Blood pressure in a national birth cohort at the age of 36 related to social and familial factors,smoking, and body mass.

Blood pressure was measured in a birth cohort of 5362 subjects at the age of 36. The prevalence of hypertension in men (blood pressure greater than 140/90 mm Hg) was almost twice that in women, although women received treatment more often. Deaths of fathers of subjects from hypertensive and ischaemic heart disease were associated with significantly higher mean systolic and diastolic pressures in both sexes. Cigarette smoking was not strongly associated with blood pressure in men and not associated at all in women. Of the social factors, low social class of family of origin was associated with high blood pressure in both sexes; but the strongest association was with current body mass, and birth weight also contributed. Differences in blood pressures between the sexes may have been related to protective biological factors, such as endogenous sex hormones, in women and also to differences in types of employment, smoking habits, and body mass. Differences in blood pressures related to the social class of family of origin may reflect long term influences of class differences on diet, exercise, and educational achievement. The importance of measuring secular trends in obesity and blood pressures is emphasised.     

Population genetics and phylogenetics of DNA sequence variation at multiple loci within the Drosophila melanogaster species complex

Two regions of the genome, a 1-kbp portion of the zeste locus and a 1.1- kbp portion of the yolk protein 2 locus, were sequenced in six individuals from each of four species: Drosophila melanogaster, D. simulans, D. mauritiana, and D. sechellia. The species and strains were the same as those of a previous study of a 1.9-kbp region of the period locus. No evidence was found for recent balancing or directional selection or for the accumulation of selected differences between species. Yolk protein 2 has a high level of amino acid replacement variation and a low level of synonymous variation, while zeste has the opposite pattern. This contrast is consistent with information on gene function and patterns of codon bias. Polymorphism levels are consistent with a ranking of effective population sizes, from low to high, in the following order: D. sechellia, D. melanogaster, D.mauritiana, and D. simulans. The apparent species relationships are very similar to those suggested by the period locus study. In particular, D. simulans appears to be a large population that is still segregating variation that arose before the separation of D. mauritiana and D. sechellia. It is estimated that the separation of ancestral D. melanogaster from the other species occurred 2.5-3.4 Mya. The separations of D. sechellia and D. mauritiana from ancestral D. simulans appear to have occurred 0.58- 0.86 Mya, with D. mauritiana having diverged from ancestral D. simulans 0.1 Myr more recently than D. sechellia.      

Biodegradation of azo and heterocyclic dyes by Phanerochaete chrysosporium.

Biodegradation of Orange II, Tropaeolin O, Congo Red, and Azure B in cultures of the white rot fungus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, was demonstrated by decolarization of the culture medium, the extent of which was determined by monitoring the decrease in absorbance at or near the wavelength maximum for each dye. Metabolite formation was also monitored. Decolorization of these dyes was most extensive in ligninolytic cultures, but substantial decolorization also occurred in nonligninolytic cultures. Incubation with crude lignin peroxidase resulted in decolorization of Azure B, Orange II, and Tropaeolin O but not Congo Red, indicating that lignin peroxidase is not required in the initial step of Congo Red degradation.     

The microbial metabolism of acetophenone. Metabolism of acetophenone and some chloroacetophenones by an Arthrobacter species

1. An organism that utilizes acetophenone as sole source of carbon and energy was isolated in pure culture and tentatively identified as an Arthrobacter sp. 2. Cell-free extracts of the acetophenone-grown organism contained an enzyme, acetophenone oxygenase, that catalysed an NADPH-dependent consumption of O(2) in the presence of the growth substrate; approx. 1mol of O(2) and 1mol of NADPH were consumed per mol of acetophenone oxidized. 3. Cell-free extracts also contained an enzyme capable of the hydrolysis of phenyl acetate to phenol and acetate. The amount of this esterase was increased markedly by growth on acetophenone. 4. The observed products of the acetophenone oxygenase reaction by crude cell-free extracts were phenol and acetate. However, inhibition of the phenyl acetate esterase by paraoxon resulted in the formation of phenyl acetate from acetophenone. 5. A degradative sequence is proposed in which acetophenone is metabolized by an oxygen-insertion reaction to form phenyl acetate. Further metabolism occurs by hydrolysis of this ester. 6. The organism and extracts were shown to metabolize chlorinated acetophenones. The environmental implications of this observation are discussed.     

Effects of Cortisol and Dexamethasone on Insulin Signalling Pathways in Skeletal Muscle of the Ovine Fetus during Late Gestation

Before birth, glucocorticoids retard growth, although the extent to which this is mediated by changes in insulin signalling pathways in the skeletal muscle of the fetus is unknown. The current study determined the effects of endogenous and synthetic glucocorticoid exposure on insulin signalling proteins in skeletal muscle of fetal sheep during late gestation. Experimental manipulation of fetal plasma glucocorticoid concentration was achieved by fetal cortisol infusion and maternal dexamethasone treatment. Cortisol infusion significantly increased muscle protein levels of Akt2 and phosphorylated Akt at Ser473, and decreased protein levels of phosphorylated forms of mTOR at Ser2448 and S6K at Thr389. Muscle GLUT4 protein expression was significantly higher in fetuses whose mothers were treated with dexamethasone compared to those treated with saline. There were no significant effects of glucocorticoid exposure on muscle protein abundance of IR-β, IGF-1R, PKCζ, Akt1, calpastatin or muscle glycogen content. The present study demonstrated that components of the insulin signalling pathway in skeletal muscle of the ovine fetus are influenced differentially by naturally occurring and synthetic glucocorticoids. These findings may provide a mechanism by which elevated concentrations of endogenous glucocorticoids retard fetal growth.     

N-(Pyridin-2-yl) arylsulfonamide inhibitors of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1: Strategies to eliminate reactive metabolites

N-(Pyridin-2-yl) arylsulfonamides 1 and 2 (PF-915275) were identified as potent inhibitors of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1. A screen for bioactivation revealed that these compounds formed glutathione conjugates. This communication presents the results of a risk benefit analysis carried out to progress 2 (PF-915275) to a clinical study and the strategies used to eliminate reactive metabolites in this series of inhibitors. Based on the proposed mechanism of bioactivation and structure–activity relationships, design efforts led to N-(pyridin-2-yl) arylsulfonamides such as 18 and 20 that maintained potent 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 activity, showed exquisite pharmacokinetic profiles, and were negative in the reactive metabolite assay.

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Digital image analysis of AgNORs in cervical smears of women with premalignant and malignant lesions of the uterine cervix

We performed a hospital-based, unmatched case-control study to investigate the association between progressive stages of cervical neoplasia and digital analysis of cell proliferation by silver stained nucleolus organizer region associated proteins (AgNORs). We measured cell proliferation levels in the cervical epithelial cells of 10 women with low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LG-SIL), eight with high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HG-SIL), 11 with cervical cancer (CC) and eight with no cervical lesions (controls) using the AgNORs technique. Cell proliferation was measured by digital image analysis (DIA). DIA revealed increased total areas of AgNORs in HG-SIL and CC compared to LG-SIL and control patients. AgNORs with a kidney or cluster shape exhibited greater areas than those with a spherical or long shape. We propose a cut-off of 118 pixels to differentiate benign (control and LG-SIL) from malignant (HG-SIL and CC) lesions. DIA of AgNORs is a simple and inexpensive method for studying proliferation. The increased total area of AgNORs in malignant lesions provides information regarding cell behavior and may be related to cervical carcinogenesis; however, further validation studies are required to establish its usefulness in cytological analysis.