Estradiol receptor-alpha expression in hypothalamic and limbic regions of ewes is influenced by physiological state and maternal experience

The influence of estrus, pregnancy, parturition, and maternal experience on the expression of estrogen receptor-alpha (ERalpha) was investigated in hypothalamic and limbic regions of the sheep brain, using immunocytochemistry. Four days before parturition, previous maternal experience was associated with a higher density of ERalpha-labeled neurons in the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei, the medial preoptic area, and the medial amygdala, but not in the mediobasal hypothalamus. Furthermore, an interaction was found between physiological state and experience in the peripartum period as the effect of experience existing 4 days prepartum was not found at parturition, when densities were lowest both in primiparous and in multiparous ewes. An additional effect of physiological state was also observed between parturition and estrus, densities being significantly lower at parturition than at estrus in the SON, PVN, and MPOA, but not in the medial amygdala. These results indicate that in sheep ERalpha expression is influenced by previous physiological and/or maternal experience at specific times of the reproductive cycle. They are also congruent with the higher ability of multiparous than nulliparous ewes to show maternal behavior several days prepartum.

Viremia and nasal and rectal shedding of rotavirus in gnotobiotic pigs inoculated with Wa human rotavirus

Respiratory symptoms with rotavirus shedding in nasopharyngeal secretions have been reported in children with and without gastrointestinal symptoms (Zheng et al., 1991, J. Med. Virol. 34:29-37). To investigate if attenuated and virulent human rotavirus (HRV) strains cause upper respiratory tract infections or viremia in gnotobiotic pigs, we inoculated them with attenuated or virulent HRV intranasally, intravenously, or orally or via feeding tube (gavage) and assayed virus shedding. After oral or intranasal inoculation with attenuated HRV, the pigs remained asymptomatic, but 79 to 95% shed virus nasally and 5 to 17% shed virus rectally. After inoculation by gavage, no pigs shed virus nasally or rectally, but all pigs seroconverted with antibodies to HRV. No viremia was detected through postinoculation day 10. Controls inoculated intranasally with nonreplicating rotavirus-like particles or mock inoculated did not shed virus. In contrast, 100% of pigs inoculated with virulent HRV (oral, intranasal, or gavage) developed diarrhea, shed virus nasally and rectally, and had viremia. The infectivity of sera from the viremic virulent HRV-inoculated pigs was confirmed by inoculating gnotobiotic pigs orally with pooled HRV-positive serum. Serum-inoculated pigs developed diarrhea and fecal and nasal virus shedding and seroconverted with serum and intestinal HRV antibodies. Pigs inoculated intravenously with serum or intestinal contents from the viremic virulent HRV-inoculated pigs developed diarrhea, virus shedding, and viremia, similar to the orally inoculated pigs. This study provides new evidence that virulent HRV causes transient viremia and upper respiratory tract infection in addition to gastrointestinal infection in gnotobiotic pigs, confirming previous reports of rotavirus antigenemia (Blutt et al., Lancet 362:1445-1449, 2003). Our data also suggest that intestinal infection might be initiated from the basolateral side of the epithelial cells via viremia. Additionally, virus shedding patterns indicate a different pathogenesis for attenuated versus virulent HRV.

Myocardial Preservation Using Celsior: Clinical Results in High-Risk Cardiac Transplantation

Graft failure during the first few days posttransplantation remains one of the main unresolved complications. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of Celsior preservation solution on the incidence of early graft failure in high-risk cardiac transplant recipients. A retrospective study was carried out evaluating the cardiac transplants in 179 heart recipients. The patients were divided into 2 groups: (1) Celsior preservation solution (n = 37), and (2) Control solution (n = 142). To evaluate the efficacy of the Celsior solution, a subgroup of transplants from older donors or with ischemia times greater than 4 hours was compared with the other cases. The incidence of early graft failure was lower among the Celsior subgroups with longer ischemia times or of older donors compared with the control groups. We conclude that preservation with Celsior solution in cardiac transplantation is safe and effective. It even has advantages to reduce early graft failure compared with conventional solutions, a benefit that may be more evident in subgroups at high risk for myocardial dysfunction.

Pf1 filamentous bacteriophage: refinement of a molecular model by simulated annealing using 3.3 A resolution X-ray fibre diffraction data

The filamentous bacteriophage Pf1 is structurally similar to the well known Ff (fd, fl, M13) strains, but it gives much better X-ray diffraction patterns, enabling a more detailed analysis of the molecular structure. The 46-residue protein subunit can be closely approximated by a single gently curved stretch of alpha-helix. The axes of the subunits are at a small angle to the virion axis, and several thousand subunits form an overlapping inter-digitated helical array surrounding a DNA core. We have derived a detailed model of the virion based on X-ray data and stereochemical constraints. We have considered potential sources of error in the diffraction data, and used the improved data to study regions where the protein subunit of Pf1 may deviate from a continuous alpha-helix. We use simulated annealing to escape from local minima, and various kinds of electron-density maps to guide the model building. Refinement of the model shows that the first few residues at the N terminus are non-helical, and there is a slight discontinuity in the alpha-helix near the middle of the sequence. The model is consistent both with general structural principles derived from high-resolution analysis of other proteins, and with specific chemical and spectroscopic data about Pf1. We apply the same refinement techniques to an alternative model with a non-helical surface loop between residues 13 and 19. Comparative analysis of models with and without a loop shows that the loop model is not supported by 3.3 A resolution X-ray diffraction data.

Data collection at short wavelengths in protein crystallography

The development of high-intensity X-ray sources and the use of insertion devices will make it possible to collect data routinely from protein crystals at very short wavelengths (lambda </= 0.5 A). Possible benefits of using shorter wavelengths can be inferred from the improvement in the quality of the data when using a wavelength lambda approximately 0.9 A instead of one close to the Cu Kalpha emission edge. In addition to fewer absorption errors, two factors might contribute to this improvement. These are an increase in the lifetime of the protein crystal and a better signal-to-background ratio. In this paper we address the second of these. In order to compare the quality of the data and the relative background level in the diffraction patterns at different wavelengths two data sets have been collected at lambda = 0.92 and 0.55 A. The results obtained from data processing and careful measurement of the background in the raw images suggest that, in the absence of absorption errors and radiation damage, data collection at very short wavelengths does not provide higher quality data. There is no improvement in the signal-to-background ratio in the short-wavelength data.

Familial correlations, segregation analysis, and nongenetic correlates of soy isoflavone-metabolizing phenotypes

Particular intestinal bacteria metabolize the soy isoflavone daidzein to equol and O-desmethylangolensin (O-DMA), metabolites that can be identified in urine. Individuals that harbor bacteria capable of producing equol or O-DMA are known as equol producers (approximately 30%-50% of the population) and O-DMA producers (approximately 80%-90% of the population), respectively. The equol-producer phenotype has been associated with sex hormone-related outcomes in several studies. However, the bacteria responsible for these phenotypes have not yet been identified and factors that influence the manifestation of these phenotypes are not well understood. To evaluate familial clustering of and nongenetic factors associated with these phenotypes, 410 individuals from 112 families participated in phenotyping (3-day soy challenge and Day 4 spot urine collection). In segregation analyses of the equol-producer phenotype, the Mendelian dominant model provided the most parsimonious fit to the data, suggesting that the pattern of inheritance of the equol-producer phenotype is consistent with an autosomal dominant trait. This phenotype was positively associated with education (p trend = 0.01), but not with sex, smoking, or several dietary factors. Results of the segregation analyses of the O-DMA-producer phenotype were inconclusive; no other models provided a more parsimonious fit to the data than the general model. This phenotype was inversely associated with age in a nonlinear model (p = 0.01), positively associated with age- and sex-adjusted height (odds ratio [OR] 10-cm increase = 0.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.15, 0.95) and body mass index (kg/m(2)) (OR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.85, 0.96), but not with sex, education, smoking, or several dietary factors. These results suggest the equol-producer phenotype may be under some degree of genetic control and that there are likely other environmental factors not evaluated in the present analysis that contribute to both of these phenotypes. These results provide a foundation for further work to refine our understanding of heritable and environmental determinants of daidzein-metabolizing phenotypes.

Nuclear survivin as a biomarker for non-small-cell lung cancer

Survivin inhibits apoptosis and promotes mitosis. We determined whether nuclear or cytoplasmic localisation of survivin predicts survival of 48 patients with resected non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients with nuclear staining of survivin had significantly worse survival (relative risk: 3.9, P=0.02). Therefore, survivin may be a biomarker for NSCLC.

Renal transplants with delayed graft function show decreased renal function despite monitoring with postabsorptive levels

Cyclosporine (CyA) monitoring with postabsorptive levels can predict the risk of an acute rejection episode (ARE). Large doses of CyA are needed to obtain adequate drug exposure. The impact of this strategy on renal function, especially in patients with delayed graft function (DGF), is unknown. We report our experience comparing C3 (3-hour postdose) monitoring with a historical series of cadaveric renal transplants. Sixty-three consecutive patients who received cadaveric renal transplants were followed for 1 year. Group A (historical n = 31) patients received 6 mg/kg/d CyA with the dose adjusted according to the trough level (target, 250-350 ng/mL), group B (study n = 32) received 10 mg/kg/d CyA with dose adjustments based upon C3 (target, 1100-1500 ng/mL). All patients received cyclosporine prednisone and a third agents. The general characteristics of the donors and recipients were comparable. The incidence of biopsy-proven ARE at 1 year in group A was 42% and 19% in group B (P <.05). Patients achieving C3 levels >1000 ng/mL at 1 week displayed significantly lower ARE rates (8% vs 50%; P <.05). The rate of DGF was similar in both groups, but the duration was longer in group B (15 vs 21 days, P <.05). The serum creatinine (SCr) level was significantly higher in group B at 3 months (1.47 mg/dL group A vs 1.76 mg/dL group B; P <.05). Patients in group B with DGF showed significantly higher SCr values at 1 year (1.18mg% vs 2.03 mg%; P <.05). C3 level monitoring of CyA yields excellent results in terms of decreased ARE, but an increased SCR was observed among patients with DGF.

137THE EFFECT OF ANTI-CD44 ON EMBRYO IMPLANTATION IN RABBITS

Cellular adhesion molecules are thought to be responsible in embryo attachment in human and animals. Blastocyst attachment to the lining of the mammalian uterus during early implantation involves the initial apposition of the trophoblast to the uterine epithelial surface. A number of cell surface molecules have been implicated in the initial attachment reaction between trophectoderm and maternal surface epithelium, these include heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (HB-EGF), trophinin, CD44, integrins and extra cellular matrix molecules such as osteopontin (OPN) each of which exhibit elevated levels of expression at the time of implantation. CD44 is a membrane glycoprotein that is present in a variety of isoforms and is considered to be the major cell surface receptor for hyaluronan. The aim of these work was to study the effect of CD44 on embryo implantation. The rabbit is potentially an excellent model for study of implantation because it is an obligate ovulator, and therefore pregnancy can be precisely timed. Adult New Zealand rabbit females (n=12) were naturally inseminated with a buck of proven fertility. The day of coitus was counted as ‘Day 0’ of pregnancy. To determine the effect of CD44 at the time of implantation, the animals were divided in three groups: group A (four animals): received 100μg of anti-CD44/mL in an intraperitoneal injection on day 4.5 of pregnancy; group B (four animals), via mid-ventral laparotomies on day 6.5 p.c animals received an injection of 20μg of anti-CD44 on the right horn (0.5mL each, from the ovarian end to the cervix). All these treatments were performed in the right horn. Each animal served as her own control with the left uterine horn receiving 0.5mL of saline. Group C (four animals): This was the control group; two animals received an injection of 2mL of saline and the other two received 0.5mL of saline in each uterine horn. Finally, each animal was sacrificed on Day 10 of the pregnancy, the uterus was removed, and the number of implants were counted in each uterine horn. In the group A: a mean of 4.5±0.47 s.e.m implants were found in the right and on the left side. In group B, a profound reduction in implantation sites was found with the anti-CD44 injected into the uterine horn, a mean of 0 implants in the right uterine horn compared with 3.5 implants on the left side P&lt;0.0001. Group C showed 4.25 implants on the right horn and 5.5 on the left horn; no statistical differences were found. Conclusion: the intraperitoneal injection of the anti-CD44 slightly reduced the number of embryos implanted but this reduction was not statistically significant. Anti-CD44 injected intrauterine affected seriously the embryo survival at the time of implantation.

Low-pathogenicity avian influenza virus in live bird markets--what about the livestock area?

Low-pathogenic avian influenza virus (AV) continues to be isolated from the live bird markets (LBMs) in the Northeasten United States. Recent years have seen increasing numbers of these markets opening and an expansion of the type of animals they sell in conjunction with traditional live poultry. Specific-pathogen-free chickens were released into the livestock area of 13 New York City LBMs and then tested for evidence of AIV. We were able to recover virus or demonstrate seroconversion among the chickens introduced to four of the markets.

CARD15/NOD2 analysis in rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility

OBJECTIVE

To determine if the mutations in the CARD15/NOD2 gene predisposing to Crohn's disease (CD) contribute also to the genetic susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS

The frequencies of the three commonest mutations of CARD15/NOD2 predisposing to CD (2104C > T, 2722G>C and 3020insC) were determined in 210 RA patients and 227 controls.

RESULTS

Allelic frequencies of the CARD15/NOD2 mutations in RA patients (2104C>T, 2.8%; 2722G>C, 0.9%; and 3020insC, 2.4%) did not differ significantly from the controls (2104C>T, 5.3%; 2722G>C, 0.7%; and 3020insC, 1.1%).

CONCLUSION

There was no evidence of association between the commonest CD CARD15/NOD2 mutations and RA susceptibility.