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Biomedical subjects

H Bell

Publications and source records attributed to H Bell.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Serum procollagen III peptide in alcoholic and other chronic liver diseases.

Increased levels of serum procollagen III peptide (P-III-P) have been found in patients with alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis. Serum P-III-P was increased (greater than 15 micrograms/l) in 38 of 44 (86%) patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis, in 6 of 20 (30%) with fatty liver, in 1 of 13 (8%) with non-alcoholic fatty liver, and in 3 of 14 (21%) with other chronic liver diseases. Median serum P-III-P was almost three times higher in alcoholic liver cirrhosis than in alcoholic fatty liver (p less than 0.001). Serum P-III-P was increased in three of six patients with alcoholic fatty liver and periportal fibrosis. In the total material (n = 91), a statistically significant negative correlation between serum P-III-P and albumin (r = -0.71, p less than 0.001) and Normotest (r = -0.63, p less than 0.001), respectively, and a positive correlation between serum P-III-P and bilirubin (r = 0.65, p less than 0.001) were found. The serum level of P-III-P had no prognostic value concerning the mortality in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Plasma heparin cofactor II in alcoholic liver disease.

The coagulation inhibitor heparin cofactor II (HC II) was measured in various liver diseases and compared with antithrombin (AT), Normotest (NT), albumin and bilirubin. The lowest mean HC II level was found in alcoholic cirrhosis and the reduction reflected the degree of liver failure. A statistically significant association was found between HC II and AT (r = 0.79), NT (r = 0.71) and albumin (r = 0.66) (P less than 0.001), and there was a negative association between HC II and bilirubin (r = -0.55, P less than 0.001). HC II values below 42% in alcoholic cirrhosis seem to indicate a poor prognosis, since nine out of 18 patients with such recordings died. In contrast, no association between mortality and AT, NT and albumin levels was observed. In conclusion, HC II seems to be a reliable liver function test. It may serve as a prognostic indicator and in that respect it may be superior to NT and AT. The site of production is most probably the hepatocyte.

Acetaminophen↗
PubMed1987

The occurrence, recognition and developmental fate of pseudo-multipronuclear eggs after in-vitro fertilization of human oocytes.

The presence of three or more presumed pronuclei in 27 of 884 (3%) in-vitro fertilized human eggs suggested the occurrence of polyspermic fertilization. Detailed examination by differential interference contrast microscopy indicated that approximately 40% of presumed multipronuclear eggs were normally fertilized but contained a cytoplasmic vacuole(s) (pseudo-pronucleus) of pronuclear dimension and gross morphology. Closely timed observations of presumed multipronuclear eggs revealed that pseudo-pronuclei (PPN) can co-migrate and become juxtaposed with true pronuclei, thus presenting the impression of an aberrant fertilization. Fluorescent probe and electron microscopic analyses demonstrated that PPN are enclosed by a plasma membrane and contain neither DNA nor nucleoli. PPN can develop either in the mature oocyte or the newly fertilized egg. Pseudo-multipronuclear eggs progress through the preimplantation stages in an apparently normal fashion and, as demonstrated by one birth and two ongoing pregnancies, are developmentally viable. Criteria for the unambiguous designation of pseudo-multipronuclear eggs are based on: the absence of normal morphodynamic changes associated with pronuclear development; and the failure of nucleoli to appear during the perisyngamic stage. The findings strongly suggest that pseudo-multipronuclear human eggs may represent a class of morphological variants of normally fertilized and developmentally competent eggs.

Cell Nucleolus↗
PubMed1986

Identification of high levels of protein phosphatase-1 in rat liver nuclei.

Rat liver nuclei contain a protein phosphatase that is indistinguishable from the catalytic subunit of protein phosphatase-1 in its molecular mass, sensitivity to inhibitor-1 and inhibitor-2 and specificity for the beta-subunit of phosphorylase kinase. This activity is not bound to the outer nuclear membrane, but located within the nucleus. The average level of protein phosphatase-1 activity in nuclei is at least 5-fold higher than its average extranuclear concentration.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Discourse performance in older adults.

Thirty-three elderly women, whose mean age was 76.2 years, and eighteen middle-aged women, whose mean age was 45.6 years, were assessed on a number of linguistic discourse tasks. The women were well educated, and most of them were or had been engaged in the teaching profession. Each woman was given narrative discourse tasks involving recall of stories, summarizing stories, giving the morals of the stories, procedural discourse tasks, interview to assess cognitive functioning and communicative abilities, and the following cognitive tests: Block Design, Symbol-Digit, Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices, and Word Fluency. The findings were that the older group generally performed more poorly than did the middle-aged group on most of the discourse tasks and cognitive tests. Within the older group, measures of quality of discourse were generally negatively related to age and positively related to scores on cognitive tests.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1986

Regulation of development in the fully grown mouse oocyte: chromosome-mediated temporal and spatial differentiation of the cytoplasm and plasma membrane.

The relationship between nuclear maturation and the differentiation of the cytoplasm and plasma membrane during resumption of arrested meiosis was investigated by culture of GV-and MII-stage mouse oocytes in the presence and absence of nocodazole. Culture in the presence of nocodazole was associated with dispersal of MI and MII chromosomes throughout the subplasmalemmal cytoplasm. A progression of cortical (thickening of actin filaments) and plasma membrane changes (denudation of microvilli, reduction in cell surface glycoproteins, formation of chromosome-containing evaginations) that normally occurs in proximity to chromosomes associated with intact MI or MII spindles took place only in those regions of the cortical cytoplasm containing the dispersed subplasmalemmal chromosomes. The dispersion and migration of the chromosomes occurred in an apparently random fashion. Fluorescent probe analysis of normal and treated oocytes indicated a stage-specific association between the spatial distribution of chromosomes and mitochondria. Transfer of individual bivalent chromosomes to untreated oocytes at different stages of maturation and to cytoplasts derived from oocytes anucleated prior to GVB demonstrated the necessity of chromosomes for cytoplasmic and plasma membrane differentiation, and that the capacity of the cytoplasm and plasma membrane to differentiate in response to the presence of a chromosome is acquired prior to GVB.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Plasma-HDL-cholesterol and estimated ethanol consumption in 104 patients with alcohol dependence syndrome.

Plasma-HDL-cholesterol levels were determined in 104 patients (92 males and 12 females) with a mean age of 43 years (range 20-70 years). All were admitted to a clinic for alcoholics and had a mean drinking history of 13 years with a mean consumption of 48.2 l of pure ethanol per year. There was no correlation between HDL-cholesterol level and the total ethanol consumption in the year before admission or in the month before admission. However, weak negative correlations between HDL-cholesterol and smoking habits (r= -0.26, P less than 0.001) and body weight (r= -0.34, P less than 0.001) were found. In 40 patients the mean HDL-cholesterol level decreased from 1.94 +/- 0.75 mmol/l (SD) at admission to 1.29 +/- 0.36 mmol/l after 16 days of abstinence. Altogether, 33 (31.6%) of 104 patients had a HDL-cholesterol level above our reference value of 2 mmol/l while alanine aminotransferase (ALAT), aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT) and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) were increased in 49, 52.9 and 70.3%, of the cases respectively. Although screening programmes have shown an association between plasma-HDL-cholesterol and the number of drinks consumed per day, no such association could be found in a sample of alcoholics. Decrease of HDL-cholesterol during abstinence, however, seems to be a marker in alcoholics.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Comparison of a CEA-EIA assay based on monoclonal antibody with a CEA-RIA assay with polyclonal antiserum.

A monoclonal CEA-EIA assay is evaluated with respect to clinically pertinent data. Comparison is done with the conventional CEA-RIA assay (Roche). Good interlaboratory reproducibility was found, and the stability was very good over the one year evaluation period. The EIA assay could be performed in samples of serum and plasma with compatible results. The correlation between the EIA and RIA values was different in different diagnostic groups, with high correlation in colo-rectal cancer, and low in non-malignant diseases, in which the EIA assay had a lower frequency of CEA positive values. In colo-rectal cancer the RIA assay shows a 20% specificity improvement compared with the EIA assay. This was also reflected in better predictability for true positive and true negative cancer diagnosis in this group of patients as well as increased ability to discriminate between malignant and non-malignant diseases. In other groups of patients, like lung cancer and uterine cervical cancer, such improvement was not seen. The discrimination between malignant and non-malignant diseases was comparable to that of the RIA assay. In follow-up series the EIA and RIA assays detected recurrences and responses to treatment in a quite similar way. In most cases of recurrences from colo-rectal cancer, however, the EIA values increased faster and were a better indicator for recurrent disease than the RIA values.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗
PubMed1983

Association between HLA-B40 and acute alcoholic hepatitis with cirrhosis and the lack of relation between carcinoembryonic antigen and HLA antigens in alcoholic liver disease.

The frequency of HLA-B40 was significantly increased in 30 patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis with cirrhosis (63%) and in 60 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis with or without acute alcoholic hepatitis (48%) compared with its frequency in 234 healthy blood donors (18%). The HLA-B40 frequency was not increased in 20 patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis without cirrhosis (0%), in 41 patients with fatty liver infiltration (12%), or in 67 alcoholics with moderate biochemical abnormalities (19%). The association between HLA-B40 and alcoholic liver cirrhosis and acute alcoholic hepatitis with cirrhosis favors the idea that these disorders might be genetically determined. There was, however, no difference in the distribution of the HLA antigens in 54 patients with different degrees of alcoholic liver disease and an elevated carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) value of greater than or equal to 5.0 micrograms/l compared with 61 alcoholics with different degrees of liver disease and a normal CEA value. Thus, the results of HLA-A and -B typing gave no evidence of genetic susceptibility to develop a CEA elevation in patients with alcoholic liver disease.

Acute Disease↗