Proceedings of the National Science Council, Republic of China. Part B, Life sciences最新文献

Specimens were collected during a recent outbreak. Those specimens displaying both CPE positive in B95-8 lymphocyte cell culture and positive by IFA were checked by a RT-PCR with a specific set of measles virus primers derived from the C-terminal of the nucleoprotein. Such RT-PCR method was found ideal for routine diagnostic purposes. Product from this RT-PCR was treated for plasmid construction before transformed into E. coli. One of those transformed clones, i. e. T94, was further studied for its DNA sequence. Since T94 is found to bear several evident different characteristics from those ever published, we conclude that this isolate is neither a vaccine derived strain nor one of those reported previously with specific amino acid residues, but unique in its own right. This isolate can well be a local lineage of wild measles virus in Taiwan.

Background: Despite some findings to the contrary, it would appear that pharmacological doses of progesterone and estrogen (alone or in combination) can influence intraocular pressure (IOP). The relationship between hormonal changes associated with the menstrual cycle and intraocular pressure is not clearly understood. After elimination of those factors that can affect IOP, the present study investigated whether physiological hormonal changes associated with the menstrual cycle have a correlation with intraocular pressure.

Methods: Intraocular pressure and the concentrations of circulating hormones, namely, the luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), progesterone, and testosterone, of twenty married women of the same age groups were recorded daily throughout a menstrual cycle. None was taking any contraceptives in any form. The intraocular pressure was measured using a Goldmann applanation tonometer.

Results: The intraocular pressure values fluctuated in each of the twenty subjects at various times of the cycle; however, they were not definitely correlated with the different phases of the cycle. This study failed to find any correlation between IOP and progesterone or estradiol levels.

Improved methods for noninvasive localization of an epileptic focus, modeled as an electrical dipole, are developed in this research. For the head geometrical model, a three-dimensional (3-D) electromagnetic tracking system is utilized to measure the exact positions of electrodes. A nonlinear optimization technique, the Levenberg-Marquardt method, is adopted for dipole localization. For the optimization algorithm to converge to correct solution, the singular value decomposition (SVD) technique is used to extract the dominant component of the EEG spike for initial estimation and dipole localization. The localization results of varied montages, including standard 10-20 electrodes and enhanced temporal electrodes, with or without invasive sphenoid electrodes, are compared. Our experimental results indicate that dipole localization with enhanced temporal electrodes can be used as an alternative for the invasive sphenoid electrodes to differentiate the epileptogenic foci of mesio-temporal area from temporal convexity.

The production of chitinolytic enzyme by Pseudomonas aeruginosa K-187, using shrimp and crab shell powder (SCSP) as the carbon source, was studied. It was observed that chemically treated SCSP induced a significant increase of enzyme production, as compared with untreated SCSP. Spent HCl and NaOH from the chitin production industry was used to process SCSP. Various strategies of SCSP processing are examined and compared in terms of chitinolytic enzyme production. A three-and-one-half-fold increase of enzyme production (0.68 U/ml to 2.4 U/ml) was attained using HCl/NaOH treated SCSP. The microorganism (K-187) was isolated from soil in Taiwan and has been characterized and reported in a previous paper.

It is well known that the major function of nitrogenase is to fix atmospheric nitrogen. However, cyanide can also serve as a subtrate for nitrogenase and can be reduced to CH4 and NH4+. A cyanide-degrading Klebsiella oxytoca strain was isolated from cyanide contaminated water. This isolate was also found to have a nitrogen-fixation capability. Nitrogenase activities in this organism could be induced by KCN. However, there was no significant difference of the induction effect between 1 mM KCN and 5 mM KCN. It was found that the cyanide-degrading ability of this isolate could be inhibited by multicopy hybrid pGR112 nif-containing plasmids. Comparing the wild type K. oxytoca strain with the pGR112 plasmid transformed strain, a typical diauxic growth of the wild type strain was observed in a medium containing NH4Cl and KCN. Although the nif plasmid transformed strain also exhibited diauxic growth in the same medium, a much longer second lag phase was noted. In addition, methane, the nitrogenase reduction end product of cyanide, could be detected on cyanide-containing growth cultures. Ammonium chloride, a repressor of nitrogenase gene expression, was consumed prior to KCN in both strains. Again, the degradation of KCN in the pGR112 transformed strain occurred only under loose control of the nitrogenase gene. These findings strongly suggest that nitrogenase may be the sole cyanide-degrading enzyme in this organism.

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a malignant condition characterized by t(15;17)(q22;q12), which fuses the PML gene on chromosome 15 to the retinoic acid receptor alpha (RAR alpha) gene on chromosome 17. In this study, t(15;17) was identified cytogenetically by using the conventional cytogenetic technique, and its molecular counterpart RAR alpha/PML fusion on chromosome 17 on interphase nuclei was further confirmed by means of dual color- (DC-) fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on serial bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) samples from APL patients at different stages of the disease. Overall, our findings indicate that interphase DC-FISH analysis can be a useful technique as an adjunct to conventional cytogenetic investigation for detecting the presence of RAR alpha/PML fusion in APL.

Hepatolithiasis and bile duct cancer have usually been linked together especially in Asian countries. Epithelium cells of bile duct or ductal glands had proliferative changes in patients with hepatolithiasis usually. The numbers and shape of the nucleoli were studied with special staining of AgNOR (Nucleolar Organizer Regions) on bile ducts without calculi (n = 11), with calculi (n = 21), and hepatolithiasis with bile duct carcinoma (n = 14). The patterns of AgNOR were classified into a dotted type and a cluster type under light microscopic examination. AgNORs scores were found to be 2.7 +/- 1.2 (M +/- SD) and 3.6 +/- 1.2 for intramural glandular cells and extramural glandular cells in hepatolithiasis (p < 0.05). In the cases of bile duct carcinoma, the percentage of the cluster form of AgNOR was 28.1 +/- 4.4%, and the scores were 4.7 +/- 2.4 for bile duct cancer, which was significantly different from intramural glands, but not different from the extramural glands in hepatolithiasis. High scores of the dotted type and high percentage of cluster type have high potentiality of malignant changes. From this study, unknown substances for malignant transformation might be secreted from the inner epithelium and or intramural glandular epithelium both of which are usually in contact with the infected bile and have chronic irritation from the stones. Extramural glands of the bile duct had higher potential for proliferation or malignant transformation in our study. Hence, long-term follow-up study of those patients with hepatolithiasis should be done very carefully especially due to the possibility of a combination of neoplastic changes in hepatolithiasis.

The present paper describes the relationship between spermatozoa and the epithelium of the female genital tract during sperm storage in greater yellow bats, Scotophilus heathi. All the female bats collected from mid-January till ovulation in early March showed the presence of spermatozoa with their heads orientated towards the epithelial lining of the female genital tract. During this period, the epithelial cells of the uterine horn showed extensive endoplasmic reticulum (ER), numerous mitochondria and well developed Golgi complexes. In females inseminated during December, the spermatozoa were not arranged linearly and showed signs of degeneration. During December, the uterine epithelial cells contained only a few small mitochondria and less developed rough ER. The leucocytes and Langerhans cells were frequently seen in the epithelial lining during the course of sperm storage especially at the site of phagocytised sperm heads.

In order to understand the effects of body weight-bearing on knee joint bony contact movements, a video-fluoroscopic digitizing system with in vivo human knee extension-flexion motions of 12 healthy adults under body weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing conditions was studied. These 12 subjects were equally separated into two groups consisting of a body weight-bearing group and a non-weight-bearing group. Video-fluoroscopic images were digitized to get three parameters from the knee joint bony geometry. These three parameters were the radius of rotation, the are length of rotation, and the contact point of the tibiofemoral joint, and they were used to decide the knee joint bony contact status of the sliding, spinning and rocking motions. The results showed that the knee bony contact movements under body weight-bearing conditions had about 4 times the incidence rate of the sliding motion under non-weight-bearing conditions. The incidence rate of the sliding motion was greatest when the knee flexion was less than 30 degrees. The knee bony contact movements under non-weight-bearing conditions had a larger spinning motion incidence rate and smaller rocking motion incidence rate than they did under weight-bearing conditions. The larger spinning motion incidence rate when the knee joint flexion was greater than 60 degrees. In conclusion, the body weight-bearing factor should be considered in studying knee joint bony contact movements.

The polymorphic mononuclear cells, arranged in whorling or palisading pattern, were usually found in the lung of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae-infected pigs. In order to understand the origin and characteristics of these cells, specific-pathogen free pigs were intratracheally inoculated with Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae at a concentration of 5 x 10(6) CFU, then, sacrificed at 6, 12, 24 and 48 hours later. The cells in the alveolar spaces were observed with light and electron microscope, and cytochemically analyzed for acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase, and Sudan black B stains respectively. The results revealed that a lot of neutrophils were observed in the alveolar spaces at the early stage after inoculation. Twenty four hours later, polymorphic mononuclear cells abundantly appeared. Enzyme cytochemical findings indicated that some of the polymorphic mononuclear cells were macrophages, in which, acid phosphatase and alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase were detected, and others were type II pneumocytes which were positively stained with alkaline phosphatase and Sudan black B. Ultrastructural observation found that many lysosomes appeared in the macrophages' cytoplasm, and type II pneumocyte contained many lamellar bodies. Conclusively, it could be suggested that the polymorphic mononuclear cells were derived from macrophages and type II pneumocytes by cytochemical and electron microscopic examinations.