Aplysia punctata added to list of laboratory-cultured Aplysia

The marine opisthobranch molluscAplysia punctata was cultured at the Laboratoire de Biologie Marine in Concarneau, France.A. punctata veligers settled and underwent metamorphosis on the algaLomentaria articulata, but not onUlva spp., Palmaria marina, Laminaria spp. andFucus spp.Research supported by grants from The Arts Foundation and the Lerner Fund for Marine Research of the American Museum of Natural History. We wish to thank Director Yves Legal, College de France for his support and cooperation.     

Comparison of 4 serological tests--complement fixation, neutralization, fluorescent antibody to membrane antigen and immune adherence hemagglutination--for assay of antibody to varicella-zoster (V-Z) virus.

Four tests for antibody to varicella-zoster (V-Z) virus were compared; these were tests of complement fixation (CF), neutralization (NT), fluorescent antibody to membrane antigen (FAMA) and immune adherence hemagglutination (IAHA). Fifty-two sera from patients with varicella and zoster and from recipients of live varicella vaccine were examined by the 4 tests. The CF test was least sensitive, but the antibody titers by the NT, FAMA and IAHA tests were roughly comparable. The IAHA test was the simplest and fastest to perform, and appeared suitable for routine serological assay to V-Z virus. The correlation between the IAHA antibody titer and susceptibility of individuals to clinical varicella was investigated retrospectively using sera obtained during 2 outbreaks of varicella in an institution for children, where all the unvaccinated children had developed varicella symptoms. Most of the 25 pre-exposure sera from unvaccinated children examined by the IAHA test had tiers of less than 1:2. In contrast, all the 23 sera from vaccinated children who did not develop varicella had detectable antibody titers of 1:2 to 1:64. These results indicate that the IAHA titer reflects the susceptibility or resistance of individuals to clinical varicella.     

Stimulatory effect of bleomycin on the synthesis of acidic glycosaminoglycans in cultured fibroblasts derived from rat carrageenin granuloma.

Cultured fibroblasts derived from rat carrageenin granuloma were treated with bleomycin and the synthesis of hexosamine-containing substances was compared with that in control cells. Four day treatment with o.1 mug bleomycin/ml resulted in a significant increase of the production of these macromolecules by the cells, though DNA synthesis was remarkably inhibited at this dose of bleomycin. The stimulatory effect could be seen as early as the second day of bleomycin treatment, and was enhanced with increasing treatment time. Further fractionation of the hexosamine-containing substances revealed that synthesis of acidic glycosaminoglycans was more sensitive to bleomycin than that of glycoproteins, i.e., acidic glycosaminoglycans increased by 80% and glycoproteins by 53% after four day treatment with 0.1 mug bleomycin/ml. The increased components of acidic glycosaminoglycans included not only hyaluronic acid but also sulphated glycosaminoglycans. Collagen synthesis was increased by 23% by the same dose of bleomycin. N-Acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase, one of the degradation enzymes for acidic glycosaminoglycans released into the cultured medium, was decreased significantly by bleomycin.     

Metabolism of PG in man: Effect of furosemide on the excretion of the main metabolite of PG F2α

The excretion rates of main urinary metabolite of PG F₂α were measured radioimmunologically in 4 healthy persons and in 13 essential hypertensives. The resting values were 9.3±0.73 in the former and 10.4±2.17 ng/min in the latter. There was no significant differences between them. The excretion of the metabolite decresed prominently after the administration of furosemide. The percent decrease was 57% in healthy persons and 70% in essential hypertension. The percent result supports that furosemide inhibit the catabolism of PG F₂α.     

A case report of Turner's syndrome with ring X chromosome.

A case of Turner's syndrome with short stature and 45, XO/46, XXr mosaicism in chromosome study was presented. With special emphasis on endocrinological study, the size of the breasts was normal in contrast to the poor development of the breasts in most of types of Turner's syndrome. She showed normal thyroid function, slightly low level of urinary 17-OHCS, decreased 17-KS, poor response in metopirone test and poor response of HGH to insulin.     

Construction of an infectious clone of canine herpesvirus genome as a bacterial artificial chromosome

Canine herpesvirus (CHV) is an attractive candidate not only for use as a recombinant vaccine to protect dogs from a variety of canine pathogens but also as a viral vector for gene therapy in domestic animals. However, developments in this area have been impeded by the complicated techniques used for eukaryotic homologous recombination. To overcome these problems, we used bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) to generate infectious BACs. Our findings may be summarized as follows: (i) the CHV genome (pCHV/BAC), in which a BAC flanked by loxP sites was inserted into the thymidine kinase gene, was maintained in Escherichia coli; (ii) transfection of pCHV/BAC into A-72 cells resulted in the production of infectious virus; (iii) the BAC vector sequence was almost perfectly excisable from the genome of the reconstituted virus CHV/BAC by co-infection with CHV/BAC and a recombinant adenovirus that expressed the Cre recombinase; and (iv) a recombinant virus in which the glycoprotein C gene was deleted was generated by lambda recombination followed by Flp recombination, which resulted in a reduction in viral titer compared with that of the wild-type virus. The infectious clone pCHV/BAC is useful for the modification of the CHV genome using bacterial genetics, and CHV/BAC should have multiple applications in the rapid generation of genetically engineered CHV recombinants and the development of CHV vectors for vaccination and gene therapy in domestic animals.     

Aberrant Active cis-Regulatory Elements Associated with Downregulation of RET Finger Protein Overcome Chemoresistance in Glioblastoma

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