Behavioral and physiological effects of chronic 2,450-MHz microwave irradiation of the rat at 0.5 mW/cm2

Adult male Long-Evans rats were intermittently exposed to 2450 MHz CW microwaves at an average power density of 0.5 mW/cm2 for 90 days. The resulting SAR was 0.14 W/kg (range 0.11 to 0.18 W/kg). The animals were exposed 7 h/day, 7 days/wk, for a total of 630 h in a monopole-above-ground radiation chamber while housed in Plexiglas holding cages. Daily measures of body mass and food and water intake indicated no statistically significant effects of microwave exposure. Monthly assessment of reactivity to electric footshock, levels of cholinesterase and sulfhydryl groups in blood, and 17-ketosteroids in urine revealed no reliable differences between 14 sham-exposed and 14 microwave-exposed rats. After the 90 days of exposure, seven rats, randomly chosen from each group, were assessed for open-field behavior, shuttlebox performance, and schedule-controlled (IRT schedule) lever pressing for food pellets. Statistically significant differences between microwave-exposed and sham-exposed rats were observed in shuttlebox performances and lever pressing. Post mortem measures of mass of several organs and microscopic examination of adrenal tissue revealed no differences between the two groups of animals.     

Microheterogeneity of lentil seedling (Lens culinaris) amine oxidase

Purified lentil seedling amino oxidase (LSAO) is homogeneous in the analytical ultracentrifuge, but shows heterogeneity in gel-filtration HPLC and in PAGE. Two components were obtained from HPLC and PAGE, but at least 6-7 subforms were seen by electrofocusing techniques. The chromatographic and electrophoretic forms are not interconvertible, indicating the presence of covalent differences. The electrophoretic pattern, but not the chromatographic pattern, is modified by treating the enzyme with a pool of glycohydrolases. The copper-free enzyme shows the same type of heterogeneity as the native enzyme, this ruling out the possibility that some subforms were due to the presence of apoenzyme.     

Intracellular Ca2+ stores in neurons. Identification and functional aspects.

Various aspects of the rapidly exchanging intracellular Ca2+ stores of neurons and nerve cells are reviewed: their multiplicity, with separate sensitivity to either the second messenger, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate, or ryanodine-caffeine (the latter stores are probably activated via Ca(2+)-induced Ca2+ release); their control of the plasma membrane Ca2+ permeability, via the activation of a peculiar type of cation channels; their ability to sustain localized heterogeneities of the [Ca2+]i that could be of physiological key-importance. Finally, the molecular composition of these stores is discussed. They are shown (by high resolution immunocytochemistry and subcellular fractionation) to express: i) a Ca2+ ATPase responsible for the accumulation of the cation; ii) Ca2+ binding protein(s) of low affinity and high capacity to keep Ca2+ stored; and iii) a Ca2+ channel, activated by either one of the mechanisms mentioned above, to release Ca2+ to the cytosol. Results obtained in Purkinje neurons document the heterogeneity of the stores and the strategical distribution of the corresponding organelles (calciosomes; specialized portions of the ER) within the cell body, dendrites and dendritic spines.     

Microwave radiation absorption in the rat: frequency-dependent SAR distribution in body and tail

Experiments were conducted using twin-well calorimetry to determine the averaged whole-body specific absorption rate (SAR) for rat carcasses exposed to 360, 700, 915, and 2,450 MHz CW radiation in an anechoic chamber. All exposures were done with the long axis of the rat in an E-polarization. Additional experiments were conducted using a fiber optical temperature probe to determine local SAR in the brain, esophagus, colon, rectum, and tail during microwave exposure. The whole-body averaged SAR for the radiation frequencies examined follows a nonmonotonic function with 700 MHz as the resonant frequency. This result agrees with previous analytical estimates. Local SARs within the body and tail are nonuniform with significant frequency-specific hotspots in the colon, rectum, and tail.     

Big flies, small repeats: the "Thr-Gly" region of the period gene in Diptera

The region of the clock gene period (per) that encodes a repetitive tract of threonine-glycine (Thr-Gly) pairs has been compared between Dipteran species both within and outside the Drosophilidae. All the non- Drosophilidae sequences in this region are short and present a remarkably stable picture compared to the Drosophilidae, in which the region is much larger and extremely variable, both in size and composition. The accelerated evolution in the repetitive region of the Drosophilidae appears to be mainly due to an expansion of two ancestral repeats, one encoding a Thr-Gly dipeptide and the other a pentapeptide rich in serine, glycine, and asparagine or threonine. In some drosophilids the expansion involves a duplication of the pentapeptide sequence, but in Drosophila pseudoobscura both the dipeptide and the pentapeptide repeats are present in larger numbers. In the nondrosophilids, however, the pentapeptide sequence is represented by one copy and the dipeptide by two copies. These observations fulfill some of the predictions of recent theoretical models that have simulated the evolution of repetitive sequences.      

Evolutionary origin of human and primate malarias: evidence from the circumsporozoite protein gene

We have analyzed the conserved regions of the gene coding for the circumsporozoite protein (CSP) in 12 species of Plasmodium, the malaria parasite. The closest evolutionary relative of P. falciparum, the agent of malignant human malaria, is P. reichenowi, a chimpanzee parasite. This is consistent with the hypothesis that P. falciparum is an ancient human parasite, associated with humans since the divergence of the hominids from their closest hominoid relatives. Three other human Plasmodium species are each genetically indistinguishable from species parasitic to nonhuman primates; that is, for the DNA sequences included in our analysis, the differences between species are not greater than the differences between strains of the human species. The human P. malariae is indistinguishable from P. brasilianum, and P. vivax is indistinguishable from P. simium; P. brasilianum and P. simium are parasitic to New World monkeys. The human P. vivax-like is indistinguishable from P. simiovale, a parasite of Old World macaques. We conjecture that P. malariae, P. vivax, and P. vivax-like are evolutionarily recent human parasites, the first two at least acquired only within the last several thousand years, and perhaps within the last few hundred years, after the expansion of human populations in South America following the European colonizations. We estimate the rate of evolution of the conserved regions of the CSP gene as 2.46 x 10(-9) per site per year. The divergence between the P. falciparum and P. reichenowi lineages is accordingly dated 8.9 Myr ago. The divergence between the three lineages leading to the human parasites is very ancient, about 100 Myr old between P. malariae and P. vivax (and P. vivax-like) and about 165 Myr old between P. falciparum and the other two.      

Excitation of System I and System II in Photosynthesis as a Possible Control Mechanism of Glycolate Metabolism in the Blue-Green Alga Anacystis nidulans

Photosynthetic enhancement studies performed at 619 nm (excitation of Systems I and II) and at 446 nm (mainly excitation of System I) revealed an 18% photosynthetic enhancement simultaneously with a 31% reduction in glycolate excretion. This observation supports the hypothesis that some glycolate may be consumed in an oxidation process associated with System I when System II is poorly excited and the supply of electrons from the water splitting process of photosynthesis is low.     

The anabolic action of intermittent parathyroid hormone on cortical bone depends partly on its ability to induce nitric oxide‐mediated vasorelaxation in BALB/c mice

There is strong evidence that vasodilatory nitric oxide (NO) donors have anabolic effects on bone in humans. Parathyroid hormone (PTH), the only osteoanabolic drug currently approved, is also a vasodilator. We investigated whether the NO synthase inhibitor L‐NAME might alter the effect of PTH on bone by blocking its vasodilatory effect. BALB/c mice received 28 daily injections of PTH[1–34] (80 µg/kg/day) or L‐NAME (30 mg/kg/day), alone or in combination. Hindlimb blood perfusion was measured by laser Doppler imaging. Bone architecture, turnover and mechanical properties in the femur were analysed respectively by micro‐CT, histomorphometry and three‐point bending. PTH increased hindlimb blood flow by >30% within 10 min of injection (P < 0.001). Co‐treatment with L‐NAME blocked the action of PTH on blood flow, whereas L‐NAME alone had no effect. PTH treatment increased femoral cortical bone volume and formation rate by 20% and 110%, respectively (P < 0.001). PTH had no effect on trabecular bone volume in the femoral metaphysis although trabecular thickness and number were increased and decreased by 25%, respectively. Co‐treatment with L‐NAME restricted the PTH‐stimulated increase in cortical bone formation but had no clear‐cut effects in trabecular bone. Co‐treatment with L‐NAME did not affect the mechanical strength in femurs induced by iPTH. These results suggest that NO‐mediated vasorelaxation plays partly a role in the anabolic action of PTH on cortical bone. © 2016 The Authors. Cell Biochemistry and Function published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of intraspecific variation and heritability on community pattern and robustness

Intraspecific trait variation is widespread in nature, yet its effects on community dynamics are not well understood. Here we explore the consequences of intraspecific trait variation for coexistence in two‐ and multispecies competitive communities. For two species, the likelihood of coexistence is in general reduced by intraspecific variation, except when the species have almost equal trait means but different trait variances, such that one is a generalist and the other a specialist consumer. In multispecies communities, the only strong effect of non‐heritable intraspecific variation is to reduce expected species richness. However, when intraspecific variation is heritable, allowing for the possibility of trait evolution, communities are much more resilient against environmental disturbance and exhibit far more predictable trait patterns. Our results are robust to varying model parameters and relaxing model assumptions.     

Repeated immunostaining of the same tissue section using alkaline phosphatase as a reporter

One can determine the best dilution of a primary antibody for immunohistochemistry that uses horseradish peroxidase conjugated to a secondary antibody by testing increasing concentrations sequentially on the same tissue section. When the same tissue section is incubated repeatedly with increasing concentrations of primary antibodies to epithelial membrane antigen, smooth muscle α-actin, or vimentin using alkaline phosphatase conjugated to a secondary antibody as the reporter, the best staining was obtained with a less concentrated primary antibody than was optimal for a single staining test. The best concentration of primary antibody for single run staining using an alkaline phosphatase reporting system is usually four times the best concentration for staining with multiple runs. The optimal concentration can be determined by denaturing the residual alkaline phosphatase and extracting residual stain by incubating the section in 4:1 diglyme:phosphate buffered saline for 20 min at 80^o C between tests of primary antibody concentrations. I tested the method for four chromogens from one supplier and one chromogen from a different supplier.