The spread of somatosensory-evoked potentials within the nervous system

Four thalamic and cortical recordings were carried out in 5 patients. The thalamic-evoked potentials were typical and revealed a triphasic complex, but their latencies showed a relatively high standard deviation. They could be divided into two groups according to their latencies, both of which had low SD. These data suggested that there could be two types of latency of thalamic SEP, because the 4 patients' body sizes were very similar. More detailed surface, cortical and depth recordings are needed to resolve these questions.     

Relationship between postabsorptive respiratory exchange ratio and plasma free fatty acid concentrations

The relationship between overnight postabsorptive (fasting) respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and plasma FFA concentrations was addressed using data from three separate protocols, each of which involved careful control of the antecedent diet. Protocol 1 examined the relationship between fasting RER and the previous daytime RER. In Protocol 2 fasting, RER and plasma palmitate concentrations were measured in 29 women and 31 men (body mass index <30 kg·m⁻²). Protocol 3 analyzed data from Nielsen et al. (Nielsen, S., Z. K. Guo, J. B. Albu, S. Klein, P. C. O''Brien, M. D. Jensen. 2003. Energy expenditure, sex and endogenous fuel availability in humans. J. Clin. Invest. 111: 981-988.) to understand how fasting RER and palmitate concentrations relate within individuals during four consecutive measurements. The results were as follows: 1) Fasting RER was correlated (r = 0.74, P < 0.001) with the previous day''s average RER, and less so with RER variability. 2) Fasting RER was correlated (r = −0.39, P = 0.007) with fasting plasma palmitate concentrations. 3) The pattern of the RER/palmitate relationship was similar within individuals and between individuals; a negative slope was observed significantly more often than a positive slope (χ² test; P < 0.001). Our findings suggest that, despite a fixed food quotient, the slight departures from energy equilibrium in a controlled General Clinical Research Center environment can effect plasma FFA concentrations. We suggest that including indirect calorimetry as part of FFA metabolism studies may aid in data interpretation.     

Coexistence of Probe Conformations in Lipid Phases—A Polarized Fluorescence Microspectroscopy Study

Several well-established fluorescence methods depend on environment-sensitive probes that report about molecular properties of their local environment. For reliable interpretation of experiments, careful characterization of probes’ behavior is required. In this study, bleaching-corrected polarized fluorescence microspectroscopy with nanometer spectral peak position resolution was applied to characterize conformations of two alkyl chain-labeled 7-nitro-2-1,3-benzoxadiazol-4-yl phospholipids in three model membranes, representing the three main lipid phases. The combination of polarized and spectral detection revealed two main probe conformations with their preferential fluorophore dipole orientations roughly parallel and perpendicular to membrane normal. Their peak positions were separated by 2–6 nm because of different local polarities and depended on lipid environment. The relative populations of conformations, estimated by a numerical model, indicated a specific sensitivity of the two probes to molecular packing with cholesterol. The coexistence of probe conformations could be further exploited to investigate membrane organization below microscopy spatial resolution, such as lipid rafts. With the addition of polarized excitation or detection to any environment-sensitive fluorescence imaging technique, the conformational analysis can be directly applied to explore local membrane complexity.     

Effect of precursors on biosynthesis of monensins A and B

Precursors of monensins (acetate, propionate, butyrate, isobutyrate) affect the total production and the relative proportion of monensins A and B. Addition of propionate into the fermentation medium causes a prevalence of monensin B whereas butyrate and isobutyrate stimulate the production of monensin A and suppress the production of monensin B.     

Analogs of oxytocin containing a modified peptide bond

Analogs of deamino-oxytocin and deamino-oxypressin containing a CH2-NH group instead of an amide bond between positions 8 and 9 were synthesized. All tested compounds exhibit significantly lowered biological activities.     

Primate stem cells: bridge the translation from basic research to clinic application

A growing body of literature has shown that stem cells are very effective for the treatment of degenerative diseases in rodents but these exciting results have not translated to clinical practice. The difference results from the divergence in genetic, metabolic, and physiological phenotypes between rodents and humans. The high degree of similarity between non-human primates(NHPs) and humans provides the most accurate models for preclinical studies of stem cell therapy. Using a NHP model to understand the following key issues, which cannot be addressed in humans or rodents, will be helpful for extending stem cell applications in the basic science and the clinic. These issues include pluripotency of primate stem cells, the safety and efficiency of stem cell therapy, and transplantation procedures of stem cells suitable for clinical translation. Here we review studies of the above issues in NHPs and current challenges of stem cell applications in both basic science and clinical therapies. We propose that the use of NHP models, in particular combining the serial production and transplantation procedures of stem cells is the most useful for preclinical studies designed to overcome these challenges.     

Composition and peptide maps of cross-linked human choriogonadotropin-receptor complexes on porcine granulosa cells

Radioiodinated human choriogonadotropin was affinity-cross-linked with a cleavable (nondisulfide) homobifunctional reagent to the hormone receptor on porcine granulosa cells and the solubilized sample was electrophoresed. Cross-linked samples revealed four additional bands of slower electrophoretic mobility in addition to the hormone alpha, beta, and alpha beta dimer bands. The four bands corresponded to masses of 68, 74, 102, and 136 kDa whereas the alpha beta dimer band corresponded to 50 kDa. Formation of the four bands requires the 125I-hormone to bind specifically to the receptor with subsequent cross-linking. Binding can be prevented by excess of native hormone but not by follitropin. A monofunctional analog of the cross-linking reagent failed to produce the four bands. They were also produced by cross-linking Triton X-100-solubilized hormone-receptor complexes. Reagent concentration-dependent cross-linking revealed that their formation was sequential; smaller complexes formed first and then larger ones. When gels of the cross-linked sample were treated with reagents that cleave covalent cross-links and then electrophoresed in a second dimension gel, 18-, 24-, 28-, and 34-kDa components were released, in addition to the alpha and beta subunits of the native hormone. Simultaneous peptide mapping of the cross-linked complexes in the gel matrix with Staphylococcus V8 protease or papain revealed progressive proteolysis to generate terminal fragments of 30 or 27 kDa, respectively. These fragments were unique to and commonly present in the 74-, 102-, and 136-kDa hormone-receptor complexes but were not produced by proteolysis of the cross-linked human choriogonadotropin (hCG) alpha beta dimer or the hCG alpha subunit. Apparently, the radioactively labeled segment(s) of the alpha subunit of 125I-hCG was cross-linked to the 24-kDa component. The results demonstrate the protein nature of the receptor and suggest that 125I-hCG was initially cross-linked to the 24-kDa component to generate the 74-kDa complex, then the 28- and 34-kDa components were sequentially cross-linked to the 24-kDa component in the 74-kDa complex to generate the 102- and 134-kDa complexes.