Two types of mu chain complexes are expressed during differentiation from pre-B to mature B cells

Immunoglobulin mu chains synthesized in murine pre-B cells are known to be associated with surrogate light chains designated as omega (omega), iota (iota) and B34. In addition to these molecules, we identified the complexes of polypeptides (50, 40, 27 and 15.5 kd) associated with surface or intracellular mu chains of pre-B cell lines. Most of these polypeptides were continuously synthesized and associated with mu chains in virgin B cells lines, although some of them scarcely bound to the mu kappa dimer or mu 2 kappa 2 tetramer concomitantly present in the same clone or population. However, in mature B cells they were no longer detectable except B34. Cross-linking of micron chains on the surface of pre-B cells resulted in an increase in intracellular free Ca2+, indicating that the micron chain complex on the surface of pre-B cell lines acted as a signal transduction molecule. However, the receptor cross-linkage of pre-B cell lines did not induce the increased inositol phospholipid metabolism usually observed in virgin and mature B cell lines. These results suggest that, during the differentiation from pre-B to mature B cells, the cells express two types of mu chain complexes which exhibit different structures as a whole and possess different signal transducing capacities.

Synchronization culture of amniotic fluid cells using excess thymidine block followed by deoxycytidine release and its application to high-resolution banding analysis of chromosomes

We describe a simple synchronization culture technique of amniotic fluid (AF) cells to yield many earlier mitotic divisions with extended chromosomes. AF cell samples obtained by amniocentesis were cultured in the usual manner. Thirty hours after the first subculture, they were exposed to excess thymidine (0.5 mM). This cell cycle block was released by adding deoxycytidine (10 microM) 18 hr after synchronization. At exactly 7.5 hr after the release, the cultures were treated with Colcemid (0.02 microgram/ml) for 20 min then harvested. The mitotic index and the ratio of cells in the earlier mitotic stages were much higher in the synchronized cultures than in the control cultures. The same favorable effects were obtained also in AF cell cultures by combining this technique with ethidium bromide or actinomycin D treatment. The technique was less toxic to the cells, and was simple and reproducible. It was successfully applied to prenatal cytogenetic diagnosis of 2 families with a subtle inherited chromosome abnormality, so it is recommended for high-resolution banding analysis of AF cells and possibly chorionic villus samples.

Age-related changes in urinary growth hormone level and its clinical application

In order to establish the normal range of urinary growth hormone (GH) level for age and sex, which is important in the clinical application of urinary GH to diagnosis, we measured GH in the first morning urine specimens of 270 normal subjects aged 3 to 20 years. Urinary GH levels in patients with documented GH deficiency were compared with those of the normal controls. In normal subjects, urinary GH levels showed a statistically significant change with age. They were relatively high in infancy and mid-puberty, reaching a peak at 11 to 12 years in girls and at 13 to 14 years in boys. Urinary GH levels in patients with complete GH deficiency were apparently lower (less than -2.0 SD) than those of the normal children, while the levels in patients with partial GH deficiency overlapped with the normal range. When assessing GH secretion by using urinary GH measurement, consideration of age and sex is required, since the level changes significantly with these factors.

Loss of the 3p25.3 band is critical in the manifestation of del(3p) syndrome: karyotype-phenotype correlation in cases with deficiency of the distal portion of the short arm of chromosome 3

Two patients with monosomy for the distal portion of the short arm of chromosome 3 are described. Chromosome analysis on prometaphase cells demonstrated a karyotype of 46,XX,del(3) (p25.3) in one patient and 46,XX,r(3)(p26.1q29) in the other. The former patient showed characteristic clinical manifestations of the 3p- syndrome, including growth failure, mental retardation, microcephaly with a flat occiput, triangular face, synophrys, blepharoptosis, hypertelorism, broad and flat nose, long philtrum, down-turned mouth, micrognathia, apparently lowset and malformed ears, fingers abnormalities, and deafness. The latter patient had a nonspecific phenotype with mental retardation, growth failure and microcephaly. Karyotype-phenotype comparisons in the present cases and 16 previously reported cases with deficiency of the distal portion of 3p suggests that deficiency of the 3p25.3 band is critical to produce the main clinical manifestations of the del(3p) syndrome.

A case of leiomyosarcoma associated with humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy: demonstration of biological and immunological activities of parathyroid hormone-related protein in the tumor extract

Hypercalcemia occurred in a patient with leiomyosarcoma when multiple lung metastases developed. Despite normal plasma parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels and low 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, this hypercalcemic patient had a marked hypercalciuria and phosphaturia associated with an increased excretion of nephrogenous cyclic AMP (NcAMP). Administration of cisplatin ameliorated both the hypercalcemia and hypercalciuria without any reduction in tumor size of NcAMP excretion. Terminally, acute pancreatitis occurred producing a profound hypocalcemia. In the extract of tumor tissue obtained post mortem, bioactivity stimulating the generation of cyclic AMP in osteogenic cells was demonstrated along with the immunoreactive PTH-related protein (PTH-rP). the first report of a solid non-epithelial malignancy producing PTH-rP and associated with humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy. The hypercalcemia in this case caused acute pancreatitis, which led to a profound hypocalcemia.

A cytogenetic study of nonpolymalformed patients with mental retardation of clinically undefined etiology: application of a high resolution banding technique

We performed a cytogenetic study on 140 nonpolymalformed patients with mental retardation of clinically undefined origin, using a high resolution banding technique, to determine how much chromosome abnormalities contribute to the etiology of this condition. A total of 15 patients (10.7%) were found to have autosomal or sex chromosomal abnormalities. Autosomal abnormalities included partial monosomy (5 cases), reciprocal translocation (one case), 13/14 robertsonian translocation (3 cases), unbalanced translocation (one case), inverted duplication of 15q (one case) and mosaic trisomy 21 (one case). Sex chromosomal abnormalities comprised structural rearrangement of the short arm of the X chromosome (one case) and 47, XXY in a pure or mosaic form (two cases). It should be noted that four out of the 5 cases of partial monosomy had subtle interstitial deletions, which might have been unidentified by the conventional G-banding method alone. In one case of the robertsonian translocation 46,XY,t(13;14)/45,XY,t(13;14), a small deletion was thought to have occurred in the cells with a chromosome number of 45. Comparison of clinical features of the 15 chromosomally abnormal patients with those of patients with normal karyotypes did not show any clinical parameter indicative of chromosome imbalance. These results suggest that a subtle chromosomal deletion is specific to mental retardation associated with few malformations. We believe that diagnostic evaluation of mentally retarded patients, even if nonmalformed, should include chromosome analysis using a high resolution banding technique.

B cell precursors are present in the thymus during early development

An in vitro system for transforming immature lymphoid cells present in the thymus at early development has been established. By phenotype analysis of the transformants obtained, we observed that B cell precursors, susceptible to Abelson murine leukemia virus (A-MuLV)- or Harvey murine sarcoma virus (H-MuSV)-induced lymphogenesis, were present at high frequency in the fetal thymus of BALB/c mice. These precursors recolonized alymphoid thymus lobes in vitro, as do T cell precursors. It was further observed that B precursors in the fetal liver were also capable of recolonizing alymphoid thymus lobes and were stored in a thymic environment. These results suggest that stroma cells of the fetal thymus may possess the capacity to support the growth of B precursors. On the other hand, B cell precursors sensitive to the viral transformation were undetectable in the fetal thymus of C57BL/6, although immunohistochemical analysis suggested their presence. However, in the fetal liver of the same strain, B precursors recolonizing alymphoid thymus in vitro were sensitive to the viral transformation. Based on these results, we will discuss both the role and fate of thymic B precursors. In addition, we also obtained T cell lymphomas at different stages of differentiation from the fetal thymus of C57BL/6 infected with A-MuLV or H-MuSV. These data indicate the usefulness of our system in establishing cell lines derived from intrathymic lymphogenesis at early development.

Antitumor activity and neutrophil-selective hematopoietic toxicity of busulfan analogs in mice

The antitumor activity and hematopoietic toxicity of two busulfan analogs were evaluated in comparison with those of busulfan. Although a program of five daily ip treatments with busulfan was not effective in treating sarcoma 180-bearing mice, a fluorine-containing busulfan analog, 1,4-butanediol di-2,2,2-trifluoroethanesulfonate (BFS), and a water-soluble analog, 1,4-butanediol diisethionate (BIT), were significantly effective when given on the same schedule. Busulfan did not appreciably prolong the life span of either P388- or Meth A-bearing mice, whereas BFS and BIT produced significant increases in the life span. It is worth noting that both the analogs were definitely less toxic to the host mice than busulfan. All the drugs examined exhibited suppressive effects on the counts of total WBCs, neutrophils, and lymphocytes. Relative toxicity toward neutrophils versus lymphocytes was increased significantly in the BFS and BIT treatments compared with busulfan treatment. It seems that the toxicity of busulfan in host mice might be due to unidentified side effects other than bone marrow suppression. These results suggest that BFS and BIT could be improved substitutes for busulfan.

Mumps-induced opsoclonus-myoclonus and ataxia

A 9-year-old boy manifested acute cerebellar ataxia associated with mumps infection. He developed opsoclonus, myoclonus, tremor, and truncal ataxia 7 days after mumps infection. Lumbar puncture revealed pleocytosis without elevation of protein; ELISA demonstrated an increased IgM titer of cerebrospinal fluid against mumps virus. From these results it was determined that acute cerebellar ataxia was induced by a direct invasion of mumps virus. Electroencephalography demonstrated normal background activity, although alpha-like activity appeared bilaterally in the frontal regions which was induced by eye closure and decreased by eye opening. Polygraphic electroencephalography revealed that the alpha-like activity corresponded to the ocular movement recorded above or lateral to the eyelids by electro-oculography; therefore, the alpha-like activity was considered to be derived from the opsoclonus which was secondary to cerebellar involvement. His neurologic symptoms improved gradually and resolved completely within 3 months after the onset of acute cerebellar ataxia.

Intermediate lymphocytic lymphoma of the salivary gland

Three patients had a painless mass in the parotid (two patients) or submandibular regions (one patient). These patients were 70, 66, and 65 years of age, respectively. One patient was male and the other two were female. No symptoms suggesting the presence of autoimmune sialadenitis had been noticed, although one patient suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. Histologic study showed that small atypical lymphoid cells with slightly irregular and indented nuclear contours proliferated diffusely and secondary lymph follicles were distributed at random among them. These findings are similar to those that we recently reported for intermediate lymphocytic lymphoma (ILL) of the thyroid gland arising in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis. A high frequency of ILL among our series of salivary lymphomas (three of nine cases) is discussed.

Multivariate analysis of dermatoglyphics of severe mental retardates: an application of the constellation graphical method for discriminant analysis

We studied the dermatoglyphics of 353 severe mental retardates (excluding those with chromosomal abnormalities and major limb malformations), using multivariate analysis, to determine how early intrauterine factors are related to the etiology of mental retardation. First, dermatoglyphics were compared between 140 individuals with undefined prenatal factors and 700 normal controls. After 6 and 9 dermatoglyphic traits were chosen as discriminative variables for males and females, respectively, the data were subjected separately for each sex to the constellation graphical method for discriminant analysis. The same formula as obtained in the idiopathic group was subsequently applied to data from cases in other etiological categories. When the misclassification rate was 0.03, the rates of correct classification of the male patients into the etiological categories of undefined prenatal, defined prenatal, perinatal, postnatal and unknown (no anamnestic data available) categories were 19.7% (13/66), 20.0% (3/15), 8.8% (5/57), 5.0% (1/20) and 7.7% (2/26), while the correct classification rates of females were 24.3% (18/74), 42.1% (8/19), 18.9% (7/37), 5.1% (1/16) and 13.0% (3/23), respectively. The results suggest that early intrauterine factors such as those producing dermatoglyphic deviations may contribute to the pathogenesis of severe mental retardation not only in patients with undefined prenatal etiological factors but also in those with perinatal factors, especially those of the female sex.

Novel chiral stationary phases for optical resolution by ligand-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography

Novel chiral stationary phases, (1R,2S)- and diastereomeric (1S,2S)-2-carboxymethylamino-1,2-diphenylethanol, were prepared from (1R,2S)- and (1S,2S)-2-amino-1,2-diphenylethanol, respectively, and were bound to silica gel pretreated with 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane. The chiral stationary phases were found to be very effective for the optical resolution of amino acids, amino acid derivatives and hydroxy acids by ligand-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography.

Sequence and expression of transcripts of the T-cell antigen receptor alpha-chain gene in a functional, antigen-specific suppressor-T-cell hybridoma

We have detected rearrangement and expression of a gene encoding a T-cell antigen receptor alpha chain in the keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH)-specific, inducible suppressor-T-cell (Ts) hybridoma 34S-281 (BW5147 lymphoma-C57BL/6Ts) by using alpha-chain cDNA clones isolated from this Ts hybridoma. The cDNA clones have a restriction length polymorphism in the constant region that identifies them as being of C57BL/6 origin. The cDNA sequence has an ATG start codon for an open reading frame including variable, joining, and constant gene segments. Furthermore, the Ts alpha-chain gene transcripts were detected on membrane-bound polysomes by RNA blot analysis using a variable-region fragment from one of the alpha-chain cDNA clones as probe, suggesting that they are actively translated in the Ts hybridoma. As the beta-chain gene is deleted in all Ts hybridomas analyzed, and since a disulfide-linked dimer is detectable by two-dimensional NaDodSO4/PAGE of lysates of surface-radioiodinated Ts, we suggest that Ts antigen receptors are either alpha-chain homodimers or heterodimers composed of the alpha chain in association with an undefined chain.