Are antibodies responsible for a decreased superovulatory response in goats which have been treated repeatedly with porcine follicle-stimulating hormone?

Repeated administration of xenogenic gonadotropins in human or animal species may be responsible for antibody production and refractoriness. An experiment was conducted in which goats were treated with porcine FSH (p-FSH) at 6-week intervals for a period of 7 months. A sensitive radioimmunoassay (RIA) was used to detect antibodies to p-FSH in plasma samples taken at short-term intervals during a 7-month period. Antibodies appeared after the first injection, and levels increased following booster injections. A high correlation rate existed between antibody level and superovulatory response. Refractoriness in goats was associated with a high level of antibodies.     

Microtubule-bundling studies revisited: is there a role for MAPs?

The molecular mechanism of microtubule bundling has been enveloped in controversy for the past few years. At the centre of the debate are MAPs: are they necessary for the formation of microtubule bundles? In this article, Gloria Lee and Roland Brandt weigh the evidence and propose that microtubule stability might be the crucial factor in microtubule bundling. Perhaps then MAPs might act as spacer molecules between microtubules.     

Implications of the human genome initiative for the primary care physician

... Despite the need for physicians to be knowledgeable about and open to advances in genetic technology, little is known about the level of preparedness of primary care physicians to offer new genetic tests. Evidence suggests that several barriers exist to physicians adopting genetic tests. These include lack of knowledge, inability to interpret probabilistic information, low tolerance for uncertainty, negative attitudes about their responsibility for genetic counseling and testing, lack of confidence in their clinical skills, and unfamiliarity with ethical issues raised by testing. This paper will explore some of these barriers in further depth, discuss the ethical impact of physician unpreparedness on both patient care and the diffusion of genetic tests, and describe a study that is currently underway to investigate some of these issues.     

Calculation of the optimal surface area for amphiphile molecules using the hard core method

In this work, we have calculated the optimal surface area per amphiphile molecule using a two-dimensional gas of electric dipoles interacting with hard The optimal surface area can be evaluated according to a formula (in the two-body approximation) or as a root of an equation (in the three-body approximation). If the equation has more than one positive root, which is greater than the hard core area, then a polydisperse dimensional distribution of supramolecular aggregates is possible.     

Release of periplasmic enzymes and other physiological effects of beta-lactamase overproduction in Escherichia coli

When Escherichia coli containing the plasmid ptac11 is induced with 10(-4) M isopropyl-beta-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG), 90% of the beta-lactamase activity of an overnight culture is present in the medium. The high extracellular activity of beta-lactamase does not result from cell lysis but from an increase in the permeability of the outer membrane. The excreting cells release several other periplasmic enzymes into the extracellular fluid and are more sensitive to lysis by detergents. It was also shown that in these cells the level of two membrane proteins, OmpA and OmpC, is decreased. None of these phenomena were observed with the plasmid pDW17, which has a mutation in the tac promoter that reduces its activity to one fourth of the tac promoter.     

Improved performance in viscous mycelial fermentations by agitator retrofitting

For viscous mycelial fermentations it was demonstrated at the pilot-plant scale that the replacement of standard radial flow Rushton turbines with larger diameter axial-flow Prochem hydrofoil impellers significantly improved oxygen transfer efficiency. It was also determined that the Streptomyces broth under evaluation is highly shear thinning. Separate experiments using a Norcardia broth with similar Theological properties demonstrated that the oxygen transfer coefficient, K(L)a, can be greatly increased by use of water additions to reduce broth viscosity. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the improvement in oxygen transfer by changing agitator types is primarily due to an improvement in bulk mixing. A model is presented, based on the concepts of Bajpai and Reuss, which explains this improvement in performance in terms of enlargement of the well mixed micromixer region for viscous mycelial broths.     

New instrument for on-line viscosity measurement of fermentation media

In an attempt to resolve the difficult problem of on-line determination of the viscosity of non-Newtonian fermentation media, the authors have used a vibrating rod sensor mounted on a bioreactor. The sensor signal decreases nonlinearly with increased apparent viscosity. Electronic filtering of the signal damps the interfering effect of aeration and mechanical agitation. Sensor drift is very low (0.03% of measured value per hour).On the rheological level the sensor is primarily an empirical tool that must be specifically calibarated for each fermentation process. Once this is accomplished, it becomes possible to establish linear or second-degree correlations between the electrical signal from the sensor and the essential parameters of the ferementation process in question (pH of a feremented milk during acidification, concentration of extra cellular polysaccharide). In addition, by applying the power law to describe the rheological behavior of fermentation media, we observe a second-order polynomial correlation between the sensor signal and the behavior index (n).