Cerebral vasculitis after interleukin-2 therapy for renal cell carcinoma

We report one patient with paralysis of the right upper extremity, bilateral cerebellar syndrome, and cognitive changes after treatment with interleukin-2 for metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Focal neurologic disturbances were associated with multiple images of cerebral infarcts but also with extraneurologic signs and autoantibodies. We suggest that this is a case of cerebral vasculitis with an autoimmune mechanism triggered by interleukin-2 therapy.

Monitoring biological effects of contamination in marine fish along French coasts by measurement of ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase activity

The use of bioindicators to evaluate exposure to the biological effects of chemical pollutants in marine organisms constitutes a new tool in the monitoring field. The establishment of a North Sea monitoring network in 1991, involving such international organizations as the North Sea Task Force, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, and the Intergovernmental Oceanography Commission, led French researchers to develop an enzymatic biomarker to monitor biological effects within the National Observation Network. The biomarker, ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD), dependent on the CP450 system, has been monitored biannually since 1992 in several species of fish (Callionymus lyra, Limanda limanda, Serranus sp., Mullus barbatus) in two coastal sites particularly exposed to industrial and domestic pollution. A rapid method is used to assay EROD enzymatic activity determined along a pollution gradient, and results are interpreted on a microplate reader. The strategy of this approach is to assess the effects on the marine ecosystem during prolonged exposure to specific pollutants such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and dioxins.

Transient mitochondrial transcript level decay in oxidative stressed chondrocytes

Steady-state levels of 12S rRNA and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4 mRNA (ND4) mitochondrial transcripts were measured on rabbit articular chondrocyte in culture. In pseudosynchronized chondrocytes, changes of mitochondrial RNA levels were observed during the progression of the cells in the cell cycle. Oxidative stress generated by the hypoxanthine-xanthine oxidase system (HX-XO) induced a transient decrease in the levels of both ND4 and 12S rRNA. Mitochondrial RNA levels recovered 24 h after the oxidative stress. These RNA level changes were not associated with modifications in the structure or the copy number of the mitochondrial genome. Furthermore, the decrease in the amount of the mitochondrial transcripts observed may be related to a transient inhibition of mitochondrial transcription since the treatment of cells with ethidium bromide (a mitochondrial transcription inhibitor) resulted in the same decrease in 12S rRNA level as HX-XO treatment alone.