Ischemic flow threshold for striatal dopamine release in rats

To determine the level of cerebral blood flow reduction which causes striatal dopamine release, extracellular dopamine and cerebral blood flow was simultaneously determined using in vivo brain dialysis and a hydrogen clearance method, respectively, in the striatum of spontaneously hypertensive rats, before and during experimental cerebral ischemia. The ischemic flow threshold for neurotransmitter dopamine release was found to be 20% of the resting value or 8–10 ml/100g/min of cerebral blood flow, being similar to those for energy and membrane failures.     

抗马拉硫磷淡色库蚊不同基因型的自然内禀增长率及其对抗性演化的影响

本文涉及淡色库蚊(Culex pipiens pallens)抗马拉硫磷纯合子(RR)、杂合子(RS)和敏感纯合子(SS)的自然内禀增长率及其对马拉硫磷抗性演化的影响。RR、RS和SS的内禀增长率分别为0.1118、0.1171和0.1339。RR和RS基因型在无杀虫剂时呈现出繁殖不利性,RR和RS的相对适合度分别是SS的0.65和0.68。 影响淡色库蚊对马拉硫磷进化的某些因子在计算机上进行了模拟。模拟的因子包括R等位基因的起始频率(P_o)、所用马拉硫磷的剂量和迁入率(m)。模拟结果表明(I)不用药时R等位基因衰减是由于RR和RS基因型的繁殖不利性;(2)在起始种群N_o=200,P_o=0.1,使用杀死全部SS和RS的剂量(8ppm)处理,使R等位基因为有效隐性,并且m≥0.15时可阻止马拉硫磷抗性的发生。     

Bias of heritability estimates from twin data in presence of errors of zygosity determination

Simple heritability estimators of continuous as well as discrete traits from twin data are known to overestimate the degree of genetic determination of the measured traits for several reasons. Errors of zygosity determination will, however, underestimate the true heritability. The bias due to wrong assignment of dizygous twin pairs into monozygous type is evaluated here, and the results indicate that this negative bias has a compensatory effect on the estimate of the degree of genetic determination when other factors of similarity between twin pairs are taken into account. It is shown that when an estimate of zygosity error is available, the bias due to this factor can be evaluated quantitatively, and hence the adjustment for zygosity error can be incorporated in the estimation of the degree of genetic determination of a trait. Although this theory is explicitly developed here for twin studies, the general principle also applies for other types of errors of determining the degree of biological relationships for estimation of heritability, in which case this type of error may be more important than the simple zygosity error.     

Functional and phenotypic analyses of interleukin 2-activated tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes

The tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were cultured with interleukin 2 (IL-2) to induce the activated killer cells possessing autologous tumor-killing activity, and analysed their cell surface phenotypes and assessed anti-tumor killing activity. Furthermore, the activated TILs were transferred into 7 patients adoptively resulting in complete remission in a patient with pancreatic cancer and partial remission in another patient with gastric cancer.The cytotoxic activities of activated TILs at 3 weeks-incubation was 72 ± 15, 42 ± 26, 27 ± 21 and 25 ± 15% against K562, Daudi, KATO-III and autologous tumor, respectively. The negative selection method, indicated that the killer cells recognizing autologous tumor cells consisted of CD4- or CD8-positive T lymphocytes and CD16- or CD56-positive natural killer cells. The activated TILs could not only lyse cultured tumor cell lines, but also autologous tumor cells.     

黔桂边境六县植物区系组成及其特点

黔桂边境六县植物区系有维管束植物203科921属2255种(变种)。其中种子植物含25种以上的有22科,代表成分有樟科、山茶科、壳斗科、五加科、桑科和椴树科。区系的特点是:地理成分复杂、分布交错;热带、亚热带性质明显;区系起源古老;特有珍稀种类多;喜酸成分较喜钙成分占优势;草本与木本种类近等。此外,对本区系自然条件及植物资源利用也作了简述。     

A general principle for the allocation of limited resources

Summary A marginal fitness theorem is derived for the allocation of a limited resource among alternative activities that have effects on the fitness of an individual. The marginal advantage theorem states that at the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS), the marginal gains from increasing each of the allocations (expressed as partial derivatives of the fitness advantage of a rare mutant) are equal. The theorem is true for all proportional allocations (a + b + c + ...=j), regardless of the number of allocations, the nature of the response curves describing the direct effects of the allocations [f(a), etc.], or the way the effects of different allocations combine into fitness. The theorem is extended to size-number compromises and packaging strategies. The marginal advantage theorem is used to derive general theorems about the marginal effects of allocations [f (a), etc.] at the ESS and matching rules concerned with the total fitness to cost ratios of allocations at the ESS. The marginal advantage theorem is applicable to diverse allocation strategies, and provides a method for obtaining ESS allocations for any number of allocations and their components.     

Nerve growth factor: Cellular localization and regulation of synthesis

1. The role of nerve growth factor (NGF) as a retrograde messenger between peripheral target tissues and innervating sympathetic and neural crest-derived sensory neurons is supported by the observations that (a) the interruption of retrograde axonal transport has the same effects as the neutralization of endogenous NGF by anti-NGF antibodies and (b) the close correlation between the density of innervation by fibers of NGF-responsive neurons and the levels of NGF and mRNANGF in their target organs. 2. In situ hybridization experiments have demonstrated that a great variety of cells in the projection field or NGF-responsive neurons is synthesizing NGF, among them epithelial cells, smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, and Schwann cells. 3. The temporal correlation between the growth of trigeminal sensory fibers into the whisker pad of the mouse and the commencement of NGF synthesis initially suggested a causal relationship between these two events. However, in chick embryos rendered aneural by prior removal of the neural tube or the neural crest, it was shown that the onset of NGF synthesis in the periphery is independent of neurons, and is controlled by an endogenous "clock" whose regulatory mechanism remains to be established. 4. A comparison between NGF synthesis in the nonneuronal cells of the newborn rat sciatic nerve and that in the adult sciatic nerve after lesion provided evidence for the important regulatory role played by a secretory product of activated macrophages. The identity of this product is currently under investigation.     

Post-castration rebound of an androgen regulated prostatic gene

Summary After castration, the rat dorsolateral prostate M-40 mRNA initially decreased then rebounded to precastrated levels. The cellular site of M-40 expression and its renewed expression after castration was defined by in situ hybridization histochemistry. In situ hybridization with either a ³²P-labeled or biotin-labeled M-40 cDNA probe demonstrated that M-40 mRNA levels were higher in the lateral than dorsal prostate. A second androgen regulated gene, RWB, also was highly expressed in the lateral prostate. The biotinylated cDNA probes provided microscopic resolution of the expressing cells, revealing two distinct morphologies of lateral epithelium which expressed both the M-40 and RWB mRNA. These morphologies appeared in ducts which contained either epithelial cell sheets that were highly convoluted or thinner epithelial cells with a minimal degree of convolution. The RWB mRNA decreased in both cell populations in response to androgen withdrawal. The decline and reappearance of M-40 mRNA also appeared in both epithelial cell types. These data demonstrated that after castration the M-40 mRNA initially decreased as expected for an androgen sensitive gene and then progressed to a fully inducible state. The mechanism of this progression remains to be elucidated.     

Role of the N-terminal region of the A chain in beta 1-bungarotoxin from the venom of Bungarus multicinctus (Taiwan-banded krait)

The N-terminal -amino groups of ₁-bungarotoxin (₁-Bgt) fromBungarus multicinctus venom were modified with trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid and the modified derivative was separated by high performance liquid chromatography. The trinitrophenylated (TNP) derivative contained two TNP groups at the -amino groups of A chain and B chain and showed a marked decrease in enzymatic activity. Methionine residues at positions 6 and 8 of the A chain were oxidized with chloramine T or cleaved with cyanogen bromide to remove the N-terminal octapeptide. Oxidation of methionine residues and removal of the N-terminal octapeptide caused a precipitous decrease in enzymatic activity, whereas antigenicity remained unchanged. The presence of dihexanoyllecithin influenced the interaction between ₁-Bgt and 8-antilinonaphthalene sulfonate (ANS) and revealed that ₁-Bgt consists of two types of ANS-binding sites, one at the substrate binding site of the A chain and the other might be at the B chain. The modified derivatives still retained their affinity for Ca²⁺ and ANS, indicating that the N-terminal region is not involved in Ca²⁺ and substrate binding. A fluorescence study revealed that the -amino group of the A chain was in the vicinity of substrate binding site and that the TNP -amino groups were in proximity to Trp-19 of the A chain. In addition, the study showed that the N-terminal region is important for stabilizing the architectural environment of Trp-19. The results, together with the proposal that Trp-19 of the A chain is involved in substrate binding, suggest that the N-terminal region of the A chain plays a crucial role in maintaining a functional active site for ₁-Bgt.     

Prediction of the packing arrangement of strands in β-sheets of globular proteins

A method is proposed for predicting the adjacency order in which strands pack in a -sheet in a protein, on the basis of its amino acid sequence alone. The method is based on the construction of a predicted contact map for the protein, in which the probability that various residue pairs are close to each other is computed from statistically determined average distances of residue pairs in globular proteins of known structure. Compact regions, i.e., portions of the sequence with many interresidue contacts, are determined on the map by using an objective search procedure. The proximity of strands in a -sheet is predicted from the density of contacts in compact regions associated with each pair of strands. The most probable -sheet structures are those with the highest density of contacts. The method has been tested by computing the probable strand arrangements in a five-strand -sheet in five proteins or protein domains, containing 62–138 residues. Of the theoretically possible 60 strand arrangements, the method selects two to eight arrangements as most probable; i.e., it leads to a large reduction in the number of possibilities. The native strand arrangement is among those predicted for three of the five proteins. For the other two, it would be included in the prediction by a slight relaxation of the cutoff criteria used to analyze the density of contacts.