Causes of Hypertension in the Young

Of 127 hypertensive patients aged 12 to 40 investigated by intravenous pyelography, abdominal aortography, and renal biopsy an underlying cause was found in 57%. The proportion with secondary hypertension was higher in young patients and in those with severe hypertension. Primary arteritis of the aorta was an important cause of renovascular hypertension in an Asian population.     

The efficacy of biobehavioral and compliance interventions in the adjunctive treatment of mild pregnancy-induced hypertension

This investigation assessed the efficacy of a biobehavioral intervention in the adjunctive treatment of mild pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH), a potentially serious complication of pregnancy in which normotensive women develop hypertension, proteinuria, and edema of unknown etiology late in gestation. Forty-five women with symptoms of PIH were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: bed rest alone (the most common obstetrical treatment), bed rest with individualized compliance enhancement training, or a four-session biobehavioral treatment consisting of bed rest, compliance enhancement training, and individualized thermal biofeedback-assisted relaxation training. Results indicated that while blood pressure for the bed rest and compliance enhancement groups continued to rise and pose an increasing health risk to maternal and fetal well-being, subjects in the biobehavioral group maintained their blood pressure at a significantly lower, and presumably safer, level. The biobehavioral treatment is hypothesized to affect blood pressure levels in subjects with mild PIH through the mediation of the sympathetic nervous system, decreasing peripheral vascular resistance and cardiac output. The results of this investigation suggest that the biobehavioral intervention may be an effective adjunct to bed rest in the treatment of mild PIH remote from term.     

Breathing during sleep with mild hypoxia

To investigate ventilatory response to mild hypoxia during non-rapid-eye-movement sleep, we administered approximately 16% O2 (which corresponds to concentrations found in commercial high altitude air craft) to 12 normal subjects by using a Venturi mask, which did not alter the breathing pattern during this study. Under mild hypoxia, inspiratory minute ventilation during sleep showed an initial rapid increase (P less than 0.001) but then declined significantly (P less than 0.001) and stabilized. Stable levels differed among individuals and, compared with those measured before hypoxia, were significantly lower in some subjects, higher in one, and essentially unchanged in the others. The initial rapid increase in minute ventilation after mild hypoxia during sleep correlated with the respective values of hypoxic ventilatory response during the awake state (P less than 0.01), but the final lowered levels did not. We conclude that the ventilatory response after mild hypoxia during sleep is biphasic and hypoxic depression exerts considerable influence on ventilation under mild hypoxia during sleep. So we should take hypoxic depression into consideration to evaluate the response to hypoxia during sleep.     

Tissue-specific regulation of rat estrogen receptor mRNAs

The estrogen receptor (ER) is present in a wide variety of mammalian tissues and is required for physiological estrogen responses, including estrogen-induced tissue-specific changes in gene expression. We studied the estrogen regulation of the mRNAs encoding the ER in rat uterus, liver, and pituitary. Ovariectomized (21-28 day post surgery) female CD-1 rats were injected daily with 17 beta-estradiol (E2, 10 micrograms/100 g BW) for 0, 1, or 4 h, 1, 3, or 7 days and compared with intact controls. Steady-state levels of ER mRNA were quantified using a human ER cDNA probe. Only one hybridizing species of approximately 6.2 kilobase (kb) was detected in uterine and liver RNA, similar to that observed in MCF7 human breast cancer cells. However, the ER mRNA regulation by E2 differed in direction depending on the tissue examined. In uterus, ER mRNA increased 3- to 6-fold after ovariectomy, and returned to intact levels within 24 h of E2 replacement. In contrast, liver ER mRNA declined 1.5- to 3-fold after ovariectomy and returned to intact levels after 1-3 days of E2. In pituitary tissue two hybridizing forms of ER mRNA were observed, with one species migrating at 6.2 kb, equivalent to the form in other tissues, and a second smaller species at approximately 5.5 kb. The lower molecular weight species varied somewhat in abundance from animal to animal, averaging about 20% of the intensity of the 6.2 kb band. The ER mRNA forms were regulated positively with E2.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

新疆温泉煤田早、中侏罗世孢粉组合及其地层意义*

新疆温泉煤田艾肯拜尔段和柯克它乌组的孢粉化石,计有42属59种.根据孢粉类型和含量变化等特征,建立2个孢粉组合(自下而上):1. Dictyophyllidites-Chordasporites-Jugasporites 组合;2. Cyathidites-Neoraistrickia-Pseudopicea 组合.第一组合产于艾肯拜尔段,时代可能为早侏罗世,第二组合产于柯克它乌组,时代暂定为早、中侏罗世.根据孢粉组合反映的植物群面貌是:裸子植物非常茂盛,其中以松柏纲为主,蕨类植物较少(包括真蕨纲植物);反映的古气候属于温暖湿润的亚热带型.     

Generation of soluble lignin-derived compounds during degradation of barley straw in an artificial rumen reactor

Summary The supernatants of effluents from an artificial rumen reactor degrading barley straw have been shown to contain lignin-derived compounds by UV spectral characteristics and pyrolysis mass spectrometry (PYMS). Most of these compounds were shown to be released by the action of rumen microorganisms. The compounds were quantified by measuring absorbance at 280 nm using bamboo-milled wood lignin as a standard. The concentration of the compounds rose from 0.5 mg·ml^–1 at solid and liquid retention times (SRT and HRT) of 60 and 12 h, respectively, and a loading rate (LR) of 25 g total solids (TS)·l^–1 per day to 3.5 mg·ml^–1 at a SRT of 144 h, an HRT of 20 days and an LR of 15 g TS·1^–1 per day. The highest concentration was below the level known to be toxic to rumen microorganisms in vitro. No indications were found for anaerobic lignin degradation in the rumen reactor. Offprint requests to: H. J. M. Op den Camp