Sexual behavior and serum hormone levels in aging rhesus males: effects of environmental change

Old (N = 9) and middle-aged (N = 9) rhesus males (Macaca mulatta) that were housed in the same type of home cage and the same room for several years were moved to a new location in an adjacent building. Their sexual behavior and hormone levels in the weeks preceding the move were compared to those after the move. The hypothesis that the nonspecific sensory stimulation provided by the move would increase levels of sexual behavior was not supported by the data. To the contrary, the percentages of tests with contacts, mounts, and penile erections, and the rate of contacting the female, decreased significantly for both old and middle-aged males. The intromission rate of middle-aged, but not of old, males also decreased. In consonance with previous findings, middle-aged males displayed significantly higher levels of sexual activity than did old males. The differences were observed both before and after the move. Serum testosterone levels did not differ between middle-aged and old males, and the move did not produce significant changes in testosterone levels. Serum cortisol levels were significantly higher immediately after the move (1 hr) but returned to premove levels the following day.     

Narratives of success among Irish and African Caribbean migrants

This paper compares the narratives of two men in midlife who migrated to the UK from Ireland and from the Caribbean as children, in the middle of the last century. We examine how success is narrated over the life course to show how migrants’ positioning of themselves differs from the ways in which they are positioned by outsiders, including in policy and public discourse. We conclude that while outsider narratives often polarise success and failure, insider understandings of success are dynamic and culturally and historically situated.     

Darting and marking techniques for an arboreal forest monkey,Cercopithecus ascanius

Techniques are described for capturing and marking redtail monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius). An air-powered darting rifle and syringe darts loaded with a Ketamine-Rompun mixture were used for capture. Ketamine was used for maintaining anesthesia. Monkeys were darted 48 times and captured 27 times. In 24 of the 27 captures, the monkeys were released unharmed. Adult males were marked with radiotransmitters attached to collars of nylon webbing. Females received nylon webbing collars with colorcoded plastic washers for identification.     

Inhibition of Ca2+-induced cytosolic enzyme efflux from skeletal muscle by vitamin E and related compounds.

1. Efflux of an intracellular enzyme (creatine kinase) from normal rat skeletal muscles was induced by treatment with the Ca2+ ionophore A23187. Addition of alpha-tocopherol (230 microM) to the incubation medium was found to significantly diminish this efflux, and this effect was mimicked by alpha-tocopherol acetate, phytol and isophytol, but not by Trolox C (6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid). 2. Analysis of muscle cation content has shown that these protective effects of alpha-tocopherol etc. are not due to an inhibition of the Ca2+ accumulating effects of the ionophore. 3. Non-enzymic lipid peroxidation of skeletal-muscle homogenates was found to be inhibited by alpha-tocopherol and Trolox C, partially inhibited by phytol and isophytol, but unaffected by alpha-tocopherol acetate. 4. The activity of lipoxygenase enzymes was partially inhibited by alpha-tocopherol, phytol and isophytol, but not by alpha-tocopherol acetate or Trolox C. 5. Prostaglandin E2 efflux from isolated skeletal muscles was stimulated by treatment with the Ca2+ ionophore, but this was unaffected by alpha-tocopherol treatment.     

Threshold for behavioral response to testosterone in old castrated male rhesus macaques

The sexual behaviors of old, intact (N = 5) and old, castrated (N = 6) rhesus macaque males were compared in six series of pair tests with receptive females. The castrated monkeys were tested when untreated and when given five doses of testosterone propionate (TP; 0.004, 0.016, 0.064, 0.256, and 1.024 mg/kg of body weight) in consecutive months. The serum testosterone (T) level was determined for each male before and after each series of tests. When untreated, none of the castrated males ejaculated, and yawning was significantly less in these monkeys than in intact males-no other behavioral measures differed significantly. Within 2 weeks of daily injections of 0.004 mg of TP/kg, two males ejaculated, and all differences in measures of ejaculation were eliminated. A third male ejaculated after 1 week of treatment with 0.016 mg of TP/kg. Yawning values did not differ during and after treatment with 0.064 mg of TP/kg. Although final mean serum T levels were six times higher in castrated (24.3 ng/ml) than in intact males (4.2 ng/ml), sexual performance levels did not exceed those of intact males.     

Monoclonal antibody to a protein of the nucleus and mitotic spindle of mammalian cells

We report here the isolation of a monoclonal antibody, J17, that reacts with a conserved vertebrate protein antigen that is present in the spindle apparatus during mitosis but found within the nucleus during interphase. Immunofluorescence microscopy demonstrates that the J17 antigen is found in numerous punctate regions that are distinct from nucleoli. Furthermore, this antigen is not directly associated with kinetochores, the nuclear envelope, or with metaphase chromosomes. — Antibody J17 immunoprecipitates a single polypeptide of very high molecular weight (over 250000) from K562 human erythroleukemia cells pulse-labeled with ¹⁴C-leucine. This polypeptide is converted quantitatively to a stable 220-kilodalton product within one cellular generation. We discuss the possible relevance of this processing event for transport into the nucleus. The J17 antigen is synthesized throughout the cell cycle in Chinese hamster ovary cells.     

Aging and primate male sexual behavior

Old male rhesus macaques display less sexual behavior than young and middle-aged males. The decrease in sexual activity occurs without a statistically significant decline in gonadal hormones or change in diurnal patterns of serum T, DHT, or LH. Levels of sexual activity are not increased by administering T to old intact males. However, the hormone is effective in increasing sexual behavior in old long-term-castrated males. Performance can be increased to levels observed in equally old untreated intact males. Readily detectable physical disabilities of old age have been observed to impair sexual performance, but the observed general decline in sexual activity cannot be accounted for by known physical disabilities. Novelty, as represented by a change in female partner or by a change in environment, has not increased sexual performance in old rhesus males. Only when old males were paired with empirically selected preferred females is their sexual behavior increased to levels displayed by young males. Drugs reported to increase levels of sexual behavior in rats have thus far been less effective in old rhesus males than powdered rhinoceros horn has been in man. The probable absence of a placebo effect in rhesus males should increase their usefulness as an animal model for the study of sexual behavior in aging men.     

Multiple mechanisms of membrane anchoring of Escherichia coli penicillin-binding proteins

Abstract: The major penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) of Escherichia coli play vital roles in cell wall biosynthesis and are located in the inner membrane. The high M _r PBPs 1A, 1B, 2 and 3 are essential bifunctional transglycosylases/transpeptidases which are thought to be type II integral inner membrane proteins with their C-terminal enzymatic domains projecting into the periplasm. The low M _r PBP4 is a DD-carboxypeptidase/endopeptidase, whereas PBPs 5 and are DD-carboxypeptidases. All three low M _r , PBPs act in the modification of peptidoglycan to allow expansion of the sacculus and are thought to be periplasmic proteins attached with varying affinities to the inner membrane via C-terminal amphiphilic α-helices. It is possible that the PBPs and other inner membrane proteins form a peptidoglycan synthesizing complex to coordinate their activities.     

Viability and Isolation of Marine Bacteria by Dilution Culture: Theory, Procedures, and Initial Results

Dilution culture, a method for growing the typical small bacteria from natural aquatic assemblages, has been developed. Each of 11 experimental trials of the technique was successful. Populations are measured, diluted to a small and known number of cells, inoculated into unamended sterilized seawater, and examined three times for the presence of 10⁴ or more cells per ml over a 9-week interval. Mean viability for assemblage members is obtained from the frequency of growth, and many of the cultures produced are pure. Statistical formulations for determining viability and the frequency of pure culture production are derived. Formulations for associated errors are derived as well. Computer simulations of experiments agreed with computed values within the expected error, which verified the formulations. These led to strategies for optimizing viability determinations and pure culture production. Viabilities were usually between 2 and 60% and decreased with >5 mg of amino acids per liter as carbon. In view of difficulties in growing marine oligobacteria, these high values are noteworthy. Significant differences in population characteristics during growth, observed by high-resolution flow cytometry, suggested substantial population diversity. Growth of total populations as well as of cytometry-resolved subpopulations sometimes were truncated at levels of near 10⁴ cells per ml, showing that viable cells could escape detection. Viability is therefore defined as the ability to grow to that population; true viabilities could be even higher. Doubling times, based on whole populations as well as individual subpopulations, were in the 1-day to 1-week range. Data were examined for changes in viability with dilution suggesting cell-cell interactions, but none could be confirmed. The frequency of pure culture production can be adjusted by inoculum size if the viability is known. These apparently pure cultures produced retained the size and apparent DNA-content characteristic of the bulk of the organisms in the parent seawater. Three cultures are now available, two of which have been carried for 3 years. The method is thus seen as a useful step for improving our understanding of typical aquatic organisms.     

Identification of a locus involved in meningococcal lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis by deletion mutagenesis

A novel method for insertion/deletion mutagenesis in meningococci was devised. This consisted of ligating a digest of total chromosomal DNA to a 1.1 kb restriction fragment containing an erythromycin-resistance marker ( ermC ), and subsequent transformation of the ligation mixture into the homologous meningococcal strain H44/76. Southern blotting of a number of the resulting erythromycin-resistant transformants demonstrated that all carried the ermC gene inserted at different positions in the chromosome. Mutants with a specific phenotype were identified by screening with the anti-lipopolysaccharide (LPS) monoclonal antibody MN4A8B2, which is specific for immunotype L3. In this way, two independent L3-negative mutant strains were isolated. In transformation experiments with chromosomal DNA from these mutants, erythromycin-resistance and lack of MN4A8B2 reactivity were always linked, showing that the insertion/deletion was in a locus involved in LPS biosynthesis. On SDS–PAGE, the mutant LPS displayed an electrophoretic mobility intermediate between that produced by the previously isolated galE and rfaF mutant strains. Chemical analysis of the mutant LPS revealed that the structure was probably lipid A–(KDO)₂–(Hep)₂. Chromosomal DNA flanking the ermC insertion in these two mutant strains was cloned, and used as probe for the isolation of the corresponding region of the wild-type strain. From hybridization and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis, it could be concluded that both mutations map to the same locus. The affected gene probably encodes the glycosyltransferase necessary for adding N -acetylglucosamine to heptose.