The ventral hippocampal regulation of prepulse inhibition and its disruption by apomorphine in rats are not mediated via the fornix

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle is a measure of sensorimotor gating that is impaired in schizophrenia. We have reported that PPI is regulated by the ventral hippocampus (VH) and that the PPI disruptive effects of the dopamine agonist apomorphine are enhanced 4 weeks after excitotoxic lesions of the VH. The mechanisms responsible for the VH influence on PPI are not understood, but have been ascribed to interactions between the VH and nucleus accumbens. In the present study, we examined whether the VH influence on PPI and its dopaminergic regulation is dependent on the integrity of the VH-accumbens projection via the fornix. First, the PPI-disruptive effects of intra-VH NMDA infusion were assessed after sham or electrolytic transection of the fornix. Second, the PPI-disruptive effects of apomorphine were assessed 1 month after excitotoxic or electrolytic lesions of the VH, or after fornix transection. Intra-VH N-methyl-D-aspartate infusion significantly disrupted PPI; this effect was unaffected by fornix lesions. The PPI-disruptive effects of apomorphine were significantly enhanced by excitotoxic or electrolytic lesions of the VH, but not by fornix transection. The influence of the VH on PPI and its dopaminergic regulation does not appear to be mediated via the fornix. The enhanced sensitivity to the PPI-disruptive effects of apomorphine after VH lesions is not dependent on excitotoxin-induced changes in the VH or its downstream projections.

Dialister invisus sp. nov., isolated from the human oral cavity

Six strains of anaerobic, Gram-negative coccobacilli isolated from the root canals of patients with endodontic infections (five strains) and from a deep periodontal pocket (one strain) were subjected to a comprehensive range of phenotypic and genetic tests and were found to comprise a homogeneous group. Following 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, they were found to be most closely related to Dialister pneumosintes, with 93 % sequence similarity between the two taxa. A novel species, Dialister invisus sp. nov., is proposed. Biochemically, the species is largely unreactive and is asaccharolytic, with only traces of acetate and propionate detected as metabolic end-products. The G+C content of the DNA of D. invisus strains is 45-46 mol%. The type strain is E7.25(T) (=CCUG 47026(T)=DSM 15470(T)).

A method for the detection and quantification of bacteria in human carious dentine using fluorescent in situ hybridisation

OBJECTIVES

Previous studies have evaluated bacterial numbers in carious dentine using conventional culturing methods, capable of detecting only a proportion of the total bacteria present within lesions. The aim of this study was to detect and enumerate the total bacterial population present in carious human dentine by means of fluorescent in situ hybridisation.

METHOD

Five freshly extracted carious molars were sequentially hand excavated under sterile conditions through four levels in the lesions. Replicate samples were probed with a rhodamine-tagged, 16S rRNA-directed probe (EUB338), specific for the bacterial domain. Two of the five original samples were examined using fluorescence microscopy and by using a systematic visual counting strategy; direct enumeration of the bacterial population in carious dentine was performed.

RESULTS

In the superficial, middle and deep/excavation front zones, a mean of 7.34 x 10(6) (standard error of the mean, SEM +/- 0.44), 5.23 x 10(6) (SEM +/- 0.18), and 1.69 x 10(6) (SEM +/- 0.15) total bacteria/mg dentine were found, respectively. In the advancing front zone (beyond the conventional clinical excavation boundary) a mean of 0.34 x 10(6) (SEM +/- 0.05) total bacteria/mg dentine was recorded.

CONCLUSION

A bacterial enumeration strategy was developed and detected greater numbers of bacteria through the depth of carious lesions that had been reported previously. The technique could be further developed using species-specific probes to determine the distribution, abundance and viability of all bacteria in carious dentine. This new information in turn will lead to a better understanding of the pathological process of caries and ultimately, its clinical treatment.

Corporate sponsorships: increasing your slice of the pie

Organizations that sell sponsorship "properties" need to understand that when corporate donors give generously to causes, they do so with specific marketing objectives in mind.

Time is more valuable than money

ABSTRACT Marcia Munson, a feminist, gay rights, and environmental activist for the last thirty years, has chosen to reserve a significant portion of her life for doing volunteer work by living simply and working part time at the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). While choosing to retain the simple lifestyle of the "70s in order to pursue her activist dreams, the author recognizes that the "70s model of self-funded activism no longer works today. During the 1970s, volunteers were often able to support their projects with funds from their own pockets, or could scrape by on small salaries provided by CETA grants and work-study money. In the 1980s, fundraising events to raise money gained popularity. By the 1990s, many non-profit organizations operated primarily with paid staff, and the main volunteer activity had become raising money. Looking back at "70s activism, Munson points out that the services of a skilled, experienced volunteer can be as valuable as money to an organization.

Interactions within the yeast t-SNARE Sso1p that control SNARE complex assembly

In the eukaryotic secretory and endocytic pathways, transport vesicles shuttle cargo among intracellular organelles and to and from the plasma membrane. Cargo delivery entails fusion of the transport vesicle with its target, a process thought to be mediated by membrane bridging SNARE protein complexes. Temporal and spatial control of intracellular trafficking depends in part on regulating the assembly of these complexes. In vitro, SNARE assembly is inhibited by the closed conformation adopted by the syntaxin family of SNAREs. To visualize this closed conformation directly, the X-ray crystal structure of a yeast syntaxin, Sso1p, has been determined and refined to 2.1 A resolution. Mutants designed to destabilize the closed conformation exhibit accelerated rates of SNARE assembly. Our results provide insight into the mechanism of SNARE assembly and its intramolecular and intermolecular regulation.

Safer sex and the polyamorous lesbian

SUMMARY In recent years, concern about transmission of AIDS and other STDs has prompted people of all sexual orientations to use various safer sex techniques. This article explains why monogamy is not necessarily any safer than polyamory. Research on the low risk of woman-to-woman transmission of HIV and other STDs is described.

Regulation of SNARE complex assembly by an N-terminal domain of the t-SNARE Sso1p

The fusion of intracellular transport vesicles with their target membranes requires the assembly of SNARE proteins anchored in the apposed membranes. Here we use recombinant cytoplasmic domains of the yeast SNAREs involved in Golgi to plasma membrane trafficking to examine this assembly process in vitro. Binary complexes form between the target membrane SNAREs Sso1p and Sec9p; these binary complexes can subsequently bind to the vesicle SNARE Snc2p to form ternary complexes. Binary and ternary complex assembly are accompanied by large increases in alpha-helical structure, indicating that folding and complex formation are linked. Surprisingly, we find that binary complex formation is extremely slow, with a second-order rate constant of approximately 3 M(-1) s(-1). An N-terminal regulatory domain of Sso1p accounts for slow assembly, since in its absence complexes assemble 2,000-fold more rapidly. Once binary complexes form, ternary complex formation is rapid and is not affected by the presence of the regulatory domain. Our results imply that proteins that accelerate SNARE assembly in vivo act by relieving inhibition by this regulatory domain.

Speeding up protein folding: mutations that increase the rate at which Rop folds and unfolds by over four orders of magnitude

BACKGROUND

The dimeric four-helix-bundle protein Rop folds and unfolds extremely slowly. To understand the molecular basis for the slow kinetics, we have studied the folding and unfolding of wild-type Rop and a series of hydrophobic core mutants.

RESULTS

Mutation of the hydrophobic core creates stable, dimeric, and wild-type-like proteins with dramatically increased rates of both folding and unfolding. The increases in rates are dependent upon the number and position of repacked residues within the hydrophobic core.

CONCLUSIONS

Rop folds by a rapid collision of monomers to form a dimeric intermediate with substantial helical content, followed by a slow rearrangement to the final native structure. Rop unfolding is a single extremely slow kinetic phase. The slow steps of both folding and unfolding are dramatically increased by hydrophobic core replacements, suggesting that their main effect is to substantially decrease the energy of the transition state.

What makes a protein a protein? Hydrophobic core designs that specify stability and structural properties

Here we describe how the systematic redesign of a protein's hydrophobic core alters its structure and stability. We have repacked the hydrophobic core of the four-helix-bundle protein, Rop, with altered packing patterns and various side chain shapes and sizes. Several designs reproduce the structure and native-like properties of the wild-type, while increasing the thermal stability. Other designs, either with similar sizes but different shapes, or with decreased sizes of the packing residues, destabilize the protein. Finally, overpacking the core with the larger side chains causes a loss of native-like structure. These results allow us to further define the roles of tight residue packing and the burial of hydrophobic surface area in the construction of native-like proteins.

Desmosomal cadherin binding domains of plakoglobin

Plakoglobin is a major component of both desmosomes and adherens junctions. At these sites it binds to the cytoplasmic domains of cadherin cell-cell adhesion proteins and regulates their adhesive and cytoskeletal binding functions. Plakoglobin also forms distinct cytosolic protein complexes that function in pathways of tumor suppression and cell fate determination. Recent studies in Xenopus suggest that cadherins inhibit the signaling functions of plakoglobin presumably by sequestering this protein at the membrane and depleting its cytosolic pool. To understand the reciprocal regulation between desmosomal cadherins (desmoglein and desmocollin) and plakoglobin, we have sought to identify the binding domains involved in the formation of these protein complexes. Plakoglobin comprises 13 central repeats flanked by amino-terminal and carboxyl-terminal domains. Our results show that repeats 1-4 are involved in binding desmoglein-1. In contrast, the interaction of plakoglobin with desmocollin-1a is sensitive to deletion of either end of the central repeat domain. The binding sites for two adherens junction components, alpha-catenin and classical cadherins, overlap these sites. Competition among these proteins for binding sites on plakoglobin may therefore account for the distinct composition of adherens junctions and desmosomes.

Redesigning the hydrophobic core of a four-helix-bundle protein

Rationally redesigned variants of the 4-helix-bundle protein Rop are described. The novel proteins have simplified, repacked, hydrophobic cores and yet reproduce the structure and native-like physical properties of the wild-type protein. The repacked proteins have been characterized thermodynamically and their equilibrium and kinetic thermal and chemical unfolding properties are compared with those of wild-type Rop. The equilibrium stability of the repacked proteins to thermal denaturation is enhanced relative to that of the wild-type protein. The rate of chemically induced folding and unfolding of wild-type Rop is extremely slow when compared with other small proteins. Interestingly, although the repacked proteins are more thermally stable than the wild type, their rates of chemically induced folding and unfolding are greatly increased in comparison to wild type. Perhaps as a consequence of this, their equilibrium stabilities to chemical denaturants are slightly reduced in comparison to the wild type.

ColE1-compatible vectors for high-level expression of cloned DNAs from the T7 promoter

A new family of T7-based expression plasmids with unique features is described. The plasmid origin of replication (ori), derived from P15A, is compatible with that of ColE1-derived plasmids, which facilitates the co-production of proteins from these vectors and from ColE1-derived T7 expression vectors in the same cell. The plasmids are medium-copy-number and also carry the M13 ori. Consequently, both double- and single-stranded DNA can be easily obtained. The plasmids encode KmR, thus avoiding the potential for plasmid loss associated with ApR-based systems. One of the plasmids carries the lacI gene, to allow for more stringent regulation of the production of potentially toxic proteins. When the plasmids are introduced into an Escherichia coli strain such as BL21(DE3), which contains the T7 polymerase-encoding gene under control of the lacUV5 promoter, addition of IPTG initiates the production of high levels of the recombinant protein.

Reduction in postsynaptic inhibition during maintained electrical stimulation of different nerves in the cat hindlimb

1. Steady-state postsynaptic potentials (PSPs) were generated by prolonged (approximately 1 s) high-frequency (100-200 Hz) electrical stimulation of nerves in the cat hindlimb. The characteristics of these steady-state PSPs were compared for two polysynaptic afferent pathways (ipsilateral cutaneous sural vs. contralateral peroneal nerves), two animal preparations (decerebrate vs. chloralose), and two motoneuron pools (medial gastrocnemius vs. lateral gastrocnemius-soleus). 2. PSPs from both nerves usually (36 of 51 cases) contained a mixture of depolarizing and hyperpolarizing components. In all 36 cases where the PSP contained a hyperpolarizing component, a consistent qualitative pattern emerged during prolonged stimulation: the hyperpolarization reached a peak approximately 20 ms after stimulation onset and then decayed with a biphasic time course that consisted of an initial rapid phase (20-40 ms) and a later slower phase (200-400 ms) before the steady-state value was reached. This pattern occurred regardless of the differences in polysynaptic afferent pathways, animal preparations, and motoneuron pools. 3. The consistency of this overall pattern was remarkable, given the existence of several quantitative differences among the PSPs. These differences include the following: hyperpolarizing components were least common in the sural and peroneal PSPs in the decerebrate preparation. And only these sural and peroneal PSPs tended to have prolonged afterpotentials after stimulus cessation. The steady-state sural PSPs in the decerebrate preparation tended to generate the largest PSPs and, moreover, these PSPs did not follow the overall trend of having a statistically significant relation between the amplitude of the initial hyperpolarization and the amount of its decay. Finally, transient sural PSPs in lateral gastrocnemius-soleus motoneurons in the decerebrate preparation tended to have the largest hyperpolarizations. 4. To determine whether the decay of the hyperpolarization and the subsequent dominance of depolarization was due to a decreased inhibition or an increased excitation, injected current pulses were utilized to measure the changes in the cell's input resistance during the course of the synaptic input. A strong decrease in input resistance accompanied the initial period of maximal hyperpolarization (50% with respect to the resting input resistance). Input resistance then returned toward resting values as hyperpolarization faded and depolarization became dominant. However, there remained a persistent decrease in input resistance during the final phase of the PSP that amounted to < 10% of the initial decrease. These findings indicated that much of the reduction in hyperpolarization reflected a progressive decrease in synaptic efficacy for the inhibition.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Differences between steady-state and transient post-synaptic potentials elicited by stimulation of the sural nerve

In cat medial gastrocnemius motoneurons, single stimuli to the cutaneous sural nerve evoke a post-synaptic potential with a mixture of depolarization and hyperpolarization, depolarization being dominant in type F cells and hyperpolarization in type S cells. This pattern is consistent with previous reports showing that activation of the sural nerve can sometimes reverse the normal order of motor unit recruitment by inhibiting S motor units while simultaneously exciting F motor units. However, during repetitive stimulation for 1-2 s, we found that the hyperpolarizing component of the sural input to medial gastrocnemius motoneurons was not persistent, but instead gave way to depolarization after the first 30 ms. The net steady-state response after 0.5-1.0 s of stimulation was depolarization in all cells, regardless of motor unit type. This suggests that tonic sural input may be incapable of producing prolonged recruitment reversals.

A simple and rapid method for determining the linearity of a flow cytometer amplification system

We describe a simple and rapid method for determining the linearity of a flow cytometer amplification system. The method is based on a fundamental characteristic of linear amplifiers: The difference between two amplified signals increases linearly with increasing amplifier gain. Two populations of beads or cells, differing slightly in fluorescence intensity, are analyzed by the flow cytometer at increasing photomultiplier tube high-voltage settings. The distribution of the populations' mean difference versus mean position is a straight line intersecting the origin for linear amplifiers. Although some types of nonlinearities cannot be detected with this technique, deviations from linearity indicate nonlinear components in the flow cytometer amplification system. The correlation coefficient is used to quantify degree of nonlinearity. We also describe a method for amplifier nonlinearity compensation.

Localization of neutralizing regions of the envelope gene of feline leukemia virus by using anti-synthetic peptide antibodies

We synthesized 27 synthetic peptides corresponding to approximately 80% of the sequences encoding gp70 and p15E of Gardner-Arnstein feline leukemia virus (FeLV) subtype B. The peptides were conjugated to keyhole limpet hemocyanin and injected into rabbits for preparation of antipeptide antisera. These sera were then tested for their ability to neutralize a broad range of FeLV isolates in vitro. Eight peptides elicited neutralizing responses against subtype B isolates. Five of these peptides corresponded to sequences of gp70 and three to p15E. The ability of these antipeptide antisera to neutralize FeLV subtypes A and C varied. In certain circumstances, failure to neutralize a particular isolate corresponded to sequence changes within the corresponding peptide region. However, four antibodies which preferentially neutralized the subtype B viruses were directed to epitopes in common with Sarma subtype C virus. These results suggest that distal changes in certain subtypes (possibly glycosylation differences) alter the availability of certain epitopes in one virus isolate relative to another. We prepared a "nest" of overlapping peptides corresponding to one of the neutralizing regions of gp70 and performed slot blot analyses with both antipeptide antibodies and a monoclonal antibody which recognized this epitope. We were able to define a five-amino-acid sequence required for reactivity. Comparisons were made between an anti-synthetic peptide antibody and a monoclonal antibody reactive to this epitope for the ability to bind both peptide and virus, as well as to neutralize virus in vitro. Both the anti-synthetic peptide and the monoclonal antibodies bound peptide and virus to high titers. However, the monoclonal antibody had a 4-fold-higher titer against virus and a 10-fold-higher neutralizing titer than did the anti-synthetic peptide antibody. Competition assays were performed with these two antibodies adjusted to equivalent antivirus titers against intact virions affixed to tissue culture plates. The monoclonal antibody had a greater ability to compete for virus binding, which suggested that differences in neutralizing titers may relate to the relative affinities of these antisera for the peptide conformation in the native structure.

Operative treatment of subtrochanteric fractures

Sixty-four patients with subtrochanteric fractures of the femur treated with internal fixation are reviewed. Twenty-six patients treated with Jewett nails are compared to 23 patients treated with Zickel nails. Total length of hospital stay, time to union, and time to full weightbearing were similar between the two groups. Six patients treated with Jewett nails had loss of fixation or failure of union, compared to only one patient in the Zickel nail group. The comminuted subtrochantericfracture adjacent to the lesser trochanter was frequently associated with complications in the elderly patient.

The amnion regulates movement of fetally derived alpha-fetoprotein into maternal blood

The present investigation documents that, under normal conditions, most fetally produced AFP reaches the maternal circulation via diffusion across the amnion from amniotic fluid. This has been determined by comparing maternal serum AFP levels with amniotic fluid albumin concentrations in paired samples. The proportionally demonstrated between them indicates a proportional, transamniotic exchange of the two proteins, each originating on opposite sides of the amnion. Albumin is known to reach amniotic fluid by transamniotic diffusion from maternal blood. All amnions restrict AFP movement into maternal serum, but some are distinctly more restrictive than others; in such cases, a relatively greater increase in amniotic fluid AFP concentration would likely have to occur from a fetal lesion before being reflected in maternal serum. Inconsistencies found in several paired samples identify that other variables may also influence passage of AFP to the mother.