High accuracy of external ventricular drainage placement using anatomical landmarks

BACKGROUND

The conventional approach for external ventricular drainage (EVD) application is the freehand method. Technical devices can improve the accuracy of placement, but they have not yet replaced anatomical landmarks owing to the cost and effort that they entail. There is disagreement as to whether freehand EVD application is safe enough to be accepted as a standard technique. Many authors have investigated the final catheter position in retrospect. They describe variable rates of malpositioning. However, few studies have assessed in how far cranial surface anatomy has really been respected during burr-hole drilling and catheter insertion. The aim of this study was to investigate parameters that might play a part in determining the final intracranial catheter position.

METHODS

In all, 100 pre- and postprocedural thin-layer computed-tomography (CT) scans of EVD patients were analysed with the help of JiveX® and OsiriX Lite® software. A series of anatomical and catheter-related parameters, including inter alia intraventricular blood, midline shift, burr-hole location and catheter entrance angle, were correlated with the final catheter position.

RESULTS

A majority of EVDs show an optimal or nearly optimal position. Only the deviation of catheter entrance angle has a significant influence on catheter malpositioning. The burr-hole location can vary within an area of several centimetres around the coronary suture.

CONCLUSIONS

The freehand application of EVD is safe as long as the intracranial anatomy is not disfigured to a large extent, the surface measurements are carried out precisely and the puncturing is done perpendicularly to the skull.

Whispering gallery resonators with broken axial symmetry: Theory and experiment

Axial symmetry is the cornerstone for theory and applications of high-Q optical whispering gallery resonators (WGRs). Nevertheless, research on birefringent crystalline material persistently pushes towards breaking this symmetry. We show theoretically and experimentally that the effect of broken axial symmetry, caused by optical anisotropy, is modest for the resonant frequencies and Q-factors of the WGR modes. Thus, the most important equatorial whispering gallery modes can be quantitatively described and experimentally identified. At the same time, the effect of broken axial symmetry on the light field distribution of the whispering gallery modes is typically very strong. This qualitatively modifies the phase-matching for the χ⁽²⁾ nonlinear processes and enables broad-band second harmonic generation and optical parametric oscillation. The effect of weak geometric ellipticity in nominally symmetric WGRs is also considered. Altogether our findings pave the way for an extensive use of numerous birefringent (uniaxial and biaxial) crystals with broad transparency window and large χ⁽²⁾ coefficients in nonlinear optics with WGRs.

The ICln interactome

The many different functional phenotypes described in mammalian cells can only be explained by an intense interaction of the underlying proteins, substantiated by the fact that the number of independently expressed proteins in living cells seems not to exceed 25 K, a number way too small to explain the >250 K different phenotypes on a one-protein-one-function base. Therefore, the study of the interactome of the different proteins is of utmost importance. Here, we describe the present knowledge of the ICln interactome. ICln is a protein, we cloned and whose function was reported to be as divers as (i) ion permeation, (ii) cytoskeletal organization, and (iii) RNA processing. The role of ICln in these different functional modules can be described best as being a 'connector hub' with 'date hub' function.

Molecular and functional aspects of anionic channels activated during regulatory volume decrease in mammalian cells

The ability of cells to readjust their volume after swelling, a phenomenon known as regulatory volume decrease (RVD), is a fundamental biological achievement guaranteeing survival and function of cells under osmotic stress. This article reviews the mechanisms of RVD in mammalian cells with special emphasis on the activation of ion channels during RVD.

Determination of protein-protein interactions of ICIn by the yeast two-hybrid system

ICln is a ubiquitously expressed eukaryotic protein. Expression of the protein in Xenopus laevis oocytes, the knocking-down of the protein in fibroblasts, or the reconstitution of the protein in lipid bilayer led to the assumption that this protein is an ionic channel or a significant part thereof. However, other possible roles for ICln in potential regulatory mechanisms have been postulated, as diverse as regulator of cell morphology by interacting with the Skb1 protein and/or interaction with core spliceosomal proteins. Here we show that ICln is able to interact with SnRNP core proteins SmD1, SmD2, SmD3, SmX5 and SmB/B'.

Structure and function of the ion channel ICln

Normal function of organs and cells is tightly linked to the cytoarchitecture. Control of the cell volume is therefore vital for the organism. A widely established strategy of cells to counteract swelling is the activation of chloride and potassium channels, which leads to a net efflux of salt followed by water - a process termed regulatory volume decrease. Since there is evidence for swelling-dependent chloride channels (IClswell) being activated also during pathological processes, the identification of the molecular entity underlying IClswell is of utmost importance. Several proteins are discussed as the channel forming IClswell, i.e. phospholemman, p-glycoprotein, CLC-3 and ICln. In this review we would like to focus on the properties of ICln, a protein cloned from a Madin Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell library whose expression in Xenopus laevis oocytes resulted in a nucleotide sensitive outwardly rectifying chloride current closely resembling the biophysical properties of IClswell.

The promoter for constitutive expression of the human ICln gene CLNS1A

The ICln protein is expressed ubiquitously in mammals. Experiments designed to knock down the ICln protein in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts as well as in epithelial cells led to the conclusion that this protein is crucially involved in volume regulation after cytoplasmic swelling. Reconstitution of the ICln protein in lipid bilayers revealed the ion channel nature of ICln. Here we describe a new human promoter sequence, composed of 89 nucleotides, which is responsible for a highly constitutive expression of the ICln protein. The promoter sequence lacks a TATA box, and the transcription can be effected at multiple sites. In addition to the starting sites, upstream sequence elements are mandatory for an efficient transcription of the ICln gene (CLNS1A). These new nucleotide elements were defined by site-directed mutagenesis.

Functional reconstitution of ICln in lipid bilayers

Reconstitution of purified ICln in lipid bilayer leads to functional ion channels showing varying rectification. The reconstituted single channels have a conductance of approximately equal to 3 pS and their open probability is sensitive to nucleoside analogues. Mutation of a putative nucleotide binding site identified at the predicted extracellular mouth of the ICln channel protein leads to the reduction of the nucleoside-analogue sensitivity. Reconstituted ICln channels can be permeated both by cations and anions. The relative permeability of cations over anions depends on the presence of calcium. In the presence of calcium reconstituted ICln channels are more permeable to bromide than chloride, and more permeable to potassium than sodium. Similarly in NIH3T3 fibroblasts, the relative permeability of cations over anions of swelling-dependent chloride channels depends on extracellular calcium. Site-directed mutagenesis revealed the calcium-binding site responsible for the shift of the selectivity from cations towards anions of reconstituted ICln channels. Additional indirect structural information has been obtained by mutating a histidine in the predicted pore region of ICln. This histidine seems to have access to the ion-conducting tunnel of the pore. Our experiments show that ICln can act as an ionic channel, which does not exclude additional functions of the protein in regulatory mechanisms of the cell. Since knocking down the ICln protein in fibroblasts and epithelial cells leads to an impaired regulatory volume decrease (RVD) after cytoplasmic swelling and reconstituted ICln channels show several biophysical features of ion channels activated after swelling, ICln is a molecular candidate for these channels.

ICln, an ion channel-forming protein associated with cell volume regulation

It is not resolved whether the anionic channel involved in volume regulation after cell swelling comprises one or more subunits. Moreover, it remains to be determined which of the different proteins cloned so far, for which an involvement in cell volume regulation has been postulated, is the ideal candidate. In this review, we consider the role of the ICln protein, cloned from MDCK cells, in cell volume regulation.

Characterization of the human gene coding for the swelling-dependent chloride channel ICln at position 11q13.5-14.1 (CLNS1A) and further characterization of the chromosome 6 (CLNS1B) localization

Expression cloning revealed a chloride channel (ICln) that we found to be fundamental for the regulatory volume decrease in a variety of cells. The chromosomal localization of the human ICln-gene showed two loci, one at chromosome 11 in position q13.5-q14.1, termed CLNS1A, and a second one at chromosome 6 at position p12.1-q13, termed CLNS1B. In this study, we offer a detailed characterization of the CLNS1A gene and provide the exact position (6p12) and sequence data of CLNS1B, an intronless gene 91.3% homologous to the coding region of CLNS1A.

Fluorescence-optical measurements of chloride movements in cells using the membrane-permeable dye diH-MEQ

Fluorescence-optical measurements of the intracellular chloride concentration facilitate identification of chloride movements across the cell membrane of living cells. The two main dyes used for this purpose are 6-methoxy-N-(3-sulfopropyl)quinolinium (SPQ) and 6-methoxy-quinolyl acetoethyl ester (MQAE). The use of both substances is impaired by their poor membrane permeability and therefore limited loading of the cells to be studied. Here we report the use of 6-methoxy-N-ethylquinolinium iodide (MEQ), a chloride-sensitive dye for which a membrane-permeable form is easily prepared. This makes the loading procedure as easy as with the acetoxymethyl (AM) forms of other dyes for sensing intracellular ions. In addition, the original method, which described absolute concentration measurements of chloride in the cytosol, was modified in so far as only relative measurements were made. This avoids the known limitations of single wavelength excitation and emission dyes with respect to exact concentration measurements. Moreover, to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio the driving force for chloride was considerably increased by changing the original direction of the anion flux in the cells under investigation. We verified the method by using fibroblasts and activating ICln, a putative chloride channel cloned from epithelial cells and of paramount importance in the regulatory volume decrease in these cells. In the presence of SCN- the MEQ quench measured in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts is dramatically enhanced in hypotonically challenged cells compared with cells under isotonic conditions. Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides sensing ICln considerably impeded the swelling-induced chloride current (ICl) in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts. Accordingly, the chloride movement measured by the SCN- quench of the MEQ signal was significantly reduced. Similar results can be obtained in the presence of 5-nitro-2-(3-phenylpropylamino)benzoic acid (NPPB) or 4, 4'-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2'-disulfonic acid (DIDS), two known blockers of chloride transport in the plasma membrane of a variety of cells. In conclusion, fluroscence-optical measurements using MEQ as the chloride-sensitive dye provide a reliable and easy-to-use method for measuring changes of the chloride flux across the cell membrane of living cells.

The effect of active immunization against gonadotropin-releasing hormone on the ultrastructure of the rat ventral prostate

To evaluate the effects of active immunization against gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) on the ultrastructure of the rat ventral prostate, male Sprague-Dawley rats received three consecutive intramuscular injections of 10 micrograms/100 g body weight (D-Lys6)-GnRH-diphtheria toxoid conjugate (GnRH-DT vaccine). Following immunization, test animals developed sufficiently high antibody titres to block the pituitary gonadal axis. Consequently testosterone values dropped to the levels in castrates. This therapy leads to atrophy of the prostate. Following immunization a strong immunological response, indicating the presence of considerable amounts of a GnRH-like peptide, was observed in the ventral prostates as early as 14 days after the first injection of GnRH-DT. Immunoneutralisation of GnRH-like activity may contribute to the effects observed.