V-Y advancement flaps for closure of nasal defects

The nose is a difficult anatomic region in which to close defects resulting from resection of cutaneous malignancies. The V-Y flap is a technique for advancing adjacent tissue, thereby achieving wound closure while minimizing tension. A total of 120 V-Y flaps were used to close 114 nasal defects. The average defect size was 13.5 x 11 mm. Partial flap loss occurred in five patients, with total flap loss in one. One wound infection and two hematomas occurred.     

Systemic Induction of Salicylic Acid Accumulation in Cucumber after Inoculation with Pseudomonas syringae pv syringae

Inoculation of one true leaf of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) plants with Pseudomonas syringae pathovar syringae results in the systemic appearance of salicylic acid in the phloem exudates from petioles above, below, and at the site of inoculation. Analysis of phloem exudates from the petioles of leaves 1 and 2 demonstrated that the earliest increases in salicylic acid occurred 8 hours after inoculation of leaf 1 in leaf 1 and 12 hours after inoculation of leaf 1 in leaf 2. Detaching leaf 1 at intervals after inoculation demonstrated that leaf 1 must remain attached for only 4 hours after inoculation to result in the systemic accumulation of salicylic acid. Because the levels of salicylic acid in phloem exudates from leaf 1 did not increase to detectable levels until at least 8 hours after inoculation with P. s. pathovar syringae, the induction of increased levels of salicylic acid throughout the plant are presumably the result of another chemical signal generated from leaf 1 within 4 hours after inoculation. Injection of salicylic acid into tissues at concentrations found in the exudates induced resistance to disease and increased peroxidase activity. Our results support a role for salicylic acid as an endogenous inducer of resistance, but our data also suggest that salicylic acid is not the primary systemic signal of induced resistance in cucumber.     

The effects of mispair and nonpair correction in hybrid DNA on base ratios (G + C content) and total amounts of DNA

Base ratios and total DNA amounts can vary substantially between and within higher taxa and genera, and even within species. Gene conversion is one of several mechanisms that could cause such changes. For base substitutions, disparity in conversion direction is accompanied by an equivalent disparity in base ratio at the heterozygous site. Disparity in the direction of gene conversion at meiosis is common and can be extreme. For transitions (which give purine [R]/pyrimidine [Y] mispairs) and for transversions giving unlike R/R and Y/Y mispairs in hybrid DNA, this disparity could give slow but systematic changes in G + C percentage. For transversions giving like R/R and Y/Y mispairs, it could change AT/TA and CG/GC ratios. From the extent of correction direction disparity, one can deduce properties of repair enzymes, such as the ability (1) to excise preferentially the purine from one mispair and the pyrimidine from the other for two different R/Y mispairs from a single heterozygous site and (2) to excise one base preferentially from unlike R/R or Y/Y mispairs. Frame-shifts usually show strong disparity in conversion direction, with preferential cutting of the nonlooped or the looped-out strand of the nonpair in heterozygous h-DNA. The opposite directions of disparity for frame-shifts and their intragenic suppressors as Ascobolus suggest that repair enzymes have a strong, systematic bias as to which strand is cut. The conversion spectra of mutations induced with different mutagens suggest that the nonlooped strand is preferentially cut, so that base additions generally convert to mutant and deletions generally convert to wild-type forms. Especially in nonfunctional or noncoding DNA, this could cause a general increase in DNA amounts. Conversion disparity, selection, mutation, and other processes interact, affecting rates of change in base ratios and total DNA.      

Inhibition of ADH-enhanced transepithelial urea and water movement by prostaglandins

The effects of PGF_2α and PGE₂ on transepithelial urea flux and osmotic water flow were evaluated in toad bladders. Mucosal to serosal urea flux and osmotic water flow were not changed from basal values by the addition of either prostaglandin to the serosal bath. However, treatment with either PGF_2α or PGE₂ inhibited both urea flux and osmotic water flow in response to ADH stimulation in a concentration-dependent manner. The hydrosmotic response to ADH was more sensitive to prostaglandin inhibition than was urea flux. The inhibitory effect of the prostaglandins on ADH-enhanced urea flux was not dependent upon inhibition of the hydrosmotic response, since both PGF_2α and PGE₂ decreased urea flux in the absence of a trans-epithelial osmotic gradient. Prostaglandin E₂ was a more potent inhibitor than PGE_2α of both ADH-enhanced urea flux and osmotic water flow. The PGF_2α antagonism of osmotic water flow was apparently competitive, while antagonism of urea flux was apparently non-competitive. The results are consistent with the hypothesis of the existence of a “spare” population of prostaglandin receptors that modulate water flow, but the absence of a “spare” prostaglandin receptor population with respect to the modulation of urea flux.     

Progress in the development of a recombinant vaccine for human hookworm disease: the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative

Hookworm infection is one of the most important parasitic infections of humans, possibly outranked only by malaria as a cause of misery and suffering. An estimated 1.2 billion people are infected with hookworm in areas of rural poverty in the tropics and subtropics. Epidemiological data collected in China, Southeast Asia and Brazil indicate that, unlike other soil-transmitted helminth infections, the highest hookworm burdens typically occur in adult populations, including the elderly. Emerging data on the host cellular immune responses of chronically infected populations suggest that hookworms induce a state of host anergy and immune hyporesponsiveness. These features account for the high rates of hookworm reinfection following treatment with anthelminthic drugs and therefore, the failure of anthelminthics to control hookworm. Despite the inability of the human host to develop naturally acquired immune responses to hookworm, there is evidence for the feasibility of developing a vaccine based on the successes of immunising laboratory animals with either attenuated larval vaccines or antigens extracted from the alimentary canal of adult blood-feeding stages. The major antigens associated with each of these larval and adult hookworm vaccines have been cloned and expressed in prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems. However, only eukaryotic expression systems (e.g., yeast, baculovirus, and insect cells) produce recombinant proteins that immunologically resemble the corresponding native antigens. A challenge for vaccinologists is to formulate selected eukaryotic antigens with appropriate adjuvants in order to elicit high antibody titres. In some cases, antigen-specific IgE responses are required to mediate protection. Another challenge will be to produce anti-hookworm vaccine antigens at high yield low cost suitable for immunising large impoverished populations living in the developing nations of the tropics.     

Effect of vaccinations with recombinant fusion proteins on Ancylostoma caninum habitat selection in the canine intestine

Laboratory dogs were vaccinated subcutaneously with 3 different recombinant fusion proteins, each precipitated with alum or calcium phosphate. The vaccinated dogs were then challenged orally with 400 third-stage infective larvae (L3) of the canine hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum. The 3 A. caninum antigens selected were Ac-TMP, an adult-specific secreted tissue inhibitor of metalloproteases; Ac-AP, an adult-specific secreted factor Xa serine protease inhibitor anticoagulant; and Ac-ARR-1, a cathepsin D-like aspartic protease. Each of the 3 groups comprised 6 male beagles (8 +/- 1 wk of age). A fourth group comprised control dogs injected with alum. All of the dogs vaccinated with Ac-TMP or Ac-APR-1 exhibited a vigorous antigen-specific antibody response, whereas only a single dog vaccinated with Ac-AP developed an antibody response. Dogs with circulating antibody responses exhibited 4.5-18% reduction in the numbers of adult hookworms recovered from the small intestines at necropsy, relative to alum-injected dogs. In contrast, there was a concomitant increase in the number of adult hookworms recovered from the colon. The increase in colonic hookworms was as high as 500%, relative to alum-injected dogs. Female adult hookworms were more likely to migrate into the colon than were males. Anti-enzyme and anti-enzyme inhibitor antibodies correlated with an alteration in adult hookworm habitat selection in the canine gastroinntestinal tract.     

The aesthetic earlobe: classification of lobule ptosis on the basis of a survey of North American Caucasians

North American Caucasian male subjects (n = 59) and female subjects (n = 72) were surveyed, to investigate earlobe height preferences that could serve as guidelines for aesthetic earlobe surgical procedures and reconstructions. Subjects were asked to rank their preferences for variously shaped earlobes in life-size-scaled sketched male and female profiles. Earlobe heights were varied on the basis of previously established anatomical landmarks, including the intertragal notch, the most caudal anterior attachment of the earlobe to the cheek skin (the otobasion inferius), and the most caudal extension of the earlobe-free margin (the subaurale). While the intertragal notch-to-otobasion inferius distance (range, 5 to 20 mm) and otobasion inferius-to-subaurale distance (range, 0 to 20 mm) varied, all other facial and ear anthropometric measurements were held constant. Each of the rank orders for the female and male facial profiles completed by the female and male subjects demonstrated statistical significance, as determined by one-way analysis of variance analysis of ranks (p < 0.001 for all four groups). No difference was noted between the two sexes' rank orders for either sex (p > 0.05). Therefore, analysis of the combined male and female preferences for each sex was completed with one-way analysis of variance analysis of ranks (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001) and a post hoc Dunn's test, to delineate significant preference differences between subgroups with respect to the intertragal notch-to-otobasion inferius and otobasion inferius-to-subaurale distances. Both female and male earlobe intertragal notch-to-otobasion inferius distances were preferred at either 5, 10, or 15 mm, more so than at 20 mm (p < 0.05 for all female and male comparisons). Furthermore, both female and male earlobe otobasion inferius-to-subaurale distances were preferred, in descending order, at 5 mm > 10 mm > 0 mm > 15 mm > 20 mm (p < 0.05 for all female and male comparisons). On the basis of the findings of this survey, the first classification of earlobe ptosis (based on otobasion inferius-to-subaurale distances), as well as a criterion for earlobe pseudoptosis (intertragal notch-to-otobasion inferius distance of greater than 15 mm), is presented. These findings suggest a role for independent assessment of the lobule length with respect to its anteriorly attached cephalad component (intertragal notch-to-otobasion inferius distance) and its free-margin caudal component (otobasion inferius-to-subaurale distance).     

Homogeneity of the 16S rDNA sequence among geographically disparate isolates of Taylorella equigenitalis

Background

At present, six accessible sequences of 16S rDNA from Taylorella equigenitalis (T. equigenitalis) are available, whose sequence differences occur at a few nucleotide positions. Thus it is important to determine these sequences from additional strains in other countries, if possible, in order to clarify any anomalies regarding 16S rDNA sequence heterogeneity. Here, we clone and sequence the approximate full-length 16S rDNA from additional strains of T. equigenitalis isolated in Japan, Australia and France and compare these sequences to the existing published sequences.

Results

Clarification of any anomalies regarding 16S rDNA sequence heterogeneity of T. equigenitalis was carried out. When cloning, sequencing and comparison of the approximate full-length 16S rDNA from 17 strains of T. equigenitalis isolated in Japan, Australia and France, nucleotide sequence differences were demonstrated at the six loci in the 1,469 nucleotide sequence. Moreover, 12 polymorphic sites occurred among 23 sequences of the 16S rDNA, including the six reference sequences.

Conclusion

High sequence similarity (99.5% or more) was observed throughout, except from nucleotide positions 138 to 501 where substitutions and deletions were noted.