Methods in clinical hemorheology: the continuous measurement of arterial blood density and blood sound speed in man

Both blood density and sound speed are closely related to total protein concentration in blood and, as a consequence, to rheologically important parameters of blood. Two methods that permit continuous measurement of these properties, the mechanical oscillator technique and the new ultrasonic technique, were used for measuring blood protein concentration over a continuous period of time in a group of hemodialysis patients and in volunteers. It was seen that the concentration of the components of blood varies considerably. This variability is related to transport phenomena within as well as to the flow of masses across the cardiovascular compartment. From the continuous measurement of concentrations during hemodialysis treatment, relative changes in blood volume can be recorded in order to control the fluid balance of the patient. Rapid fluctuations at the macroscopic scale with periods of 5 to 30 seconds are due to heterogeneities at the microscopic scale and to the particular rheological behaviour of the red blood cells at the level of the capillaries and the small blood vessels. The amplitude of rapid oscillations increased up to 1.2% in terms of hematocrit values when there was rhythmic, spontaneous breathing at various frequencies. The measurement of concentrations at an accessible measuring site may be used to investigate the rheology of blood in the human microvasculature.     

Nonlethal G0-ts mutant tsJT60 becomes lethal at the nonpermissive temperature after transformation: a hint for new cancer chemotherapeutics

tsJT60 is a nonlethal temperature-sensitive (ts) mutant of a Fischer rat cell line (3Y1) classified as a G0 mutant; i.e., the ts defect is not expressed within the cell growth cycle but is expressed only between the G0 and S phase. tsJT60 clones transformed with oncogenes such as adenovirus E1A, polyoma large T, polyoma middle T, v-Ki-ras, and LTR activated c-myc, or with a chemical carcinogen N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, grew well at 34 degrees C. However, most of these clones grew slowly at 40 degrees C, producing many floating dead cells, and some clones were killed at 40 degrees C. When they were cultured under conditions inadequate for growth of untransformed cells, such as high cell density or serum restriction, they were killed at 40 degrees C. These and previous results from SV40- and adenovirus-transformed tsJT60 clones favour the idea that transformed tsJT60 cells occasionally enter the G0 phase and are metabolically imbalanced at 40 degrees C during self-stimulation from the G0 to S phase. We propose that a drug which exclusively block, G0-G1 transition would be cytocidal to transformed cells but cytostatic to normal cells.     

Cytokine production in a model of wound healing: the appearance of MIP-1, MIP-2, cachectin/TNF and IL-1

Macrophages are essential for normal wound repair and many of their effects on healing wounds are likely to be mediated by the secretion of cytokines. This study examines the appearance of messenger RNA (mRNA) for cachectin/tumor necrosis factor (TNF), IL 1, and macrophage inflammatory proteins 1 and 2 (MIP-1 and MIP-2), as well as the mature peptides, in a model of wound healing using wound chambers. RNA for all four cytokines can be detected in wound inflammatory cells by polymerase chain reaction amplification throughout the first 7 days. Cachectin/TNF and IL 1 protein levels peaked on the first day after wound chamber implantation, and MIP-1 and MIP-2 were detected only on day 3. The data suggest that these cytokines participate in the early inflammatory response to wounding.     

Characteristics of immunomodulating effect of histamine in inbred strain mice]

The activity of 5'-nucleotidase of peritoneal exudate in subcutaneous injection of histamine in a dose of 1.0-100 microliters was studied in mice of different lines (CBA, C57, B1/6, Balb/c, NFS/n, NFR/n). There were interline differences in the influence of histamine on this metabolic index.     

Heterogeneity of platelet monoamine oxidase in man

Multiplicity of platelet MAO was studied. Multiple forms of enzyme was separated with the use of 1.5% Tritone x-100 and, 1.3 M urea at pH 7.4 in, 0.01 M K-Na phosphate buffer. Three forms of MAO--MAO-I, MAO-II, and MAO-III were obtained under separation of solubilized proteins by affinity chromatography on AN-Sepharose 4B. Deprenyl in 10(-5) M inhibited all forms of the activity completely. Relation between multiple forms of the brain and platelet was discussed.     

High sequence similarity within ras exons 1 and 2 in different mammalian species and phylogenetic divergence of the ras gene family

We have determined the canine and feline N-, K-, and H-ras gene sequences from position +23 to +270 covering exons I and II which contain the mutational hot spot codons 12, 13, and 61. The results were used to assess the degree of similarity between ras gene DNA regions containing the critical domains affected in neoplastic disorders in different mammalian species. The comparative analyses performed included human, canine, feline, murine, rattine, and, whenever possible, bovine, leporine (rabbit), porcelline (guinea pig), and mesocricetine (hamster) ras gene sequences within the region of interest. Comparison of feline and canine nucleotide sequences with the corresponding regions in human DNA revealed a sequence similarity greater than 85% to the human sequence. Contemporaneous analysis of previously published ras DNA sequences from other mammalian species showed a similar degree of homology to human DNA. Most nucleotide differences observed represented synonymous changes without effect on the amino acid sequence of the respective proteins. For assessment of the phylogenetic evolution of ras gene family, a maximum parsimony dendrogram based on multiple sequence alignment of the common region of exons I and II in the N-, K-, and H-ras genes was constructed. Interestingly, a higher substitution rate among the H-ras genes became apparent, indicating accelerated sequence evolution within this particular clade. The most parsimonious tree clearly shows that the duplications giving rise to the three ras genes must have occurred before the mammalian radiation. Received: 23 July 1997 / Accepted: 30 October 1997     

Vector competence of Culicoides bolitinos and C. imicola for South African bluetongue virus serotypes 1, 3 and 4

Abstract .The susceptibility of field-collected Culicoides bolitinos to infection by oral ingestion of bluetongue virus serotypes 1, 3 and 4 (BLU 1, 3 and 4) was compared with that of field-collected C. imicola and laboratory reared C. variipennis sonorensis . The concentration of the virus per millilitre of bloodmeal was 10^5.0 and 10^6.0TCID₅₀ for BLU 4 and 10^7.2TCID₅₀ for BLU 1 and 3. Of 4927 C. bolitinos and 9585 C. imicola fed, 386 and 287 individual midges survived 10 days extrinsic incubation, respectively. Midges were assayed for the presence of virus using a microtitration assay on BHK-21 cells and/or an antigen capture ELISA. Infection prevalences for the different serotypes as determined by virus isolation ranged from 22.7 to 82.0% in C. bolitinos and from 1.9 to 9.8% in C. imicola; infection prevalences were highest for BLU 1, and lowest for BLU 4 in both species. The mean log₁₀ TCID₅₀ titre of the three BLU viruses per single fly was higher in C. bolitinos than in C. imicola . The results suggested that C. bolitinos populations are capable vectors of the BLU viruses in South Africa. A high correlation was found between virus isolation and ELISA results for the detection of BLU 1, and less for BLU 4; the ELISA failed to detect the presence of BLU 3 in infected flies. The C. v. sonorensis colonies had a significantly lower susceptibility to infection with BLU 1, 3 and 4 than C. bolitinos and C. imicola . However, since infection prevalence of C. v. sonorensis was determined only by ELISA, this finding may merely reflect the insensitivity of this assay at low virus titres, compared to virus isolation.