Smoking and Health

Although cigarette smoking is the number one public health problem in the United States, physicians have failed to take the lead either in convincing youngsters not to begin smoking or in aiding adults to quit smoking. To be most effective and convincing in combating the smoking epidemic, practicing physicians must have the same basic fund of knowledge about the short- and long-term consequences of smoking as they do about other commonly encountered medical problems. By acting on such knowledge and adopting a definite set of attitudes and activities in their offices and with patients, physicians can make a significant contribution to their patients and to the entire community in which they practice.     

Hydrophobia, lectin binding, and molecular order in the stratum corneum of adult and neonatal rats and in human breast cells in culture.

A search for differences due to ANS staining (hydrophobia), Con A and PNA binding capacity, and birefringence was carried out on stratified epithelia of rat skin and human breast cells (HBC) in culture. Microfluorimetric measurements confirm that the ANS fluorescence of the stratum corneum from adults is higher than that of newborns. HBC exhibited an unexpected deep ANS-fluorescence. Differences in the binding capacity of the epithelial layers to Con A and PNA were detected with advancing age. Retardation measurements revealed that the form birefringence of the stratum corneum is higher in adult animals specially as revealed by the fact that its form birefringence curve branch from n = 1.414 to n = 1.479 is steeper, i.e. depict higher values. The strong birefringence of the cytoplasmic tonofilaments presented by cultured human breast cells was considered an unexpected finding and attributed to changes that the cells underwent following the in vitro conditions.     

Morphological and Gene Expression Changes in Cattle Embryos from Hatched Blastocyst to Early Gastrulation Stages after Transfer of In Vitro Produced Embryos

A detailed morphological staging system for cattle embryos at stages following blastocyst hatching and preceding gastrulation is presented here together with spatiotemporal mapping of gene expression for BMP4, BRACHYURY, CERBERUS1 (CER1), CRIPTO, EOMESODERMIN, FURIN and NODAL. Five stages are defined based on distinct developmental events. The first of these is the differentiation of the visceral hypoblast underlying the epiblast, from the parietal hypoblast underlying the mural trophoblast. The second concerns the formation of an asymmetrically positioned, morphologically recognisable region within the visceral hypoblast that is marked by the presence of CER1 and absence of BMP4 expression. We have termed this the anterior visceral hypoblast or AVH. Intra-epiblast cavity formation and the disappearance of the polar trophoblast overlying the epiblast (Rauber’s layer) have been mapped in relation to AVH formation. The third chronological event involves the transition of the epiblast into the embryonic ectoderm with concomitant onset of posterior NODAL, EOMES and BRACHYURY expression. Lastly, gastrulation commences as the posterior medial embryonic ectoderm layer thickens to form the primitive streak and cells ingress between the embryonic ectoderm and hypoblast. At this stage a novel domain of CER1 expression is seen whereas the AVH disappears. Comparison with the mouse reveals that while gene expression patterns at the onset of gastrulation are well conserved, asymmetry establishment, which relies on extraembryonic tissues such as the hypoblast and trophoblast, has diverged in terms of both gene expression and morphology.