Cromoglycate Induces a Rebound Effect on Blood/Milk Permeability in Subclinical Mastitis

Chronic subclinical mastitis represents a vicious cycle of constant tissue irritation by bacteria and inflammatory response of the host. Antibiotics have proven relatively inefficient in eliminating chronic mastitic infections. The use of anti-inflammatory agents in mastitis is controversial. Theoretically, the inflammation should not be suppressed as this is a host defence mechanism of the body. However, because it is uncertain whether the infection or chronic inflammation causes more harm to the tissue, there have been efforts to use anti-inflammatory agents such as glucocorticoids and antipyretic analgetics. The problem is that there is insufficient evidence as to which inflammatory mediators (histamine, kinins, prostaglandins, leukotrienes, PAF, interleukin-1 etc.) alone or in combination are important in mastitis.     

Wilson disease mutations associated with uncommon haplotypes in mediterranean patients

This study reports 12 novel mutations of the Wilson disease (WD) gene which have been detected by the molecular analysis of 29 patients of Mediterranean descent carrying uncommon chromosomal haplotypes at the WD locus. These mutations include two nonsense, one splice site and nine missense. The missense mutations lie in regions of the WD gene critical for its function, such as the transmembrane region, the transduction domain and the ATP loop and ATP-binding domain, indicating that they are disease-causing mutations. These new findings improve our knowledge for the role played by functional domains on the ATP7B function. Received: 20 March 1996