Partial 7 q trisomy. One or 2 syndromes? Apropos of a new case]

Partial trisomy 7qter due to malsegregation of a familial balanced translocation t(7;8)(q33;p113) is reported in a 2-year-old boy with the following features: psychomotor retardation (IQ = 46); hypotonia; normal; facial asymetry with palpebral fissures slanted downwards and outwards, deeply set eyes, and divergent strabismus.     

The first case of HIV infection in a citizen of the USSR]

The first AIDS patient was a homosexual male who contacted HIV infection in 1982 in Tanzania. In December 1985 the first sign of Kaposi's sarcoma was noted in this patient. HIV infection was diagnosed in him only in February 1987. He was treated with AZT, reaferon, immunoglobulin and underwent electronic therapy. His state of health was stable till February 1991. Then he got severe bacterial pneumonia, candidosis. Pancytopenia progressed. The dose of AZT (0.8 g daily) was increased and intensive antibiotic therapy and the course of diflucan were prescribed. In spite of this treatment the number of CD4 lymphocytes catastrophically decreased (CD4 = 0.01 x 10(9)/l) and the patient died. Thus, more than 63 months passed from the date of the appearance of the first symptoms of AIDS in the patient to his death.     

The Antley-Bixler syndrome. Review of the literature. Apropos of a personal case

A female newborn presenting multiple congenital anomalies with acrocephalosynanky, external auditory canals atresia, vertebral anomalies, is described as being affected of an Antley-Bixler Syndrome. The authors compare this case with the eight others reported with this disorder, of whom two are sisters.     

Purification and characterization of dog mastocytoma chymase: identification of an octapeptide conserved in chymotryptic leukocyte proteinases

We isolated and characterized a chymotryptic serine proteinase from dog mastocytomas. Chymotryptic activity extracted at high ionic strength from mastocytomas propagated in nude mice was separated from tryptic activity by gel filtration and rapidly purified by sequential high-performance hydrophobic interaction and cation-exchange chromatography. The purified enzyme had an Mr of 27,000-30,000 by both analytical gel filtration and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and a single amino-terminal sequence by automated Edman degradation. Like chymases from rat and human mast cells, the mastocytoma enzyme exhibited a high kcat/Km (1.1.10(5) M-1.s-1) employing succinyl-L-Val-Pro-Phe-p-nitroanilide, the best of several p-nitroanilide substrates screened. It was inhibited by diisopropyl fluorophosphate and soybean trypsin inhibitor, but not by aprotinin, distinguishing it from the otherwise closely related neutrophil enzyme, cathepsin G. The amino-terminal 25 residues of mastocytoma chymase were found to be 72 and 68% identical to the corresponding sequences of chymases from rat peritoneal and mucosal mast cells, respectively; they were also closely related to human cathepsin G and to proteinase sequences from mouse cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. The mastocytoma chymotryptic enzyme contained an octapeptide sequence which is common to all chymotryptic leukocyte proteinases sequenced to date from four mammalian species; this feature distinguishes chymases and other chymotryptic leukocyte proteinases from serine proteinases of coagulation and digestion.     

Urinary clearance of noradrenaline in the dog]

Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and noradrenaline clearance are highly correlated in anesthetized dogs (ratio CNA-3H/GFR approximately 1).     

The specificity of medical facts: the case of diabetology

The fact that Ludwik Fleck drew his inspiration from medicine has been largely overlooked, with the exception of a few scholars. Although Fleck considered his ideas applicable to all sciences, he always insisted on the specificity of medicine. To illustrate the usefulness of Fleck’s concepts for the history of medicine, three main ideas developed by Fleck are applied to the historical study of diabetes mellitus (DM): first, that different and often divergent pictures of disease coexist within a given culture; second, that scientific ideas circulate between ‘esoteric’ and ‘exoteric’ circles; and third, that scientific concepts are often incommensurable. The author also suggests that Fleck’s epistemology, like other scholars’, is loaded with ethical and political consequences. However, the link between an ‘open’ epistemology and political or ethical questions is more explicit in Georges Canguilhem’s pioneering work on the normal and the pathological (1943). Indeed, Canguilhem and Fleck’s conceptions of disease have much in common, so that we can use Canguilhem’s work to bring out the hidden ethical and political issues in Fleck’s work.     

Urinary clearance of dl-isopropylnoradrenaline in the dog]

In dogs, the urinary clearance of IPNA-3H is very near GFR (ratio CIPNA-3H/GFR = 0,92). This ratio is not modified by cocaine. In our experimental conditions, we observe no tubulary secretion of IPNA-3H.     

Effect of citidoline on hemodynamics in the normobaric hypoxic dog]

In dogs submitted to a normobaric hypoxia, we found an elevation of the arterial blood pressure, of the heart rate, of the cardiac output and of the regional blood flows, the total peripheral resistance remaining unchanged. Treatment with citidoline abolishes these hemodynamic responses and the authors hypothetize that this effect is correlated with the agonist dopaminergic effect of the drug.     

如何上好“绪论”第一课：以“普通植物病理学”课程为例

“绪论”是高校所有课程的第一课,上好“绪论”第一课可第一时间在学生心中播下对该门学科的使命感、进取心和责任心的“种子”。作者通过多年的教学研究与实践,认为“绪论”教学的首要目的是激发学生的好奇心和求知欲,点燃学生的进取心和紧迫感,进而喜欢和会学这门课程。为达到上述教学目的,我们构建了“绪论”第一课授课内容、方法与目的三者相吻合的教学模式：首先,采用生动有趣和灵活多样的手段导入情景和实物,并设问;随后通过循循善诱和启迪独立思考,师生共同探究和感悟该学科属性、形成发展历史、目前研究现状及未来发展前景,以及教与学的目的、任务和方法等,从而让学生树立上进心和责任心,增强学好该课程的决心和信心。本文以普通植物病理学课程为例,展示了采用“绪论”第一课的教学模式开展的教学过程。多年的教学实践证明,“绪论”第一课教学模式导入的“绪论”内容规范、系统、全面、与教学目标相契合。并且,其内涵丰富、可操作性强、实施效果好,对提高教学质量十分奏效,适合推广应用。     

Characterization of suppressor cells in mice bearing syngeneic mastocytoma.

Suppressor cells from syngeneic P815 mastocytoma-bearing DBA/2 mice that inhibit in vitro generation of specific anti-tumor cytotoxicity were characterized. Suppressive activity was almost completely eliminated by treating suppressive spleen cells with anti-theta serum and complement. Treatment with anti-mouse lg serum and complement or with carbonyl iron did not affect their suppressive activity. When suppressive thymocytes from P815 tumor-bearing DBA/2 mice were tested for their capacity to inhibit the generation of cytotoxicity against L1210 cells, a leukemia line in DBa/2 mice, they did not affect the activity, indicating that the supressor cells in the thymocytes of P815 tumor-bearing mice are specific to the tumor. When Ficoll-Hypaque density cell separation was carried out with cytotoxic spleen cells and suppressive spleen cells from 815 tumor-bearing mice, the dense fraction was enriched for kiler cells whereas the suppressive activitty was mainly recovered in the light fraction. Therefore, killer cells and suppressor cells in P815 tumor-bearing mice are thought to be distinct populations.     

Degradation of heparin proteoglycan in cultured mouse mastocytoma cells.

Pulse-labelling of mouse mastocytoma cell cultures, established from ascites fluid, with inorganic [35S]sulphate for 1 h yielded labelled heparin proteoglycan containing polysaccharide chains of Mr 60,000-100,000. After chase incubation for 24 h most of the 35S appeared in intracellular polysaccharide fragments similar in size to commercially available heparin, Mr 5000-25,000, as indicated by gel chromatography. Products isolated from cultures after 6 h of chase incubation consisted of partially degraded free polysaccharide chains and, in addition, residual proteoglycans that were of smaller size than the proteoglycans initially pulse-labelled. The polysaccharide chains released by alkali treatment from the residual chase-incubated proteoglycans were of the same size as the chains derived from proteoglycans after 1 h of pulse labelling. These results suggest that the intracellular degradation of heparin proteoglycan to polysaccharide fragments is initiated by release of intact polysaccharide chains, probably by action of a peptidase, and is pursued through cleavage of these chains by an endoglycosidase. An endoglucuronidase with stringent substrate specificity [Thunberg, Bäckström, Wasteson, Ogren & Lindahl (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 10278-10282] has previously been implicated in the latter step. Cultures of more purified mastocytoma cells (essentially devoid of macrophages) did not metabolize [35S]heparin proteoglycan to polysaccharide fragments, but instead accumulated free intact polysaccharide chains, i.e. the postulated intermediate of the complete degradation pathway. When such purified cells were co-cultured with adherent mouse peritoneal cells, presumably macrophages, formation of polysaccharide fragments was observed. It is tentatively proposed that the expression of endoglucuronidase activity by the mast cells depends on collaboration between these cells and macrophages.     

Conjunctival myiasis. 23 cases in the Tunisian Sahel

Conjunctival lesions of ocular myiasis are common in the mediterranean region. The authors report 23 cases of conjunctival myiasis. This affection is caused by fly's larvae: Oestrus ovis presenting typically with inflamed and oedematous eyes. We diagnose the affection by directly showing the larvae on conjunctiva. The treatment consisted to extirpate larvae one by one.