Showing papers by "Jewish Hospital published in 1980"

The effects of psychological stress on respiration: a preliminary study of anxiety and hyperventilation.

Abstract: The occurrence of hyperventilation (overbreathing resulting in lowered end-tidal CO2) in conjunction with psychological stress was investigated. Twenty-nine normal subjects were individually placed in a stress condition by being required to make perceptual judgments under threat of electric shock for exceeding a specified number of errors. Feedback of errors was controlled by the experimenter and no subject was ever shocked since manipulated feedback never exceeded shock criterion. Stress induction consisted of four phases: request for participation, subject decision, pre-task instruction, and task. Dependent measures consisted of end-tidal CO2, respiration rate, heart rate, and State Anxiety scores. Stress manipulation was confirmed by significantly increased heart rate and anxiety scores from baseline values. Baseline comparisons indicated significant decreases in end-tidal CO2 (i.e., hyperventilation) for all phases as well as significant increases in respiration rate for all phases but one. Comparisons among several phases revealed significant changes in end-tidal CO2 either unaccompanied by or uncorrelated with changes in respiration rate. These results: 1) support the occurrence of hyperventilation to stress in normals, 2) suggest that respiration rate alone is an insufficient measure of respiratory reactivity to psychological stimuli, and 3) are discussed in terms of more appropriate functional assessments of respiratory response to stress.

Polarization of fucoid eggs by a calcium ionophore gradient.

Abstract: When the eggs of the brown alga Pelvetia were grown in a gradient of the calcium ionophore A23187, they tended to form their rhizoidal outgrowths on the sides that were exposed to the higher concentration of ionophore. This result supports the hypothesis that the formation of an intracellular calcium gradient is an essential step in the polarization of these eggs; the rhizoid forms at the pole that has the higher concentration of calcium.

Analysis of behavioral traits in the presence of cultural transmission and assortative mating: Applications to IQ and SES.

Abstract: General linear models of familial resemblance are described which allow for polygenic inheritance, cultural transmission from parent to offspring, phenotypic assortative mating, common environment, and maternal and parental effects. These models use observed phenotypic correlations between multiple classes of relatives and/or correlations between individuals reared in separated and extended family structures to yield maximum likelihood parameter estimates. The models are first applied to American kinship data for IQ, with the variance of IQ partitioned as 30% additive genetic, 29% due to cultural inheritance, 9% due to gene--culture covariance, and 32% due to nontransmissible environment. Under the assumption that the correlations between (nontransmissible) environments of DZ and MZ twins are the same, an approximate treatment of dominance yields an estimate of 23% dominance variation.

Endogenous electric field around muscle fibres depends on the Na+-K+ pump.

Abstract: We describe here experiments which reveal a new physiological specialization in the endplate (synaptic) region of skeletal muscle fibres. Using a vibrating microelectrode1 which can detect small currents flowing in extracellular fluid, we have found that the membrane in the endplate region behaves as though a steady positive current is generated in this location. Current re-enters the fibre in the extrajunctional region. Further experiments show that this current is dependent on the activity of the sodium pump. The electric field created by this current may be important for long-term interactions between muscle and nerve.

Activation of complement by plicatic acid, the chemical compound responsible for asthma due to western red cedar (Thuja plicata)☆

Abstract: Plicatic acid, a low-molecular-weight compound responsible for western red cedar (Thuja plicata) asthma was tested for its ability to activate complement and to generate chemotactic activity from pooled normal human serum (NHS). Dose-dependent complement consumption was found as determined by hemolytic assay (CH50). Activation of complement by plicatic acid was also confirmed by the demonstration of conversion of C3 to C3b on immunoelectrophoresis. This activation was completely prevented by pretreating the serum with either edetate (EDTA) or ethylene glycol tetraacetic acid (EGTA), suggesting that complement was activated via the classical pathway. No conversion of factor B was seen in any of the samples. Leukocyte chemotactic activity was also generated when serum was incubated with plicatic acid. The consumption of C3 and CH50 was unimpaired in two samples of serum from patients with severe, untreated hypogammaglobulinemia and thus appears to be immunoglobulin independent. These observations suggest that plicatic acid could activate complement in vivo, thereby inducing an inflammatory response in the airways and contributing to the higher prevalence of industrial chronic bronchitis in exposed subjects. The pathogenetic role of complement activation in red cedar asthma has yet to elucidated.

Neutrophils in antiviral immunity: inhibition of virus replication by a mediator produced by bovine neutrophils.

Abstract: Neutrophils collected from bovine mammary glands were placed in culture with virusinfected cell preparations that had been inactivated by ultraviolet light. Upon culture with infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) virus-infected Georgia bovine kidney cells, a material was released from the neutrophils that, like interferon, inhibited the replication of vesicular stomatitis virus and IBR virus. Cell-free IBR virus was a less effective inducer of the inhibitor produced by neutrophils. Other herpesviruses (including herpes simplex type 1), as well as equine rhinopneumonitis virus and pseudorabies virus, caused release of the inhibitor, but most other viruses tested, including Newcastle disease virus, a good inducer of type I interferon, failed to stimulate the production of inhibitor by polymorphonuclear neutrophils. Preliminary characterization studies revealed differences between the inhibitor produced by the polymorphonuclear neutrophils and type I and type II bovine interferons. The possible role of such an inhibitor in the recovery from herpesvirus infection is briefly discussed. It has been customary to consider the polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) as an effector cell primarily involved in antibacterial rather than antiviral defense. The recovery from viral infection seems to result from the cooperative activities of macrophages, type I interferon produced by virus

Clinical and nasal biopsy response to treatment of perennial rhinitis.

Abstract: Nasal biopsies of patients with perennial rhinitis were performed at baseline and compared with biopsies performed 4 wk after active flunisolide, 50 μg four times per day, or placebo. An effort was made to relate histologic findings to other subjective and objective parameters as an indication of response to treatment. Although patients admitted to the study had severe subjective nasal symptoms, biopsies varied considerably. Some resembled biopsies from normal individuals, and others showed marked edema and inflammation; the latter findings were more typically present in the biopsies of patients with the most severe disease. A decrease in edema and loss of inflammatory cells on biopsy as well as a corresponding decrease in eosinophils on the nasal smear usually accompanied clinical improvement, which occurred in both the active and placebo groups.

Levels of psychological experience in asthma: general and illness-specific concomitants of panic-fear personality.

Abstract: Coping styles in asthma indexed by a Panic-Fear personality measure are known to influence physicians' medical decisions and long-term treatment outcome. Unusually High or Low Panic-Fear personality styles are maladaptive, the former characterized by anxious, helpless dependency and the latter by an extreme counterphobic independence. In this study (N = 90), the psychological experiences among Panic-Fear personality groups (Low, Moderate, and High) of asthma patients are described at three levels of assessment: (1) general personality characteristics; (2) attitudes toward asthma and its treatment; and (3) the subjective symptoms reported during breathing difficulties. Comparisons among the groups delineated the linkages between Panic-Fear personality and more illness-specific attitudes, symptoms, and experiences in asthma. Discussion centered upon how general personality and illness-specific characteristics associated with extreme High and Low Panic-Fear personality may contribute to the psychomaintenance of asthma.

Anxiety in Asthma: Panic-Fear Symptomatology and Personality in Relation to Manifest Anxiety

Abstract: Anxiety in asthma has been measured in two ways. The MMPI Panic-Fear scale is a measure of general, nonillness specific anxiety and the Panic-Fear symptom scale of the Asthma Symptom Checklist is a measure of illness-specific anxiety focused on the asthma attack. Both measures relate to response styles in asthma which contribute to the maintenance of illness. In the present study of 140 asthmatic patients, MMPI Panic-Fear scores were highly related to trait-anxiety measured by the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, even after partialling out checklist Panic-Fear symptom scores. In contrast, Panic-Fear symptomatology had a more moderate relationship to the Taylor Anxiety scores and was independent of the Taylor scores after partialling out MMPI Panic-Fear scores. The results support earlier findings suggesting that MMPI Panic-Fear measures trait anxiety. In contrast, checklist Panic-Fear symptom reports measure an illness-specific state anxiety that is not per se a measure of trait anxiety.

Electrical fields, calcium gradients, and cell growth

Abstract: Summary We have outlined the evidence that fucoid eggs and pollen tubes drive an electric current through themselves as they grow, alter (or initiate) their growth in response to an applied electrical field, and develop a calcium gradient during their growth with the region of highest calcium concentration being the growing point. New data have been presented to support the notion that it is this calcium gradient that is essential in the polarization process. The fucoid egg (a free-living cell) would not normally be subjected to an externally imposed electrical field. The fact that an imposed field can mimic the endogenous current must be viewed as somewhat fortuitous, since the effects of the imposed field on the membrane and the cytoplasm must be quite different from those of the endogenous field. The case of the growing neurite is quite different; we imagine that it might well be exposed to a field during normal neurogenesis. The following intriguing possibility is raised. Might the exogenous electrical field interact with an endogenous electrical field in the growing neurite? If so, the analogy between neurite extension and plant tip growth could be very close indeed. Our preliminary evidence that the neurites curve in response to a calcium ionophore gradient adds to the suspicion that these processes are similar. The idea is that the small voltage gradient sensed by a neurite would be amplified by the neurite's production of its own current which would involve local calcium entry. We are encouraged to attempt to suitably scale down the vibrating probe in an effort to measure such self-generated currents. Our finding that the muscle cells form their long axes at right angles to an electric field was made accidently and does not easily fit into the scheme that has been suggested for fucoid egg, pollen, and nerve. It may be that the field affects the orientation of a transverse tubule system which is somehow caused to form parallel to the field with the result that the long axis forms perpendicular to the field, but this is purely speculative at this point. Finally, we should emphasize that our notion that an epithelially generated current may play a role in the orientation of nerves and muscle in embryonic Xenopus is not an exclusive one. We envision that such currents are only crude, initial controls and that other, subtler controls (such as local chemical gradients) will undoubtedly be involved in the finer control of these processes.

Effects of ketamine and halothane on normal and asthmatic smooth muscle of the airway in guinea pigs

Abstract: in vitro preparations of trachea isolated from normal and asthmatic guinea pigs were used to measure their maximum contractile response to histamine challenge and to determine spontaneous relaxation of smooth muscle of the airway. The effect of ketamine and halothane on these reactions was investigated. The optimal ketamine concentration was found to be 10 μg/ml. This dose attenuated the maximum contraction and produced greater relaxation (p < 0.01) of isolated trachea. However, ketamine failed to prevent an anaphylactic (Schultz-Dale) response when antigen (one per cent albumin) was added in an experimental chamber containing pre-sensitized guinea pig trachea. In contrast, halothane abolished any response to histamine challenge and prevented development of the Schultz-Dale response of smooth muscle from the airway of asthmatic guinea pigs.

The duration of G1, S, G2, and mitosis at four different temperatures in Zea mays L. as measured with 3H-thymidine.

Abstract: The effect of different temperatures on the duration of nuclear cycle in Zea mays (single cross hybrid ‘Seneca 60’) root meristem cells, was studied with autoradiographic techniques and it was shown that all component phases of the nuclear cycle are shortened by an increase in temperature from 20 to 35°C. The durations of total nuclear cycle at 20, 25, 30, and 35°C were 16.5, 9.9, 7.0, and 4.4 hours respectively while the durations of mitosis were 2.68, 1.10, 0.83, and 0.43 hours respectively. 85-90 percent of the nuclear cycle is required for interphase, while the remaining 10-15 percent of the cycle is occupied by mitosis. The mean mitotic indices at 20, 25, 30, and 35°C were 9.8, 9.1, 5.3, and 4.9 percent respectively.

Immune complexes in children with leukemia: relationship to disease characteristics and to antibody response to Mycobacterium bovis (BCG) in patients receiving BCG immunotherapy.

Abstract: The incidence and possible clinical relevance of immune complexes in sera from children with acute leukemias was investigated. Determinations were made in sera obtained at three-month intervals from individual patients over a two-year period. Two tests, the C1q binding and the polyethylene glycol precipitation assays, were employed. At time of diagnosis, immune complexes were found in sera from 6 of 41 patients (15%) with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Three of 6 patients with T-cell leukemia had immune complexes at diagnosis as compared to 3 of 35 with null-cell leukemia. Only 1 of the 6 patients with T-cell leukemia had a white blood cell count of less than 50,000/μl3. Of the patients followed for six months or more, 34% had immune complexes during therapy and the incidence of relapse was unrelated to the presence or absence of immune complexes. Fifty-two percent of patients that remained in remission during the period of study and 5 of 8 patients that relapsed (63%) had immune complexes at one time or another suggesting that the presence of immune complexes by themselves did not portend either a favorable or an unfavorable prognosis. Sera taken at the time of diagnosis from children with acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL) had a higher incidence (36%) of immune complexes than similar sera from ALL patients (15%). Antibodies in sera from leukemia patients at diagnosis had a lower capacity to bind a BCG antigen than did sera from control subjects. Eleven of 17 patients that had BCG immunotherapy had a humoral antibody response to BCG. There was no relation between an antibody response to BCG and a favorable clinical response.