Inhibition of the hydrosmotic response to antidiuretic hormone by 3,3'-diallyldiethylstilbestrol (DADES)

3,3'-diallyldiethylstilbestrol (DADES), a blocker of the facilitated diffusion of glucose, was found to interfere markedly with the hydrosmotic response to antidiuretic hormone and its related agonists. Frog urinary bladders were isolated and monitored for transmural net water flow. DADES was added either to the serosal or to the apical medium at concentrations ranging from 10(-4) M to 10(-6) M. Pretreatment for 30 min with apical 10(-4) M DADES drastically reduced the subsequent hydrosmotic response: (a) to oxytocin (4.4 x 10(-8) M) by 91.7 +/- 17.6% versus 6.2 +/- 7.8 in control; (b) to 8-bromo 3',5'-cyclic AMP by 93.5 +/- 19.4% versus 19.4 +/- 11.4%; (c) to serosal hyperosmolarity (mannitol 220 mOsm) by 99.3 +/- 0.5% versus 12.3 +/- 18.2%. This effect was dose-dependent. Inhibitory action of DADES was more effective on the apical side than on the serosal side (97.0 +/- 1.5 versus 45.8 +/- 10.8). Freeze-fracture studies revealed a modified distribution of the particles and unusual endocytotic pits and vesicles in the apical membrane of both granular and mitochondria-rich epithelial cells. These observations point to multiple and complex effects of the drug. Thus, it seems that DADES has numerous effects on urinary epithelium, which makes it a nonspecific inhibitor of water permeation. Conclusions on its use should therefore be drawn with suitable caution.     

Ketone Body Utilization for Lipid Synthesis in the Murine Sciatic Nerve: Alterations in the Dysmyelinating Trembler Mutant

This work demonstrates that in vitro sciatic nerves of normal and trembler adult mice can use ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate) and butyrate for lipid synthesis. In normal sciatic nerves, beta-hydroxybutyrate is incorporated in total lipids to a larger extent than acetoacetate (141% and 33%, respectively, of acetate incorporation), whereas for trembler sciatic nerves, these percentages are only 69% and 27%. Incorporation of ketone bodies is greater into sterols than into other lipids. Lipid metabolism of ketone bodies in trembler nerves is altered and could reflect a process similar to Wallerian degeneration: a dramatic decrease of sterol and free fatty acid synthesis and an increased synthesis of triglycerides. Moreover, differences seen in precursor incorporation into lipids between normal and trembler sciatic nerves suggest that their lipid metabolism is not the same.     

Effects of epidermal growth factor (EGF) on adult mouse small intestine in vivo and in organ culture

1. Exogenous administration of epidermal growth factor (EGF) has not modified the protein and DNA content, nor several brush border enzymes activities of duodenum, jejunum and ileum of intact and fasted adult mice. 2. Exogenous administration of EGF has not stimulated the DNA synthesis in the three regions of the small intestine of intact adult mice. 3. EGF has a stimulatory effect on DNA synthesis of fasted mice intestine 12 hr after injection. 4. In organ culture, EGF has not altered at any concentration (10, 50, 100, 200, 800 ng/ml), the same parameters in duodenal and jejunal explants taken from animals fasted 24 hr before being killed. 5. These last results suggest that the increase of DNA synthesis observed in vivo was not a direct effect of EGF administration. 6. Finally, the EGF content of serum af adult male mice was measured in fed and fasted mice and in the organ culture media.     

Ultrastructural differentiation and enzymatic localization of phosphatases in the developing duodenal epithelium of the mouse

Summary The localization of acid and alkaline phosphatase activities during the morphogenesis of the duodenum has been studied at the ultrastructural level in BALB/c mice. The present work deals with the foetal development from the 14th day till birth. It appears that acid phosphatase activity at the 14th day of foetal life, was situated in dense bodies at the base of the intestinal cells. At that moment, the flat apical membrane of the cells lining the intestinal lumen presented a faint alkaline phosphatase activity. With the maturation of the villus cells, the dense bodies migrated to a supra-nuclear zone, and on the 20th day, differentiated into a complex network of dense bodies and dense tubules showing the activity of the two phosphatases. On the other hand, the microvilli were developing from the 16th day, and active pinocytosis appeared on the 18th day. Alkaline phosphatase activity increased rapidly during this differentiation.This study was supported by a research grant no. N.D.G./27 from the Medical Research Council of Canada.The authors are indebted to Mr. Michel Couture for his assistance with the photographs.     

Organ culture of adult mouse intestine

Summary Explants of adult mouse jejunum have been maintained in organ culture with or without fructose added to the medium in order to stimulate the intestinal glucose-6-phosphatase (G-6-Pase). When the fructose is added, at the beginning of the culture, a three-fold increase of G-6-Pase is measured during the first 24h. If the fructose is added after 24 h of culture, no significant increase of the G-6-Pase is registered in comparison with the controls. Proteins, DNA content and dissacharidase activities are not modified during the culture. Alkaline phosphatase activity presents a twofold increase in the controls and stimulated explants. The ultrastructural localization of the G-6-Pase is not altered during the culture.This work was supported by research grants from the Medical Research Council of Canada (J.S.H.) (D.M.)Mr. Chabot is a recipient of a studentship from the Medical Research Council of CanadaD. Ménard, Ph.D. is chercheur-boursier from the CRSQ     

Kinetics of induction of error-prone repair of bacteriophage lambda by temperature shift in an Escherichia coli dnaB mutant.

Summary Preincubation at 42^o, before infection at permissive temperature by phage , of an Escherichia coli dnaB mutant, provokes a significant increase in survival and mutagenesis of ultraviolet irradiated phage as well as mutagenesis of untreated phage. Similarly to UV irradiation and many chemical mutagens, the inhibition of DNA synthesis by temperature shift of this dnaB mutant induces SOS repair. This work shows that replication blockage in bacterial DNA is not only mutagenic for bacterial DNA itself (Witkin, 1975) but also for normally replicating DNA, probably due to induction of diffusible products.     

Influence of Vectors’ Risk-Spreading Strategies and Environmental Stochasticity on the Epidemiology and Evolution of Vector-Borne Diseases: The Example of Chagas’ Disease

Insects are known to display strategies that spread the risk of encountering unfavorable conditions, thereby decreasing the extinction probability of genetic lineages in unpredictable environments. To what extent these strategies influence the epidemiology and evolution of vector-borne diseases in stochastic environments is largely unknown. In triatomines, the vectors of the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas’ disease, juvenile development time varies between individuals and such variation most likely decreases the extinction risk of vector populations in stochastic environments. We developed a simplified multi-stage vector-borne SI epidemiological model to investigate how vector risk-spreading strategies and environmental stochasticity influence the prevalence and evolution of a parasite. This model is based on available knowledge on triatomine biodemography, but its conceptual outcomes apply, to a certain extent, to other vector-borne diseases. Model comparisons between deterministic and stochastic settings led to the conclusion that environmental stochasticity, vector risk-spreading strategies (in particular an increase in the length and variability of development time) and their interaction have drastic consequences on vector population dynamics, disease prevalence, and the relative short-term evolution of parasite virulence. Our work shows that stochastic environments and associated risk-spreading strategies can increase the prevalence of vector-borne diseases and favor the invasion of more virulent parasite strains on relatively short evolutionary timescales. This study raises new questions and challenges in a context of increasingly unpredictable environmental variations as a result of global climate change and human interventions such as habitat destruction or vector control.     

Non contiguous-finished genome sequence and description of Enorma massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., a new member of the Family Coriobacteriaceae

Enorma massiliensis strain phI^T is the type strain of E. massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., the type species of a new genus within the family Coriobacteriaceae, Enorma gen. nov. This strain, whose genome is described here, was isolated from the fecal flora of a 26-year-old woman suffering from morbid obesity. E. massiliensis strain phI^T is a Gram-positive, obligately anaerobic bacillus. Here we describe the features of this organism, together with the complete genome sequence and annotation. The 2,280,571 bp long genome (1 chromosome but no plasmid) exhibits a G+C content of 62.0% and contains 1,901 protein-coding and 51 RNA genes, including 3 rRNA genes.     

Non-contiguous finished genome sequence and description of Kallipyga massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., a new member of the family Clostridiales Incertae Sedis XI

Kallipyga massiliensis strain ph2^T is the type strain of Kallipyga massiliensis gen. nov., sp. nov., the type species of the new genus Kallipyga within the family Clostridiales Incertae Sedis XI. This strain, whose genome is described here, was isolated from the fecal flora of a 26-year-old woman suffering from morbid obesity. K. massiliensis is an obligate anaerobic coccus. Here we describe the features of this organism, together with the complete genome sequence and annotation. The 1,770,679 bp long genome (1 chromosome but no plasmid) contains 1,575 protein-coding and 50 RNA genes, including 4 rRNA genes.