Under-age girl as a patient of pediatric and adolescent ginecology outpatient clinic

The research carried out in Poland reflected that sexual initiation before 18 years of age is a common phenomenon and refers to roughly 80% of teenagers. In Poland there is no uniform standing of medical and legal environments with regard to dealing with a juvenile patient who has become sexually active and expects the advice of a gynaecologist, gynaecologic examination and often asks for prescribing contraceptives. The procedures must take into account the fact that in Poland, until 18 years of age, a juvenile functions under the parental or tutelary authority, while a consent for medical service requires beside of the consent of legal guardian also the consent of a juvenile who is 16 years of age and becomes a full-right patient. According to the Act on Health Care Institutions, a patient has the right to self-decisions, the respect of physical and mental integrity and the respect of privacy, while the participation of a statutory representative post 16th year of age refers practically to co-deciding on a medical service provision. Therefore, the information received from such juvenile patient in subjective and objective examination does not have to be passed to the statutory representative, if the juvenile patient requires confidentiality and if this does not affect the patient's health and the planned medical procedures (e.g. the necessity of making an operation). The knowledge of conduct procedures with regard to a juvenile patient as a carrier of rights shall enable doctors to make aware choices of conduct and provide services or, in most cases, only advice, without the necessity to breach the laws of Poland.     

A comparison of the levels of hepatocyte growth factor in serum in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus with different stages of diabetic retinopathy

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate the blood concentration of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) in patients at various stages of retinopathy. We hypothesised that the high level of HGF found in diabetic patients may be an important marker of retinopathy progression and that HGF level may be an index of the risk of proliferative retinopathy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The participants in the study were 76 patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Of these, 35 patients were without retinopathy and formed Group 1. Of the remaining 41 patients with retinopathy, 20 patients had non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and formed Group 2, while 21 patients had proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and formed Group 3. We evaluated the concentration of HGF In the peripheral blood by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: Mean serum concentrations of HGF in the control group were significantly lower than in the type 1 diabetic patients. We found a significant increase in HGF serum concentrations in diabetic patients with PDR compared with the control group. Mean serum HGF concentrations were significantly higher in diabetic subjects with PDR than in diabetic patients without retinopathy. CONCLUSION: HGF concentration is increased in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus with proliferative retinopathy, and concentrations increase with the progression of retinopathy, suggesting that HGF plays a role in the pathogenesis of proliferative diabetic retinopathy.     

Sequence-structure-function analysis of the bifunctional enzyme MnmC that catalyses the last two steps in the biosynthesis of hypermodified nucleoside mnm5s2U in tRNA

MnmC catalyses the last two steps in the biosynthesis of 5-methylaminomethyl-2-thiouridine (mnm(5)s(2)U) in tRNA. Previously, we reported that this bifunctional enzyme is encoded by the yfcK open reading frame in the Escherichia coli K12 genome. However, the mechanism of its activity, in particular the potential structural and functional dependence of the domains responsible for catalyzing the two modification reactions, remains unknown. With the aid of the protein fold-recognition method, we constructed a structural model of MnmC in complex with the ligands and target nucleosides and studied the role of individual amino acids and entire domains by site-directed and deletion mutagenesis, respectively. We found out that the N-terminal domain contains residues responsible for binding of the S-adenosylmethionine cofactor and catalyzing the methylation of nm(5)s(2)U to form mnm(5)s(2)U, while the C-terminal domain contains residues responsible for binding of the FAD cofactor. Further, point mutants with compromised activity of either domain can complement each other to restore a fully functional enzyme. Thus, in the conserved fusion protein MnmC, the individual domains retain independence as enzymes. Interestingly, the N-terminal domain is capable of independent folding, while the isolated C-terminal domain is incapable of folding on its own, a situation similar to the one reported recently for the rRNA modification enzyme RsmC.     

DNA damage- and stress-induced apoptosis occurs independently of PIDD

The p53-induced protein with a death domain, PIDD, was identified as a p53 target gene whose main role is to execute apoptosis in a p53-dependent manner. To investigate the physiological role of PIDD in apoptosis, we generated PIDD-deficient mice. Here, we report that, although PIDD expression is inducible upon DNA damage, PIDD-deficient mice undergo apoptosis normally not only in response to DNA damage, but also in response to various p53-independent stress signals and to death receptor (DR) engagement. This indicates that PIDD is not required for DNA damage-, stress-, and DR-induced apoptosis. Also, in the absence of PIDD, both caspase-2 processing and activation occur in response to DNA damage. Our findings demonstrate that PIDD does not play an essential role for all p53-mediated or p53-independent apoptotic pathways. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Differential turnover of the photosystem II reaction centre D1 protein in mesophyll and bundle sheath chloroplasts of maize

Photoinhibition is caused by an imbalance between the rates of the damage and repair cycle of photosystem II D1 protein in thylakoid membranes. The PSII repair processes include (i) disassembly of damaged PSII-LHCII supercomplexes and PSII core dimers into monomers, (ii) migration of the PSII monomers to the stroma regions of thylakoid membranes, (iii) dephosphorylation of the CP43, D1 and D2 subunits, (iv) degradation of damaged D1 protein, and (v) co-translational insertion of the newly synthesized D1 polypeptide and reassembly of functional PSII complex. Here, we studied the D1 turnover cycle in maize mesophyll and bundle sheath chloroplasts using a protein synthesis inhibitor, lincomycin. In both types of maize chloroplasts, PSII was found as the PSII-LHCII supercomplex, dimer and monomer. The PSII core and the LHCII proteins were phosphorylated in both types of chloroplasts in a light-dependent manner. The rate constants for photoinhibition measured for lincomycin-treated leaves were comparable to those reported for C3 plants, suggesting that the kinetics of the PSII photodamage is similar in C3 and C4 species. During the photoinhibitory treatment the D1 protein was dephosphorylated in both types of chloroplasts but it was rapidly degraded only in the bundle sheath chloroplasts. In mesophyll chloroplasts, PSII monomers accumulated and little degradation of D1 protein was observed. We postulate that the low content of the Deg1 enzyme observed in mesophyll chloroplasts isolated from moderate light grown maize may retard the D1 repair processes in this type of plastids.     

Influence of very low doses of mediators on fungal laccase activity - nonlinearity beyond imagination

Background  

Compared to the waveform or spectrum analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs), time-frequency representation (TFR) has the advantage of revealing the ERPs time and frequency domain information simultaneously. As the human brain could be modeled as a complicated nonlinear system, it is interesting from the view of psychological knowledge to study the performance of the nonlinear and linear time-frequency representation methods for ERP research. In this study Hilbert-Huang transformation (HHT) and Morlet wavelet transformation (MWT) were performed on mismatch negativity (MMN) of children. Participants were 102 children aged 8–16 years. MMN was elicited in a passive oddball paradigm with duration deviants. The stimuli consisted of an uninterrupted sound including two alternating 100 ms tones (600 and 800 Hz) with infrequent 50 ms or 30 ms 600 Hz deviant tones. In theory larger deviant should elicit larger MMN. This theoretical expectation is used as a criterion to test two TFR methods in this study. For statistical analysis MMN support to absence ratio (SAR) could be utilized to qualify TFR of MMN.     

Enzymatically stable 5' mRNA cap analogs: synthesis and binding studies with human DcpS decapping enzyme

Four novel 5' mRNA cap analogs have been synthesized with one of the pyrophosphate bridge oxygen atoms of the triphosphate linkage replaced with a methylene group. The analogs were prepared via reaction of nucleoside phosphor/phosphon-1-imidazolidates with nucleoside phosphate/phosphonate in the presence of ZnCl2. Three of the new cap analogs are completely resistant to degradation by human DcpS, the enzyme responsible for hydrolysis of free cap resulting from 3' to 5' cellular mRNA decay. One of the new analogs has very high affinity for binding to human DcpS. Two of these analogs are Anti Reverse Cap Analogs which ensures that they are incorporated into mRNA chains exclusively in the correct orientation. These new cap analogs should be useful in a variety of biochemical studies, in the analysis of the cellular function of decapping enzymes, and as a basis for further development of modified cap analogs as potential anti-cancer and anti-parasite drugs.     

Ovaries and phylogeny of dermapterans once more: Ovarian characters support paraphyly of Spongiphoridae

The Dermaptera is an insect order with ca. 2200 described species classified in 11 families. Interestingly, recent morphological and molecular data suggest that at least three dermapteran families (Diplatyidae, Pygidicranidae and Spongiphoridae) are paraphyletic. Here we present results of histological analyses of ovaries and ovarioles in two representatives of Spongiphoridae: Chaetospania borneensis and Irdex chapmani. We show that both the ovaries and ovarioles of studied species are morphologically disparate. The ovaries of C. borneensis consist of shortened ovarioles attached to elongated lateral oviducts and are apparently similar to the ovaries of the Eudermaptera. In contrast, I. chapmani share all the important ovarian characters with more basal taxa, i.e. Anisolabididae and Labiduridae. These findings lend additional support to the paraphyly of Spongiphoridae.     

The signal-anchor sequence of CYP2C1 inserts into the membrane as a hairpin structure

Microsomal cytochrome P450s (CYPs) are anchored to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane by the N-terminal signal-anchor sequence which is predicted to insert into the membrane as a type 1 transmembrane helix with a luminally located N-terminus. We have mapped amino acids of the CYP2C1 signal-anchor, fused to Cys-free glutathione S-transferase, within the membrane by Cys-specific labeling with membrane-impermeant maleimide polyethylene glycol. At the C-terminal end of the signal-anchor, Trp-20 was mapped to the membrane–cytosol interface and Leu-19 was within the membrane. Unexpectedly, at the N-terminal end, Glu-2 and Pro-3 were mapped to the cytoplasmic side of the membrane rather than the luminal side as expected of a type 1 transmembrane helix. Similar results were observed for the N-terminal amino acids of the signal-anchor sequences of CYP3A4 and CYP2E1. These observations indicate that contrary to the current model of the signal-anchor of CYPs as a type 1 transmembrane helix, CYP2C1, CYP2E1, and CYP3A4 are monotopic membrane proteins with N-terminal signal-anchors that have a hairpin or wedge orientation in the membrane.