An unusual phenotypic expression of Hb-Leiden

After a boy of Mexican-American descent became jaundiced during treatment of a serious urinary tract infection with an oxidant drug, an extensive hematological examination was made. The important finding was the presence of Hb-Leiden to the extent of less than 3% or about a tenth of the usual percentage. Although inclusion bodies are present in the erythrocytes at all times, his hematological parameters have remained normal. The genetic basis for the unusually small amount of Hb-Leiden in the propositus may be due to the Hb-Leiden gene in an anti-Lepore configuration, that is, and Hb-Leiden gene in cis to the normal β and δ genes.     

Migratory behavior of cardiac cushion tissue cells in a collagen-lattice culture system

A culture system was devised for the study of factors which influence the migration of cardiac cushion tissue cells. Explants of isolated chick atrioventricular canal cushions were placed on hydrated collagen lattices. Cells grew out of the explants from the endocardium and across the surface of the collagen lattices. During further incubation, mesenchyme-type cells seeded from the surface population into the underlying collagen matrix. These cells were morphologically similar to the mesenchymal cushion tissue cells which are derived from the endocardium and which migrate into and through the cardiac jelly matrix in the embryonic heart. The events observed in the culture system mimicked those occurring in the developing chick atrioventricular cushion.     

Structure of adsorbed fibrinogen obtained by scanning force microscopy

It is shown that scanning force microscopy (SFM), operated in the attractive mode, can be used to obtain high resolution pictures of adsorbed fibrinogen molecules on solid surfaces, without the need for staining or special microscope grids. SFM also reveals the three-dimensional structure of the adsorbed molecules. Two forms of adsorbed fibrinogen are demonstrated on hydrophobic silicone dioxide surfaces; a trinodular about 60 nm long and a globular with about a 40 nm diameter. Polymeric networks formed after storage of the surface with adsorbed fibrinogen in PBS for 11 days are also shown. The SFM-results for the trinodular structure suggest the existence of loops or peptide chains extending outside the basic structure of the fibrinogen molecule.     

Heavy metals (Cu and Zn) in recent sediments of Llangorse Lake,Wales: non-ferrous smelting,Napoleon and the price of wheat — a palaeoecological study

Elevated concentrations of Cu and Zn have been found in the upper part of three sediment cores collected from Llangorse Lake, in south Wales. Palaeomagnetic evidence from one of the cores and ²¹⁰Pb analysis of another, suggests that the increase in sediment Cu and Zn concentrations began during the eighteenth century. A sharp increase in the concentrations of these metals in the sediment profile appears to have occurred during the latter part of the eighteenth century and these concentrations remained high until the mid to late nineteenth century.The absence of known ore deposits and industry around the lake suggests that the lake and catchment soils were increasingly contaminated by long-range aerial transport of emissions from the expanding activity of Cu and Zn smelters located some 80 km upwind in the Swansea area during the Industrial Revolution. Evidence from agricultural crop returns indicates a significant increase in the amount of land devoted to tillage in the catchment, particularly to cereal production, during the late eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century which included the Napoleonic Wars. This agricultural shift appears to coincide with increased concentrations of Cu and Zn in the lake sediments. It is suggested that newly ploughed soils, contaminated with metals for many years by long-range aerial transport from the Swansea area, eroded, and were carried into the lake by catchment run-off and added to the sediment burden of Cu and Zn. A subsequent decline of Cu and Zn emissions due to the collapse of the non-ferrous smelting industry and reduced soil erosion because of a 50% reduction of tillage due to an agricultural depression in the second half of the 19th century may explain the fall in Cu and Zn concentrations in the upper part of the sediment profile. The most recent sediments (20th century) show the increase in heavy metals characteristic of many lakes around the world.     

Effects of exogenous wild-type p53 on a human lung carcinoma cell line with endogenous wild-type p53

Several studies have shown that expression of exogenous wild-type p53 is detrimental to the growth of cell lines with absent or mutant p53. In this study, wild-type p53 cDNA expression plasmids were transfected into A549 lung carcinoma cells which had previously been shown by sequencing to contain wild-type p53. When a constitutively expressed wild-type p53 plasmid containing the neomycin resistance gene was transfected into these cells, no G418-resistant colonies contained the exogenous p53 cDNA even though the neomycin resistance gene was integrated. When cells were transfected with a dexamethasone-inducible wild-type p53 cDNA expression plasmid, induction of p53 expression resulted in a decreased growth rate and a decreased proportion of S-phase cells. Continuous treatment with dexamethasone resulted in continued p53 expression for 16 days, but beyond that time expression ceased and could not be reinduced. These data indicated that although the A549 cell line could proliferate in the presence of endogenous wild-type p53 there was a strong selection pressure against continued expression of additional exogenous wild-type p53.     

On the generalization of the logistic law of growth

This communication presents a discussion of some extensions of the formalism of Verhulst's simple logistics, which may constitute an autonomous growth model of a more general scope.For that purpose, the basis concept of growth diagram or trajectory is called upon, as it affords the graphic representation of the change in the growth variable y, using two relevant kinetic parameters: the instantaneous rate and the instantaneous acceleration. The two possible kinds of trajectories are in relation to the use of absolute (V = dyldt; = dV/dt) or relative (or specific) values (R = (1/y)(dy/dt); _R = dR/dt).In the case of simple logistics, the trajectory (V, ) allows 4 growth phases or states to be distinguished. The diagram (R, _R ) shows that the deceleration of the specific rate is not monotonous.In the case of Richards - Nelder's generalized logistics, the qualitative variation of the growth trajectory depends on the value of the dissymmetry parameter (occurrence of a critical value which determines the number of growth states).Blumberg's model is characterized by an analogous property and, moreover, can account for a non monotonous variation of the specific growth rate.     

Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) isozymes in the gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica): Tissue and subcellular distribution and biochemical genetics of ALDH3

Polyacrylamide gel isoelectric focusing (PAGE-IEF), cellulose acetate electrophoresis, and histochemical techniques were used to examine the tissue and subcellular distribution, genetics and biochemical properties of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) isozymes in a didelphid marsupial, the gray short-tail opossum (Monodelphis domestica). At least 14 zones of activity were resolved by PAGE-IEF and divided into five isozyme groups and three ALDH classes, based upon comparisons with properties previously reported for human, baboon, rat, and mouse ALDHs. Opossum liver ALDHs were distributed among cytosol (ALDHs 1 and 5) and large granular (mitochondrial) fractions (ALDHs 2 and 5). Similarly, kidney ALDHs were distributed between the cytosol (ALDH5) and the mitochondrial fractions (ALDHs 2, 4, and 5), whereas a major isozyme (ALDH3), found in high activity in cornea, esophagus, ear pinna, tail, and stomach extracts, was localized predominantly in the cytosol fraction. Phenotypic variants of the latter enzyme were shown to be inherited in a normal Mendelian fashion, with two alleles at a single locus (ALDH3) showing codominant expression. The data provided evidence for genetic identity of corneal, ear pinna, tail, and stomach ALDH3 and supported biochemical evidence from other mammalian species that this enzyme has a dimeric subunit structure.     

The IRRI blue-green algae collection and computerized information on the strains available for distribution

ORSTOM-IRRI collaborative program on nitrogen fixation