The second generation descended from rats treated either with cyclophosphamide alone or with both cyclophosphamide and vinblastine were investigated. As in the first generation, the offspring were evaluated for mean litter size, sex ratio, frequency of gross external malformations and, within the first 4 months of life, growth and mortality. When they reached adulthood, between 12 and 16 weeks of age, the offspring were also tested for spontaneous activity and learning capacity. At birth, the progeny of the treated grandfathers did not show malformations or any other obvious disorder. However, when compared with the control population, the experimental animals showed significantly decreased success rates in a learning task, whatever the learning performance of their parents. Furthermore, decreased spontaneous activity was observed in the male subjects from unsuccessful parents. The similarities between the anomalies found in the first and the second generations argue for the induction of mutations by antimitotic drugs. This hypothesis and the subtle differences between generations and between sexes are discussed.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cellular ageing of Alzheimer's disease and Down syndrome cells in culture.

In Alzheimer's disease, the typical clinical symptoms and the pathological findings are restricted to the nervous system. Nevertheless, like in some other neurologic-metabolic disorders, several alterations are found in peripheral tissues. The aim of this study was to examine whether cellular properties which can be studied in vitro on skin fibroblast cultures obtained from Alzheimer's disease patients differ from those of age-matched controls. Down syndrome patients were also included, since the same neuropathological findings are present in nearly 100% of Down syndrome patients. Since Alzheimer's disease is an age-related disorder, we examined the growth characteristics of skin fibroblast cultures. The in vitro senescence of cultured fibroblasts is widely accepted as a model for in vivo ageing. Normal growth properties were found. We can conclude that there is no premature ageing in Alzheimer's disease nor in Down syndrome and that the abnormalities found in peripheral tissues are related to the disease itself. The beta amyloid precursor protein (beta APP) has been shown to have adhesive interactions. We therefore investigated several parameters of adhesion in the skin fibroblast cultures: adhesion to a fibronectin coat, adhesion to extracellular matrix of Alzheimer's disease cultures and semi-quantification of adhesion-related molecules (beta 1-integrin, cell surface proteoglycans, extracellular matrix proteoglycans, extracellular matrix fibronectin). No significant difference was found in the parameters examined.

Aging↗

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Infectious disease in the sella turcica.

Intrasellar infection is characterized by pituitary dysfunction and damage to surrounding structures. In most cases patients have fever, headache, and visual disturbance and exhibit roentgenographic evidence of a mass. Suppurative infections may originate in the paranasal sinuses, meninges, or more distant foci and are commonest in the setting of preexisting pituitary adenomata. Pituitary tuberculosis may arise from hematogenous spread or extension of local lesions and may be confused with a variety of other granulomatous diseases. Congenital and acquired syphilis of the pituitary are more often diagnosed at autopsy or by the concurrence of pituitary dysfunction and serologic evidence of syphilis. Although viral infection may be associated with pituitary or hypothalamic dysfunction, overt hypophyseal infection is rarely documented. In contrast, a variety of parasites and fungi have been found in pituitary tissue. The diagnosis of pituitary infection should be considered when signs of intrasellar mass or pituitary dysfunction are accompanied by fever and other evidence of infection.

Bacterial Infections↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Light scattering determination of various characteristic paramenters of spermatozoa motility in a serie of human sperm.

In this paper are presented the results obtained by the light scattering method of systematic study of different parameters characterizing spermatozoa motility in a series of human sperms, one hour and five hours after ejaculation. These results are relative to the concentration of spermatozoa, the percentage and the number of motile spermatozoa, the characteristic velocity and the velocity distributions. All these parameters are discussed one by one, the advantages (objectivity, small quantity of not diluted sperm, short time needed for measurements) and the limits of the light scattering method being pointed out. A comparison is made with results obtained by conventional methods. The fineness of this study shows that this method can be used with success in fundamental research as well as in a routine functional sperm study, allowing an objective and precise analysis of motility in a given population as a complex factor.

Cell Count↗

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Microcinematographic analysis of the motility of human spermatozoa incubated with caffeine.

The effects of incubation with caffeine at final concentration of 0.5 and 5.0 mM for 30 min at ambient temperature were examined in three normal semen samples and three from asthenozoospermic men. A 50 frames/s microcinematographic analysis of the sperm motility was performed and two characteristic parameters of the trajectories, the progression velocity (Vp) and the amplitude of lateral head displacement (Ah), were measured. At the lower concentration (0.5 mM) no significant effects on the overall mean values (i.e. for all spermatozoa analyzed over the 6 samples) of Vp Ah were found. However, at 5.0 mM a significant reduction in the overall mean Vp was noted. The individual responses were variable between the 6 samples, but only in two of the asthenozoospermic samples and one normal ejaculate were the slow-swimming (less than 20 micrometer/s) spermatozoa accelerated by caffeine treatment. In other samples a reduction in the velocity of faster-swimming spermatozoa was observed. It would seem preferable to reserve caffeine treatment only for severe cases of asthenozoospermia where the distribution of sperm velocities of skewed towards low values.

Caffeine↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Study of sperm morphologic characteristics in a group of 833 fertile men.

For the 13 abnormalities under consideration, the mean percentages were found to be the following: irregular head (15.2), microcephalic (9.8), elongated head (5.9), coiled tail (5.8), bent tail (4.7), thin head (4.6), cytoplasmic remains (3.2), macrocephalic (1.6), short tail (1.1), no tail (0.6), duplicate tail (0.5), duplicate head (0.4), lysis (0.4). In so far as the group studied is representative, the results obtained may be considered as "norms" with the 90th percentiles showing the upper limit of the "normal". The same mean percentages were found by MacLeod and Gold (1951) for the five abnormalities they had identified. The length of abstinence preceding the collection of the ejaculate was found to have no influence on the percentage of abnormal forms.

Age Factors↗

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Conception rate according to semen characteristics in a series of 15 364 insemination cycles: results of a multivariate analysis.

The study was undertaken on 1438 ejaculates from 342 donors. The sperm count, volume, prefreeze and postthaw motility were evaluated for each ejaculate and the morphology for the first ejaculate of each donor. The success rate was found to increase steadily with the sperm count, prefreeze and postthaw motility. For the volume and percentage of all abnormal forms, the success rates are stable up to 5,5 ml and 40% respectively and then decrease. Among all the abnormal forms considered, only the microcephalics and irregular heads were found to be linked to the success rate. As most of the studied characteristics are correlated, a multiple stepwise regression was completed in order to determine the proper role of each variable. The most predictive variable is the postthaw motility. The second variable is the percentage of microcephalics. The other variables bring no further information. In particular, at a given postthaw motility, the prefreeze motility and consequently, the loss in motility have no influence on the success rate.

Buffers↗

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Abortion rate in A.I.D. and semen characteristics: a study of 1345 pregnancies.

A study undertaken on 1345 pregnancies resulting from artificial insemination with donor showed an 18% risk of abortion. This figure is the same as that admitted for natural reproduction. It does not depend on any of the classically studied semen characteristics and in particular remains invariant whatever the postthaw motility, the factor most strongly linked to conception rate. Two results, well known from the literature, i.e. the increased abortion rate mentioned in natural reproduction when the sperm is of poor quality and the high incidence of repeated abortions when sperm quality is particularly good are discussed. The first of these results cannot be considered as being established in a statistically significant way. The second may result from different sources of bias, some of which are identified. In essence a high frequency of abortions signifies simply a high frequency of pregnancies, it is therefore not surprising that the semen is in this case particularly good.

Abortion, Habitual↗

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Heparan sulfate expression patterns in the amyloid deposits of patients with Alzheimer's and Lewy body type dementia.

Heparan sulfate (HS), along with serum amyloid P component, has been identified in all types of amyloid investigated so far, regardless of the type of amyloid protein deposited. To assess whether unique or specific HS proteoglycans (HSPGs) may be involved in the formation of these lesions, we have investigated the accumulation of several distinct HSPG epitopes in the cerebra of patients with different forms of neurodegenerative disease. A panel composed of several antibodies revealed distinctive patterns of HSPG accumulation. In patients with dementia of the Lewy body type, the burned-out-type plaques and preamyloid-type plaques were strongly stained by both the anti-HS 'chain' and anti-HS 'stub' antibodies, but by none of the available anti-core protein antibodies. In Alzheimer's disease, the preamyloid-type plaques, dense-cored-type plaques, neuritic-type plaques and the neurofibrillary tangles were stained by the anti-'stub' antibody. The anti-'chain' and the anti-core protein antibodies, in contrast, failed to stain the preamyloid-type plaques and burned-out-type plaques, but stained the neuritic-type plaques in these patients. These data suggest differences in the types of HS and HSPG (fragments) that accumulate in amyloid lesions that may hallmark neurodegenerative disorders of different etiologies.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[The possible reduction of sperm (author's transl)].

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Simultaneous study of karyotype and bone marrow histology in chronic myeloid leukemia with Ph1 chromsome. (author's transl)].

This study was devoted to the simultaneous examination of the karyotype and the bone marrow histology in 33 patients suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia with the Ph1 chromosome. Some patients were evaluated in the beginning of the disease, others after evolution and treatment and some at both times. Supplementary abnormalities of the karyotype occurred in some patients before any treatment, but in most after evolution and treatment. The abnormalities encountered consisted in hypodiploidies, modifications of chromosome structure and hyperdiploidies. The additional abnormalities of the karyotype were in the majority of the patients accompanied by a bone marrow histology characterized by more pronounced blastic infiltration and precollagen fibrosis and evidence of bone lesions. The picture realized by the karyotype and the bone marrow histology allows a better evaluation of the evolution and the prognosis is individual cases, especially of the likely hood of the acute blastic transformation.

Adolescent↗