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PubMed1990

Analysis of big endothelin-1 digestion by cathepsin D.

Digestion of big endothelin (ET)-1 by cathepsin D, which is the only substantially identified protease showing ET converting enzyme activity, was characterized. Increased doses of cathepsin D showed decrease of immunoreactive (ir-) ET produced from big ET-1. Time course of big ET-1 conversion showed marked increase of ir-ET in a relatively short period, but further incubation resulted in the decrease of ir-ET. Incubation at various pHs with different doses of cathepsin D revealed that low doses of cathepsin D yielded the maximum production of ir-ET at pH 3.5-4.0, but higher doses of cathepsin D showed a bimodal curve of ir-ET production, which may be due to degradation of ir-ET. HPLC analysis revealed that cathepsin D cleaves Asn18-Ile19 bond in addition to Trp21-Val22 bond of big ET-1. These data suggests cathepsin D is not a physiological endothelin converting enzyme.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2005

Delinquency in male adolescents: the role of alexithymia and family structure.

The purpose of this study was to examine the linkages between alexithymia and delinquency in male adolescents (age ranging from 14 to 18 years), and to investigate whether alexithymia was a good discriminatory factor for juvenile delinquency. Thirty-six offender adolescents and 46 non-offender control adolescents participated in the study and completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) (alexithymia), the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (R-CMAS) (anxiety), the Liste d'Adjectifs Bipolaires et en Echelles de Likert (LABEL) (personality-Big Five) and demographic data. Findings revealed that the adolescents of the offender group scored high on alexithymia and that proportion of disrupted family structure in the offender group is higher than in the control group. Logistic regressions confirmed that alexithymia and family structure are the strongest discriminatory factors for juvenile delinquency. Limitations and clinical implications are discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Plasma oestriol in pregnancies complicated by diabetes mellitus.

We studied the plasma oestriol concentration during increasing gestation in 192 normal pregnancies and 96 pregnancies complicated by diabetes mellitus. Among the 96 patients there were 16 established, 32 gestational, 29 'persistent' gestational and 19 either gestational or 'persistent' gestational diabetic pregnancies. Serial blood samples were collected and their concentrations of oestriol (total oestriol) determined by radioimmunoassay. The distribution of birthweights and placental weights around each gestational period was skewed to the right. Therefore, the 5th and 95th percentiles were obtained after computing a logarithmic transformation of the data. The incidence of big and small babies in all diabetic groups, except that in the gestational diabetic group, was significantly higher than that in the group of normal pregnant women. The distribution of oestriol concentrations was also skewed to the right and had to be normalized by logarithmic transformation. The oestriol profile in normal pregnancies had a wide scatter, especially after the 37th week. Serial measurements with reference to the normal oestriol profile showed a detection rate of approximately 85% for both normal and abnormal foetal outcome. There were 15% of false negative and 16% of false positive results. Results in this study indicate that serial blood oestriol measurement may be a useful additional index for foetal monitoring in pregnancies in diabetic women. Furthermore, if large scale screenings using a single estimation are performed, it is best carried out between the 33rd and 34th week of gestation.

Birth Weight↗
PubMedDate not supplied

As normal a life as possible: mothers and their daughters with congenital heart disease.

In this study, I used a qualitative descriptive methodology to examine the effect of chronic illness on the mother-daughter relationship. Many studies have examined the effects of the child's illness on the mother-child relationship when the child is very young, but few have looked at the ongoing problems that chronic illness may cause. Eleven mothers and 11 daughters were interviewed. Normalizing in the face of chronic illness was the overriding theme of the study. Two subthemes related to normalizing arose from the data. "It's no big deal" was found to best describe how most mothers and their daughters with heart disease viewed their lives and relationships. One other subtheme, "Sometimes it's a very big deal," was described by those mothers and daughters who could not, due to ongoing health problems, normalize their lives. Relationships with family as well as age, severity of illness, and developmental stage, were seen as mediators of normalizing in the lives of the participants.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Endothelin action in rat liver. Receptors, free Ca2+ oscillations, and activation of glycogenolysis.

High affinity binding sites for endothelin (ET) were identified on rat liver plasma membranes. Binding of 125I-ET-1 with its site was specific, saturable, and time dependent (kobs = 0.019 +/- 0.001 min-1), but dissociation of receptor-bound ligand was minimal. A single class of high affinity binding sites for 125I-ET-1 was identified with an apparent Kd of 32.4 +/- 9.8 pM and a Bmax of 1084 +/- 118 fmol/mg protein. ET-3 and big-ET-1 (1-38) (human) inhibited 125I-ET-1 binding with IC50 values of 1.85 +/- 1.03 nM and 43 +/- 6 nM, respectively. Aequorin measurements of cytosolic free Ca2+ in single, isolated rat hepatocytes showed that ET-1 at subnanomolar concentrations induced a series of repetitive, sustained Ca2+ transients. ET-1 had no effect on cAMP production. Finally, ET-1 caused a rapid and sustained stimulation of glycogenolysis in rat hepatocytes. A 1.8-fold maximal increase in glycogen phosphorylase alpha was observed at 1 pM ET-1, with an EC50 of 0.03 pM. Stimulation of the enzyme was specific for ET-1 since the order of potency of related peptides was similar to that in binding experiments (ET-1 greater than ET-3 greater than big ET-1). These data constitute the first demonstration of the presence of ET-1 binding sites in liver which is associated with a rise in cytosolic free Ca2+ and a potent glycogenolytic effect. We conclude that ET-1 behaves as a typical Ca2+ mobilizing hormone in liver.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

[Prevalence of congenital hypodontia in the permanent dentition and its treatment].

Congenital aplasia (agenesis) is an important development dental anomaly. There is a big discrepancy between the data on the prevalence of aplasia in dental literature. The authors analyzed orthopantomograms of 1875 children and adolescents at the Department of Dentistry for Children and Orthodontics of Semmelweis University. The prevalence of congenital aplasia was found 15.68% (294 subjects). There was no difference between the sexes. The most frequently missing teeth were the upper lateral incisors, the lower second premolars, the upper second premolars and the lower central incisors. The highest number of aplasia was detected in the second premolars (330 teeth). The frequency of aplasia of the molars was 0.74%. Oligodontia was found in 1.12%. The authors present two patients with aplasia and the successful treatment of the cases.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

[Effects of hypothermia on ATPase activity in the cerebral tissue of rats].

The hypothermia 20 degrees C of various periods of action stimulates greatly the activity of Na,K-ATF-ase and causes some insignificant changes in the process of Mg-ATF-ase in homogenates, synaptosomal and mitochondrial fractions, extracted from cortex of big hemispheres. The gained data testifies to some differences of the properties of membrane while cooling.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evidence for obstructive and restrictive lung pathology among tetra-ethyl lead handlers and petrol tanker fillers at a petrochemical industry in Nigeria.

Described here is a computer predicted and computer measured pulmonary function in a randomly selected population sample of 111 men. These consisted of 36 primary school teachers (control), 35 Tetra-ethyl Lead handlers (TEL) and 40 Tanker Loaders (TL) at a petrochemical industry in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. Productive cough and headache were commoner among the TL (45%, 38%) and the TEL handlers (43%, 31%). TEL handlers were 5 times likely to develop insomnia and other sleep disturbances than the control group. TL were more than 3 1/2 times more likely to develop nervousness than the control group. Measured FEF25-75% was significantly lower than its predicted value among the TEL handlers (56%) and TL (55%) when compared with the control group (36%) (P < 0.05 respectively). Although there were distinct reductions in the measured values of FEF75-85% among the TEL handlers (41%) and the TL (40%) compared to the control group (28%), this difference did not reach a level of significance when the TEL or the TL were compared individually to the control group. Predicted and measured forced mid expiratory flow time (FMFT) was not significantly varied among the cases and the control. There was statistically significant disparities (P < 0.005) in the values of predicted and measured maximum voluntary ventilation (litres) of the TEL handlers (47%) and of the TL (46%) compared with that of the control group (29%). The data suggest obstruction of the big and small airways of those occupationally exposed at a petrochemical factory in Nigeria especially the tetra-ethyl lead handlers and the tanker loaders. This data also suggests that pulmonary impairment may lead to an increased respiratory absorption of lead in its organic form. Efforts should be made to ascertain the degree of impairment and to treat the affected workers.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

[Maternal syphilis and congenital syphilis in Latin America: big problem, simple solution].

From the data submitted to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) by nationwide programs against sexually transmitted diseases (STD), HIV infection, and AIDS (2002), one can estimate the overall prevalence of syphilis among pregnant women to be 3.1% and to range from 1.00% in Peru to 6.21% in Paraguay. According to these data, the incidence of congenital syphilis ranges from 1.4 per 1000 live births in El Salvador to 12.0 per 1000 live births in Honduras. Among men who engage in sex with other men, who often classify themselves as heterosexual, as well as in female sex workers, the prevalence of syphilis ranged from 5% to 15%. Factors that determine the persistence of congenital syphilis as public health problem include a lack of awareness of the seriousness of the problem among politicians, health officials, and health care providers, difficult access to prenatal care, and screening services, a low demand for the test among users, and the stigma and discrimination that surround sexually transmitted diseases (STD). This paper seeks to focus the attention of health professionals on maternal and congenital syphilis so they will undertake actions, using an interprogrammatic approach, to eliminate congenital syphilis from Latin America and the Caribbean. Eliminating congenital syphilis will only become possible if interventions targeting vulnerable groups are also implemented. PAHO's role in eliminating congenital syphilis includes determining the baseline situation in the Region as a whole and in each country, developing communication and procurement strategies, supporting nationwide programs, promoting operational research, and facilitating interprogrammatic coordination.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

A preliminary evaluation of the performance of the Muta Mouse (lacZ) and Big Blue (lacI) transgenic mouse mutation assays.

All of the published mutagenicity data generated using the Muta Mouse (lacZ) and the Big Blue (lacI) transgenic mouse mutation assays have been re-presented in a standard format. To date, 26 chemicals have been evaluated in one or other of the assays, and eight tissues have been sampled. The present analysis should expedite the further validation of these assays. In particular, it is suggested that data on the present 26 chemicals should be consolidated rather than the generation of partial data sets on additional chemicals.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Cholesterol-lowering effects of bovine serum immunoglobulin in participants with mild hypercholesterolemia.

BACKGROUND: The consumption of milk products has been shown to lower cholesterol. The mechanism of action surrounding this observation has been attributed to the protein fraction of milk and serum. OBJECTIVE: We examined the effect of an oral serum bovine immunoglobulin protein fraction (bIg) derived from US Department of Agriculture-approved beef (aged <30 mo) on lipid indexes in humans. DESIGN: Participants included men and women (aged 25-70 y) with hypercholesterolemia (5.44-6.99 mmol/L) who were not receiving cholesterol-lowering medication. Treatment consisted of the randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled administration of 5 g bIg for 6 wk in 52 participants (n = 26 each in treatment and control groups). RESULTS: Mean (+/-SD) total cholesterol (TC) at baseline was 6.33 +/- 0.1 mmol/L for bIg and 6.16 +/- 0.1 mmol/L for placebo. A repeated-measures multivariate analysis of covariance covaried for change in total energy and alcohol intake and Tukey's post hoc examination of our data showed that the bIg-treated group had a significant reduction in TC at 3 wk (5.98 +/- 0.5 mmol/L; P < 0.05) and 6 wk (5.97 +/- 0.7 mmol/L; P < 0.05). The concentration at 6 wk was significantly different from that in the placebo group (P < 0.05). This reduction was largely due to a decrease in LDL cholesterol in the bIg-treated group from baseline (4.12 +/- 0.6 mmol/L) at 3 wk (3.92 +/- 0.7 mmol/L, P < 0.05) and at 6 wk (3.84 +/- 0.6 mmol/L, P < 0.05); the 6-wk concentration differed significantly between the treatment and placebo groups (P < 0.05). We observed no significant changes in the placebo group or in any other lipid indexes or markers associated with hepatorenal or cardiovascular function. CONCLUSION: Consumption of bIg appears to positively modulate the primary lipid indexes associated with cardiovascular disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

The "little five": exploring the nomological network of the five-factor model of personality in adolescent boys.

The California Child Q-set (CCQ) was used to explore the structure of personality in early adolescence and to develop scales to measure the "Big Five" dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience. Mothers provided Q-sorts of 350 ethnically diverse boys between 12 and 13 years old. Analyses of the construct validity of the scales provided a nomological network relating the Big Five to theoretically and socially important criterion variables, such as juvenile delinquency, Externalizing and Internalizing disorders of childhood psychopathology, school performance, IQ, SES, and race. These effects were obtained using diverse methods, including self-reports from the boys, ratings by their mothers and their teachers, and objective-test data. In addition to the Big Five, analyses also suggested 2 possibly age-specific dimensions of personality in early adolescence. Discussion is focused on the changing manifestations of personality traits throughout development.

Achievement↗
PubMed1990

Phosphoramidon, a metalloproteinase inhibitor, suppresses the secretion of endothelin-1 from cultured endothelial cells by inhibiting a big endothelin-1 converting enzyme.

Time-dependent secretion of immunoreactive-endothelin (IR-ET) from cultured porcine aortic endothelial cells was markedly suppressed by phosphoramidon is due to proteinase inhibitor. Analysis of the culture supernatant with or without phosphoramidon by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography confirmed that the suppression of IR-ET secretion by phosphoramidon is due to a decreae in secretion of endothelin-1-like materials. The secretion of the C-terminal fragment (CTF, 22-39)-like materials of big ET-1 was also decreased by phosphoramidon, whereas there was an increased secretion of big ET-1-like materials. These data strongly suggest that phosphoramidon suppresses the secretion of ET-1 from cultured endothelial cells by inhibiting the conversion of big ET-1 to ET-1. It is most likely that phosphoramidon-sensitive metalloproteinase is responsible for the processing of big ET-1 in vascular endothelial cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Reproducibility test on a children's insole for measuring the dynamic plantar pressure distribution.

INTRODUCTION:: This study aimed to establish the reproducibility of a insole measuring system specifically designed for use inside children's shoes. It is important to carry out such an investigation before any measurements are taken in order to ensure that any errors associated with the system are known and quantified. The children's insole had 84 pressure sensors, compared to the adult insoles, with 99 pressure sensors. The sensor technology was essentially the same as used in the adult Pedar system, and incorporated capacitance-based pressure transducers. MATERIALS AND METHOD:: An eight year old boy, height 123 cm, weight 29 kg, was used in the study. Dynamic tests were carried out with the Pedar insole measuring system. The subject walked on a treadmill, at a speed comfortable for him (3 km/h), with the insoles placed between the foot and the shoe. No fixation of the insole to the shoe was used. Seven runs were completed, each with four tests recorded of more than twenty steps. In between each run the insoles were completely removed from the shoe and then replaced. A zero measurement was also taken before the continuation of the next run. Before analysis of the data, twenty steps were selected. The first two steps in each sequence were ignored and the following twenty steps were used in the analysis, ten each for the left and the right foot. Any additional steps recorded were also ignored. The average force for the test data file was initially noted, together with the local pressure for each of the forefoot, midfoot, heel and toe regions, for both the left and the right foot, separately. RESULTS:: The within test data and in-between test data when walking on a treadmill at constant speed was found to be reproducible (F(0.01)) for 6 out of 7 tests for the left and the right foot. The standard deviation of the average force for the left and the right foot was 3%. The 95% confidence intervals for the mean of the peak pressure in the total object was within 6% for the treadmill and free walking data. There was no significant difference between these data. The 95% confidence intervals for the mean of the peak pressure under the big toe was 9% for the treadmill data and 16% for the free walking data. CONCLUSIONS:: These results, together with other published data (McPoil et al. 1995) show that the pedar children's insole system provides accurate and reproducible measurements of the dynamic plantar pressure distribution. The clinician can therefore use this system with confidence as a therapeutic or rehabilitative tool.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

Using data to improve medical practice by measuring processes and outcomes of care.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this article is to help clinicians expand their use of data to improve medical practice performance and to do improvement research. Clinical practices can be viewed as small, complex organizations (microsystems) that produce services for specific patient populations. These services can be greatly improved by embedding measurement into the flow of daily work in the practice. WHY DO IT?: Four good reasons to build measures into daily medical practice are to (1) diagnose strengths and weaknesses in practice performance; (2) improve and innovate in providing care and services using improvement research; (3) manage patients and the practice; and (4) evaluate changes in results over time. It is helpful to have a "physiological" model of a medical practice to analyze the practice, to manage it, and to improve it. One model views clinical practices as microsystems that are designed to generate desired health outcomes for specific subsets of patients and to use resources efficiently. This article provides case study examples to show what an office-based practice might look like if it were using front-line measurement to improve care and services most of the time and to conduct clinical improvement research some of the time. WHAT ARE THE PRINCIPLES FOR USING DATA TO IMPROVE PROCESSES AND OUTCOMES OF CARE?: Principles reflected in the case study examples--such as "Keep Measurement Simple. Think Big and Start Small" and "More Data Is Not Necessarily Better Data. Seek Usefulness, Not Perfection, in Your Measures"--may help guide the development of data to study and improve practice. HOW CAN A PRACTICE START TO USE DATA TO IMPROVE CARE AND CONDUCT IMPROVEMENT RESEARCH?: Practical challenges are involved in starting to use data for enhancing care and improvement research. To increase the odds for success, it would be wise to use a change management strategy to launch the startup plan. Other recommendations include "Establish a Sense of Urgency. (Survival Is Not Mandatory)" and "Create the Guiding Coalition. (A Small, Devoted Group of People Can Change the World)." SUMMARY: Over the long term, we must transform thousands of local practice cultures so that useful data are used every day in countless ways to assist clinicians, support staff, patients, families, and communities.

Clinical Medicine↗
PubMed2006

Automated protein function prediction--the genomic challenge.

Overwhelmed with genomic data, biologists are facing the first big post-genomic question--what do all genes do? First, not only is the volume of pure sequence and structure data growing, but its diversity is growing as well, leading to a disproportionate growth in the number of uncharacterized gene products. Consequently, established methods of gene and protein annotation, such as homology-based transfer, are annotating less data and in many cases are amplifying existing erroneous annotation. Second, there is a need for a functional annotation which is standardized and machine readable so that function prediction programs could be incorporated into larger workflows. This is problematic due to the subjective and contextual definition of protein function. Third, there is a need to assess the quality of function predictors. Again, the subjectivity of the term 'function' and the various aspects of biological function make this a challenging effort. This article briefly outlines the history of automated protein function prediction and surveys the latest innovations in all three topics.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1999

Transgenic mouse mutation assay systems can play an important role in regulatory mutagenicity testing in vivo for the detection of site-of-contact mutagens.

Transgenic mouse mutation assays, such as MutaMouse (lacZ, CD2F1) and Big Blue (lacI, B6C3F1), afford the opportunity to evaluate the mutagenic potential of chemicals in any target organ in vivo. This paper discusses published data collected from the analysis of the skin, stomach and lung DNA after topical, oral and inhalation exposure, respectively. These data indicate that both MutaMouse and Big Blue should play an important part in the evaluation of genotoxicity in vivo, particularly where the endpoint or target tissue available in the more conventional tests is inappropriate. It is concluded that there is a distinct role for this type of assay in genetic toxicology testing. For substances applied to the skin or dosed orally or by inhalation and which are unlikely to reach either the bone marrow or the liver, then data derived from these assays may be more relevant to an assessment of possible risk to man than the currently used unscheduled DNA synthesis in liver and cytogenetics assays in bone marrow or peripheral blood.

Animals↗