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Biomedical subjects

A Savage

Publications and source records attributed to A Savage.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection of bone marrow dendritic cells from multiple myeloma patients.

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) was found in the bone marrow dendritic cells of multiple myeloma patients but not in malignant plasma cells or bone marrow dendritic cells from normal individuals or patients with other malignancies. In addition the virus was detected in the bone marrow dendritic cells from two out of eight patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), a precursor to myeloma. Viral interleukin-6, the human homolog of which is a growth factor for myeloma, was found to be transcribed in the myeloma bone marrow dendritic cells. KSHV may be required for transformation from MGUS to myeloma and perpetuate the growth of malignant plasma cells.

Blotting, Southern↗

Sequential sib-pair and association studies to detect genes in quantitative traits.

We applied sib-pair and association methods to a GAW data set of nuclear families with quantitative traits. Our approaches included 1) preliminary statistical studies including correlations and linear regressions, 2) sib-pair methods, and 3) association studies. We used a single data set to screen for linkage and association and, subsequently, additional data sets to confirm the preliminary results. Using this sequential approach, sib-pair analysis provided evidence for the genes influencing Q1, Q2, and Q4. We correctly predicted MG1 for Q1, MG2 for Q2, and MG4 for Q4. We did not find any false positives using this approach. Association studies identified chromosomes 8 and 9 to be associated with Q4; however these are assumed to be false positives as no associations were modeled into the data.

Analysis of Variance↗

Reproductive events of wild cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) in Colombia.

Reproductive patterns of wild cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) females located in La Reserva Forestal Protectora Serranía de Coraza-Montes de María in Colosó, Colombia, were examined using long-term behavioral observations and fecal steroid analysis. Using an enzyme immunoassay, we analyzed fecal samples for E1C and PdG. Comparisons of reproductive cycles of a reproductively active female and her daughters were made. An inhibition of ovarian cycles has been observed in daughters living in their families. However, daughters also exhibited normal ovarian cycling that subsequently resulted in pregnancy. Factors influencing the fertility are discussed as they relate to the reproductive strategies of wild cotton-top tamarin females.

Animals↗

A forever healing: the lived experience of venous ulcer disease.

A phenomenological study was conducted to determine the lived experience of healing a venous ulcer for patients in an ambulatory surgical clinic. In addition to seven tape-recorded, transcribed interviews, weekly participant observations were made for 1 year. Interviews and field notes were transcribed and analyzed for themes by using van Manen's approach. Four major themes emerged from the analysis: (1) "A forever healing process" refers to the extended time over which healing occurs. (2) "Limits and accommodations" refers to the patterns of limitation related to mobility and activity restrictions due to pain and disfigurement. (3) "Powerlessness" describes the resignation about the inevitability of wound recurrence. (4) "Who cares?" refers to variation among the patients in assuming responsibly for managing their ulcer. Understanding the lived experience of venous leg ulcer disease allows care providers to provide empathic care. Patients can be encouraged to be active members of the treatment team and to assume responsibility for care and lifestyle choices.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Characterization of susceptible chiasma configurations that increase the risk for maternal nondisjunction of chromosome 21.

Recent studies of trisomy 21 have shown that altered levels of recombination are associated with maternal non-disjunction occurring at both meiosis I (MI) and meiosis II (MII). To comprehend better the association of recombination with nondisjunction, an understanding of the pattern of meiotic exchange, i.e. the exchange of genetic material at the four-strand stage during prophase, is required. We examined this underlying exchange pattern to determine if specific meiotic configurations are associated with a higher risk of non-disjunction than others. We examined the crossover frequencies of chromosome 21 for three populations: (i) normal female meiotic events; (ii) meiotic events leading to MI non-disjunction; and (iii) those leading to MII non-disjunction. From these crossover frequencies, we estimated the array of meiotic tetrads that produced the observed crossovers. Using this approach, we found that nearly one-half of MI errors were estimated to be achiasmate. The majority of the remaining MI bivalents had exchanges that clustered at the telomere. In contrast, exchanges occurring among MII cases clustered at the pericentromeric region of the chromosome. Unlike the single exchange distributions, double exchanges from the non-disjoined populations seemed to approximate the distribution in the normal population. These data suggest that the location of certain exchanges makes a tetrad susceptible to non-disjunction. Specifically, this susceptibility is associated with the distance between the centromere and closest exchange. This result challenges the widely held concept that events occurring at MII are largely independent of events occurring at MI, and suggests that all non-disjunction events may be initiated during MI and simply resolved at either of the two meiotic stages.

Chromosomes, Human, Pair 21↗

Tropical diabetes?

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Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1↗

Early expression of bcl-2 protein in the adenoma-carcinoma sequence of colorectal neoplasia.

bcl-2 was originally identified as an oncogene involved in follicular lymphomas as a result of chromosomal translocation (14;18). It is now believed that bcl-2 is implicated in the regulation of cell death by inhibiting apoptosis and that its expression is not restricted to haematopoietic cells, but is also present in many epithelial and mesenchymal tissues. Recent studies have analysed the expression of this molecule in a variety of non-lymphoid malignancies including lung, breast, prostate, and nasopharyngeal carcinomas and neuroblastoma. In the present study, 50 colorectal adenomas, 10 hyperplastic polyps, and 142 carcinomas, including 25 arising from pre-existing adenomas, were examined using an antibody detecting the bcl-2 protein product. In non-neoplastic mucosa, bcl-2 was expressed in the crypt cells only, whilst the more differentiated surface epithelial cells lacked any demonstrable bcl-2. Forty-one of the 50 adenomas (82 per cent) and 48 of the 142 carcinomas were positive for bcl-2 expression. All hyperplastic polyps were negative. A reciprocal relationship was found between bcl-2 reactivity and p53 overexpression, as detected by DO7 antibody, in approximately 65 per cent of the cases. The bcl-2-positive/p53-negative subgroup showed a strong correlation (P = 0.0056) with negative lymph node status (Dukes' A and B), implying a less aggressive pathway of neoplastic transformation.

Adenoma↗

A role for protein kinase C-mediated phosphorylation in eliciting glucagon desensitization in rat hepatocytes.

An immobilized hepatocyte preparation was used to show that both vasopressin and glucagon could desensitize the ability of glucagon to increase intracellular cyclic AMP concentrations. This process was not dependent on any influx of extracellular Ca2+ and was not mediated by any rise in the intracellular level of Ca2+. The protein kinase C-selective inhibitors chelerythrine, staurosporine and calphostin C acted as potent inhibitors of the desensitization process but with various degrees of selectivity regarding their ability to inhibit the desensitizing actions of glucagon and vasopressin. The protein phosphatase inhibitor okadaic acid was just as potent as vasopressin and glucagon in causing desensitization. Treatment of hepatocyte membranes with alkaline phosphatase restored to near control levels the ability of glucagon to stimulate adenylate cyclase activity in membranes from both glucagon- and vasopressin-treated (desensitized) hepatocytes. It is suggested that the desensitization of glucagon-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity involves a reversible phosphorylation reaction with the likely target being the glucagon receptor itself.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗

Regulation of hepatocyte adenylate cyclase by amylin and CGRP: a single receptor displaying apparent negative cooperatively towards CGRP and simple saturation kinetics for amylin, a requirement for phosphodiesterase inhibition to observe elevated hepatocyte cyclic AMP levels and the phosphorylation of Gi-2.

Challenge of intact hepatocytes with amylin only succeeded in elevating intracellular cyclic AMP levels and activating phosphorylase in the presence of the cAMP phosphodiesterase inhibitor IBMX. Both amylin and CGRP similarly activated adenylate cyclase, around 5-fold, although approximately 400-fold higher levels of amylin were required to elicit half maximal activation. Amylin activated adenylate cyclase though apparently simple Michaelien kinetics whereas CGRP elicited activation by kinetics indicative of apparent negative co-operativity. Use of the antagonist CGPP(8-37) showed that both CGRP and amylin activated hepatocyte adenylate cyclase through a common receptor by a mnemonical mechanism where it was proposed that the receptor co-existed in interconvertible high and low affinity states for CGRP. It is suggested that this model may serve as a paradigm for G-protein linked receptors in general. Amylin failed to both stimulate inositol phospholipid metabolism in hepatocytes and to elicit the desensitization of glucagon-stimulated adenylate cyclase. Amylin did, however, elicit the phosphorylation of the inhibitory guanine nucleotide regulatory protein Gi-2 in hepatocytes and prevented the action of insulin in reducing the level of phosphorylation of this G-protein.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗

The cotton-top tamarin revisited: Mhc class I polymorphism of wild tamarins, and polymorphism and allelic diversity of the class II DQA1, DQB1, and DRB loci.

Cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) in captivity are unusual in that they exhibit low levels of polymorphism and allelic diversity at the major histocompatibility complex (Mhc) class I loci. Since the polymorphism has previously only been examined in captive tamarins, we analyzed the Mhc class I alleles of a population of wild tamarins. These wild tamarins, like their captive counterparts, exhibited limited class I polymorphism. We also assessed the levels of polymorphism and allelic diversity at the Mhc class II DQA1, DQB1, DQB2, and the DRB loci in captive populations of cotton-top tamarins. In contrast to the extensive polymorphism in Old World monkeys, only two alleles were detected at each of DQA1 and DQB1. Also, the DQB2 locus was monomorphic and conserved between New and Old World monkeys. Sequences derived from four putative DRB loci were obtained, and extensive polymorphism was found at all four loci. Phylogenetic analysis did not indicate that any of the tamarin DRB loci, with the possible exception of Saoe-DRB3, were orthologous to the human DRB loci. At three of the DRB loci (Saoe-DRB11, Saoe-DRB*W12, Saoe-DRB*W22), the number of nonsynonymous changes was higher than the number of synonymous changes in the putative antigen recognition sites, indicative of positive selection. We found no support for a restriction on the polymorphism at the cotton-top tamarin class II loci. However, the allelic diversity at some of the Saoe-DRB loci is more limited than for the HLA-DRB1, consistent with a restriction imposed by the bone marrow-chimerical lifestyle.

Alleles↗

Diabetes.

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Developing Countries↗

A mnemonical or negative-co-operativity model for the activation of adenylate cyclase by a common G-protein-coupled calcitonin-gene-related neuropeptide (CGRP)/amylin receptor.

Both amylin and calcitonin-gene-related neuropeptide (CGRP) activated adenylate cyclase activity in hepatocyte membranes around 5-fold in a dose-dependent fashion, with EC50 values of 120 +/- 14 and 0.3 +/- 0.14 nM respectively. Whereas amylin exhibited normal activation kinetics (Hill coefficient, h approximately 1), CGRP showed kinetics indicative of either multiple sites/receptor species having different affinities for this ligand or a single receptor species exhibiting apparent negative co-operativity (h approximately 0.21). The CGRP antagonist CGRP-(8-37)-peptide inhibited adenylate cyclase stimulated by EC50 concentrations of either amylin or CGRP. Inhibition by CGRP-(8-37) was selective in that markedly lower concentrations were required to block the action of amylin (IC50 = 3 +/- 1 nM) compared with that of CGRP itself (IC50 = 120 +/- 11 nM). Dose-effect data for inhibition of CGRP action by CGRP-(8-37) showed normal saturation kinetics (h approximately 1), whereas CGRP-(8-37) inhibited amylin-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity in a fashion which was indicative of either multiple sites or apparent negative co-operativity (h approximately 0.24). Observed changes in the kinetics of inhibition by CGRP-(8-37) of CGRP, but not amylin-stimulated adenylate cyclase, at concentrations of agonists below their EC50 values militated against a model of two distinct populations of non-interacting receptors each able to bind both amylin and CGRP. A kinetic model is proposed whereby a single receptor, capable of being activated by both CGRP and amylin, obeys either a mnemonical kinetic mechanism or one of negative co-operativity with respect to CGRP but not to amylin. The relative merits of these two models are discussed together with a proposal suggesting that the activation of adenylate cyclase by various G-protein-linked receptors may be described by a mnemonical model mechanism.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗

Oral zinc therapy in the treatment of alpha-mannosidosis.

Human alpha-mannosidosis is a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by mental retardation, dysostosis multiplex, and hepatosplenomegaly. Deficiency of the enzyme leads to accumulation of mannose-rich glycoconjugates in tissues. Zinc sulphate has been shown to stimulate alpha-mannosidase activity in vitro. Oral zinc therapy was attempted on a 4-year-old boy with alpha-mannosidosis for 3 years. After almost 10 years of follow-up on and off zinc therapy, we must conclude that oral zinc does not substantially affect the clinical course of alpha-mannosidosis.

Administration, Oral↗

[Malaria in the Dunkerque hospital center from December 1979 to December 1990].

Seventy-one cases of malaria were diagnosed in the hospital of Dunkerque from 1979 to 1990. Forty-five patients have been infected in the Comores islands. Among the 24 other imported cases, 17 (71%) have been contaminated in Western or Central Africa. One case of congenital malaria and one of malaria acquired by blood transfusion are also reported. Plasmodium falciparum was detected in 84.5% of the patients. The four human species were found among the Comorians. Two cases with abnormal forms of Plasmodium vivax were observed.

Adolescent↗