The association of plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol with dietary intake and alcohol consumption. The Lipid Research Clinics Prevalence Study

We examined the associations of diet and alcohol consumption with levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol using cross-sectional data from 4855 white participants, ages 20 years and older, seen at visit 2 of the Lipid Research Clinics Prevalence Study. There was a strong positive gradient of HDL cholesterol levels with reported amount of alcohol intake in both men and women, regardless of type of alcoholic beverage consumed. We found a difference in HDL cholesterol levels between the two groups of participants who reported no alcohol consumption during the past week. Those who said that they never drank had lower mean HDL cholesterol levels than those who reported that they did drink but had not consumed any alcohol during the past week. Weaker inverse relations (p < 0.05) were found between HDL cholesterol levels and intakes of total carbohydrate sucrose and starch (percent calories and grams). Dietary saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat intakes were unrelated to HDL cholesterol levels; similarly, no association was seen for HDL cholesterol and total calories and total fat. Cholesterol intake (mg and mg/1000 calories) was generally unrelated to HDL cholesterol levels, except in women not taking exogenous gonadal hormones.

Charcoal hemoperfusion in the therapy for methsuximide and phenytoin overdose

Two patients suffered overdoses of anticonvulsant drugs. The first patient took methsuximide and the second, phenytoin. Because of profound CNS depression, both patients underwent hemoperfusion with a cellulose-activated charcoal hemoperfusion column. The primary metabolite of methsuximide, N-desmethylmethsuximide, primarily was responsible for the CNS depression in the first patient. The clearance of N-desmethylmethsuximide by the charcoal column was high, and clinical improvement became apparent during the hemoperfusion period. The clearance of phenytoin, on the other hand, was much lower than that of N-desmethylmethsuximide, and there was no apparent clinical improvement in that patient's condition.

Permeability of thermally damaged skin: I. Immediate influences of 60 degrees C scalding on hairless mouse skin

Freshly sacrificed hairless mice were burned dorsally by direct contact with 60 degrees C water for periods ranging from 15 seconds to 8 min. Wounds ranging in degree from superficial epidermis damage to injury penetrating well into subcutaneous musculature were inflicted. Burned skin sections and reference abdominal skin sections were excised, placed in diffusion cells and investigated with regards to their permeabilities to water, methanol, ethanol, n-butanol and n-octanol. The data were couched in terms of ratios of permeability coefficients of burned skin to normal skin (scalding coefficients) for the same animal. Scalding increased permeability of skin to all compounds studied but the effects leveled out by 60 seconds. Protracted scalding was without great effect despite progressively increased depth of damage to the tissue as noted in histological sections. The degree of lost barrier competency attributable to 60 degrees C scalding was not marked for any compound but was definitely different for different alkanols. An approximately 3-fold permeability increase was noted with n-butanol, the most affected compound. The data demonstrate that near instantaneous alterations in permeability of skin accompany scalding, that decreased barrier competency does not correlate with the severity of a burn as measured in depth of the burn, and that thermal alteration of permeabilities is dependent on the physicochemical characteristics of the permeants.

Hydration and percutaneous absorption: I. Influence of hydration on alkanol permeation through hairless mouse skin

A method to study the influence of hydration on skin permeability where the skin is immersed in saline for up to 30 hr and under circumstances where a steady state rate of permeation can be established in several minutes is indicated. These circumstances allow multiple, sequential runs over a period where the permeability coefficients of some chemicals are gradually changing. It has been found that the permeabilities of water, methanol and ethanol are little affected by such hydration. However, there is a doubling of the permeability coefficients of butanol and hexanol during the first 10 hr of immersion. More hydrophobic alkanols seem to be less sensitive to the protracted aqueous conditioning. In general the results indicate that there are complex molecular structure-permeability relationships operating in skin. More specifically, the hydration effects are insightful with respect to developing barrier models for skin as they are further indications that different parallel diffusional paths are followed by polar and semi- and nonpolar species.

Clostridium perfringens type A: in vitro system for sporulation and enterotoxin synthesis

Polysomes were isolated from an enterotoxigenic strain of Clostridium perfringens during vegetative growth and at 1-h intervals after transfer into Duncan-Strong sporulation medium. During vegetative growth, about 67% of the ribosomes were in polysomal complexes. This proportion decreased to about 20% during the first 2 h in sporulation medium and then gradually increased to a maximum of 45% at 6 h. Ribosomes isolated from cells in vegetative or in sporulation phase could equally translate vegetative, sporulation, and natural viral R17 messenger ribonucleic acid with either vegetative or sporulation initiation factors. When polysomes were allowed to complete their nascent chains with labeled amino acids in vitro, most of the polypeptides synthesized by the vegetative phase and by the sporulation phase polysomes appeared to be identical. There were, however, notable differences upon further investigation. Specifically, when antiserum against the enterotoxin was reacted with the completed polypeptides, no counts were precipitated from the vegetative products. On the other hand, up to 12% of the total labeled protein was precipitated from the products obtained with the sporulation phase polysomes. Upon electrophoresis on sodium dodecyl sulfate, the putative enterotoxin synthesized in vitro ran as a major band with a molecular weight of 35,000, and as two minor bands with molecular weights of 17,000 and 52,000, respectively.

Sagittal and coronal CT image reconstruction: application in assessing the inferior vena cava in renal cancer

Sagittal and coronal computed tomographic (CT) images of the inferior vena cava were reconstructed in 30 cases of renal cancer. These images proved most useful in detecting or excluding vena caval extension of tumor. The reconstructed CT images showed excellent correlation with findings on inferior vena cavography. It is considered that reconstruction CT may be useful in the staging of patients with renal cancer.

Tetralogy of Fallot with abnormal coronary artery: 1967 to 1977

From 1967 to 1977, 25 of 250 children undergoing complete repair of tetralogy of Fallot had an abnormal coronary artery identified at operation. Eight (Group 1) had classical anomalous coronary artery, and 17 (Group 2) had a large aberrant artery in addition to a smaller, normally positioned artery. All 25 patients required surgical procedures different from those routinely employed in tetralogy of Fallot repair. These included a "tailored" ventriculotomy, double incision, and accessory right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery conduit. After identification of a parallel (smaller) coronary artery, the anomalous coronary artery was ligated in three. Two patients (Group 2) died following the operation, both with "tailored" incisions. These were two of the four with high residual right ventricular pressure. Survivors have done well clinically for at least 1 year. Postoperative catheterization has shown high residual right ventricular pressure in two patients and an insignificant residual ventricular septal defect in four patients none has required reoperation.

Cotranslational secretion of diphtheria toxin and alkaline phosphatase in vitro: involvement of membrane protein(s)

Crude messenger ribonucleic acid fractions isolated from Corynebacterium diphtheriae and Escherichia coli were translated in an E. coli in vitro protein-synthesizing system and yielded precursors of the secreted proteins diphtheria toxin and alkaline phosphatase, respectively. Addition of inverted E. coli inner membrane vesicles to the system during the initial stages of translation resulted in the intravesicular segregation of mature diphtheria toxin and alkaline phosphatase. Outer membrane vesicles or inner membrane vesicles whose cytoplasmic surfaces had been treated with pronase could not mediate transmembrane transfer of diphtheria toxin or alkaline phosphatase. However, inner membrane vesicles isolated from E. coli spheroplasts which had been treated with pronase and inner membrane vesicles complexed with ribosomes during pronase treatment were functional in transmembrane transfer. At temperatures below the phase transition of E. coli membranes, no intravesicular segregation of alkaline phosphatase or diphtheria toxin was observed. The precursor forms of each protein accumulated free from the vesicles. These results suggest that an inner membrane protein, exposed on the cytoplasmic surface, plays an integral role in secretion.

Precursor in cotranslational secretion of diphtheria toxin

By extracellular labeling of peptides of intact Corynebacterium diphtheriae, followed by fractionation of the cells and chain completion by isolated polysomes, it is shown that diphtheria toxin is formed and secreted cotranslationally by membrane-bound polysomes; free polysomes from none. Moreover, when the chains on these polysomes were completed in vitro, in the absence of membrane they were found to include not only diphtheria toxin of a molecular weight of 62,000, but also a larger precursor of a molecular weight of 68,000. The precursor was identified by several properties: immune precipitation; conversion into toxin fragments A and B; adenosine diphosphate ribosyl-transferase activity after activation with trypsin; and cleavage to 62,000 daltons by membrane enzymes. The precursor yields an N-terminal A fragment with a broadened molecular weight distribution, compared with that from authentic toxin, thus supporting the expectation that the extra segment of the precursor is N-terminal.

A solid-phase radioimmunoassay for the measurement of antibody to Aspergillus in invasive aspergillosis

A solid-phase radioimmunoassay (SPRIA) to measure antibody responses to Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus antigens in invasive aspergillosis (IA) was developed and compared with immunodiffusion (ID) and counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIE). SPRIA detected significant elevations in levels of aspergillus antibody in 15 (79)% of 19 patients with IA. Fewer patients with IA were positive by ID (give of 19) or CIE (four of 19). Only seven )8%) of 58 subjects with other fungal or bacterial infections were positive by SPRIA, as was one (5%) of 20 by ID and CIE. Weak cross-reactivity between aspergillus and candida antigens was demonstrated by SPRIA. IgG levels in patients with IA and control subjects were equivalent. Thus, an antibody response to Aspergillus can be detected in a greater percentage of patients with IA by SPRIA than by ID or CIE. Although a few patients without aspergillosis had elevated levels of aspergillus antibody, a rise in antibody level was specific for IA.

Fatty acids in female Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus (Acanthocephala)

Neutral lipids and phospholipids in the body wall, lemnisci and pseudocoel and neutral lipids of fluid found in the "tube" system of the lemnisci and the lacunar system of the body wall of Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus (Acanthocephala) were determined by the technique of thin layer chromatography and gas chromatography (GC). Sixteen different fatty acids from nonpolar lipids were identified as follows: 8:0, 10:0, 11:0, 12:0, 13:0, 14:0, 14:1, 16:0, 18:0, 18:1, 18:2 and/or 20:0, 18:3 and/or 20:1, 20:3, 22:1, 24:1 and 22:6. In addition, there were three unidentified GC peaks corresponding to chain lengths greater than 20 carbons. Sixteen different fatty acids from phospholipids were identified in each of the three fractions analyzed. They were as follows: 10:0, 11:0, 12:0, 13:0, 14:0, 14:1, 16:0, 16:1, 18:0, 18:1, 18:2 and/or 20:0, 20:2, 20:3, 22:1, 24:1 and 22:6. Four unidentified peaks were also observed. There was a significant difference in the percentage of lipid as well as the concentration of particular fatty acids when each fraction was compared. There was also an abundant supply of sterols and glycerides in each fraction.

Extracellular labeling of growing secreted polypeptide chains in Bacillus subtilis with diazoiodosulfanilic acid

Studies of the mechanism of protein secretion in a Gram-positive bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, yielded results very similar to those previously obtained with a Gram-negative organism: nascent chains protruding from protoplasts could be labeled extracellularly; the labeled chains could be recovered on polysomes isolated from the membrane--polysome fraction; they could be released by puromycin, low Mg2+, or chain completion; the completed chains include a known secreted protein (alpha-amylase); and their ribosomes appear to be attached to membrane solely by their nascent chains. The reagent used for extracellular labeling, [1252]diazoiodosulfanilic acid, yielded severalfold more specific labeling of the nascent chains (7--10% of the total cellular labeling and one-fourth to one-third of that of the membrane--polysome fraction) than was obtained earlier with another nonpenetrating reagent.

Interaction of secreted nascent chains with surrounding membrane in Bacillus subtilis

To determine the length of secreted nascent polypeptide chain that is surrounded by membrane, we digested labeled nascent chains protruding from protoplasts of Bacillus subtilis with Pronase and isolated the residual ribosome-attached chains from the membrane-polysome fraction. Gel chromatography revealed a sharp major peak that had been protected by membrane plus bound ribosomes. The ribosomes themselves protected half as great a length. Because no free chain between the ribosome and the membrane was detected by Pronase treatment, the difference between the two protected lengths should measure the length protected by the membrane. More accurate measurements of these lengths, obtained by dansylation of the exposed NH2 terminus of the isolated fragments, yielded a difference of 21 amino acids. This value corresponds to an extended chain of 75 A, which is approximately the thickness of the bacterial cell membrane. We earlier presented evidence that bacterial ribosomes are attached to membrane solely by their secreted chain. The present results further show that after loss of the extracellular segment of the chain its attachment persists, at 37 degrees as well as 0 degrees C. These findings suggest that the chain does not slip through a passive membrane but is actively held within a channel.

Neutrality or negligence: interpret or act?

The uniqueness of the psychotherapeutic relationship requires the therapists to maintain a careful equilibrium between objectivity at the price of empathy and closeness at the expense of the necessary perspective. Crises in the course of long-term psychotherapy brings about a sudden, unexpected loss of such equilibrium. Uithout sufficient understanding of the crisis within the context of the therapeutic strategy and goals, the therapist might easily over- or underreact, to the detriment of the treatment. In this paper we suggest careful scrutiny and guidelines for dealing with those situations.

Nascent peptide as sole attachment of polysomes to membranes in bacteria

When membrane-polysome complexes from Escherichia coli were treated with puromycin, at various Mg2+ and K+ concentrations, the bulk of the ribosomes were released from the membrane. Moreover, many released ribosomes released ribosomes remained attached to mRNA (pseudopolysomes). These results suggest that ribosomes are attached to the membrane in bacteria solely by their nascent chain. Without a direct attachment the conformational changes associated with chain elongation on the ribosome cannot force the growing chain through the membrane, and so alternative sources of energy for the transfer must be considered.

The value of observation as adjunct to the objective-subjective examination

A new approach is presented to the refractive procedure by adding observation, both surreptitious and direct, as an adjunct, an aid and a supplement to differential diagnosis in a refractive examination and in visual analysis.