[Preparation of monoclonal antibodies against Trichinella spiralis and localization of antigens]

BALB/c mice were infected per os with the infective larvae (L1) of Trichinella spiralis, and challenged by injecting 0.2ml soluble L1 antigen 3 days before cell fusion. SP2/0 myeloma and immune spleen cells were fused at the ratio of 1:5 in the presence 30%PEG (MW 4,000). The fusion rate and antibody positive rate were 92.1% and 16.6% respectively using ELISA. Among these the chromosomes of 4 strains were 2n greater than 100 and that of the SP2/0 myeloma cells 2n less than or equal to 70. The titer of McAb in the ascites was found to be 1/640 or 1/1,280. Eight strains were of IgG1, 1 IgG2a and 3 IgM in an agar system. Three strains of McAbs, which could recognize specifically the L1 antigen fractions by immuno-blotting technique, were used as probes to localize the target antigens in sections of T. spiralis L1. Staining was performed using an indirect technique consisting of goat anti-mouse IgG-conjugated horseradish peroxidase on de-paraffin sections, and substrate DAB. The results revealed that the antigens reacted most strongly with the specific McAbs were located in the cuticle and stichosome, followed by the lining of gut. Among the 3 strains of McAbs used, 2E5F11A5 reacted most strongly with the antigen, followed by 2E5E9E4. 2E5E9G5 was the weakest.

Slice profile improvement for a clinical MRI system

Optimal control methods have been recently introduced to improve the design of selective radio frequency pulses and several optimized selective pulses that can produce excellent slice profiles have been reported. These pulses usually require high peak rf amplitudes to implement and thus can not be widely utilized because of the limitations of the specific absorption rate and the rf power amplifier of a clinical system. We have a Siemens 1.5 T MRI clinical system. Several pulse files which consist of the bandwidth matched 90 degrees and 180 degrees selective pulses are provided. Some of these can produce excellent slice profiles. However, they can only be used in the pulse sequences with the pulse length of 5.12 msec. The purpose of this paper is to improve the slice profiles produced by the pulse file in the pulse sequences with the shorter 2.56 msec pulse length. A pulse file optimized by the conjugate gradient method is proposed to substitute the 2.56 msec Siemens pulse file. Our experimental results confirm that the slice profiles and images are improved by the optimized pulse file with a lower peak voltage. The proposed pulse file can also be applied in other clinical MRI systems.

An efficient algorithm for MR image reconstruction without low spatial frequencies

It is demonstrated that if the image to be reconstructed is known to have some zero-valued pixels, the dynamic ranges can be better used by disregarding the largest signals and using signal restoration methods. Low-frequency and high-frequency signals are related, using the knowledge that some pixels are zero, by a set of linear equations in which the number of equations is equal to the number of zero pixels, and the number of unknowns is equal to the number of low-frequency signal samples rejected. An improved Fourier transform (FT), magnetic resonance (MR) imaging method based on a least-square-error (LSE) technique, and an efficient algorithm for signal restoration when the low-frequency components are discarded are presented. In this method, the regions of support in both the image domain and the frequency domain can have arbitrary shapes, and all zero pixels in the image domain can be taken into account. The algorithm has been tested on simulated and experimental data with acceptable results.

Hypersomatotropism in pregnant women, as measured by a human liver radioreceptor assay

Radioreceptor assays (RRAs) provide useful information about the bioactivity of peptide hormones. We have developed a RRA for human GH using membranes prepared from human liver. The assay has 1% cross-reactivity with human PRL, 0.11% cross-reactivity with human chorionic somatomammotropin, and negligible cross-reactivity with bovine and rat GH. The assay has distinct advantages over the IM-9 lymphocyte RRA in having reduced nonspecific interference from serum proteins and providing a uniform source of receptors which can be stored for long periods at -70 C. The coefficient of variation of the assay is 13%. In studies of 55 sera from short children with normal or elevated serum GH concentrations the mean ratio of RRA GH to immunoradiometric assayed GH was 1.28. This assay provided important information about the total GH activity in pregnancy. There was a progressive rise in RRA GH during pregnancy, reaching 64.7 +/- 2.5 (+/- SE) micrograms/L at term. This level is 2-3 times higher than suggested by earlier estimates made with monoclonal antibody RIAs for pituitary GH. At term the contributions to total GH activity of serum are less than 3% from the pituitary, 12% from human chorionic somatomammotropin reacting with the GH receptor, and 85% from placental GH. Despite this great increase in receptor-reactive GH, somatomedin activity by bioassay is reduced, and IGF-I, determined by RIA after acid-gel filtration, is minimally elevated.