Molecular and pharmacological properties of GABA-rho subunits from white perch retina.

Five gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-rho subunits were cloned from a white perch retinal cDNA library and expressed in Xenopus oocytes. The deduced amino acid sequences indicated that all are highly homologous to the GABA-rho subunits cloned from mammalian retinas; two clones (perch-rho 1A and perch-rho 1B) were in the rho 1 family, two (perch-rho 2A and perch-rho 2B) were in the rho 2 family, and one clone has been tentatively identified as a perch-rho 3 subunit. When expressed in Xenopus oocytes, all but one of the subunits (rho 3) formed functional homooligomeric receptors.

The closet and the ethics of outing.

Because social circumstances have changed, the question of outing has assumed an importance unknown in a time when homosexuality was a guarded secret. This essay describes the evils of the closet in terms of its affronts to the worth of gay men and lesbians. While outing might appear as a repudiation of the closet, this essay argues that not all outing is justified.

Endocarditis in neonatal intensive care unit.

The clinical spectrum of infective endocarditis (IE) in infants is examined in four infants between 3 and 9 months of age. None of the patients had signs of IE; all four had an anatomically normal heart. Echocardiograms showed echo-dense vegetations in the left side of heart in three cases and in the right side in one.

Sequence requirements for activation of replication by the SV40 transcriptional promoter or enhancer elements.

Previous studies have demonstrated that the 21- or the 72-bp repeat transcriptional control elements enhance the efficiency of SV40 DNA replication in vivo, provided either of these repeats is located near the end of the core replication origin containing the 17-bp A + T-containing sequence. Using two sets of point mutants we have investigated the contributions of the various sequence motifs present in the 21- or the 72-bp repeats toward activation of replication. Regarding the contribution of the six GC motif components of the 21-bp repeats, we find that GC motif I, located closest to the core origin, is dispensable for activation of replication.

Two-year carbohydrate metabolism studies in women using a norethindrone or levonorgestrel triphasic oral contraceptive.

Carbohydrate metabolism was prospectively studied in 28 women using triphasic oral contraceptives (TOC) for two years. They were tested using a 100-gram oral glucose tolerance test with measurements of plasma glucose and insulin levels during the three-hour test. The women were randomly assigned to either a norethindrone-containing TOC or a levonorgestrel-containing TOC.

X-linked retinitis pigmentosa. Profile of clinical findings.

An evaluation of 56 patients with X-linked retinitis pigmentosa revealed a profile of findings that include the following: night blindness within the first two decades of life; spherical refractive errors of -2.00 diopters or greater in addition to an increased prevalence of a cylindrical correction of +1.50 diopters or greater; appreciable impairment of central visual acuity to 20/200 or less by the fifth decade of life; characteristic patterns of field loss; presence of a foveal lesion in up to 75% of the study group; posterior subcapsular lens opacities; and nondetectable electroretinographic amplitudes in more than two thirds of the patients (using conventional full-field recording procedures).