Genetically modified foods and children potential health risks.

Aim: Professor Pusztai was publicly humiliated over claims that genetically modified (GM) Frankenstein food may be harmful. He was stripped of his post and described as 'muddled' by his superiors after he referred to experiments in which rats had been damaged when fed genetically-altered potatoes. Who is in an unsound scenario, supported by verbal expressions ("substantially"), should even more expend further effort in conducting scientific investigation into the safety of GM varieties of plants.

Noun versus verb emphasis in Italian mother-to-child speech.

This paper examines naturalistic adult-to-child speech produced by 15 Italian middle-class mothers to determine which specific patterns characterize linguistic input to children at 1;4 and 1;8. Since Italian is a pro-drop language, we expect that adult-to-child speech will show a bias towards a more salient semantic and morphological significance of verbs relative to nouns. We expect that verbs will more likely occupy the sentence-initial position, and have more morphological inflections relative to nouns.

Immunohistochemical localization of nNOS in the head kidney of larval and juvenile rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss.

The aim of this investigation was to assess whether in teleosts, as in mammals, nitric oxide (NO) is involved in the regulation of cellular activity in the adrenal homolog. Larval and juvenile stages of the rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, were used, in which the adrenal homolog consists of chromaffin adrenergic and interrenal steroidogenic cells localized mainly in the head kidney where there are also ganglion cells and nerve fibres that innervate the gland. In 12-month-old juveniles, the immunohistochemical reaction for neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), which catalyzes the synthesis of NO, revealed the presence of this enzyme in some nerve fibres and ganglion cells and only rarely in chromaffin cells.

Surgical controversies in the treatment of recurrent achalasia of the esophagus.

Background/aims: Surgery remains the first choice for achalasia of the esophagus with good results in 90% of cases.

Methodology: We studied the cause of failure for surgical treatment and the results of a second operation in 20 patients that were followed up for at least three years.

Results: The results were good in 70% of the cases.

Effect of Lisinopril on the progression of renal insufficiency in mild proteinuric non-diabetic nephropathies.

Background: The aim of the study was to determine whether Lisinopril, an ACE-inhibitor (ACEi), was more effective than other antihypertensive agents in slowing the progression of non-diabetic chronic renal diseases in patients with baseline proteinuria < or =1.0 g/day.

Methods: In an open, multicentre study all eligible patients entered a 3 months run-in phase during which antihypertensive therapy (with exclusion of ACEi) was adjusted in order to obtain a supine diastolic blood pressure < or =90 mmHg and urinary protein excretion and renal function stability were verified.

Ibopamine treatment in chronic hypotony secondary to long-lasting uveitis. A case report.

Purpose: To assess the clinical efficacy of ibopamine eye drops in severe hypotony secondary to chronic progressive uveitis.

Methods: Case report. A 47-year-old man with a 37-year history of diffuse uveitis and severe refractory hypotony was treated with topical 2% ibopamine (Trazyl) six times a day.

Bromocriptine and speech therapy in non-fluent chronic aphasia after stroke.

The objectives of this study were to investigate the efficacy of bromocriptine (BR) combined with speech therapy (ST) to improve a late recovery in non-fluent aphasic stroke patients. We performed a double-blind study with high dosage of BR, prescribed according to a dose-escalating protocol, comprehensive of clinical data, relatives' impression, and language evaluations. The study was divided into the following phases: t-0, inclusion; t-30, language re-test to evaluate the stability of aphasia; t-90, placebo (PL) and ST; t-150, BR and ST; t-210, BR; t-270, wash-out.

Simulating prosopagnosia through a lesion of lateral connections in a feed-forward neural network.

We show that particular features of prosopagnosic impairment can be simulated by a connectionist model trained with an unsupervised learning procedure. In particular we describe a Kohonen's neural network which is able to correctly recognize and categorize a series of digitized pictures of faces when learning is characterized by certain parameter values, but which shows a prosopagnosic behavior when lateral connections are lesioned. We discuss the relationship between this result and some neurophysiological hypotheses about prosopagnosia.

Total removal of an intramedullary cavernous angioma by transthoracic approach.

Intramedullary cavernous angiomas are rare vascular malformations; all published cases have been surgically approached posteriorly by standard laminectomy. We describe the case of a 63-year-old man with an intramedullary cavernous angioma, anteriorly located in the thoracic spinal cord. The angioma was operated on by transthoracic approach and totally removed.

Structure of the Mini-Mental State Examination: a comparison between normal and clinical subjects.

The Mini-Mental State Examination was administered to a sample of 133 Italians ranging from 60 to 80 years of age. From a Principal Components Analysis three factors were retained, being results of both varimax and oblimin rotations. These were labeled (1) Memory, (2) Verbal Comprehension, and (3) Attention.

Iron-induced Lipid Peroxidation in Human Skin-derived Cell Lines: Protection by a Red Orange Extract.

Although photodamage and photoprotection have already been extensively studied in cultured cells, few data have been reported in the literature regarding the in vitro behaviour of skin cells toward a chemical stress, such as iron-induced lipid peroxidation. We investigated the susceptibilities of two human skin-derived cell lines (NCTC 2544 keratinocytes and HFFF2 fibroblasts) to lipid peroxidation induced by FeSO4/histidine, FeSO4/ascorbate and Fe2(SO4)3/ADP. NCTC 2544 cells were more susceptible than HFFF2 cells to lipid peroxidation (assessed by measuring the content of malondialdehyde [MDA]) with iron/ascorbate and iron/ADP as pro-oxidants whereas, with iron/histidine, the same level of MDA production was achieved (about 10nmol/mg protein) in the two cell populations.

Evaluation of T-cell response to CD3 plus CD28 monoclonal antibodies in HIV-1 infected subjects treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy.

To investigate whether highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) could improve CD28 molecule expression and CD28-costimulation pathway function we tested the effect of CD28-costimulation on T cell receptor/CD3 induced proliferative responses in a group of HIV-1-infected subjects with CD4+ cells>200/mmc before and after HAART. CD3-mediated responses are recovered or improved after HAART. However the ability of potentiating the responses through CD28-costimulation seemed conserved before therapy and decreased in parallel with increase of response to CD3 alone.

Nephrotic syndrome and plasmapheresis.

We studied 15 patients suffering from nephrotic syndrome (NS) in bioptically-accertained primary and secondary glomerulopathies responding poorly to the common pharmacological treatment. They were monitored for one year by assessing their immunological and kidney functionality parameters, especially proteinuria. The patients underwent 3 apheretic sittings using the cascade double-filtration technique.

Succinylpurinemic autism: increased sensitivity of defective adenylosuccinate lyase towards 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal.

We studied the effect of trans-4-hydroxy-2-nonenal on the wild-type human adenylosuccinate lyase and on the enzyme from a patient compound-heterozygous for two missense mutations (P75A/D397Y; McKusick 103050.0003/103050.0004).

Determination of urinary orotic acid and uracil by capillary zone electrophoresis.

We describe a simple method for measuring orotic acid and uracil concentration in urine by capillary zone electrophoresis in 20 mM Na-borate buffer, pH 9.2. The method was applied for studying a patient with HHH (hyperomithinemia, hyperammonemia and homocitrullinuria) syndrome.

Interactions of Epstein-Barr virus origins of replication with nuclear matrix in the latent and in the lytic phases of viral infection.

Eukaryotic DNA is organized into domains or loops generated by the attachment of chromatin fibers to the nuclear matrix via specific regions called scaffold or matrix attachment regions. The role of these regions in DNA replication is currently under investigation since they have been found in close association with origins of replication. Also, viral DNA sequences, containing the origins of replication, have been found attached to the nuclear matrix.

"Crohn's disease activity index" is inaccurate to detect the post-operative recurrence in Crohn's disease. A GISC study. Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio del Colon e del Retto.

Background: Even though endoscopy is considered to be the gold standard for the detection of post-operative recurrence in Crohn's disease, the Crohn's disease activity index continues to be used for this purpose.

Aim: The aim of this study was, therefore, to assess the accuracy of Crohn's disease activity index to detect post-operative recurrence in Crohn's disease in comparison to endoscopy.

Patients And Methods: The study was performed in 110 patients submitted to intestinal resection for Crohn's disease of the terminal ileum.

Effect of D-ribose on purine synthesis and neurological symptoms in a patient with adenylosuccinase deficiency.

Oral supplementation of 10 mmol/kg/day of D-ribose to a patient with an inherited deficit of adenylosuccinase, severe psychomotor retardation, and epilepsy caused a marked increase in plasma concentration and urinary excretion of urate, while minor changes in succinylpurine levels were observed. D-Ribose administration was accompanied by a slight improvement of behaviour and a progressive reduction of seizure frequency, which increased dramatically upon two attempts to withdraw the drug. Substitution of D-ribose with an equivalent amount of D-glucose did not result in an increase of seizure frequency.

Eps15 is recruited to the plasma membrane upon epidermal growth factor receptor activation and localizes to components of the endocytic pathway during receptor internalization.

Eps15 is a substrate for the tyrosine kinase of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and is characterized by the presence of a novel protein:protein interaction domain, the EH domain. Eps15 also stably binds the clathrin adaptor protein complex AP-2. Previous work demonstrated an essential role for eps15 in receptor-mediated endocytosis.

Hypotaurine disproportionation reaction: identification of products.

Hypotaurine, concentrated under reduced pressure in HCl solution, partially (30-40%) degrades into taurine (about 30%), 2-aminoethyl-2-aminoethanethiolsulfonate (about 10%) and ethanolamine. The degradation products were identified using LC/APCI-MS, NMR, amino acid analysis and various chromatographies. The identities were confirmed by comparing the HPLS, MS and NMR characteristics of authentic compounds.

Comparison of four minimally invasive methods of laparoscopic vagotomy in a porcine model.

Background: An experimental study in a porcine model was undertaken to evaluate the currently available techniques of laparoscopic vagotomy.

Methods: Four groups of pigs were studied. Under general anesthesia, the animals were submitted to either bilateral vagotomy, bilateral highly selective vagotomy, posterior truncal vagotomy with anterior highly selective vagotomy, or Taylor's procedure.

Identification of new mutations in the adenylosuccinate lyase gene associated with impaired enzyme activity in lymphocytes and red blood cells.

We determined the DNA sequence of the adenylosuccinate lyase (ASL) gene from a 13 year-old female, who showed a reduced ASL enzymatic activity in lymphocytes and red blood cells and suffered from severe psychomotor retardation. The patient was the offspring of a non-consanguineous marriage. She was found to be compound heterozygous for two missense-mutations located on different alleles (C300-G and G1266-T): the first mutation replaces Pro75 by Ala, the second mutation replaces Asp397 by Tyr.