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A Gallagher

Publications and source records attributed to A Gallagher.

116 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1967

Dietary fat and cholesterol and serum cholesterol in the gerbil.

Groups of gerbils were fed purified diets containing either 10 or 20% of safflower, olive, or coconut oil. Each diet was fed without cholesterol and with 0.1 and 0.2% of added cholesterol. The animals were bled after 2, 4, and 8 wk for the determination of the level of serum cholesterol. The major factors affecting the level of serum cholesterol were the kind of dietary oil, the amount of dietary cholesterol, and the length of time the diet was fed. The level of safflower oil had a statistically significant effect but the level of olive or coconut oil had no significant effect. Various other statistically significant interactions were observed which make simple interpretations of the data difficult. The levels of serum cholesterol achieved in the gerbils fed the different oils with no or very low levels of dietary cholesterol were similar to those seen in men fed the same oils. Although the gerbil is apparently resistant to the development of atherosclerosis, it may be a useful model for studying the effect of dietary fats upon cholesterol metabolism.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Neurobehavioral changes in mice treated with methylmercury at two different stages of fetal development.

Pregnant C57BL/6 mice were orally given daily doses of 4 or 6 mg/kg of methylmercury chloride (MeHg) or vehicle during either gestational days 7-9 (GD7-9) or days 12-14 (GD12-14). Their female offspring were tested between 6 and 16 weeks of age on a variety of behavioral tasks. Motor coordination on the rotarod and visual discrimination learning in the Y maze were not affected by administration of MeHg either at GD7-9 or at GD12-14. In the open field, the total number of square crossings was lower in mice treated with 4 and 6 mg/kg of MeHg at GD12-14 than in control mice whether the environment was new or familiar, but prenatal administration of MeHg at GD7-9 had no effect on this measure. Administration of MeHg either at GD7-9 or at GD12-14 had no effect on the percentage of central square crossings or on the frequency of rearings in the open field. On spatial alternation training in the T maze, both treated groups in Condition GD7-9 and the group treated with 6 mg/kg at GD12-14 required more sessions to reach the learning criterion than their respective vehicle groups. When spatial alternation was tested with delays, treated groups did not differ from their respective control groups. In the radial arm maze, the performance of mice treated at GD7-9 was normal, but reference memory and working memory were impaired by administration of MeHg at GD12-14. In mice treated with 4 mg/kg of MeHg, reference memory was impaired only on the first block of trials, whereas in mice treated with 6 mg/kg, the deficit persisted on all blocks of trials. Overall, these results indicate that prenatal administration of MeHg at GD12-14 had more detrimental effects on behavioral performance than administration at GD7-9. It reduced locomotor activity and impaired reference memory for egocentric and allocentric spatial information as well as working memory for places.

Aging↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Home is where the care is.

This article describes how a children's home care service operates as part of a general paediatric service within an acute NHS trust. Although a debate exists about whether a home care service should be set up as part of a community or acute trust, there are advantages and drawbacks for staff within either system. The authors believe that children benefit regardless of where the service is based.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The molecular basis of myelodysplastic syndromes.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The myelodysplastic syndromes comprise a heterogeneous group of neoplastic disorders characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis with an increased tendency to evolve to acute leukemia. Clinically, the common manifestations include peripheral blood cytopenias of one or more lineages and a normal to hyperplastic marrow. MDS has been defined on the basis of morphological criteria, namely the percentage of blast cells in the bone marrow, by the French-American-British study group. Scoring systems have been developed to include such factors as hemoglobin, leukocyte count and age in the evaluation of MDS prognosis. Although useful in the prediction of clinical course and design of therapy regimens, our understanding of the basis of MDS has come from recent advances in molecular analysis of these disorders. This review describes some of the established and recent contributions to our understanding of the molecular basis of the myelodysplastic syndromes. EVIDENCE AND INFORMATION SOURCES: The authors of the present review have been working in the field of myelodysplastic syndromes for several years and have contributed original papers on the molecular pathogenesis of these disorders. In addition, in the present review they have critically examined articles and abstracts published in journals covered by the Science Citation Index and Medline. STATE OF ART AND PERSPECTIVES: Cytogenetic anomalies and proto-oncogene abnormalities point to new understanding of the pathogenesis of MDS as a sequence of DNA lesions leading to the evolution of the pre-malignant clone. The prognostic significance of these factors in predicting leukemic transformation and survival remains controversial. Characterization of MDS cells in vitro in response to combinations of exogenous growth factors have not only provided valuable information regarding ineffective hematopoiesis in MDS but have provided a new insight into treatment of MDS. One major development in our understanding of MDS is the possible explanation for the apparent paradox of a cellular marrow in combination with peripheral cytopenias. Extensive premature programmed cell death or apoptosis has been reported to be at least partly responsible. It will remain to be seen whether this fundamental characteristic of myelodysplastic hematopoiesis will play a central role in the drug or genetic based therapy in the myelodysplastic syndromes.

Apoptosis↗