Complete amino acid sequence and homologies of human erythrocyte membrane protein band 4.2.

The complete amino acid sequence for human erythrocyte band 4.2 has been derived from the nucleotide sequence of a full-length 2.35-kilobase (kb) cDNA.

Enterovesical fistula from Meckel's diverticulum in a patient with Crohn's ileitis.

Formation of a fistula from a Meckel's diverticulum to the bladder is extremely rare and may not be recognized, especially in patients with other gastrointestinal disease. We describe a patient with Crohn's ileitis who was assumed to have two enterovesical fistulae from his diseased ileum. Laparotomy revealed a Meckel's diverticulum with fistulization to the bladder.

Assessing symptom change in Southeast Asian refugee survivors of mass violence and torture.

The authors evaluated changes in symptoms and levels of perceived distress of 21 Cambodian, 13 Hmong/Laotian, and 18 Vietnamese patients before and after a 6-month treatment period. Most of the patients improved significantly. Cambodians had the greatest and Hmong/Laotians had the least reductions in depressive symptoms.

Wheat germ agglutinin but not concanavalin A modulates protein kinase C-mediated phosphorylation of red cell skeletal proteins.

Human red blood cells contain protein kinase C (PKC) which acts exclusively on the membrane skeletal proteins band 4.1, band 4.9 and adducin.

A quantitative investigation of hippocampal pyramidal cell size, shape, and variability of orientation in schizophrenia.

Hippocampal abnormalities have been described in patients with schizophrenia, with disarray of pyramidal cells being one of the more intriguing findings. Controversy exists regarding whether disarray is present in the brains from schizophrenics in the Yakovlev collection at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, DC. We examined for disarray the CA1 region of the midhippocampus of 17 schizophrenics and 32 controls from this collection using computerized determination of neuronal angle and directional statistical analysis of the variability of neuronal angle.

Vascular spasm complicates continuous wave but not pulsed laser irradiation.

Preliminary clinical experience with laser angioplasty has suggested that arterial spasm may complicate attempts to employ laser light to accomplish vascular recanalization. The present study was designed to investigate the role of energy profile on the development of arterial spasm during laser angioplasty. Laser irradiation was delivered percutaneously in vivo to New Zealand white rabbits and to Yucatan microswine with or without atherosclerotic lesions induced by a combination of balloon endothelial denudation and atherogenic diet.

A standard of care for the nursing diagnosis of ineffective airway clearance.

The American Nurses' Association defines nursing as the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual and potential health problems. The process of nursing assessment and diagnosis facilitates the identification of actual and potential health problems and the organization and direction of the planning, implementation, and evaluation of nursing care in striving for optimal patient outcomes. The nursing diagnosis of ineffective airway clearance describes a problem for which many hospitalized patients are at risk because of either acute or chronic illness.

Multiple strictures in Crohn's disease of the small bowel: a benign variant.

Involvement of both jejunum and ileum is uncommon in Crohn's disease of the small bowel. We report five patients with multiple strictures of the small bowel associated with one or more intervening segments of dilated bowel. A diagnosis of Crohn's disease was delayed because none of the patients experienced diarrhea.

Severe hemolysis and red cell fragmentation caused by the combination of a spectrin mutation with a thrombotic microangiopathy.

Two patients are described who presented with severe hemolysis and erythrocyte fragmentation. One patient had renal allograft rejection and disseminated intravascular coagulation, and the other had thrombotic thrombocytopenia purpura. The severity of hemolysis and the red cell abnormalities were considerably more profound than usually seen in patients with thrombotic microangiopathies.

Separation of the lipid bilayer from the membrane skeleton during discocyte-echinocyte transformation of human erythrocyte ghosts.

The membrane skeleton, a protein lattice at the internal side of the red cell membrane, is principally composed of spectrin, actin and proteins 4.1 and 4.9.

Pulsed ultraviolet laser irradiation produces endothelium-independent relaxation of vascular smooth muscle.

Recent studies have shown that continuous wave laser irradiation induces contraction of vascular smooth muscle, except at powers far below the threshold for tissue ablation. To determine the corresponding effects of pulsed laser irradiation on vascular smooth muscle tone, vascular rings of rabbit thoracic aorta were mounted isometrically with 1 g tension in Krebs-bicarbonate buffer and irradiated with 308 or 351 nm from an excimer laser through a 400-microns optical fiber. A total of 250 exposures were performed with 1-6.

Tolerance to phenelzine and subsequent refractory depression: three cases.

Three patients with major depression superimposed on chronic dysthymia were treated with phenelzine. After an initial excellent response, each patient relapsed and developed a severe chronic depression that was refractory to other treatments. The implications for the long-term effects of phenelzine treatment are considered.

Dual role of fibronectin in hematopoietic differentiation.

The adhesive glycoprotein fibronectin provides anchorage for fibroblasts and hematopoietic progenitor cells in vitro. Fibronectin also demonstrates growth factor activity for fibroblasts; however, there is no available information regarding its role as a hematopoietic growth factor. To distinguish growth factor activity of fibronectin from its anchorage activity for hematopoietic progenitors, we assessed the ability of purified human plasma fibronectin to promote human bone marrow erythroid, granulocyte-macrophage (GM) and mixed granulocyte-erythroid-macrophage-megakaryocyte (GEMM) colony formation in liquid suspension, methylcellulose, and fibrin clots under serum-free conditions.

Structurally distinct plasma membrane regions give rise to extracellular membrane vesicles in normal and transformed lymphocytes.

Shedding of extracellular membranes from the cell surface may be one of the means through which cells communicate with one another. In an attempt to elucidate whether cell surface exfoliation is a directed or random process, we investigated the membrane lipid and protein composition and membrane lipid order of shed extracellular membranes and of plasma membranes from which they arose in normal circulating lymphocytes and in the B-lymphoblastoid cell lines Raji, WI HF2 729 and the T-lymphoblastoid cell line Jurkat. Extracellular membranes derived from transformed cell lines were more rigid as assessed by steady state polarization of 1,6-diphenylhexatriene (DPH) and were highly enriched in cholesterol when compared with the corresponding plasma membrane.