Provocation of a paradoxical growth hormone response to corticotropin-releasing hormone by pretreatment with metoclopramide in patients with acromegaly and normal subjects

Two of 7 patients with acromegaly and one of 7 normal subjects exhibited a paradoxical rise in growth hormone (GH) to human corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) when pretreated with metoclopramide, although CRH alone did not induce an increase in GH. In one of these two patients with acromegaly, the GH increase to metoclopramide alone also reached the criteria of a paradoxical response. These two acromegalic patients showed a GH increase to metoclopramide pretreatment before and up to two months after surgery. In another acromegalic patient, whose GH level remained high 5 months after surgery, metoclopramide induced an increase in GH level, while in a patient who had an above-normal GH level 18 months after surgery, the resumption of physiological GH secretion after surgery was evidenced by a postoperative absence of a GH response to metoclopramide. It is suggested from these results that the GH response to metoclopramide and the metoclopramide-provoked GH response to CRH in patients with acromegaly result from the secretion of GH from nonadenomatous cells of the pituitary.     

Selective inhibition of MAO-A in serotonergic synaptosomes by two amphetamine metabolites, p-hydroxyamphetamine and p-hydroxynorephedrine

The present study was carried out mainly to clarify whether the two amphetamine metabolites, p-hydroxyamphetamine (P-OHA) and p-hydroxynorephedrine (p-OHN) are taken up by mouse brain 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) nerve terminals to inhibit type A monoamine oxidase (MAO-A) and then potentiate the abnormal behavior, head-twitch. Of the two metabolites, only intracerebroventricular p-OHA, at 80 μg/mouse, sufficient to cause a head-twitch response (HTR), appreciably inhibited MAO-A activity without affecting MAO-B activity in homogenates of the mouse striatum, hypothalamus and the rest of the forebrain; and p-OHN did not inhibit either type of MAO at the dose tested. Estimation of intra- and extrasynaptosomal MAO-A activity showed that both metabolites significantly inhibited only the intrasynaptosomal deamination of 5-HT by MAO-A with p-OHA being more potent. Taken together with our previous findings, these present results clearly indicate that p-OHA may accumulate in the 5-HT nerve terminals through the uptake system, and concomitantly inhibit MAO-A activity. These actions of p-OHA may increase intraneuronal 5-HT levels and then potentiate 5-HT release to cause interaction with the post-synaptic 5-HT receptors.     

Efficiency of serum copper/zinc ratio for differential diagnosis of patients with and without lung cancer

We examined serum copper (Cu), serum zinc (Zn), and the serum copper/zinc ratio (Cu/Zn) in 162 patients. All of them were seen to have an abnormal shadow in the chest X-ray films, that is, 109 patients with lung cancer (LC) and 53 patients with no lung cancer (NLC). The mean Cu and Cu/Zn in LC patients were significantly higher than those in NLC patients (p<0.05). In LC patients, Cu and Cu/Zn were higher and Zn was lower in advanced tumors than early ones. There was a significantly clear relation between Cu or Cu/Zn and the tumor (T) stages. When the relative risk (RR) of LC was estimated, it was seen that the higher Cu and Cu/Zn became, the higher RR became. Furthermore, we showed the sensitivity of the receiver operator characteristic of the test (ROC) curve for Cu, Cu/Zn, and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) to diagnose LC, as explained in a paragraph of methods.The determinations of Cu, Zn, and Cu/Zn are simple and inexpensive. They also appear to have a great diagnostic value in determining the local invasion of LC and as a screening test in the high-risk patients for LC.     

Effects of virus infection on demographic traits of an agamospermous population of Eupatorium chinense (Asteraceae)

There are few studies of the interaction between wild plants and viruses. In this paper, the incidence of a geminivirus (tobacco leaf curl virus, TLCV) infection, and its effects on mortality, growth and reproduction of its host-plant, Eupatorium chinense, are reported. A total of 221 plants of an agamospermous population of E. chinense were chosen and their demographic behaviour followed over 2 years (1991–1992). The proportion of infected plants differed between years, with fewer plants infected in 1991 than in 1992. Under low virus incidence (35.3% in 1991), infection was significantly associated with taller plants (>80 cm). However, when the incidence of infected plants increased by almost two times (69.1%) in 1992, this tendency disappeared and small plants were also infected. Virus infection had significant effects on mortality of agamospermous plants. Almost half of the initial number of marked plants (n=221) died after 1 year of observations. Of those dead plants (n=105), 86 plants (82%) were infected in 1991, indicating that virus infection was an important, but not the sole cause of mortality. In 1992, 116 plants were alive, and of these, 40% were infected in 1991, indicating that some infected plants survived 1 year. Agamospermous plants were classified in three groups according to the extent of virus infection (plants infected in 2 years, infected in 1 year and uninfected plants) to detect the effect of virus infection on growth of plants of E. chinense. Infected plants had significantly lower growth rates than healthy plants. Infected plants also produced significantly fewer seeds than uninfected plants. Virus infection, however, had no significant effect on the probability of reproduction in plants of E. chinense, suggesting that infected plants may reproduce but with a lower seed output. In this study, we showed that virus infection may have a strong effect on demographic traits and, as a consequence, on fitness components of plants of E. chinense. These effects were higher than those sometimes observed in other plant-herbivore or plant-pathogen interactions.     

氯喹导致大鼠肌组织载脂蛋白E大量表达

载脂蛋白E(ApoE)与迟发的家族性及孤发性阿尔茨海默(Alzheimer)病密切相关. 氯喹慢性中毒可诱发某些肌病理改变, 出现β淀粉样蛋白(βAP)与tau蛋白等的沉积, 与Alzheimer脑中见到的病理改变类似. 为分析这一改变的机制, 用逆转录结合多聚酶链反应技术(RT-PCR)对氯喹处理的大鼠肌肉中ApoE表达的改变进行了研究. 在PCR定量中采用了一种稳定表达的内源性甘油醛-3-磷酸脱氢酶mRNA作为内部参照. PCR扩增在很宽的循环数范围内成线性, 且靶mRNA与参照mRNA的扩增效率相当. 氯喹处理后大鼠肌肉中ApoE mRNA的表达从第6周开始增加, 第8周后超过对照组的20多倍. 结果提示, ApoE在氯喹慢性中毒所致的大鼠肌病理改变中发挥某些作用.     

The search for life on Mars: Viking 1976 gas changes as indicators of biological activity

Gas compositional changes in the headspace of the Viking Biology Gas Exchange Experiment can originate from biological activity as well as redox chamical reactions, sorption and desorption phenomena, acid-base reactions, and trapped gas release. Biological phenomena are differentiated from the nonbiological gas changes by their dynamical qualities, notably by the ability of the M4 medium to sustain biological activity. Medium incompatibilities, with potential microbial types in soils, are demonstrated to be ameliorated by an incubation chamber design that provides thin films of medium around particulate soil masses and salt gradients when the soil is wet from below. Two phenomena in soils, the production and consumption of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, are coupled for a newly isolatedClostridium sp. A decrease in molecular nitrogen production by denitrifying organisms in the second and subsequent incubation cycles results from competitive nitrate utilization by anaerobic organisms. All soils tested from the cold, dry desert regions of Antarctica contain predominantly aerobic organisms while only six of the twelve soils respire using nitrate under anaerobic conditions. Although dry Antarctica soils are not the best simulations of Martian anoxic conditions, their responses show that long incubation times may be needed on Mars to demonstrate biological gas change phenomena.     

Cloning and expression of subtilisin amylosacchariticus gene

The gene encoding subtilisin Amylosacchariticus from Bacillus subtilis var. amylosacchariticus was isolated and the entire nucleotide sequence of the coding sequence was determined. The deduced amino acid sequence revealed an N-terminal signal peptide and pro-peptide of 106 residues followed by the mature protein comprising 275 residues. There were discrepancies in 10 amino acids between the sequence elucidated from the nucleotide sequence and the published protein sequence (Kurihara et al. (1972) J. Biol. Chem. 247, 5619-5631). The nucleotide sequence was highly homologous to that of subtilisin E gene from B. subtilis 168, with discrepancies at 12 nucleotides out of 1,426 nucleotides we sequenced. Ten of them were found in mature subtilisin coding sequence, which resulted in two amino acid changes and another one was in the putative promoter region between two genes. The productivity of subtilisin in culture broth of B. subtilis var. amylosacchariticus was much higher than that of B. subtilis 168. The enzyme gene was inserted in a shuttle vector pHY300PLK, with which B. subtilis ISW1214 was transformed. The proteolytic activity found in the culture broth of the transformed bacterium was 20- and 4-fold higher than those of the host strain and B. subtilis var. amylosacchariticus, respectively. Subtilisin Amylosacchariticus was easily purified to a crystalline form from culture filtrate of cloned B. subtilis, after a single step of chromatography on CM-cellulose.