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Biomedical subjects

S Carta

Publications and source records attributed to S Carta.

58 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Health status and internal radiocontamination assessment in children exposed to the fallout of the Chernobyl accident.

The Chernobyl fallout caused release of radioisotope contaminants in a very large area that includes Belarus, the Ukraine, and the Russian Federation. In this study, the authors monitored the health status and level of internal contamination in 422 children who resided in the aforementioned areas and who were < or = 10 y of age at the time of the accident. The children came to Italy for a 1-mo period between 1991 and 1992. During this time, the children underwent pediatric checkups and biochemical, immunological, and thyroid analyses. All children underwent whole-body counter measurements, and urine radiotoxicological analysis was performed for 224 of them. The 24 children evacuated from Pripiat, a village very close to the Chernobyl reactor site, were selected for cytogenetic analysis. All of these children continue to have a detectable internal contamination of caesium radioisotopes. This condition is likely the result of ground and foodstuff contamination in the various areas. The children did not evidence overt pathologies related to ionizing radiation. However, minor alterations in immunological and thyroid parameters were observed in the group of the evacuated children. Traditional cytogenetic dosimetry was not possible, but the occurrence of acentric fragments was observed-indicating a persistent effect of continuous exposure to low doses of radiation.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of hydrostatic pressure on morphological and ultrastructural aspects of normal and osteoarthritic human articular chondrocytes.

In this work we studied the morphological and ultrastructural aspects of normal and osteoarthritic (OA) human articular chondrocytes cultivated in alginate gel for 48 hours. After this period the chondrocytes in Petri dishes were exposed to cyclic pressurization (minimum pressure 1 MPa and maximum pressure 5 MPa) at 0.25 Hz frequency for three hours. In other loading procedures the cells were exposed to continuous pressure (24 MPa) for three hours. Some dishes were not pressurised and these served as controls. The cells were then fixed for transmission electron microscopy (T.E.M.) and for scanning electron microscopy (S.E.M.). No ultrastructural changes were observed in normal chondrocytes exposed at physiological pressure. OA cells placed under physiological pressure showed a partial recovery on morphological and ultrastructural aspects. Normal and OA samples exposed to continuous pressure (24 MPa) showed a morphological worsening in both T.E.M. and S.E.M. studies.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Monoclonal autoantibody to thyroglobulin as a possible vector in immunodiagnosis and immunotherapy of differentiated thyroid cancer.

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma synthetize and secrete thyroglobulin. During its biosynthesis this antigen becomes expressed in the microvilli-bearing surface of carcinoma cells. Attempts have been carried out to target, with specific antithyroglobulin antibodies, the membrane bound absorption thyroglobulin in cancer cells for in vivo diagnosis and therapy. In the serum of patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases a high concentration of antithyroglobulin antibodies is frequently found (1-3 mg/ml). Their purification by immunoabsorption and dissociation is hampered by a low recovery and partial denaturation. It has been recently reported that about 1% of sera from Hashimoto's thyroiditis bear in their electrophoretogram a "myeloma-like protein". In the present report we describe in the serum of a Hashimoto patient a myeloma-like IgG which is an antithyroglobulin autoantibody with restricted functional and structural properties. The serum concentration of this myeloma-like IgG was found to be 40 mg/ml with a capacity of 6.5 nM of human thyroglobulin/mg IgG. The light chain composition was determined to be mostly of the lambda type. The clonal analysis of this myeloma IgG carried out by isoelectrofocusing, immunoblotting and autoradiography resulted in the recognition of several distinct clones, two of which were prominent at pH 8.7 and 7.8. By this technique and in view of the high serum concentration of this myeloma-like IgG, single clones of antithyroglobulin autoantibody can be easily obtained in high yields and without denaturation from human serum. This reagent could offer an ideal immunovector to target membrane-bound thyroglobulin of cancer cells.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗