Shoulder defect correction with the island latissimus dorsi flap

Reconstruction of normal shoulder contour is possible utilizing a latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap at the end of a long neurovascular pedicle. The thoracodorsal vessels and their lateral divisions form the basis of the pedicle. The nerve in the pedicle is left intact if maintenance of muscle bulk is desired and sectioned if atrophy is preferred. The amount of muscle taken in conjunction with the skin island is determined by the nature of the defect to be corrected. The twin goals of a single-stage reconstruction and a satisfactory aesthetic result are achieved with this method.     

An ELISA for detection of apoptosis.

We describe a simple and convenient enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of apoptosis in tissue culture. An early event in apoptosis is DNA fragmentation followed by release of nucleosomes into the cytoplasm. Our sandwich assay uses a pair of monoclonal antibodies specific for two nucleosomal epitopes to capture and detect cytoplasmic nucleosomes onto the ELISA plate. Our assay is about 500 times more sensitive than the detection of apoptotic DNA ladder by agarose electrophoresis and is especially suited for the testing of large numbers of samples.     

Violation of the law of uniformity of the first generation of hybrids

Variability was revealed in the isozyme spectra in the seed progeny from crosses of two beet plants homozygous for contrasting alleles of marker enzyme loci.     

Growth, respiration and survival of Legionella pneumophila at high temperatures

The optimum temperature for multiplication of legionella strains in culture media is around 37°C. The effect of high temperatures on the growth of strains isolated from various environments is poorly known. We studied the growth (cell multiplication, respiration) of clinical and environmental Legionella pneumophila strains in liquid media at intervals of 0.5°C in the temperature range from 41.6 to 51.6°C using a temperature gradient incubator. Cell multiplication and CO₂ production decreased markedly with all the strains at temperatures above 44–45°C. CO₂ continued to be produced up to 51.6C even if cell multiplication generally stopped at around 48.4–50.0C. Thus, legionella retained its metabolic activity beyond the maximum temperature for cell multiplication. The CO₂ production per bacterial cell (metabolic quotient, qCO₂) increased with increasing temperature up to 45°C, whereafter it decreased, the turning point being almost at the same at which the rate of cell multiplication decreased. The difference in qCO₂ between the strains may reflect their different physiological capacities for tolerating high temperatures.