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Biomedical subjects

M Blades

Publications and source records attributed to M Blades.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Metamemory in children with autism.

Five experiments are reported comparing metamemory abilities in children with autism, age- and language-matched mentally retarded children, and language-matched young normal controls. The mean language age of the participants in Experiment 1 was approximately 6 years, in Experiments 2, 3, and 4 approximately 8 years, and in Experiment 5 approximately 9 years. All the children were given one or more false belief tests. Experiment 1 assessed the children's understanding that a task variable (list length) and a person variable (age) will affect their own and others' performances on an immediate auditory-verbal recall task. Experiment 2 assessed the ability to utilize category cues in a picture recall task. Experiments 3 and 4 assessed the ability to verbalize strategies used in a memory span test and in one retrospective and two prospective memory situations. Experiment 5 assessed the children's knowledge and understanding of another person's memory. On the basis of available evidence and theory, we predicted that the children with autism would be impaired on all the metamemory tasks and that impairment would be associated with failure on tests of false belief. Our predictions were not supported. The children with autism were not impaired on any of the metamemory tasks, although they were less likely than controls to make spontaneous use of memory strategies involving other people. Unexpectedly few of the children failed the false belief tasks. These results are discussed in relation to theories concerning primary psychological deficits underlying autism.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Role of cell migration in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis: in vivo studies in SCID mice transplanted with human synovial membrane].

OBJECTIVE: Adhesion mechanisms play a central role in the recruitment of leukocytes which characteristically infiltrate rheumatoid synovium. Therefore, we adapted an animal model, in which human rheumatoid synovium was transplanted into severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice, to study the effects of Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in modulatine leukocyte migration and to investigate the chemotactic potential of Stromal Derived Factor-1 alpha (SDF-1 alpha). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Human synovium samples, obtained from patients undergoing joint replacement, were divided into two parts. One was analysed by immunohistology and the other was implanted subcutaneously into SCID mice under general anaesthesia. Four weeks post-transplantation, grafts were injected with optimal dose of SDF-1, TNF-alpha or saline (negative control). At the same time, animals were injected iv with fluorescently labelled cells. 48 hours later mice were sacrificed and grafts removed for cryo-hystology. The number of cells migrating to the grafts was determined by UV-microscopy and the results expressed as cells per high power field. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In these studies we provide the evidence that: 1) the animal model, in which human tissues are grafted into SCID mice, can be used to study cell migration under controlled experimental conditions; 2) direct intragraft injection of TNF-alpha increases lymphocytes migration and up-regulates the expression of human adhesion molecules (CAMs) and 3) SDF-1 alphainjected intragraft increases the migration of the pro-myelo-monocytic U937 cells to synovial transplants, even more efficiently than TNF-alpha, but without modifications of CAMs' expression.

Animals↗