[Effectiveness of different castration methods in breast cancer patients].

Estrogens play the most important role in breast cancer oncogenesis. There are different methods used to decrease estrogen production and serum concentration: surgery, irradiation and drug-based method. In the current study 500 patients with localized surgically resectable breast cancer (infiltrative-edematous form included) or disseminated breast cancer with indication for ovarial function inhibition.

[Change in localization of cellular vesicular apparatus during differentiation of myoblasts into myotubules in cell culture].

The study of changes in the intracellular processes during differentiation of myoblasts into myotubules is of great importance for understanding several fundamental problems of cell biology. At first, this concerns the spatial organization of vacuolar apparatus that reflects the alterations in the properties of cell membranes, cytoskeleton elements and dynamics of vesicular transport in the course of differentiation. The distribution of acidic membrane organelles (lysosomes, late endosomes, Golgi cisternae) during the myotubule formation was revealed.

[Study of the consequences to the health of the Urkutsk Region's population from nuclear explosions at the Semipalatinsk testing site].

Analysis of archival records on the activity of diurnal plane-tables from the region's weather stations revealed local radioactive fall-out in the near-Baikal areas from the nuclear weapon tests carried out at the Semipalatinsk testing site. Examination of mortality rates in the settlements exposed to the tests showed that the maximum rates of overall and lung malignancy mortalities were observed in 1960-1979; the mean radiation dose in the exposed settlements were estimated to be 580-850 MeV.

[Untargeted quantum dots in confocal microscopy of living cells].

The problem of non-specific binding of quantum dots (QDs) with cells is very important but not fully understood taking into account the possible application of QDs in medical and fundamental studies. The interactions of untargeted CdSe/ZnS QDs with isolated frog muscle fibres, HeLa cells and J774 cells were investigated. The observations were performed on living cells using laser confocal microscopy (Leica TCS SL).

[AO distribution and fluorescence spectra in myoblasts and single muscle fibres].

Using spectral scanning regime of Leica TCS SL confocal microscope, acridine orange (AO) fluorescence spectra in nuclei and cytoplasms of living myoblasts L6J1 and frog single muscle fibres have been studied. AO fluorescence spectra in salt solutions dependent on free AO concentrations and in AO complexes with DNA have also been obtained for comparison. Myoblasts nuclei fluoresced in green spectral region with maximum at approximately 530 nm (corresponding AO monomers fluorescence), nucleoli fluoresced most brightly.