Effects of energy intake on type 1 plasminogen activator inhibitor levels in glomeruli of lupus-prone B/W mice.

Calorie restriction (CR) and/or reduced energy intake ameliorates the progression of autoimmune renal disease in (NZB x NZW)F1 (B/W) female mice and increases life span. Like other forms of glomerulonephritis, the lupus-like kidney disease observed in these animals is frequently accompanied by glomerular deposition of fibrin and increased accumulation of mesangial matrix. Because alterations in plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) expression or function may be involved in both fibrin deposition and accumulation of extracellular matrix, we have studied the effects of CR on the expression of PAI-1 in kidneys from female B/W mice fed either ad libitum or on a 40% CR diet.

The relations of children's emotion regulation to their vicarious emotional responses and comforting behaviors.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations of children's emotional and behavioral regulation (as indexed by heart rate variability and coping styles) to their emotional and prosocial responses to a crying infant. Kindergarten and second-grade children's vicarious emotional responses (e.g.

Use of direct in situ single-copy (DISC) PCR to physically map five porcine microsatellites.

Direct in situ single-copy polymerase chain reaction (DISC-PCR) was used to assign and orient a linkage group to pig chromosome 1. Five microsatellites were analyzed, and all five were successfully localized using this procedure. Physical data were used to orient the linkage group with respect to the centromere and estimate the amount of coverage of chromosome 1.

Reduced numbers and intense anti-ubiquitin immunostaining of bovine motor neurons affected with spinal muscular atrophy.

Motor neurons in the spinal cord affected with bovine spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) were investigated immunohistochemically using antibodies against bovine ubiquitin. Anti-ubiquitin immunostained many chromatolytic and swollen degenerating motor neurons in the ventral horn of the SMA-affected spinal cord. The most severely swollen cells showed a lightly-stained center and a strongly-stained periphery after immunostaining.

Skeletal muscle of cattle affected with progressive degenerative myeloencephalopathy.

Skeletal muscle from multiple sites of 6 cattle afflicted with progressive degenerative myeloencephalopathy was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and compared with skeletal muscle taken from 2 clinically normal cattle (controls) similarly studied. Major changes in the affected muscle included abnormal myoneural junctions with redundant junctional folds that were abnormally long and branching, and occasionally separated from the synaptic site; multiple vacuoles of variable size clustered in subsarcolemmal positions and in rows between myofibrils; bizarre mitochondria with thin connecting stalks, large electron-dense bodies, and abnormal cristae; and cone-shaped projections of the sarcolemma. These findings indicate that myopathy is part of the progressive degenerative myeloencephalopathy phenotype.

The relations of empathy-related emotions and maternal practices to children's comforting behavior.

Examined are the relations of maternal empathy-related characteristics, maternal child-rearing practices, and children's vicarious emotional responding to kindergarteners' and third graders' comforting of a crying infant. Children who exhibited facial personal distress in reaction to the baby cry were less likely to help than were other children. In addition, children's distressed reactions to a different sympathy stimulus (a film) were positively correlated with their distressed reaction to the baby cry; children's self-reported reactions to the sympathy-inducing film also were related to their comforting behavior.

Two-chain urokinase, receptor, and type 1 inhibitor in cultured human mesangial cells.

Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA), its receptor (u-PAR), and type 1 inhibitor (PAI-1) in cultured human mesangial cells were investigated. Treatment with phospholipase C (PLC) released plasminogen activators [with relative mol wt (M(r)) of 55,000 and 100,000] and u-PAR into the culture medium. By Western blot, both u-PA and PAI-1 were present in the M(r) 100,000 band.

An alternative bent-knee prosthesis.

Prosthetic fitting in patients with below-knee amputations and concurrent knee flexion contractures poses inherent difficulties to the prosthetic rehabilitation team. The standard bent-knee prosthesis is bulky and awkward. It treats the patient functionally as a knee disarticulation and yields no potential for improving the patient's degree of contracture.

Stimulation of the thrombin receptor of human glomerular mesangial cells by Ser-Phe-Leu-Leu-Arg-Asn-Pro-Asn-Asp-Lys-Tyr-Glu-Pro-Phe peptide.

We have studied the effects of thrombin (alpha-thrombin) and Ser-Phe-Leu-Leu-Arg-Asn-Pro-Asn-Asp-Lys-Tyr-Glu-Pro-Phe (SFLL), a peptide agonist of the platelet thrombin receptor in cultured human mesangial cells, and find that SFLL can reproduce the biochemical and morphological effects of thrombin. Treatment of mesangial cells with cAMP-elevating agents causes fragmentation of stress fibers, loss of the vitronectin receptor from sites of focal adhesion, and produces a change in shape from a flat to a more arborized configuration. These effects are prevented by both thrombin and SFLL.

Upper motor neurone and descending tract pathology in bovine spinal muscular atrophy.

The extent of neuropathology in a recently reported disease of Brown Swiss cattle, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), was investigated with light and electron microscopy. Many regions of the central nervous system were sampled from 10 SMA-affected and three normal Brown Swiss calves. In addition to extensive necrosis of lower motor neurones there was extensive upper motor neurone degeneration and descending tract pathology.

Electron microscopic studies of bovine progressive degenerative myeloencephalopathy in brown Swiss cattle.

Selected peripheral nerves from animals affected with Bovine Progressive Degenerative Myeloencephalopathy (BPDME) were examined by transmission electron microscopy. Changes in axons were both degenerative and reactive in nature and included axonal swelling in conjunction with accumulation of altered organelles and various forms of vesicles. Affected axoplasm was often vacuolated and shrunken, with loss of microtubules and microfilaments and separation of the axoplasmic membrane from the myelin sheath.

The relations of maternal practices and characteristics to children's vicarious emotional responsiveness.

This study examined the relations of maternal vicarious emotional responding and child-rearing practices, as well as familial emotional environment, to 5-6 and 8-9-year-old children's vicarious emotional responding. There were some correspondences between mothers' and children's heart rate, facial, and self-reported reactions to a sympathy-inducing film. Maternal sympathy/perspective taking and reinforcement of sympathy/prosocial behavior, as well as negative subordinate emotion in the home, were associated with markers of girls' sympathy; mothers' personal distress (for girls), restrictiveness regarding displays of hurtful negative emotions (particularly for young girls), and negative dominant emotion in the home (for both sexes) were associated with markers of personal distress.

Histochemical and morphometric studies of peripheral muscle in bovine progressive degenerative myeloencephalopathy of brown Swiss cattle.

Histochemical and morphometric analysis of selected skeletal muscles was performed on 14 pure bred, Brown Swiss cattle. Nine cattle were clinically affected with bovine progressive degenerative myeloencephalopathy (BPDME) while five served as controls. Statistically significant trend differences were not observed for the parameters of mean cross sectional area, and mean fiber type percentages for types, I, IIA, and IIB fibers between affected and control test groups.

Vasopressin and phorbol ester-stimulated phosphatidylcholine metabolism in mesangial cells.

We have studied the effects of the vasoactive agents phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) and vasopressin (VP) on phosphatidylcholine metabolism in cultured rat glomerular mesangial cells. PMA and VP stimulate the incorporation of [3H]choline into phosphatidylcholine and the release of [3H]choline into the culture medium. VP, but not PMA, also increases the release of phosphorylcholine into the medium.

High glucose increases diacylglycerol mass and activates protein kinase C in mesangial cell cultures.

We showed previously that glomerular mesangial cells displayed increased fibronectin, laminin, and type IV collagen synthesis and mRNA levels when grown in medium containing 30 mM glucose compared with those cells grown in 10 mM glucose [S. H. Ayo, R.

The altruistic personality: in what contexts is it apparent?

Hypotheses concerning the specific contexts in which an altruistic personality might be most apparent were investigated. College students completed questionnaires tapping components of an altruistic personality, emotionality, and social desirability. At a 2nd session, the emotional evocativeness and ease of escape from the helping situation were experimentally manipulated.

Gross, microscopic and ultrastructural lesions of protoporphyria in Limousin calves.

The gross, microscopic and ultrastructural lesions associated with the genetic disease, protoporphyria, in Limousin cattle were studied in detail. The clinical signs and lesions were most severe in young animals. In the liver, the lesions consisted of portal fibroplasia, bile ductule hyperplasia, parenchymal cell swelling, and pigment accumulation.

A combination histochemical stain for equine muscle.

The purpose of this study was to find a combination histochemical staining technique for the evaluation of equine skeletal muscle that is reliable and effective, while offering a substantial reduction in the labor and cost involved with currently used individual histochemical methods. Several combinations under varying conditions of pH were studied. The most uniform results were obtained using an acid preincubation step at an optimal pH of 4.

Rectovaginal constriction in Jersey cattle: genetics and breed dynamics.

Data from farmer-owned herds and from experimental matings supported monofactorial recessive inheritance of rectovaginal constriction in US Jersey cattle. Kempthorne's population genetics model of a recessive trait involving only male selection was extended to include mutation and converted to selection of females only. Computer analyses with that model estimate slow decline in the frequency of the gene for rectovaginal constriction.

Physical activity and condition, dietary habits, and serum lipids in second-year medical students.

Level of physical activity has been found to be an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease. Because lifestyle and dietary habits are frequently established by early adulthood, we examined the physical activity, physical fitness, body composition, plasma lipids, and diets of a group of second-year medical students. Medical students were studied because of the presumption that they were knowledgeable about exercise and appropriate diet and would have future influence on their patients.