[The effect of Cu, Zn, Mn, on selenium content in the liver, brain, blood and kidney of mice]

The influence of dietary copper, zinc and manganese on the contents of selenium in liver, brain, and kidney of 150 mice was studied. The mice were divided into 5 groups with different trace elements in their forage (I. 40ppm Cu+4ppm Se, II. 100ppm Zn+4PPm Se, III. 4ppm Mn+4ppm Se, IV. control group). Every 10 mice were killed at one month intervals in each group and the contents of selenium in liver, brain, kidney and blood were determined. The selenium contents of blood, kidney in I, II groups were significantly lower than in IV group. The selenium content of liver was also significantly lower than IV group in two months, but no difference in the third month. No change of selenium content in brain had been observed.

[Various methods of processing pyritum]

Five methods of processing pyritum and the effect of temperature fluctuations on processed products were studied using Fe2+ in the decoction, sulphur in processed products and sulphur separated out of processed products after adding hydrochloric acid as indexes. The results may serve as a reference for further study on pyritum.

[Stimulated chemiluminescence and degranulation of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes: possible involvement in the mechanisms of tissue damage during inflammation]

A significant increase of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) chemiluminescence (CL) was observed when PMN was treated with rat C5ades Arg (r-C5ai), FMLP, opsozined zymosan (STZ) or a calcium ionophore A23487 separately. These stimuli, as well as aggregated IgG (A-IgG), could also cause the release of beta-glucuronidase (beta-g) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) from PMN, on the other hand, elastase (NE) release was not noticed when PMN was treated with r-C5ai and FMLP, which generally stimulated PMN in a cytochalasin B-dependent manner. These results suggest that the kinetics of PMN CL and degranulation vary depending upon the stimulus.

Direct electrophoretic detection of the allelic state of single DNA molecules in human sperm by using the polymerase chain reaction

We have developed a procedure that allows the detection of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products derived from a single target DNA molecule in a human sperm without using radioactive probes. With this method, three genetic loci present in a single sperm can be amplified simultaneously. The amplification procedure is specific as well as efficient and permits detection of the PCR product by ethidium bromide staining after polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. When allele-specific PCR primers that differ in length are used, the size of the PCR products of different alleles also vary in length, allowing the allelic state at each locus to be determined electrophoretically. Studies on individual sperm by using this procedure should facilitate the measurement of genetic recombination in humans over small physical distances. The ability to directly analyze the allelic state of PCR products from one cell rapidly and simply will also be useful for the prenatal diagnosis of genetic disease, especially in the analysis of single blastomeres taken from in vitro fertilized eggs prior to implantation.

The Escherichia coli Ras-like protein (Era) has GTPase activity and is essential for cell growth

The era gene of Escherichia coli encodes a protein (Era) which is similar to the eucaryotic RAS family of proteins. We report here that purified Era possesses both GTP-binding and GTPase activities. Era is also shown to be loosely associated with the inner membrane of E. coli. Overproduction of Era to 5% of the total cellular protein does not apparently alter either cell growth or cAMP levels. Disruption of the era gene by insertional inactivation is shown to be lethal by construction of a conditional lethal era mutant strain.