On the diphasic nature of vasovagal fainting associated with blood-injury-illness phobia

A detailed psychophysiologic analysis of a vasovagal faint occurring in a "blood-injury-illness" phobic demonstrated that the syncopal episode consisted of a diphasic response. This lends support to the hypothesis that vasovagal fainting in these patients is caused by an overcompensating rebound parasympathetic activation following sympathetic arousal. Treatment and research implications of this finding are discussed.     

Analysis of Cell Types Identifiable In Air-Dried Cell Preparations of Human Testis

Abstract. The mixed cell population of the testicular epithelium has been studied in air-dried cell preparations obtained from a testicular biopsy. Observed cell types are defined, quantified and assigned to cell stages of the spermatogenic cycle. Studies with tritiated thymidine helped to categorize the spermatogonial cell types. Variation in cell size within cell categories, variation in frequency of cells in different categories within individuals, and variation in frequency of cells within categories between individuals were subjected to quantitative analysis.     

Multiple primary cancers in Connecticut, 1935-82

Recently, the National Cancer Institute published a comprehensive monograph on multiple primary cancers in Connecticut and Denmark. This paper summarizes some of the observations made on the Connecticut population. Data compiled by the Connecticut Tumor Registry have extended our knowledge about the patterns of multiple primary cancers, especially among long-term survivors of cancer and among patients with relatively rare tumors about which little information currently exists. When compared with the general Connecticut population, cancer patients had a 31 percent (RR = 1.31) increased risk of developing a second cancer and a 23 percent (RR = 1.23) elevated risk of second cancer at a different site from the first. Common environmental exposures seemed responsible for the excess occurrence of many second cancers, particularly those related to cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, or both. For example, persons with epithelial cancers of the lung, larynx, esophagus, buccal cavity, and pharynx were particularly prone to develop new cancers in the same or contiguous tissue throughout their lifetimes. Cancers of the colon, uterine corpus, breast, and ovary frequently occurred together, suggesting underlying hormonal or dietary influences. Only patients with prostate cancer were at significantly low risk for second cancer development; this might be an artifact of case finding, since advanced age at initial diagnosis was generally associated with an underascertainment of second cancers. Radiotherapy may have caused rectal and other cancer among patients with cancers of the female genital tract, and leukemia among patients with uterine corpus cancer. Chemotherapy with alkylating agents probably contributed to the excess of acute nonlymphocytic leukemia following multiple myeloma or cancers of the breast and ovary. Genetic susceptibility seemed to explain some tumor complexes, such as the multiple occurrences of cutaneous melanoma and the excess of bone cancer following retinoblastoma. Research into multiple cancer syndromes should enhance our understanding of carcinogenic factors and mechanisms and the development of strategies for cancer prevention and control.     

Solubilization of the calcium antagonist receptor from rat brain

[3H]Nitrendipine binds with high affinity to a calcium antagonist receptor in rat brain membranes. At 4 degrees C, treatment with digitonin solubilized the calcium antagonist receptor as a stable complex with [3H]nitrendipine. The nitrendipine concentration that gave a half-maximal amount of the solubilized [3H]nitrendipine-receptor complex was identical to the Kd for specific nitrendipine binding to brain membranes. Nitrendipine dissociated from digitonin-solubilized and membrane-bound receptors with a half-time of 24 to 30 min at 20 degrees C. Verapamil increased and diltiazem decreased the dissociation rate to a similar extent in both preparations indicating that the solubilized receptor contains both the dihydropyridine and diltiazem/verapamil binding sites. Sucrose gradient sedimentation experiments gave a value of S20, omega = 19.2 for the receptor-digitonin complex. The solubilized calcium antagonist receptor binds specifically to wheat germ agglutinin-Sepharose columns consistent with an identification as a glycoprotein.     

Action of two juvenile hormone antagonists on lepidopteran epidermis

The juvenile hormone antagonist ETB (ethyl-4-2(t-butylcarbonyloxy)-butoxybenzoate) caused formation of precocious larval-pupal intermediates after the 4th (penultimate)-larval instar of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, when 50 μg were applied to any 3rd stage larvae or to 4th stage larvae within 12 hr after ecdysis. This dose was most effective within 12 hr after ecdysis to the 3rd stage. In the black mutant larval assay for juvenile hormone, ETB had activity, 0.75 μg per larva giving half-maximal score. In vitro ETB acted as a juvenile hormone to prevent the ecdysteroid-induced change in commitment at concentrations above 0.1 μg/ml with an ED₅₀ at 2.8 μg/ml and as a partial juvenile hormone antagonist to 0.1 μg/ml juvenile hormone I at concentrations between 10^?3 and 10^?2 μg/ml. By contrast, EMD (ethyl-E-3-methyl-2-dodecenoate) had little juvenile hormone-like activity in vitro up to its limits of solubility (100 μg/ml) and exhibited sporadic partial juvenile hormone antagonistic activity in vitro at concentrations between 1 and 100 μg/ml. Since these concentrations were 10–1000 times that of juvenile hormone I in the medium, EMD apparently is not an efficient competitor.     

Plant nucleases. IV. Genetic control of ribonuclease activity in corn endosperm

Ribonuclease activity in the endosperms of 14 corn (Zea mays L.) inbreds ranged from 285 to 1305 units/g fresh weight 50 days after pollination. Activity is low in the inbred M14 and high in the inbred WF9. Hybrid endosperms contain intermediate levels of ribonuclease, and segregation occurs in the F₂ generation. The ribonuclease contents of the opaque-2 versions of nine inbred lines ranged from 1288 to 5110 units/g. The floury-2 mutation apparently does not affect ribonuclease content. Two or more genes may be involved in the control of ribonuclease content of developing endosperms.Cooperative investigations of the Plant Science Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, Urbana, Illinois.     

Effects of anhydrous benzoylation on staining with a variety of protein end-group methods

Summary The effects of anhydrous benzoylation were examined in connection with the following protein end-group methods: diazosulfanilic acid — Azure A, the Sakaguchi reaction and a fluorescent variant, the phenanthrequinone fluorescent method for arginine, the Millon reaction, the Morel-Sisley reaction, the mercury orange method, the alloxan and ninhydrinShiff methods, the Dansyl-chloride fluorescent method for lysine, the dimethylaminobenz-aldehydenitrite (DMAB) method for tryptophan, and the acid fluorochrome brilliant sulfoflavin used at pH 2.8 as a stain for basic groups. With all of these methods except the DMAB method for tryptophan, selective blockage of cytoplasmic proteins and staining of nuclei was obtained. With the DMAB reaction, the results were reversed: cytoplasmic staining exceeded nuclear staining after benzoylation.