Incidence and importance of antibody responses to infliximab after maintenance or episodic treatment in Crohn's disease.

Background & Aims: The effect of different treatment regimens on antibody responses to infliximab and their clinical significance was examined by using data from ACCENT I.

Methods: Patients with Crohn's disease (n = 573) received 5 mg/kg infliximab (week 0) and then were randomly assigned to blinded infusions at weeks 2 and 6 and every 8 weeks until week 46 of placebo (group I), 5 mg/kg infliximab (group II), or 5 mg/kg infliximab at weeks 2 and 6, followed by 10 mg/kg thereafter (group III). At week 14 or later, patients losing response could cross over to episodic infliximab treatment increased by 5 mg/kg.

Infliximab maintenance therapy for fistulizing Crohn's disease.

Background: Infliximab, a monoclonal antibody against tumor necrosis factor, is an effective maintenance therapy for patients with Crohn's disease without fistulas. It is not known whether infliximab is an effective maintenance therapy for patients with fistulas.

Methods: We performed a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of infliximab maintenance therapy in 306 adult patients with Crohn's disease and one or more draining abdominal or perianal fistulas of at least three months' duration.

Is this patient insulin resistant? How much does it matter?

Alex was an obese 10-year-old girl with a family history of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and perhaps polycystic ovarian syndrome. Her physical examination was significant for a central accumulation of body fat and acanthosis nigricans. Although the laboratory studies indicated that Alex was not diabetic and probably not glucose intolerant, she could be insulin resistant (IR).

Pollen performance before and during the autotrophic-heterotrophic transition of pollen tube growth.

For species with bicellular pollen, the attrition of pollen tubes is often greatest where the style narrows at the transition between stigmatic tissue and the transmitting tissue of the style. In this region, the tubes switch from predominantly autotrophic to predominantly heterotrophic growth, the generative cell divides, the first callose plugs are produced, and, in species with RNase-type self-incompatibility (SI), incompatible tubes are arrested. We review the literature and present new findings concerning the genetic, environmental and stylar influences on the performance of pollen before and during the autotrophic-heterotrophic transition of pollen tube growth.

Normo- and hypobaric hypoxia: are there any physiological differences?

Since Bert (1878) and Barcroft (1925), studies on hypoxia are realized by lowering ambient O(2) partial pressure (PO(2)) either by barometric pressure reduction (hypobaric hypoxia HH) or by lowering the O(2) fraction (normobaric hypoxia NH). Today, a question is still debated: "are there any physiological differences between HH and NH for the same ambient PO(2)?" Since published studies are scarce and controversial, we submitted 18 subjects in a random order to a 40-min HH test and to a 40-min NH test at an ambient PO(2) equal to 120 hPa (4500 m). Cardioventilatory variables [breathing frequency (f), tidal volume (V(t)), minute ventilation (V(E)), O(2) and CO(2) end-tidal fractions or pressures (FET(O2) and FET(CO2) or PET(O2) and PET(CO2) respectively), heart rate (HR) and O(2) arterial saturation by pulse oxymetry (SpO(2))] were measured throughout the tests.

Oral and gastric input to the parabrachial nucleus of the rat.

Projections to the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) from the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST) carry afferent signals from both the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract. Although physiological studies suggest the convergence of oral and gastrointestinal sensory signals in the parabrachial nucleus, anatomical studies have emphasized the segregation of these pathways. To more precisely determine the anatomical relationship between gastric distension and oral afferent representation in PBN, small deposits of two anterograde tracers were made into the NST under physiological guidance in the same rat.

Insulin resistance during puberty and future fat accumulation.

Insulin resistance is a known sequela of obesity; however, the relationship of insulin resistance to future weight gain remains unclear. In several studies, insulin resistance has been associated with weight stabilization. For the most part, this relationship has been found in adults who are overweight.

Quinine and citric acid elicit distinctive Fos-like immunoreactivity in the rat nucleus of the solitary tract.

The present experiment investigated Fos-like immunoreactivity (FLI) in the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST) after intraoral infusions of 0.1 M citric acid, 0.3 M NaCl, and 0.

Trade-offs between male and female reproduction associated with allozyme variation in phosphoglucoisomerase in an annual plant (Clarkia unguiculata: Onagraceae).

The genotype of an individual for allozymes such as phosphoglucoisomerase (Pgi) is often not neutral with regard to fitness. Studies of several taxa have found consistent fitness differences among Pgi genotypes expressing different allozymes. We conducted a greenhouse experiment with Clarkia unguiculata to determine whether allelic variation at the Pgi-C1 locus may affect components of male and female function.

The effects of attention on perceptual implicit memory.

Reports on the effects of dividing attention at study on subsequent perceptual priming suggest that perceptual priming is generally unaffected by attentional manipulations as long as word identity is processed. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments by using the implicit word fragment completion and word stem completion tasks. Division of attention was instantiated with the Stroop task in order to ensure the processing of word identity even when the participant's attention was directed to a stimulus attribute other than the word itself.

Low-level laser effect on neural regeneration in Gore-Tex tubes.

Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of low-level laser (LLL) irradiation on neural regeneration in surgically created defects in the rabbit inferior alveolar nerve.

Study Design: Five adult female New Zealand White rabbits underwent bilateral exposure of the inferior alveolar nerve. A 6-mm segment of nerve was resected, and the nerve gap was repaired via entubulation by using a Gore-Tex conduit.

Integration of gastric distension and gustatory responses in the parabrachial nucleus.

Palatable gustatory stimuli promote feeding, whereas gastric distension generally inhibits this behavior. We explored a neural basis for integration of these opposing sensory signals by evaluating the effect of gastric distension on gustatory responses in the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) of anesthetized rats. Sixteen percent of 92 taste cells were coactivated; they responded to independent taste or gastric distension stimulus application.

Parametric analysis of gastric distension responses in the parabrachial nucleus.

The parabrachial nucleus (PBN) is regarded as an important locus for the processing and integration of sensory inputs from oral, gastrointestinal, and postabsorptive receptor sites and is thus thought to play an important role in regulating food intake. Gastric distension is an important satiation cue; however, such responses have been qualitatively characterized only over a limited area of the PBN. To more fully characterize gastric distension responses throughout the PBN, the responses of single units to gastric distension were tested using computer-controlled balloon inflation (3-18 ml air) in pentobarbital sodium- and/or urethan-anesthetized male rats.

Detection and prevalence of early diabetic retinopathy in juvenile diabetics with diabetes for 10 years or more.

Purpose: To compare clinical examination using green light with clinical examination using white light in detecting early diabetic retinopathy (DR) in juvenile diabetic patients with disease for 10 or more years.

Methods: All patients were examined clinically using both green light and white light to determine the presence of DR. Each patient underwent seven-field fundus photography, which was used as the defined standard against which the clinical examinations were compared and also to determine the prevalence of DR.

E-commerce in healthcare: changing the traditional landscape.

The healthcare industry, with more than one trillion dollars in revenue, accounts for about one-seventh of the U.S. economy.

Muscimol infusions in the brain stem reticular formation reversibly block ingestion in the awake rat.

Previous studies have localized a central pattern generator for mastication to the midline pontomedullary reticular formation (RF) based on cortically induced ororhythmic movements. The present study determined whether this same substrate mediated licking responses evoked by more natural stimuli. Licking in the awake rat was initiated either through an appetitive response to sucrose presented in a bottle or by intraoral (IO) infusions.

Extranuclear projections of rNST neurons expressing gustatory-elicited Fos.

Previous studies have demonstrated that gustatory stimulation evokes expression of the immediate-early gene, c-fos in the rostral division of the nucleus of the solitary tract (rNST) (Harrer and Travers [1996] Brain Res. 711:125-137; DiNardo and Travers [1997] J. Neurosci.

Benign cephalic histiocytosis with diabetes insipidus.

Benign cephalic histiocytosis is a rare skin condition consisting of small tan papules on the face and upper trunk that is believed not to be associated with internal organ involvement. The infiltrating histiocytes are not Langerhans' cells (LCs). We report a 5-year-old girl who presented with diabetes insipidus 1 year after developing multiple small brown asymptomatic skin papules.

Differential siring success of Pgi genotypes in Clarkia Unguiculata (Onagraceae).

Competition among pollen grains for the fertilization of ovules can play an important role in determining the male and female reproductive success of flowering plants. To examine the influence of pollen-donor genotype on male reproductive success, hand-pollinations were conducted on Clarkia unguiculata and the siring success of pollen-donor plants was compared between donors homozygous for different allelomorphs of the allozyme PGI (phosphoglucoisomerase). Donors homozygous for the B allele sired more seeds than C-allele donors.

The absence of cryptic self-incompatibility in Clarkia unguiculata (Onagraceae).

Many species exhibit reduced siring success of self-relative to outcross-pollen donors. This can be attributed either to postfertilization abortion of selfed ovules or to cryptic self-incompatibility (CSI). CSI is a form of self-incompatibility whereby the advantage to outcross pollen is expressed only following pollinations where there is gametophytic competition between self and outcross pollen.

Advances in the recognition and treatment of endocrine complications in children with chronic illness.

Children with chronic illness live with the specific consequences of their illness, as well as secondary endocrine abnormalities that further compromise growth and pubertal development. These secondary abnormalities may significantly add to their physiologic and psychological burden. Although these endocrine abnormalities theoretically arise as adaptations to the chronic illness, they may have deleterious effects if they persist untreated.

Altered taste responses in adult NST after neonatal chorda tympani denervation.

Anatomic and behavioral changes have been observed in the taste system after peripheral deafferentation, but their physiological consequences remain unknown. Interestingly, a recent behavioral study suggested that peripheral denervation could induce central plasticity. After neonatal chorda tympani (CT) transection, adult rats demonstrated a marked preference for a normally avoided salt, NH(4)Cl.

Serum prostate specific antigen, sex hormone binding globulin and free androgen index as markers of pubertal development in boys.

Objective: Prostate specific antigen (PSA) expression in the prostate gland is regulated by androgens. Serum levels of PSA are undetectable by routine assays in normal boys. Measurable values could serve as a marker for pubertal development.