The pathogenesis of os odontoideum is still a subject of debate. The authors encountered two infants who had traumatic atlantoaxial dislocation and in whom os odontoideum later developed. One of the infants died of tardive cervical myelopathy secondary to cord compression. The authors present their concept that postnatal development of this abnormality results from fracture of the odontoid.

Axis, Cervical Vertebra↗

PubMedDate not supplied

On the reactivity of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate with yeast tRNAPhe and tRNATyr.

Yeast tRNAPhe and tRNATyr were reacted with the fluorescent reagent pyridoxal-5'-phosphate and the modified tRNAs were analysed with respect to the number and position of modified nucleosides and with respect to aminoacylation. a) Following the intrinsic fluorescence of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate, the treatment of tRNATyr with increasing amounts of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate revealed about 50 mol or reagent or a even higher number bound per one mol of tRNATyr. After borohydride reduction (in order to stabilize the linkage) of this modified tRNATyr and purification with reverse phase chromatography a modified tRNATyr was obtained carrying about 2 mol of the reagent. b) Both tRNATyr and tRNAPhe treated with pyridoxal-5'-phosphate and reduced exhibited almost unchanged aminoacylation as compared to the unmodified tRNAs. c) Pyridoxal-5'-phosphate treated and reduced tRNAPhe and tRNATyr were digested with ribonuclease T1 and the resulting oligonucleotides were separated. However, no fluorescent oligonucleotide and no difference to an oligonucleotide pattern obtained from unmodified tRNA were observed. Thus, pyridoxal-5'-phosphate might have been bound to the highly purified yeast tRNAPhe and tRNATyr samples either via an unstable linkage or not covalently. This result is controversial with respect to the specific reaction of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate with unfractionated tRNAs from colon carcinoma and tRNAs from E. coli as reported in the literature.

Chemistry, Organic↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of plaunotol on bacterial translocation in the rat small intestine.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Bacterial translocation is precipitated by an increase in bacteria or endotoxin, depression of the membrane barrier, and an increase in mucosal permeability. Plaunotol is a mucosal protective agent, and observed to have a strong suppressive effect on superoxide production. In this study, the effect of plaunotol on bacterial translocation was examined using the model of ischemia and reperfusion. METHOD: Male Sprague Dawley rats were used to create the following model for evaluation of bacterial translocation: (i) the control group; (ii) the preventive dose group (plaunotol 30 mg/kg/day one week before surgery); (iii) the therapeutic dose group (plaunotol 30 mg/kg/day one week after surgery); and (iv) the full dose group (plaunotol 30 mg/kg/day one week before surgery and one week after surgery). Bacterial translocation was assessed as the blood concentration of the endotoxin. RESULTS: In the control group, the endotoxin increased significantly 3 days postsurgery (13.7+/-5.6 pg/ml) compared with before surgery (1.1+/-0.1 pg/ml). In the preventive and full-dose groups, the erndotoxin decreased significantly 3 days postsurgery (4.4+/-2.8 pg/ml, 5.7+/-2.7 pg/ml, respectively) compared with that of the control group. CONCLUSION: Plaunotol in the preventive and full-dose groups decreased the endotoxin. This suggests that plaunotol is one of the protectors for bacterial translocation.

Animals↗