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Biomedical subjects

M Zimmermann

Publications and source records attributed to M Zimmermann.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

[Mercury concentration in the mouth mucosa of patients with amalgam fillings].

Mercury concentrations were measured in specimens of oral mucosa taken during oral surgery from 90 patients (53 men, 37 women, mean age 42 +/- 16 years); 30 of the patients had no amalgam fillings. All the mucosal specimens extended for at least 2-3 mm from the epithelium of the gingival margin and were clinically and radiologically normal. Thirteen patients without metallic fillings of any kind had mercury concentrations of 118.4 +/- 83.7 ng/g tissue, and in 17 patients with precious metal fillings but no amalgam the mean mercury concentrations were 144 +/- 290 ng/g tissue. Seventeen patients with 1-3 amalgam fillings had an average of 1975 +/- 4300 ng/g tissue and in 26 patients with 3-6 amalgam fillings the average concentration was 1158 +/- 2500 ng/g tissue. In 17 patients with more than six amalgam fillings the mean mercury concentration was 2302 +/- 5600 ng/g tissue. Although these results demonstrate a considerable degree of transfer of mercury from the amalgam fillings to the oral mucosa, it had not resulted in any clinically detectable mucosal lesions.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

[Value and limitations of long-term continuous electrocardiographic recording (Holter)].

Long-time recording of ECG (Holter) is a safe method for assessment of objective complaints patients verbalize often imprecisely. The main value of the method lies in the exact correlation of stated symptoms with recorded ECG-anomalies or the exclusion of such a correlation. Furthermore Holter-analysis yields significant prognostic and therapeutic information in certain types of cardiac disease. Its use knows however a certain number of technical and clinical limitations that have to be known for an efficient application in daily practise.

Arrhythmias, Cardiac↗
PubMed1992

The transcription factor CREB, but not immediate-early gene encoded proteins, is expressed in activated microglia of lumbar spinal cord following sciatic nerve transection in the rat.

Expression of CREB, JUN, FOS and KROX-24 proteins was investigated in glial cells of the lumbar spinal cord. In untreated rats, CREB, c-JUN and JUN D were present in glial cells of the ventral and dorsal horn. Following sciatic nerve transection, the number of CREB immunoreactive glial cells increased in both the ipsilateral ventral and dorsal horns between 24 h and 48 h, reached a maximum after 5 days and returned to control levels after 20 days. Counterstaining with Cresyl violet, a general stain of cells, revealed that the increase of CREB positive glial cells was congruent with the increase of the number of glial cells. Staining with GFAP, a marker for astrocytes, showed an increase in intensity of labelling but no change in number of GFAP labelled cells. This indicates a constitutive expression of CREB in activated microglia. The number of glial cells labelled by c-JUN and JUN D did not change, and glial cells were not labelled by FOS and KROX-24 proteins following sciatic nerve transection. These findings demonstrate that proliferation and differentiation of glial cells in vivo can occur in absence of JUN, FOS and KROX proteins.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Expression of the junD proto-oncogene in the rat spinal cord and skin following noxious cutaneous ultraviolet irradiation.

Noxious peripheral stimulation induces the expression of various proto-oncogenes in rat spinal neurons. However, proto-oncogene expression seems to differ depending on the mode of the stimulus. Here, we report that noxious cutaneous ultraviolet (UV) irradiation results in a nearly 8-fold increase in junD mRNA levels in the rat lumbar spinal cord. RNA slot-blotting and hybridization techniques revealed a transcriptional activation of the junD proto-oncogene after 6 h, but not 1 h following UV exposure. These results suggest that low-frequency ongoing afferent impulse discharge is reflected by an accumulation in junD transcripts.

Afferent Pathways↗
PubMed1992

Genetic diversity of the yeast Candida utilis.

The electrophoretic karyotypes and some mtDNA restriction fragment patterns of 13 strains of Candida utilis and one strain of Hansenula jadinii were compared. PFGE separations revealed remarkable chromosome length polymorphisms between two groups of strains suggesting that perhaps they do not belong to the same species. However, all strains had the same or similar EcoRI, HindIII and BamHI mtDNA restriction patterns. The mtDNA genomes had an average size range of 55 kb. These results support the supposition that C. utilis is a yeast with a highly variable electrophoretic karyotype as already known for another imperfect yeast species, Candida albicans.

Candida↗
PubMed1992

The transcription factors c-JUN, JUN D and CREB, but not FOS and KROX-24, are differentially regulated in axotomized neurons following transection of rat sciatic nerve.

In adult rats, expression of c-JUN, JUN B, JUN D, c-FOS, FOS B, KROX-24 and CREB proteins was investigated by immunocytochemistry in L4 and L5 dorsal root ganglia and lumbar spinal cord for up to 300 days following transection of the left sciatic nerve. In dorsal root ganglia, expressions of c-JUN and JUN D were increased 10 h and 15 h after sciatic nerve transection, respectively. c-JUN was still at an elevated level after 300 days predominantly in small diameter neurons, whereas JUN D had declined to control levels after 100 days. In contrast to the JUN proteins, expression of CREB showed a delayed onset after 10 days and reached a maximum between 70 and 150 days. In motoneurons, expression of c-JUN and JUN D was increased 15 h and 25 h after sciatic nerve transection, respectively. Expression of c-JUN remained increased after 150 days, whereas JUN D had declined to control levels after 70 days. In contrast, expression of CREB declined within 30 h in axotomized motoneurons and remained on a reduced level for up to 150 days. JUN B, c-FOS, FOS B and KROX-24 were not induced either following axotomy or following a repeated nerve crush. Sciatic nerve transection including the surgical procedure transynaptically provoked a transient expression of all JUN, FOS and KROX-24 proteins in neurons of spinal dorsal horn which disappeared after 5 days except the expression of JUN D which lasted for up to 20 days. In contrast, CREB immunoreactivity was not at all altered in neurons of spinal dorsal horn. In untreated animals, CREB and to a lesser extent JUN D showed an ubiquitous expression in neurons and glia cells of spinal cord, whereas expression of c-JUN and a weak expression of FOS B were restricted to motoneurons. In neurons of the dorsal root ganglia, a basal expression was found for c-JUN, JUN D and CREB and, at a low level, for FOS B and KROX-24. c-JUN and JUN D were colocalized with CREB in many cells such as interneurons, motoneurons, dorsal root ganglion cells and glial cells indicating the possibility for both the control of c-jun and jun D expression by CREB and the competition of JUN and CREB proteins for CRE consensus sequences.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Potentiated expression of FOS protein in the rat spinal cord following bilateral noxious cutaneous stimulation.

A noxious mechanical or chemical stimulus to the ventral skin of one hindpaw induced the expression of FOS proteins ipsilaterally in the spinal dorsal horn neurons in the rat. The number of FOS-labelled cells reached a maximum at 2-3 h, and decayed to basal levels within 6 h after the stimulus. When a first noxious stimulus was applied to the contralateral hindpaw 1-1.5 h prior to this stimulus, the number of FOS-labelled cells increased, over all laminae, to 153% (mechanical) and 164% (chemical) compared to the number produced by a single stimulus. This effect of a prior stimulus in increasing the number of FOS-labelled cells produced by a contralateral stimulus persisted for several hours after the first stimulus. The results are interpreted as a sensitization of dorsal horn neurons induced by peripheral noxious stimuli, which is manifest at the molecular biological level.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Significance of ventricular late potentials in non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy.

To assess the incidence and clinical significance of ventricular late potentials in non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy, 51 consecutive (44 male, seven female, mean age 53 +/- 11 years) patients with dilated cardiomyopathy were studied. Twenty-eight patients (55%) were in New York Heart Association functional class III or IV, 34 out of 51 (76%) had a left ventricular ejection fraction of less than 40%, 10 out of 51 (20%) had a history of sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT), 24 out of 37 (65%) had runs of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia during Holter monitoring and 15 out of 51 (29%) had a left bundle branch block. A signal-averaged electrocardiogram (gain 10(6) x, bipolar chest leads, filters 100-300 Hz) was performed in all the patients; late potentials were considered present if the total filtered QRS duration was longer than 118 ms and the interval between the end of QRS and the voltage 40 microV was more than 40 ms in the absence of left bundle branch block (total filtered QRS duration greater than 140 ms and interval between the end of QRS and the voltage 40 microV greater than 50 ms in the presence of left bundle branch block). Ventricular late potentials were detected in 22 out of 51 patients (43%). Late potentials were present in 80% (eight out of 10) of patients with sustained ventricular tachycardia but in only 34% (14 of 41) without sustained ventricular tachycardia (P less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1992

[Late ventricular potentials and myocardial infarction. A critical analysis].

The identification of patients at high risk of developing severe ventricular arrhythmias or sudden death after acute myocardial infarction is one of the major preoccupations of cardiologists. In this field, electrocardiographic signal averaging represents a promising technique and the prognostic value of late potentials in the post-infarction period has been well demonstrated during the last 10 years. However, in order to use optimally the information obtained by this technique the limitations should be understood: what do late ventricular potentials represent from the electrophysiological point of view? Do they play an active role in the genesis of ventricular arrhythmias or are they only a marker? What is the best method of recording late potentials? What are the criteria of normality of signal averaged recordings? What is the predictive value of late potentials in the post-infarction period? At what moment should they be searched for? Are they affected by medical therapy? These are some of the questions which have not yet been answered and which are addressed in this article.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1992

In vitro activity of taurolidine, chlorophenol-camphor-menthol and chlorhexidine against oral pathogenic microorganisms.

The antimicrobial activity of taurolidine (Taurolin, CAS 19388-87-5), a synthetic broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent and anti-toxin, and two conventional antiseptics, chlorophenol-camphor-menthol (CCM) and chlorhexidine digluconate (CHX) were compared using the serial dilution test on 10 potential oral pathogenic bacterial species. The minimum inhibitory and minimum bactericidal concentrations were lowest for CHX (MIC 0.03-0.12 mg/ml), followed by taurolidine (MIC 0.12-0.5 mg/ml) and CCM (MIC 0.5-2.0 mg/ml). However, if both bacterial efficacy and cytotoxicity are considered, only taurolidine achieves extensive bactericidal activity with tissue tolerability.

Anti-Infective Agents, Local↗
PubMed1992

[The therapy of the postextraction syndrome with Taurolin. A controlled clinical study].

In a controlled clinical study with a total of 200 patients the broad spectrum agent and antitoxin taurolidine (Taurolin) was clearly superior to conventional medication with the broad spectrum antibiotic chlortetracycline (Aureomycin) when applied topically to treat the postextraction syndrome. Thus, the mean duration of therapy (primary target criterion) with Taurolin (group A) was 5.6 days compared to 8.2 days with the standard therapy (group B). In statistical terms this difference was highly significant (p < 0.0001). Compared with the conventionally treated patient group, the clinical control parameters such as pain, swelling, secretion, tenderness to pressure and remission (secondary target criteria) in the Taurolin group exhibited not only a markedly more rapid normalisation of the score-data during the initial phase, but also an appreciably shorter interval until the patients were symptom-free. Age, gender, localisation of the lesion or facultative systemic antibiotic or analgetic administration had no demonstrable effect on the course of the treatment, although the patients in the reference group required concomitant medication with antibiotics (p = 0.007) and analgetics (p = 0.01) considerably more often than those in the Taurolin group.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Pain: a kaleidoscope of ideas, concepts and approaches.

The following pages contain summaries and short statements on chronic pain providing further material for reflection and debate, namely: a) synopses of recent findings on: the physiology and biochemistry of pain; the contribution of psychoneuroimmunology; b) some views on a sociology of pain; c) analysis of various concepts and approaches which consider pain as: a symptom of disease a form of behaviour a psychosomatic reaction and a social learning process a communication phenomenon a symptom of disintegrated life a disruption in the integrity of the system a signal of broken unity a breach in the wholeness of the individual; d) a holistic approach in pain therapy; e) some unanswered questions.

Chronic Disease↗
PubMed1992

[Idiopathic sustained ventricular tachycardia in the young adult with right bundle-branch and left axis deviation].

The authors report 4 cases of sustained ventricular tachycardia with right bundle branch block and left axis deviation morphology. These ventricular tachycardias which are usually sensitive to Verapamil are often mistaken for supraventricular tachycardia. However, they are a specific clinical, electrocardiographic and electrophysiological entity. The origin of the tachycardia is probably in the Purkinje fibres of the left posterior hemibranch of the His bundle. The mechanism is controversial: much evidence points to reentrant phenomenon, but, in the present state of our knowledge, triggered activity cannot be formally excluded.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1991

Sequential expression of JUN B, JUN D and FOS B proteins in rat spinal neurons: cascade of transcriptional operations during nociception.

Expression of the immediate-early gene encoded proteins JUN B, JUN D and FOS B was investigated by immunocytochemistry in rat L5 spinal cord up to 24 h following stimulation of hind limb somatosensory nociceptors by noxious heat or injection of formalin. In both experimental protocols, JUN B, which did not show basal expression, reached maximum expression after 2 h and thereafter slowly decreased. In contrast, the expression of JUN D, which was present before stimulation in many spinal neurons, was increased after 4 h, reached its maximum after 8 h and thereafter remained elevated. FOS B which was absent under basal conditions reached its maximum between 4 h and 8 h and thereafter declined but was still present after 24 h. All immunoreactivities were restricted to the ipsilateral dorsal horn except JUN D which was also induced in the contralateral side after 8 h. The results are discussed in respect to their meaning for transcriptional operations of JUN and FOS proteins.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Photoaffinity labeling of dog pancreas microsomes with 8-azido-ATP inhibits association of nascent preprolactin with the signal sequence receptor complex.

Transport of bovine preprolactin into dog pancreas microsomes involves a microsomal protein which is sensitive to photoaffinity labeling with azido-ATP and which is distinct from the ATP-binding protein, immunoglobulin heavy chain binding protein. Here we addressed the question of what stage of preprolactin transport is affected. Thus a nascent presecretory protein which is related to preprolactin, termed ppl-86mer, was employed. Here we show that the nascent preprolactin did not become associated with the alpha-subunit of the signal sequence receptor complex after photoaffinity labeling of microsomes with azido-ATP. Therefore, we conclude that the microsomal protein which is sensitive to photoaffinity labeling with azido-ATP acts prior to the signal sequence receptor complex.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗