Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “somatic”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

The Bradford Somatic Inventory. A multi-ethnic inventory of somatic symptoms reported by anxious and depressed patients in Britain and the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent.

In the development and evaluation of a multi-ethnic inventory (the BSI) of somatic symptoms associated with anxiety and depression, symptoms were derived from psychiatric case notes of Pakistani and indigenous British patients with a clinical diagnosis of anxiety, depression, hysteria or hypochondriasis. The inventory was constructed simultaneously in Urdu and English. A pilot version of the BSI was checked against psychiatric case notes in north and south India, and Nepal. The revised BSI achieved over 90% coverage of all somatic symptoms recorded in each centre. The linguistic equivalence of the Urdu and the English versions was established in a bilingual student population in Pakistan. Conceptual equivalence of the BSI was explored using factor analysis of responses by functional patients presenting to medical clinics in Britain and Pakistan. Four principal factors (head, chest, abdomen, fatigue) were similar in both populations.

Adult↗

Somatic mosaicism in plants with special reference to somatic crossing over.

Plant systems in use for the detection of environmental mutagens appear capable of detecting all types of genetic effects which can be studied in animals. The study of somatic mosaicism, however, is better developed in plants than in higher animals. A case is presented here which shows the ability of plant systems in analyzing a host of genetic end points, including chromosome aberrations like deletions, somatic crossing over, numerical inequality, gene conversion, paramutations and point mutations. The systems in general use utilize certain varieties of Tradescantia, Glycine max, Nicotiana tabacum, Antirrhinum majus, Petunia hybrida, and Arabidopsis thaliana. Heterozygous plants or their homozygous counterparts with gene markers affecting chlorophyll development or anthocyanin in floral parts are exploited in these studies. Mutagens produce different frequencies of different types of spots typical of the mode of action of the agent. Analysis of these parameters may be used to predict, at least qualitatively, the kind of genetic damage that might be produced in man. Besides, one can test the validity of interpretation by traditional progeny tests of plants raised from tissue culture from sectors as in Nicotiana and/or by precursor analysis as done in Antirrhinum. The study of mosaicism in plants offers quite inexpensive, rapid, and reliable tests of mutagenicity at least as a preliminary eukaryotic test system.

Biotransformation↗

Impact of early lactation somatic cell count in heifers on somatic cell counts over the first lactation.

The objective of this study was to estimate the impact of somatic cell count in early lactation (SCCel) from Belgian dairy heifers on test-day somatic cell count (SCC) in first lactation. Geometric mean SCCel [5 to 14 d in milk (DIM)] of the 14,766 available samples was 104,000 cells/mL, and decreased from 178,000 at 5 DIM to 74,000 cells/mL at 14 DIM. Proportion of SCCel >200,000 cells/mL was 27.5. Heifers calving in the period April-June had highest SCCel. In total, 117,496 monthly SCC were measured. A multilevel regression analysis revealed that an increase of the natural log-transformed SCCel (LnSCCel) by one unit on average resulted in an increase of test-day natural log-transformed SCC (LnSCC) by 0.22 unit. The impact of LnSCCel on LnSCC depended on when LnSCCel was measured; an elevated LnSCCel at 14 DIM was more consequential than an equally elevated LnSCCel at 5 DIM. The probability of having a test-day SCC >200,000 cells/mL during the first lactation, also increased with an increasing LnSCCel. The negative effect of an elevated LnSCCel was still present, although to a lesser extent, in heifers with a second test-day SCC <or=50,000 cells/mL. This study indicates that udder health problems in heifers in early lactation have a high prevalence and stresses that heifers should have a low SCCel, because an elevated SCCel will negatively influence test-day SCC during the whole first lactation.

Animals↗

Genotype by environment interaction for somatic cell score across bulk milk somatic cell count and days in milk.

The objective of this paper was to investigate the importance of a genotype x environment interaction (G x E) for somatic cell score (SCS) across levels of bulk milk somatic cell count (BMSCC), number of days in milk (DIM), and their interaction. Variance components were estimated with a model including random regressions for each sire on herd test-day BMSCC, DIM, and the interaction of BMSCC and DIM. The analyzed data set contained 344,029 test-day records of 24,125 cows, sired by 182 bulls, in 461 herds comprising 13,563 herd test-days. In early lactation, considerable G x E effects were detected for SCS, indicated by 3-fold higher genetic variance for SCS at high BMSCC compared with SCS at low BMSCC, and a genetic correlation of 0.72 between SCS at low and at high BMSCC. Estimated G x E effects were smaller during late lactation. Genetic correlations between SCS at the same level of BMSCC, across DIM, were between 0.43 and 0.89. The lowest genetic correlation between SCS measures on any 2 possible combinations of BMSCC and DIM was 0.42. Correlated responses in SCS across BMSCC and DIM were, on some occasions, less than half the direct response to selection in the response environment. Responses to selection were reasonably high among environments in the second half of the lactation, whereas responses to selection between environments early and late in lactation tended to be low. Selection for reduced SCS yielded the highest direct response early in lactation at high BMSCC.

Animals↗

"Unexplained" somatic symptoms, functional syndromes, and somatization: do we need a paradigm shift?

Medically unexplained functional or somatization symptoms are somatic disorders that are not adequately explained by physical disease processes. The way in which these disorders have been understood and managed has varied over the history of medicine. However, only in the past 100 years has the "mental" explanation predominated. A benefit of this trend has been the development of effective treatments in the form of "antidepressant" drugs and cognitive-behavioral therapies; a cost has been limited integration of these treatments into medical practice and lack of acceptability to patients. We suggest that there is much to learn from physicians of the pre-Freudian era. Their etiologic theories are now supported by new scientific evidence, and their clinical practice provided ways of making psychological treatment acceptable to patients. We propose a paradigm shift in which unexplained symptoms are remedicalized around the notion of a functional disturbance of the nervous system and treatments currently considered "psychiatric" are integrated into general medical care.

History, 17th Century↗

Medically unexplained physical symptoms, somatization disorder and abridged somatization: studies with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule.

This paper reviews recent research that used the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) to characterize medically unexplained symptoms and their clustering in clinical and community populations. While the type of symptom(s) differed little across samples, the distribution of a less restrictive construct of somatization ('abridged' somatization) showed interesting differences across the various groups. The authors propose that in view of its relatively high prevalence, abundant psychiatric comorbidity and the simple and unintrusive nature of the assessment, use of the abridged construct may have practical value particularly when exploring psychopathology among medical and community populations.

Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic↗

[Somatic hypermutagenesis in immunoglobulin genes. II. Properties of somatic mutations and clonal selection].

Analysis of the collection of 203 somatic mutations in immunoglobulin genes was carried out. It was shown, that the high frequency of these mutations in CDRs of V-genes may be connected with the high concentration of repeats in these regions. In addition, the observed clusterization of mutations may emerge from simultaneous correction of several pertubations of complementarity in the heteroduplex, formed by the repeat regions. It was revealed, that somatic mutations in FRs are characterized by reliably smaller changes of some important amino acid physical-chemical properties than in CDRs. These data obviously indicate the occurrence of B-lymphocytes clonal selection. Analysis of synonymous substitutions has shown, that stabilizing selection seems to provide the conservatism of FRs (it leads to the conservation of the protein three-dimensional structure) and movement selection may provide the proliferation of B-lymphocytes with considerable changes in CDRs, if these mutations improve antigens binding. Preferential fixation of transitions in comparison with transversions, particularly expressed in FRs, may also be connected with the fact, that transitions lead to smaller changes of amino acid physical-chemical properties and they are rejected by selection to a smaller extent.

Amino Acids↗

Comparison of semiautomated method with official optical somatic cell counting method III for determining somatic cells in milk.

The new method specifying the Fossomatic-90 differs from the official method, 46.105-46.109, in that the modified instrument includes a halogen lamp; a semiconductor photoelectric detector; a less expensive, bench-top cabinet; manual injection of a larger sample, and a reduced capacity. The new instrument was compared with 2 optical somatic cell counters in routine use. On each of 3 days, 12 subsamples were prepared for each of 5 cell count levels from AM milk with half kept fresh and half preserved with 0.05% potassium dichromate. Subsamples were refrigerated and read 30+ h post-collection. Duplicate sets were read in random order on each machine daily (CV 0.77%). Two sets of slides read by 2 technicians each (strip reticle on 2 smears/slide) gave geometric mean direct microscopic somatic cell count (DMSCC) levels of 296, 526, 772, 930, and 1438 th/mL. Within-technician CV values (from day-level means) ranged from 1.68 to 2.28%. Geometric mean cells in th/mL on the new machine were significantly higher than those on the other two (674 vs 621) and were closer to the DMSCC (694). On the new machine, cell counts were 8.5% greater than on the original machines, were only 2.9% lower than the DMSCC, and showed no significant evidence of bias. Preserved samples averaged slightly greater than fresh (5.3%) but only on the original machines. Carryover by covariance analysis was insignificant. Except for cell levels, high machine precision (error CV value of 1.18%) gave differences with statistical but not practical significance, even for regulatory laboratories.

Animals↗

[Treatment of suicide attempters in a somatic hospital. Is psychosocial support offered in addition to somatic treatment?].

The study examined whether patients admitted to a somatic hospital following an attempted suicide were offered psycho-social assessment and care in addition to somatic treatment. The medical records of 81 patients involving a total of 90 admissions following a suicide attempt during a period of one year were scrutinized. 1/3 of the medical records showed no evidence of a talk between the patient and a health professional about the attempted suicide. Patients staying in hospital for less than 24 hours were less likely to have had such a talk than those who stayed longer. No other variable, not even the patients' negative attitude towards hospital care was associated with the talk variable. Without an anamnesis where suicide-related themes are approached the health professional can neither judge the danger of a new suicide attempt nor the need for psycho-social help.

Adolescent↗

An investigation of 'functional' somatic symptoms among patients attending hospital medical clinics in Pakistan--II. Using somatic symptoms to identify patients with psychiatric disorders.

Among 600 medical clinic attenders in Lahore, Pakistan, screened using the Bradford Somatic Inventory in Urdu, significant differences in symptom endorsement between 'organic' and 'mood-disordered' patients were found in 14 BSI items. Counting only those symptoms reported as present on more than 15 days during the previous month, significant differences in symptom endorsement were found in 21 BSI items. Another 60 patients attending the same clinics were recruited to evaluate the BSI as a screening questionnaire for mood disorders. Each patient was interviewed by a psychiatrist and a diagnosis made according to DSM III-R and ICD-9. Optimal cutting points for the 14-item, 21-item and 44-item BSI were determined by Relative Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis. The areas under the fitted ROC curves (an index of discriminating efficiency) were similar for the three versions. Using a cut-off score of 13/14, the BSI-21 identified DSM III-R psychiatric disorders with an estimated sensitivity of 75% and specificity of 75%. Assuming a 30% prevalence in medical clinics, a positive value of around 60% can be expected when screening for psychiatric disorders.

Adult↗

Sponges (Porifera) model systems to study the shift from immortal to senescent somatic cells: the telomerase activity in somatic cells.

Sponges (Porifera) represent the lowest metazoan phylum, characterized by a pronounced plasticity in the determination of cell lineages. In a first approach to elucidate the molecular mechanisms controlling the switch from the cell lineage with a putative indefinite growth capacity to senescent, somatic cells, the activity of the telomerase as an indicator for immortality has been determined. The studies were performed with the marine demosponges Suberites domuncula and Geodia cydonium. It was found that the activity for the telomerase in the tissue of both sponges is high; a quantitative analysis revealed that the extract from S. domuncula contained 10.3 TPG units per 5000 cell equivalents and the one from G. cydonium 8.3 TPG units; hence the activity reached approximately 30-20% of the activity seen in telomerase-positive reference cells. In contrast, dissociated spherulous cells from G. cydonium, after an incubation period of 24 h, contained no detectable telomerase activity. From earlier studies it is known that isolated sponge cells do not proliferate. Based on these findings it is assumed that the separation of the senescent sponge cell lineage from the immortal germ/somatic cell lineage is triggered by the loss of contact with cell adhesion factors. First evidence is included which suggests that the final progress of the senescent, telomerase-negative cells to cell death is caused by apoptosis.

Animals↗

Enzymic methods for estimation of the somatic cell count in bovine milk. 1. Development of assay techniques and a study of their usefulness in evaluating the somatic cell content of milk.

Assay procedures were developed for a number of enzymes in milk which apparently originate from leucocytes. The enzymes studied were acid phosphatase, N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase, beta-glucuronidase, arylsulphatase, alpha-mannosidase, and catalase. Quarter-milk samples were analysed for enzyme activity and results compared with the electronic cell count and the Wisconsin Mastitis Test. All enzymes measured except acid phosphatase and alpha-mannosidase showed good correlation with the electronic cell count. Of the other 4 enzymes tested, beta-glucuronidase and arylsulphatase were unsuitable as diagnostic aids owing to the lengthy incubation periods required in their assay procedures. The assay of catalase, which involved the measurement of the initial rate of release of O2 using an O2 analyser apparatus, was rapid, sensitive and reasonably reliable, if fresh milk samples were used. The assay procedure for N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase was considered to be the most reliable, simple and rapid enzymic method for estimating the number of somatic cells in milk.

Acetylglucosaminidase↗

Associations between somatic cell counts at calving or prior to drying-off and future somatic cell counts, in the remaining or subsequent lactation.

Composite milk somatic cell counts (CMSCC) from four separate datasets, containing 3338, 350, 1408 and 1404 herds, were used. All herds were enrolled in the Norwegian Dairy Herd Recording System (NDHRS). The aim was to investigate associations between CMSCC at calving or prior to drying-off and future CMSCC in the remaining or subsequent lactation. CMSCC was determined using Fossomatic 5000 cell counters (Foss Electric, Hillerød, Denmark) according to IDF recommendations (International Dairy Federation, 1984) and a natural logarithmic transformation of the CMSCC data (lnCMSCC) was performed. Results obtained were arranged according to parity and lactation stage and regression models and general linear mixed models were applied, the latter model to account for clustering between herds. The best associations between CMSCC at calving or prior to drying-off and future CMSCC in the remaining or subsequent lactation were found by using at least two CMSCC test days after calving or prior to drying-off. The geometric mean of the second and third or the first three CMSCC test days explained 50% of the variation in future CMSCC in first parity cows. This information was accessible at 151 days in milk (DIM) in bimonthly tested herds, and at 87 DIM for monthly tested herds. There was not a large difference using two or three single consecutive weighted CMSCC test days compared with the geometric mean of two or three CMSCC test days. Our findings indicate the need of using at least two CMSCC test days and, if only one CMSCC test day is used, it should be obtained after 14 d post-calving or preferably after 30 DIM.

Animals↗

Hemoglobin synthesis in somatic cell hybrids: coexpression of mouse with human or chinese hamster globin genes in interspecific somatic cell hybrids of mouse erythroleukemia cells.

Somatic cell hybrids were derived by fusion of mouse erythroleukemia cells with fractionated human marrow enriched in erythroblasts, or with chinese hamster fetal liver erythroid cells. Such interspecific hybrid cells, when isolated in suspension culture, had retained nearly all the mouse chromosomes and had lost most of the human or chinese hamster chromosomes. However, two such hybrids (one human, the other hamster) studied 4-6 weeks after fusion, were found to contain several non-mouse chromosomes. RNA extracted from the human marrow x erythroleukemia hybrid annealed equally to both human and mouse globin complementary DNA, indicating that coexpression of the globin genes of each species had occurred in the hybrid cells. Mouse and human mRNA were found to accumulate only after incubation of the cells in 2% dimethylsulfoxide. The chinese hamster x erythroleukemia hybrid appeared to contain a double complement of mouse chromosomes in addition to several chinese hamster chromosomes. After 7 days of incubation in 2% dimethylsulfoxide, [3H]leucine was incorporated into chinese hamster beta-globin and the mouse globin chains. Thus, globin genes from differentiated cells, when introduced into spontaneously proliferating erythroleukemia cells, may be expressed after exposure of the resulting hybrid cells to an agent capable of inducing hemoglobin synthesis in the erythroleukemia cell.

Animals↗

Bacteriophages mediating somatic antigenic conversion in Salmonella cholerae-suis: their isolation from sewage and other Salmonella serotypes possessing the somatic 6 antigen.

Bacteriophages which mediate the conversion of the O somatic antigen of Salmonella cholerae-suis from the 6(2)7 to the 6(1)7 phenotype have been isolated from two strains of S. newport and one of S. muenchen, and also from sewage collected from two areas where there have been no reports of S. cholerae-suis infection for several years. The phages differed from each other by cross-resistance tests.

Antigens, Bacterial↗

Pain and temperature encoding in the human thalamic somatic sensory nucleus (Ventral caudal): inhibition-related bursting evoked by somatic stimuli.

Stimulus-evoked inhibitory events have not been demonstrated in thalamic spike trains encoding of pain and temperature stimuli. We have now tested the hypothesis that the human thalamic response to mechanical and thermal stimuli is characterized by low-threshold calcium spike (LTS)-associated bursts of high-frequency action potentials preceded by prolonged inhibition. The results included 57 neurons recorded in the human thalamic principal somatic sensory nucleus (ventral caudal, Vc) of 24 patients during awake surgery. Neurons were classified by the grading of their response with stimulus intensity into the painful range (graded or non-graded) and the stimulus response (to mechanical, cold, or heat stimuli). Firing rates were analyzed by the response to all stimuli combined (stimuli overall) and to the stimulus characteristic of the stimulus response type (optimal stimulus), e.g., cold stimuli for neurons of the cold stimulus response type. All neuronal categories had clear stimulus-evoked LTS bursting as identified by the criteria for selecting bursts in the spike train, by significant preburst inhibition, and by preburst inter-spike interval not significantly <100 ms. Stimulus-evoked LTS burst rates were significantly higher for neurons in the cold stimulus response type independent of the firing rate between bursts. The parameters of preburst inhibition were largely independent of the neuronal category and the stimuli included in the analysis, which suggests inhibitory mechanisms are similar across neuronal types. Therefore LTS bursting is a substantial, nonlinear component of the spontaneous and stimulus-evoked activity of thalamic neurons in awake humans.

Action Potentials↗

Use of somatic cell counts and California mastitis test results from individual quarter milk samples to detect subclinical intramammary infection in dairy cattle from a herd with a high bulk tank somatic cell count.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether somatic cell counts (SCCs) or California mastitis test (CMT) scores for individual quarter milk samples could be used to detect subclinical intramammary infection among dairy cattle in a herd with a high bulk tank SCC. DESIGN: Prospective clinical trial. ANIMALS: 278 Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle from a single herd. PROCEDURE: Individual quarter milk samples were collected and submitted for bacterial culture, California mastitis testing, and determination of SCC. Additional milk samples were collected 34 days later and submitted for bacterial culture. RESULTS: During the initial visit to the herd, milk samples were collected from all 278 cows. However, because of blind mammary quarters or missing data, results for 1,057 quarter milk samples were included. Bacterial culture did not yield any growth for 622 (58.8%) of these samples. Regardless of the cutoff that was used, sensitivity of the CMT score was < or = 0.50 and sensitivity of the SCC linear score (SCS) was < or = 0.60. For 497 mammary quarters, results of bacterial culture of samples collected 34 days apart were concordant; bacterial culture did not yield any growth for 342 (68.8%) of these quarters. Regardless of the cutoff that was used, sensitivity of the CMT score was < or = 0.61 and sensitivity of the SCS was < or = 0.76 for mammary quarters with concordant bacterial culture results. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results suggest that neither CMT score nor SCC is sensitive enough to be useful as a screening test for identifying infected mammary quarters among dairy cattle in a herd with high bulk tank SCC.

Animals↗