Treatment of diabetes with vanadium salts: general overview and amelioration of nutritionally induced diabetes in the Psammomys obesus gerbil.

Background: Numerous investigations have demonstrated the beneficial effect of vanadium salts on diabetes in streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic rats, in rodents with genetically determined diabetes and in human subjects. The amelioration of diabetes included the abolition of hyperglycemia, preservation of insulin secretion, reduction in hepatic glucose production, enhanced glycolysis and lipogenesis and improved muscle glucose uptake through GLUT4 elevation and translocation. The molecular basis of vanadium salt action is not yet fully elucidated.

The effect of suramin on bleomycin-induced lung injury.

Since transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) is presumed to play a role in lung fibrosis, we evaluated the effect of suramin (Sur), a substance with an anti-TGF-beta effect, in vivo on bleomycin (Bleo)-induced pulmonary injury in mice and in vitro on human lung fibroblasts. Four groups of C57BL/6 mice each received one of four treatments: (1) intratracheal (i.t.

Efficacy and safety of methacholine bronchial challenge performed by auscultation in young asthmatic children.

The measurement of bronchial reactivity is an important aid in the diagnosis of asthma, but the technique using spirometry is not feasible in young children. The aim of the present study was to determine the efficacy and safety of a modification of the chest auscultation method in the assessment of bronchial reactivity to inhaled methacholine in young asthmatic children. One hundred forty-six young children with asthma (mean age, 4.

Effects of adrenalectomy and corticosterone replacement on the hypothalamic-pituitary response to neural stimuli.

In this study we examined whether circulating glucocorticoids (GC) have a permissive facilitatory role in the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses to neural or metabolic stimuli. In control sham operated rats the exposure to photic or acoustic neural stimuli and to either cytoglucopenia induced by 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) or to hypoglycemia induced by insulin caused a significant 5-fold increase in serum ACTH as compared to basal non-stress levels. In adrenalectomized (Adex) rats tested under basal conditions at 4, 7 and 14 days post-Adex, serum ACTH gradually increased in a time-dependent manner, Also, at 4 days post-Adex the median eminence (ME) content of CRH-41 was markedly depleted but gradually recovered to control levels at 7 and 14 days post-Adex.

Effects of adrenergic and serotonergic agonists in the amygdala on the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis.

The effect of direct administration of adrenergic and serotonergic (5-HT) agonists into the central nucleus of the amygdala (AMG) on the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis have been studied in intact male rats and in animals with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) or 5, 7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT) neurotoxic lesions in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN). In intact animals, the administration of phenylephrine, an alpha1 adrenergic agonist or 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)-tetralin (8-OH-DPAT) a 5-HT(1A) agonist caused depletion of median eminence corticotropin releasing hormone and a rise in serum adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone (CS) levels. Isoproterenol a beta agonist was more effective than phenylephrine and a 5-HT(1B) agonist CP-93, 129 was less effective than 8-OH-DPAT on the adrenocortical activity.

Successful talc slurry pleurodesis in patients with nonmalignant pleural effusion.

Background: Chemical pleurodesis is an effective treatment for malignant pleural effusion and pneumothorax. This mode of therapy is, however, less widely accepted in the treatment of patients with refractory benign or undiagnosed pleural effusion.

Study Objectives: To analyze the outcome of talc slurry pleurodesis in patients with nonmalignant pleural effusions.

Overnutrition in spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus): beta-cell expansion leading to rupture and overt diabetes on fat-rich diet and protective energy-wasting elevation in thyroid hormone on sucrose-rich diet.

Previous Studies: The investigation of diabetes propensity in spiny mice, performed in Geneva and Jerusalem colonies, is reviewed. Spiny mice live in semi-desert regions of the eastern Mediterranean countries. Those transferred to Geneva in the 1950s were maintained on a rodent diet supplemented by fat-rich seeds.

Cerebrospinal fluid lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme analysis for the diagnosis of central nervous system involvement in hematooncologic patients.

Background: Central nervous system (CNS) involvement is common in hematooncologic diseases. The aim of the current study was to determine the diagnostic value of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) isoenzyme analysis for the diagnosis of CNS involvement in hematooncologic patients.

Methods: The study was comprised of 63 consecutive hematooncologic patients without previous CNS disease who underwent CSF examination as an integral part of their initial staging procedures (44 patients) or for the evaluation of neurologic symptoms (19 patients).

The prophylactic potential of fludarabine monophosphate in graft-versus-host disease after bone marrow transplantation in murine models.

Fludarabine phosphate, a purine analogue currently used in the therapy of hematological malignancies, is known to cause immunosuppression and long-lasting T cell lymphopenia. In this study, the effect of fludarabine on murine graft-versus-host disease occurring after marrow transplantation across major and minor histocompatibility barriers was evaluated. Survival of (BALB/c x C57BL/6)F1 mice irradiated and transplanted across the major histocompatibility barrier with C57BL/6 spleen cells, and subsequently treated with fludarabine was significantly longer than that of the control animals (P < 0.

Inheritance of heart rate variability: the kibbutzim family study.

Heart rate variability (HRV) measures are associated with coronary heart disease incidence and mortality. Therefore insight into the genetic and environmental determinants of these measures may have clinical relevance. We assessed the role of genetic and environmental factors of time domain and frequency domain HRV indices.

Effect of immunomodulators on bleomycin-induced lung injury.

Background: The role of lymphocytes and their subpopulations in lung fibrosis is as yet unclear.

Objective: To define the role of immunomodulation in bleomycin-induced inflammatory fibrotic lung injury, by testing the effect of two known Th1 inhibitors: linomide and pentoxifylline.

Methods: C57BL/6 mice were treated by a single intratracheal instillation of 0.

Corticosteroid-induced glaucoma attributable to an adrenocorticotropin-secreting malignant carcinoid tumor of the thymus.

Purpose: To describe the clinical and histopathologic findings in a patient with corticosteroid-induced open-angle glaucoma attributable to an adrenocorticotropin-secreting malignant carcinoid of the thymus.

Methods: Case report. In a 33-year-old man, the clinical course, laboratory findings, and imaging results as well as the histopathologic findings are described.

Nonfasting plasma total homocysteine level and mortality in middle-aged and elderly men and women in Jerusalem.

Background: Elevated plasma total homocysteine level has been associated with cardiovascular disease in many studies, mostly in Europe and North America. Data on persons from other areas and on associations with overall mortality are sparse.

Objective: To determine the relation of plasma homocysteine level to all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

The use of oral pilocarpine in xerostomia and Sjögren's syndrome.

Objectives: To analyze the role of oral pilocarpine in the treatment of xerostomia of Sjogren's syndrome (SS).

Methods: The medical literature was reviewed for all studies using oral pilocarpine to treat xerostomia caused by SS or radiotherapy registered in the MedLine Silver Platter database from 1966 to 1998.

Results: All the studies identified excluded elderly individuals with cardiac or pulmonary disease.

Glucocorticoid receptor antagonists in the hippocampus modify the negative feedback following neural stimuli.

The effects of local glucocorticoid receptor antagonists implanted into the dorsal hippocampus on the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses following neural stimuli in freely moving rats, as well as their effects on the negative feedback exerted by dexamethasone (DEX) was studied in male rats. In animals with hippocampal cholesterol implants, photic and acoustic stimuli caused depletion in median eminence (ME) CRH-41 and a consequent rise in plasma ACTH and corticosterone levels. These effects were inhibited by systemic DEX, and the latter phenomenon was partially reversed by hippocampal implants of glucocorticoid (GR) and to a lesser degree by mineralocorticoid (MR) receptor antagonists.

Multifocal choroidal malignant melanoma: at least 3 melanomas in one eye.

Objectives: To describe a case of an enucleated eye harboring multiple choroidal malignant melanomas.

Methods: Clinical, ultrasonographic, and histopathological evaluations.

Results: Meticulous sectioning of the globe did not disclose any structural continuity between the 3 choroidal melanomas.

Suppression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by tyrphostin AG-556.

Tyrosine kinase blockers from the AG 126/AG-556 tyrphostin family are shown to inhibit the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced production of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha), nitric oxide (NO), and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in primary rat astrocytes cultures. The tyrphostin AG-556 which was previously shown to be effective against sepsis in mice and dogs also show excellent efficacy in inhibiting experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in mice. AG-556 does not block the activation of JNK/SAPK and of p38/HOG and therefore seems to act at a target down stream to these kinases which is activated in stress or at a target on an obligatory parallel pathway.

Lysis of plasma clots by urokinase-soluble urokinase receptor complexes.

Single-chain urokinase plasminogen activator (scuPA), the unique form secreted by cells, expresses little intrinsic plasminogen activator activity. scuPA can be activated by proteolytic cleavage to form a two-chain enzyme (tcuPA), which is susceptible to inhibition by plasminogen activator inhibitor type I (PAI-1). scuPA is also activated when it binds to its cellular receptor (uPAR), in which case the protein remains as a single chain molecule with less susceptibility to PAIs.

The three-dimensional structure of myenteric neurons in the guinea-pig ileum.

Myenteric neurons of the guinea-pig ileum were intracellularly filled with the fluorescent dye Lucifer Yellow, optically sectioned with a confocal microscope and volume reconstructed to recreate 3-D images of the cells. The resulting images provide information not evident from regular microscopy. The somata varied in cross-section from flat-oval to nearly circular, and their surface membranes were marked by invaginations and protrusions significantly increasing the surface area of the somatic membrane.

Calreticulin inhibits vitamin D's action on the PTH gene in vitro and may prevent vitamin D's effect in vivo in hypocalcemic rats.

1,25-dihydroxyvitaminD3 [1,25-(OH)2D3] and PTH both act to increase serum calcium. In addition, 1,25-(OH)2D3 decreases PTH gene transcription, which is relevant both to the physiology of calcium homeostasis and to the management of the secondary hyperparathyroidism of patients with chronic renal failure. In chronic hypocalcemia there is secondary hyperparathyroidism with increased levels of PTH mRNA and serum PTH despite markedly increased levels of 1,25-(OH)2D3.

Role of serotonin in the amygdala in hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical responses.

In view of the fact that the amygdala (AMG) and hypothalamic serotonin (5-HT) have an excitatory effect on the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, we have investigated the role of 5-HT in the AMG on this response. In intact freely moving rats, a mildly stressing short photic stimulation caused depletion of median eminence CRH-41, due to its release into the portal circulation and a rise in serum ACTH and corticosterone levels. This effect was significantly inhibited in rats in which 5-HT was depleted in the AMG following local 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine administration, which did not affect hypothalamic 5-HT content.

Differences in rhodamine-123 efflux in B-type chronic lymphocytic leukemia suggest possible gender and stage variations in drug-resistance gene activity.

Peripheral blood samples from 61 patients (36 male, 25 female) with all stages of B-type chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) were studied for MDR1 phenotype using monoclonal antibodies and rhodamine-123 dye exclusion, a functional assay of MDR1 expression. The duration of the disease varied from 1 month to 22 years at the time of initial study. Overall, 74% of the patients were positive for rhodamine-123 exclusion.

Intravascular lymphomatosis--an indolent or aggressive entity?

Intravascular lymphomatosis (IVL) is a rare malignancy characterized by neoplastic proliferation of lymphoid cells within the lumens of arteries, small veins and capillaries. We report four patients with IVL and review the recent world literature, relating to incidence, clinical features and possible therapy. In these cases diagnosis was established coincidentally in one patient after prostatectomy.

The excitatory effects of the amygdala on hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical responses are mediated by hypothalamic norepinephrine, serotonin, and CRF-41.

The hypothalamic neural mechanisms that are involved in the facilitatory effects of the amygdala (AMG) on the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis have been investigated in rats. Stimulation of the central AMG nucleus caused a depletion of hypothalamic CRF-41, presumably due to its release into the portal circulation, and a subsequent rise in plasma ACTH and corticosterone (CS) levels. These effects were inhibited in rats in which hypothalamic norepinephrine (NE) or serotonin (5-HT) was depleted by catecholamine or serotonin neurotoxins, respectively.