Long chain fatty acid (Lcfa) abnormalities in hyper Igd syndrome (Hids) and Familial Mediterranean Fever (Fmf): new insight into heritable periodic fevers.

Objective: To examine essential fatty acids (EFAs) in hyper-IgD syndrome (HIDS) and Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF).

Methods: EFAs were determined in sera derived from an archival, cross-sectional group of HIDS/FMF patients, stratified for presence and absence of fever. Control populations included healthy afebrile adults, and individuals with non-periodic fever (septic shock).

Startle responses in Parkinson patients during human gait.

Falls frequently occur in patients with Parkinson's disease (Bloem et al. 2001). One potential source for such falls during walking might be caused by the reaction to loud noises.

Lineage-specific gene loss following mitochondrial endosymbiosis and its potential for function prediction in eukaryotes.

The endosymbiotic origin of mitochondria has resulted in a massive horizontal transfer of genetic material from an alpha-proteobacterium to the early eukaryotes. Using large-scale phylogenetic analysis we have previously identified 630 orthologous groups of proteins derived from this event. Here we show that this proto-mitochondrial protein set has undergone extensive lineage-specific gene loss in the eukaryotes, with an average of three losses per orthologous group in a phylogeny of nine species.

A novel mechanism in recessive nephrogenic diabetes insipidus: wild-type aquaporin-2 rescues the apical membrane expression of intracellularly retained AQP2-P262L.

Vasopressin regulates water homeostasis through insertion of homotetrameric aquaporin-2 (AQP2) water channels in the apical plasma membrane of renal cells. AQP2 mutations cause recessive and dominant nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI), a disease in which the kidney is unable to concentrate urine in response to vasopressin. Until now, all AQP2 mutants in recessive NDI were shown to be misfolded, retained in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and unable to interact with wild-type (wt)-AQP2, whereas AQP2 mutants in dominant NDI are properly folded and interact with wt-AQP2, but, due to the mutation, cause missorting of the wt-AQP2/mutant complex.