The ex vivo establishment, expansion, transduction, and reintroduction of autologous bone marrow stromal cells offers a potential efficacious system for somatic cell gene therapy. It is likely that any ex vivo system will require the use of large numbers of cells which express high levels of transgene products. We present a method for routine expansion of canine bone marrow stromal cells, established from initial 10-20 ml marrow aspirates, to greater than 10(9) cells. This high level expansion of cell cultures uses the stimulatory effect of acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) and heparin. In the absence of these factors, stromal cell cultures grow actively for only 1 to 2 passages, become flattened in morphology, and expand to only 10(8) cells. In the presence of heparin (5 U/ml), aFGF exerts its effect over a wide range of concentrations (0.1-10 ng/ml) in a dose-dependent manner. The stimulatory effect is dependent on the presence of both aFGF and heparin. Immunocytochemical and cytochemical analyses phenotypically characterize these stromal cells as bone marrow stromal myofibroblasts. Stromal cells grown in the presence of aFGF and heparin grow actively and maintain a fibroblast-like morphology for a number of passages, transduce efficiently with a human growth hormone (hGH) expression vector, and express and secrete high levels of hGH. Human marrow stromal cells were also established and expanded by the same culture method. This culture method should be of great value in somatic cell gene therapy for the delivery of secreted gene products to the plasma of large mammals.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Moles in Australian and British school children.

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Australia↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Influence of climate on donor deferrals.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the cause for seasonal variations of donor deferral. Deferred donors and monthly temperatures from 1981 to 1984 were tallied and analyzed. Temperatures were categorized at 10-degree intervals from 15 degrees F to 75 degrees F. Donors failing the hemoglobin screening then underwent a microhematocrit evaluation. Of the 65,531 donors seen at this blood center, 4537 were deferred, for an annual deferral rate of 6.7 to 7.2 percent (p less than 0.1). Deferrals for low hematocrit were significantly higher for both sexes at and above 45 degrees F. Similar experiences were also observed in 79,563 donors who came to the bloodmobiles over 19 months in 1983 and 1984. The percentages of deferrals at the blood center for low hematocrit in 1984 were 1.22, 2.6, and 3.5 for men and 6.7, 11.3, and 13.2 for the women at monthly average temperatures of 15.1 to 45 degrees F, 45.1 to 65 degrees F, and 65.1 to 75 degrees F, respectively. These differences of deferral rates are significant (p less than 0.05-0.001). Although other personal demographics remained constant, more of the donors deferred in this study had also been deferred in the past. The climatic changes had a significant effect on the blood composition that resulted in the deferral of blood donors with a borderline low hematocrit.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Adaptive fuzzy logic restriction rules for error correction and safe stimulation patterns during functional electrical stimulation.

Adaptive restriction rules based on fuzzy logic have been developed to eliminate errors and to increase stimulation safety in the foot-drop correction application, specifically when using adaptive logic networks to provide a stimulation control signal based on neural activity recorded from peripheral sensory nerve branches. The fuzzy rules were designed to increase flexibility and offer easier customization, compared to earlier versions of restriction rules. The rules developed quantified the duration of swing and stance phases into states of accepting or rejecting new transitions, based on the cyclic nature of gait and statistics on the current gait patterns. The rules were easy to custom design for a specific application, using linguistic terms to model the actions of the rules. The rules were tested using pre-recorded gait data processed through a gait event detector and proved to reduce detection delay and the number of errors, compared to conventional rules.

Electric Stimulation Therapy↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cold versus warm cardioplegia: recognizing hemodynamic variations.

The use of warm blood cardioplegia during open-heart surgical procedures represents a marked departure from the traditional hypothermic approach used over the past 30 years. Current literature regarding the two techniques reveals interesting and sometimes confusing results. Nurses aware of the different hemodynamic responses from both techniques provide critical assessment skills, which help prevent or identify early complications for these patients.

Heart Arrest, Induced↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Time course of recovery during cardiac rehabilitation.

PURPOSE: Exercise-based rehabilitation programs improve effort tolerance in patients with cardiovascular disease. Little is known regarding the time course of recovery of objective and subjective indices of exercise tolerance. METHODS: Twenty-six patients were studied at 0, 4, 8, and 12 weeks following early entry into rehabilitation following acute myocardial infarction (AMI), coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABGS), or valve surgery. Exercise tolerance was assessed objectively by percent predicted cycle power output (%PO), and subjectively by a self-efficacy questionnaire for ambulatory (ASE) and muscular (MSE) items and by a disease-specific, health-related, quality-of-life questionnaire (HRQL). RESULTS: With the exception of percent predicted cycle power output, all exercise tolerance measures improved throughout the rehabilitation program. Extrapolation of recovery curves suggest that recovery to 85% predicted can be achieved in 10, 11, 18, and 21 weeks for a disease-specific, health-related, quality-of-life questionnaire, self-efficacy questionnaire for ambulatory items, muscular items, and power output, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The data demonstrate that evaluation of both objective and subjective indices of exercise tolerance may be important in documenting outcomes of participation in structured rehabilitation programs. The time course of recovery of objective and subjective indices of exercise tolerance may not be highly correlated.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Tetraethylammonium and p-aminohippurate as clearance markers for renal plasma flow in the rat during saline and glucose infusion.

Renal plasma clearances (C) of 14C-tetraethylammonium (TEA) and p-aminohippurate (PAH) as estimates of arterial renal plasma flow (ARPF) were evaluated in anesthetized rats during control conditions and during intravenous glucose infusion. Venous renal blood flow was measured directly by means of a servo-controlled pump, keeping the renal venous pressure constant. Arteriovenous extraction fractions (E = 1 - P(renal venous)/P(renal arterial)) for PAH averaged 88.3 +/- (SE) 0.8% in control rats and 82.0 +/- 0.9% in glucose-infused rats (p less than 0.001); E(TEA) averaged 92.0 +/- 0.6 and 90.1 +/- 0.6%, respectively (p less than 0.05). Under both experimental conditions, (C/E)PAH did not differ significantly from ARPF, while (C/E)TEA underestimated ARPF; the rate of extraction of TEA exceeded the rate of excretion by 15-20%, probably due to accumulation of TEA in renal tissue. It is concluded that, when corrected for E, C(PAH) is in general a more accurate estimate for ARPF than C(TEA). However, under conditions involving changes in plasma glucose levels C(TEA) may provide a better estimate of the effective renal plasma flow than C(PAH).

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Malignant retroperitoneal paraganglioma. Case report and literature review].

The authors report a case with a retroperitoneal recurrent malignant non-secretory neuroendocrine tumor. The diagnosis of this rare pathology is based on immunohistochemical and electron microscopic techniques. Due to radio- and chemotherapeutic resistance of the tumor, the therapy has to be surgical. The locoregional recurrent nature of the disease asks for a close clinical and radiological follow-up.

Female↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Value of venous occlusion plethysmography to study venoactive medication in men.

Venous occlusion plethysmography is a useful tool to investigate the effect of a vaso-active medication on the venous circulation in man. However, room temperature can be very critical when small changes have to be detected. Therefore several authors induce a preconstriction of the veins for example with norepinephrine. When the conditions of the experiment are carefully controlled and a very sensitive plethysmograph is used, a significant effect on forearm veins can be shown even after small doses of nitrates and a high room temperature; matching with placebo is critically needed. It is likely that by lowering room temperature the response would be exaggerated. Taking these restrictions in mind, venous occlusion plethysmography can be a very valuable, non-invasive tool to study the effect of vaso-active treatment on the veins in men.

Heart Failure↗