Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C Lange.
Sarcoidosis is a multisystemic granulomatous disorder of unknown etiology. Several times pneumonologists described a remarkable personality of patients suffering from sarcoidosis. 44 patients with sarcoidosis were examined physically and psychosomatically. There are subgroups of patients, an important risk group shows long-lasting depressive features.
To study the behavior of the toxins E and A destruxin in biological media, a method was developed with direct injection on to a liquid chromatographic (LC) column. Either slightly lipophilic C1 and C4 "wide-pore" packings or the column-switching approach with a guard column were used. To confirm the results of the direct LC analysis, a "classical approach" with pretreatment prior to injection on to a C8 packed column was also developed. Further, parallel fast atom bombardment MS monitoring in the negative-ion mode was carried out on the same biological samples, to obtain complementary information on the destruxin metabolism in locusts. Thus, the behaviours of E and A destruxin were examined in vivo in different organs of locusts. For E destruxin, several detoxication processes could be observed, such as hydrolysis and conjugation with glutathione.
The conjugation products of E-destruxin (cyclodepsipeptide) with glutathione have been identified by fast-atom bombardment mass spectrometry. Appropriate conditions were developed for cyclodepsipeptide substrate, which enabled the direct, dynamic mass spectra analysis of spontaneous as well as glutathione-s-transferase catalyzed conjugation reactions. Application to the most active cyclopeptide in the series of destruxins yielded glutathionyl adduct.
A cyclodepsipeptide-glutathionyl conjugate has been analysed for the first time using negative-ion fast-atom bombardment linked-scan mass spectroscopy. Fragment anions produced by collision-induced dissociation are discussed.
A new strategy, based on sequential product-ion spectra (MS2 and MS3) and reaction-intermediate scanning (MS3), provides a rapid and unambiguous sequence determination of E-destruxin, a cyclodepsipeptidic toxin from Metarrhizium anisopliae fungus.
Based on two studies (using semistructured interviews) of 16- and 17-year-old West German urban adolescents, the first in 1970 (N = 602) and the second in 1990 (N = 415), this paper traces the changes in young people's sexual behavior and attitudes during the past two decades: (i) The marked trend in the 1960s towards having coitus and petting at an ever earlier age does not seem to have continued; the changes noted in the incidence of heterosexual experiences since 1970 are minimal. (ii) Boys feel themselves less at the mercy of their sexual urges than they used to and tend to link sexuality with love and a steady relationship more than they did 20 years ago; there was a similar though less pronounced change among girls. (iii) Girls now get less pleasure and satisfaction out of sexual encounters, and in heterosexual situations take the initiative and control more than they used to. (iv) There is no evidence that the problem HIV/AIDs had a marked influence on the changes described. Results of the comparative studies are discussed in the context of current developments in man/woman relationships and the debate on gender issues.
BACKGROUND: In advanced breast cancer high-dose consolidation chemotherapy with haematological rescue has resulted in prolonged disease free and overall survival in a small percentage of patients. Maximal reduction of the tumor burden by intensive induction treatment preceding the high-dose chemotherapy may favor that outcome. The aims of this study were to find a rapid highly effective induction regimen with acceptable toxicity and to examine the optimal time for peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) collection for haematological rescue. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Twenty-four patients received 4 cycles of FAC chemotherapy (5-FU, adriamycin, cyclosphamide), each followed by 10 micrograms/kg/d of lenograstim (glycosylated rHuG-CSF) s.c. day 2 to 11. Chemotherapy was administered at 4 dose intensity levels with 6 patients including at each level (level 1: 500(F)/50(A)/500(C) mg/m2/3wk, level 2: 500/50/500 mg/m2/2wk, level 3: 500/75/500 mg/m2/2wk, m2/2wk, level 4: 500/75/1000 mg/m2/2wk d1 i.v.). In addition lenograstim (10 micrograms/kg/d s.c.) was administered for a period of 10 days before (period X) and after (period Y) chemotherapy. In 16 patients (4 at each dose intensity level) assessment of PBPC was performed during period X and Y as well as during cycle 1 and 4. A single apheresis to collect PBPC was planned during chemotherapy cycle 1. RESULTS: The best response was obtained at dose intensity level 3 (all 6 patients responded, 3 of them achieved CR) with acceptable toxicity. Peak circulating numbers of total CFC/ml blood were median 5819 (period X), 4635 (cycle 1), 3807 (cycle 4) and 3519 (period Y) and occurred concurrently with peak circulating numbers of CD34+ cells. The and median 3.76 x 10(6)/kg CD34+ cells. Three patients received high-dose consolidation chemotherapy with PBPC support. Recovery of ANC > 0.5 x 10(9)/l occurred on median day 11 and of platelets > 20 x 10(9)/l on median day 10. CONCLUSION: Dose intensity level 3 is the best usable induction regimen in this study. The optimal time for apheresis is either during lenograstim before chemotherapy treatment or during the first cycle of chemotherapy. Rapid haematological recovery was obtained by reinfusion of PBPC as sole source of support in the patients receiving high-dose consolidation chemotherapy.
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The article describes male and female sexual dysfunctions in different aspects that are relevant for diagnostic purposes. It hints at somatic predispositions and gets more into detail on psychogenic mechanisms that facilitate sexual dysfunctions. Sexual dysfunctions as well as 'lack of desire' in longterm relationships are seen as a problem of the couple, not of the single person. Different dimensions of analysis of the problem are described in order to enable the reader to explore the meaning of the sexual symptom with her/his individual clients.
Multidimensional chromatographies (MDC) implying either a single column with an unique packing designed for providing several separation modes such as internal surface reversed-phase (ISRP), or C1 large pores particles, or multi-column switching technique using the previous supports as guard columns, allow fast and easy direct monitoring of pesticides into plant or animal biological media. In such a way, the comparative study of the agricultural fungicide cymoxanil in two strains of Botrytis cinerea of different sensitivities gave concordant conclusions with the previous work using radiolabelled cymoxanil and TLC. Moreover, as a comparison, a study of the metabolism of this xenobiotic was also followed in animal biological fluids likely to contain peptidases. In locust or lobster haemolymph, an unusual isomerization into a cyclic compound was thus demonstrated accompanying the classical peptidase-depending metabolism generally observed in plants. The same chromatographic approaches were tested and compared for monitoring the metabolism of the natural insecticide toxin E-destruxin in insects. A detoxication process leading to the less toxic E-diol destruxin was evidenced in the organs or haemolymph of the locust Locusta migratoria chosen as a model of non-target insects.
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Two milking procedures, electric stimulation and lure-biting, are described and compared. The amount of crude Scodra griseipes venom collected in 3 years by lure-biting was 1670 mg and 1380 mg, respectively, for young females and adult males. The crude venom appears pure on the basis of UV-Vis spectra, which show no hemocyanin absorption bands. The toxicity and induced symptoms of these venoms in mice were evaluated by direct bites and also by LD50 [LD50 (young female venom, i.v.) = 8.1 mg/kg, LD50 (adult male venom, i.v.) > 9.5 mg/kg]. The venom from both sexes was compared by protein content, UV-Vis and 1H-NMR spectroscopies, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis [SDS-PAGE] and size exclusion high performance liquid chromatography [SE-HPLC]. Differences were observed.
A patient with neonatal citrullinemia caused by severe deficiency of argininosuccinate synthetase was treated prospectively according to the currently accepted protocol. We gradually reduced the doses and then discontinued treatment with sodium benzoate and phenylacetate; blood glutamine levels were maintained in the normal range, but ammonia was mildly elevated. Growth and development progressed normally through 31 months of age. Some patients with citrullinemia can be successfully managed without daily sodium benzoate and phenylacetate therapy.
When visual areas are recalled the ratio of two areas is compressed relative to both the actual and perceived values (e.g. Kemp, 1988). Experiment 1 replicated this effect with a simple two-region figure, and Expt 2 showed a significant increase in area compression to occur between 2 min and 1 week when subjects were asked to recognize the two-region figure from a set of nine figures with different area ratios. Area compression was also found in Expt 3 where a different figure was used. Experiment 4 found that varying the texture of the smaller region of a two-region figure had no significant effect on area compression, and in Expt 5 subjects choose a figure in which the area was expanded but the texture was unchanged over one in which the texture was expanded with the area. Experiment 6 showed that compression of remembered areas seen in a photograph did not depend on recalled distance. In conclusion, area compression appears to arise from a gradual transformation of remembered area that does not resemble a zooming process.
The gene pcpC, encoding tetrachloro-p-hydroquinone (TeCH) reductive dehalogenase, was cloned from Flavobacterium sp. strain ATCC 39723 and sequenced. The gene was identified by hybridization with a degenerate oligonucleotide designed from the N-terminal sequence of the purified protein. An open reading frame of 747 nucleotides was found, which predicts a translational product of 248 amino acids having a molecular weight of 28,263, which agrees favorably with the sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis-determined molecular weight of 30,000 reported for the purified protein. The predicted translational product of pcpC matched the N-terminal sequence of the purified protein exactly. From the nucleotide sequence, the protein appears to have a processed formylmethionyl. An Escherichia coli pcpC overexpression clone was shown to produce dichlorohydroquinone and trichlorohydroquinone from TeCH. Protein data base searches grouped the predicted translational sequence of pcpC with two previously reported plant glutathione S-transferases but less significantly with any of the mammalian glutathione S-transferases or the glutathione-utilizing, hydrolytic dechlorinating enzyme from Methylobacterium sp. strain DM4.
The development of fast atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry methodology is applied to the sequencing of the destruxin toxins (cyclodepsipeptides) which are 'wrong' cyclopeptides. The strategy is discussed in detail. Possible ways to overcome problems related to the resolution of isobaric fragment ions using deuterated compounds and the distinction between sequence and retrosequence are examined.
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