Immunological investigation of the tissue specificity of the J peptide of human secretory immunoglobulins

The content of the J peptide of secretory polymeric immunoglobulins can significantly change during various pathologies, reflecting the state of the adaptive immune system. In this study, the content of J peptide was determined in various tissues of healthy people. These results can be used as basic data for investigations of the changes in the content of J peptide during different pathologies.     

Reference values of selenium in plasma in population from Barcelona. Comparison with several pathologies

Plasma selenium reference values from healthy donors in the metropolitan area of Barcelona are determined. A random sample from 156 healthy adults (control group) is analysed by using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry with Zeeman effect background correction.

The relationship between several pathologies and Se content is also evaluated. Se content from 64 samples from subjects with chronic renal failure and 54 from subjects suffering from several malignancies are determined and the results are compared to the reference values. Moreover, Se contents are determined and compared in two groups of children, healthy (19 samples) and children of mothers infected with HIV-1 (16 samples).

In the control group, Se plasma concentration ranges between 50 and 145 μg · L⁻¹ (82.2 ± 17.5 μg · L⁻¹). Significantly lower values are found in the two pathologies studied (malignancy and chronic renal failure), compared to the control group. However, no significant differences in Se content are found between the two groups studied regarding malignancy and chronic renal failure.

In children of mothers infected with HIV-1, Se status is significantly lower than that of healthy children.     

Disease and injury in the late middle ages in Eggenburg, lower Austria

From the skeletal remains of about 5800 individuals from the charnel house of Eggenburg there were 2200 individuals of late medieval date. These were checked for injuries and pathologies. Of the skulls 410 showed various injuries and 430 pathologies. These pathologies could be differentiated into 20 groups. The frequencies of injuries (18.7%) and pathologies (19.5%) were very similar in the skulls, which contrasted with those in the 11600 long bones of 0.5% injuries and 3.8% pathologies. On the whole the degree of expression of the traumatic lesions and of the pathologies was slight to medium.     

The decreased level of casein kinase 2 in brain cortex of schizophrenic and Alzheimer's disease patients

The content of casein kinase 2 is considerably decreased in ribosome-free extracts of the frontal cortex of schizophrenic and Alzheimer's disease patients in comparison to normal brains as has been demonstrated by means of immunoblotting. The activity of casein kinase 2 towards endogenous substrates and casein is also diminished in the cases of mental pathologies examined. This phenomenon may explain the well-known aberrations in the phosphorylation of structural proteins of human brain which are intrinsic for the mental diseases.     

Analysis of immune–biochemical indicators to assess the risk of developing cardiological pathology

Prognostic immuno-biochemical tests to assess the severity of the condition of patients with cardiac diseases were developed. A comparative analysis of clinical and laboratory blood parameters, which are used in practice for the diagnosis and prognosis of diseases, and an analysis of the content of natural antibodies (n-Abs) to β-endorphin, bradykinin, histamine, dopamine, and serotonin were performed. A significant correlation between the level of n-Abs, the main biochemical parameters, and the content of blood corpuscles was revealed. The practical importance of the combined use of immunological and biochemical tests to increase the reliability of prediction of the severity of heart pathologies was established.     

Simultaneous Measurement of Amyloid Fibril Formation by Dynamic Light Scattering and Fluorescence Reveals Complex Aggregation Kinetics

An apparatus that combines dynamic light scattering and Thioflavin T fluorescence detection is used to simultaneously probe fibril formation in polyglutamine peptides, the aggregating subunit associated with Huntington''s disease, in vitro. Huntington''s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder in a class of human pathologies that includes Alzheimer''s and Parkinson''s disease. These pathologies are all related by the propensity of their associated protein or polypeptide to form insoluble, β-sheet rich, amyloid fibrils. Despite the wide range of amino acid sequence in the aggregation prone polypeptides associated with these diseases, the resulting amyloids display strikingly similar physical structure, an observation which suggests a physical basis for amyloid fibril formation. Thioflavin T fluorescence reports β-sheet fibril content while dynamic light scattering measures particle size distributions. The combined techniques allow elucidation of complex aggregation kinetics and are used to reveal multiple stages of amyloid fibril formation.     

Coexpression of IL-5 and eotaxin-2 in mice creates an eosinophil-dependent model of respiratory inflammation with characteristics of severe asthma

Mouse models of allergen provocation and/or transgenic gene expression have provided significant insights regarding the cellular, molecular, and immune responses linked to the pathologies occurring as a result of allergic respiratory inflammation. Nonetheless, the inability to replicate the eosinophil activities occurring in patients with asthma has limited their usefulness to understand the larger role(s) of eosinophils in disease pathologies. These limitations have led us to develop an allergen-naive double transgenic mouse model that expresses IL-5 systemically from mature T cells and eotaxin-2 locally from lung epithelial cells. We show that these mice develop several pulmonary pathologies representative of severe asthma, including structural remodeling events such as epithelial desquamation and mucus hypersecretion leading to airway obstruction, subepithelial fibrosis, airway smooth muscle hyperplasia, and pathophysiological changes exemplified by exacerbated methacholine-induced airway hyperresponsiveness. More importantly, and similar to human patients, the pulmonary pathologies observed are accompanied by extensive eosinophil degranulation. Genetic ablation of all eosinophils from this double transgenic model abolished the induced pulmonary pathologies, demonstrating that these pathologies are a consequence of one or more eosinophil effector functions.     

Identifying associations between pig pathologies using a multi-dimensional machine learning methodology

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Abattoir detected pathologies are of crucial importance to both pig production and food safety. Usually, more than one pathology coexist in a pig herd although it often remains unknown how these different pathologies interrelate to each other. Identification of the associations between different pathologies may facilitate an improved understanding of their underlying biological linkage, and support the veterinarians in encouraging control strategies aimed at reducing the prevalence of not just one, but two or more conditions simultaneously. RESULTS: Multi-dimensional machine learning methodology was used to identify associations between ten typical pathologies in 6485 batches of slaughtered finishing pigs, assisting the comprehension of their biological association. Pathologies potentially associated with septicaemia (e.g. pericarditis, peritonitis) appear interrelated, suggesting on-going bacterial challenges by pathogens such as Haemophilus parasuis and Streptococcus suis. Furthermore, hepatic scarring appears interrelated with both milk spot livers (Ascaris suum) and bacteria-related pathologies, suggesting a potential multi-pathogen nature for this pathology. CONCLUSIONS: The application of novel multi-dimensional machine learning methodology provided new insights into how typical pig pathologies are potentially interrelated at batch level. The methodology presented is a powerful exploratory tool to generate hypotheses, applicable to a wide range of studies in veterinary research.     

Quantitative RT-PCR assay for mRNA of VEGF and histone H4 in the determination of proliferative and angiogenic activity in vulvar pathology

Proliferative and angiogenic activity of tissue specimens taken from women with various vulvar pathologies were evaluated by determining the number of mRNA VEGF molecules and H4 histone mRNA molecules, by means of the QRT-PCR (TaqMan) technique. Following a cluster analysis the results, where normalised. Euclidean distances were used, all the cases were classified into three groups of pathologies. Group I included low degree vulvar pathologies, group II included high degree vulvar pathologies and group III included vulvar pathologies with high proliferative and angiogenic activity. Significant differences were found in the proliferative and angiogenic activity between groups I and III, and between groups II and III, while no statistically significant differences were found between groups I and II.     

Oral health and frailty in the medieval English cemetery of St Mary Graces

The analysis of oral pathologies is routinely a part of bioarcheological and paleopathological investigations. Oral health, while certainly interesting by itself, is also potentially informative about general or systemic health. Numerous studies within modern populations have shown associations between oral pathologies and other diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and pulmonary infections. This article addresses the question of how oral health was associated with general health in past populations by examining the relationship between two oral pathologies (periodontal disease and dental caries) and the risk of mortality in a cemetery sample from medieval England. The effects of periodontitis and dental caries on risk of death were assessed using a sample of 190 individuals from the St Mary Graces cemetery, London, dating to ～AD 1350–1538. The results suggest that the oral pathologies are associated with elevated risks of mortality in the St Mary Graces cemetery such that individuals with periodontitis and dental caries were more likely to die than their peers without such pathologies. The results shown here suggest that these oral pathologies can be used as informative indicators of general health in past populations. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Estimation of C3 levels in cerebrospinal fluid by electroimmunodiffusion

C3 levels have been determined by the electroimmunodiffusion technique in the CSF of patients with a wide variety of pathologies. The patients were grouped on the basis of protein content and G/A ratio of the CSF as I) patients with normal meningeal permeability and apparent absence of local gamma-globulin synthesis; II) patients with increased meningeal permeability; III) patients with characteristics of MS, i.e. increase of IgG accompanied by a normal or slightly elevated protein content, Group III showed a lower level of C3 when expressed at % of the total protein and also as % of the total protein less gamma-globulins of the CSF. Other parameters of the CSF are also recorded. It was shown that only the expression of C3 concentration relative to the total protein content of the CSF produced meaningful analytical data.     

Retrospective analysis of invasive methods of prenatal diagnostics

The retrospective analysis of invasive methods of prenatal diagnostics has been carried out in 346 women with hazard of fetal pathology. The following factors of hazard of inherent and heritable pathologies are established: complicated genetical and reproductive anamnesis (49.7%), extragynecological (37.0%) and gynecologial pathologies (13.6%), complicated course of pregnancy (48.6%). Using of invasive methods of prenatal diagnostics in the pregnant women of these groups made it possible to detect the innate malformations in 13.0% cases and heritable pathologies in 4.6% cases.     

Abnormalities of embryonal development of vertebrates under the conditions of technogenic environmental pollution

The performed investigations have revealed 21 kinds of pathologies in the embryonal development of amphibia and more than 30 kinds in small mammals in the territories with radiation-chemical environmental pollution. Differences in embryonal mortality and pathologies of embryogenesis have been demonstrated for both the representatives of amphibia and mammals and within one class in the regions with different technogenic load. Embryonàl death and pathologies of embryonal development are considered as important reasons of reproductive losses for different species.     

Consequences of trisomy syndromes – 21 and beyond

The mechanisms underlying pathologies in Down syndrome remain poorly understood. In this forum article we compare the cellular phenotypes of chromosome 21 trisomy with other trisomic cells. We argue that both effects of the extra chromosome 21 and the global consequences of chromosome gain must be considered to understand complex pathologies of Down syndrome.     

Biotin-related abnormalities in human metabolism

Recent work has led to the discovery that two severe hereditary human pathologies are caused by biotin deficiency. Significantly, administration of pharmacologic doses of biotin can provide clinically effective treatment. Both diseases are autosomal recessive in inheritance but differ in their associated enzymatic deficiencies. The clinical, enzymatic, and genetic characteristics of these pathologies are reviewed here.     

Bone abnormalities in the middle Anisian marine sauropsids from Winterswijk

While the occurrence of skeletal pathologies in Middle Triassic marine reptiles has been poorly documented until now, massive accumulations of bone remains from the Germanic Basin provide the opportunities for documentation. Herein, we describe skeletal abnormalities in the Middle Triassic bone material from the Vossenveld Formation of Winterswijk, the Netherlands. The aim of the study is to distinguish in the studied bones pathologies resulting from malady or trauma and taphonomic alterations. Furthermore, an attempt was made to assess on how the pathologies also represent paleoecological data. Our survey led to the identification of one broken and healed bone, one case of abnormal coossification, and one case of posttraumatic fibro-osseous dysplasia. While the latter two pathologies give little insight into the ecology and function of the affected animals, the fractured dentary is attributed to Nothosaurus marchicus, a common sauropterygian macropredator. It proves that the individual survived long enough to heal, despite the injury hampering its hunting potential. One abnormally shaped humerus is interpreted as postmortem taphonomic deformation, emphasizing the necessity of utilization of detailed diagnostics to distinguish actual paleopathologies from nonbiological distortion.     

d-Aspartate in Human Brain

The presence of the biologically uncommon D-aspartic acid (D-aspartate) in human brain white matter has been previously reported. The earlier study has now been expanded to include D/L-aspartate ratios from 67 normal brains. The data show that the D-aspartate content increases rapidly from 1 year to approximately 35 years of age, levels off in middle age, and then appears to decrease somewhat. The D-aspartate content in gray matter remains at a consistently low level (half of that found in white matter) throughout the human life span. Within the limitations of current analytical methods, there was no detectable difference in D/L-aspartate ratios in white and gray matter of brains with Alzheimer's disease and several other pathologies when compared with brains of normal subjects. However, the presence of a significant D-aspartate level in white matter during the adult life span may lead to changes in protein configuration related to dysfunctions associated with the aging brain.     

Cation shifts in human retina-choroid

Human ocular tissues from 50 donor eyes were elementally and morphologically analyzed in order to correlate the elemental content and distribution of Ca, Ba, Cr, Cu, Zn, and Se with ocular morphology, sex, race, irideal pigmentation, age, time of death, birth weight, presence and severity of diabetes, and other pathologies noted at autopsy. Initially, to facilitate the transport of donor tissue to the laboratory, the eyes were fixed in glutaraldehyde. Because our preliminary data revealed alterations in elemental content following chemical fixation of ocular tissues, all of the subsequent samples were analyzed in their fresh, hydrated (unfixed) condition as soon after enucleation as possible. Samples were elementally analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) and proton-induced X-ray emission spectrometry (PIXE) using high resolution Si(Li) X-ray detectors. Tissue was morphologiscally examined by scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy histoichemistry.