group. Concentrations of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (malondialdehyde), conjugated dienes, and cardiac isoenzymes of creatine kinase were measured in samples from both arterial and coronary sinus sites. Serial sampling was performed 5 minutes after heparin administration, at 10 and 30 minutes during cardiopulmonary bypass, 15 and 30 minutes after aortic cross-clamp removal, and 5 minutes after protamine administration.

[Blood glucose and intracranial surgery].

When there is a cerebral ischemia, the use of glucose seems to be contraindicated. Seventeen non diabetic patients, scheduled for elective intracranial surgery (mean surgical time: 218.8 +/- 42.

Ontogenesis and taste bud cell turnover in the chicken. I. Gemmal cell renewal in the hatchling.

Taste bud cell turnover rate was examined in oral epithelium of the precocial chick, which at hatching contains the adult complement of taste buds. Forty newly hatched chicks received single or double pulse injections of tritiated thymidine (specific activity was 6.7 Curies/millimole; dosage was 0.

Impaired hamster egg penetration by human sperm from ejaculates with low acrosin activity but otherwise normal.

Objective: To determine if a low acrosin activity in otherwise normal ejaculate from infertile patients is associated with an impairment of sperm functions involved in the hamster egg penetration.

Setting: A tertiary care center, the Andrology Clinic, Department of Internal Medicine, University of L'Aquila.

Patients: Nine infertile patients with low acrosin activity in otherwise normal ejaculate (including normal immunoreactivity for acrosin) were studied; nine fertile men served as a control group.

Effects of propofol on the human heart electrical system: a transesophageal pacing electrophysiologic study.

Previous studies have shown that infusion of propofol has sometimes been associated with bradyarrhythmias. To evaluate the effects of propofol on the electrical system of the heart, we carried out an electrophysiologic study with transesophageal pacing on ten healthy subjects scheduled for minor elective maxillo-facial surgery. By means of atrial pacing conducted by a progressive increase in stimulation cycles, we determined, in awake patients and during propofol anesthesia (2.

New evidence for a membrane-bound pathway in hormone receptor binding.

The fully active cholecystokinin analog (Thr,Nle)-CCK-9 was lipo-derivatized by N-terminal grafting of a dimyristoylglycerol moiety to induce tight interdigitation with cell membrane bilayers. While the parent CCK peptide was shown to interact only transiently with small unilamellar phospholipid vesicles, the lipo-CCK peptide, although self-aggregating into vesicles, inserts rapidly and quantitatively into phospholipid bilayers. Fluorescence and, even more so, NMR data are supportive for a chain reversal of the CCK moiety of the lipo derivative with embedment of the C-terminus into hydrophobic compartments of the bilayer.

Lipophilic derivatization and its effect on the interaction of cholecystokinin (CCK) nonapeptide with phospholipids.

N-terminal lipophilic derivatization of the fully active cholecystokinin analogue (Thr,Nle)-CCK-9 with the di-myristoyl-raz-thioglyceryl moiety leads to spontaneous self-aggregation of the lipopeptide into polydispersed vesicles at the liquid state. The high degree of fluidification of the vesicles favors a fast and net transfer of monomers to phospholipid bilayers even below the phase-transition temperature of the acceptor vesicles. Surprisingly, the process is accompanied by formation of peptide clusters.