1: Pediatr Surg Int. 2002 Sep;18(5-6):451-4. Epub 2002 Jul 11. Urinary-tract infection affects somatic growth in unilateral symptomatic hydronephrosis. Chandrasekharam VV, Srinivas M, Charles AR, Agarwala S, Mitra DK, Bal CS, Bhatnagar V. Department of Pediatric Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, 110029, India. To assess whether symptomatic unilateral ureteropelvic junction obstruction (SUUPJO) affects somatic growth and, if so, the parameters associated with it, 61 children (54 boys and 7 girls) who underwent pyeloplasty for SUUPJO without any other associated urological abnormalities were retrospectively studied. Height was compared with standard growth charts and was considered to be affected if it was below 2.00 Z-score. Such children were considered group B and the rest group A. Mean (+/-SD) age at presentation and mean (+/-SD) split renal function (SRF) (%) of the affected kidney were 6.0 +/- 4.0 years and 27.3 +/- 13.2, respectively, for the entire group. Somatic growth was affected in 16 (12 boys, 4 girls) children (26.2%). Urinary tract infection (UTI) was the presenting symptom in 11 (69%) and 5 (11%) children in groups B and A, respectively. Impaired somatic growth had no association with age at presentation or SRF, but a significant association (P < 0.001) was found with UTI. The mean post-surgery height percentile (2.92 +/- 4.85) over a mean follow-up of 3.37 +/- 1.86 years was significantly (P < 0.005) better compared with pre-surgery height percentile (0.67 +/- 0.96) in group B, indicating catch-up growth after surgery. In SUUPJO, somatic growth is affected. Presentation with UTI has a significant association, and height significantly improves after surgery in these patients. PMID: 12415379 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] --------------------------------------------------------------- 2: J Biomed Sci. 1995 Aug;2(3):203-226. Multiple Tandemly Repeated Binding Sites for the YY1 Repressor and Transcription Factors AP-1 and SP-1 Are Clustered within Intron-1 of the Gene Encoding the IE110 Transactivator of Herpes simplex Virus Type 1. Gu W, Huang Q, Hayward GS. Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md., USA. Expression of the IE110 (ICP0) transactivator protein of HSV appears to be critical for reactivation from the latent state and occurs at immediate-early times during the lytic cycle under the control of an upstream divergent enhancer-promoter region that contains multiple Oct and Sp-1 binding sites overlapping with VP16 response elements. Surprisingly, the large 800-bp first intron of the HSV-1 IE110 gene also proved to have a complex repetitive organization encompassing multiple transcription factor binding sites within four distinct domains. DNaseI footprinting studies revealed that 13 of 17 copies of a 15-bp repeated element represented high-affinity binding sites for the cellular YY1 repressor protein. Between 4 and 7 of these sites are direct tandem repeats and the rest are interpersed with three repeated AT-rich motifs and a dyad symmetry region containing two strong AP-1 binding sites and an adjacent SP-1 binding site on each arm. Several of the YY1 sites also bound weakly to SRF. The intron also contains four clustered purine/pyrimidine tracts of between 16 and 23 bp long. Both the AP-1/AP-2/SP-1 dyad protein binding region and, to a lesser extent, the YY1 tandem-repeat cluster conferred responsiveness to TPA when placed upstream of a heterologous promoter in transient expression assays. The functional significance of the HSV-1 IE110 intron region is unknown as yet, but the novel arrangement of tandemly repeated YY1 sites has the potential to produce structural bending and transcriptional attenuation effects. Interestingly, few of these transcription factor binding motifs are conserved in the equivalent IE110 intron of HSV-2, and the domain appears to represent a unique alternative control region that is specific for HSV-1. Copyright 1995 S. Karger AG, Basel PMID: 11725057 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] --------------------------------------------------------------- 3: Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi. 1993 Apr;97(4):532-7. [Measurement of the subretinal fluid volume using B-scan ultrasonography. Report 2. Measurement of the decrease rate of subretinal fluid in patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment] [Article in Japanese] Asano H. Department of Ophthalmology, Okayama University Medical School, Japan. I have previously reported the use of video-ultrasonography and an image computerized system to measure the volume of subretinal fluid (SRF). This measurement system was now used for 19 eyes with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment during absolute rest in bed for 24 hours and double patching. The mean age was 55 years (range, 18-69 years). The retinal detachment involved two quadrants or less of the retina in all eyes. The decrease rate of SRF was 0.051 +/- 0.033 microliter/mm2/hour (mean +/- standard deviation); 0.074 +/- 0.033 microliter/mm2/hour in 9 eyes in which the duration of retinal detachment was 14 days or less and 0.030 +/- 0.009 microliter/mm2/hour in 4 eyes in which the duration was 15 days or more. The rate was 0.032 +/- 0.009 microliter/mm2/hour in 3 eyes with atrophic holes. Three eyes with macular holes, which had retinal detachment underlying extensive staphyloma showed a rate of 0.028 +/- 0.022 microliter/mm2/hour. Though absolute rest in bed and double patching cannot completely block a transfer of fluid from vitreous to subretinal space via retinal break, the decrease rate of SRF appears to reflect the absorption of SRF across the retinal pigment epithelium. PMID: 8317375 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] --------------------------------------------------------------- 4: J Neurophysiol. 1990 Sep;64(3):796-812. Stimulus-response function studies of esophageal mechanosensitive nociceptors in sympathetic afferents of opossum. Sengupta JN, Saha JK, Goyal RK. Harvard Digestive Disease Center, Charles A. Dana Research Institute, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. 1. Single-unit activity was recorded from afferent fibers in either the paravertebral sympathetic chain or the splanchnic nerves. Forty-three fibers that responded to distension of the smooth-muscle portion of esophagus were selected for further study. 2. Out of the 43 fibers, 27 (62%) had ongoing resting activity, and 16 (38%) were silent. The mean resting activity of these fibers was 0.28 +/- 0.06 imp/s (range, 0-2.6 imp/s). 3. Repeated distensions of the esophagus to a fixed pressure (80 mmHg) evoked spike discharge at a reproducible rate. There was no evidence of facilitation or inhibition of subsequent responses. The mean coefficient of variation (CV) was 0.17 +/- 0.05 imp/s (n = 5). 4. The stimulus-response function (SRF) to intraluminal graded distension was studied in 35 fibers. Thirty-three fibers showed linear increase in firing that did not saturate up to 120 mmHg. Two fibers reached maximal discharge rate at 60 mmHg. The mean discharge rate at 120 mmHg pressure was 14.87 +/- 1.52 imp/s. 5. Threshold pressure for activation of each fiber was calculated by a least-squares linear-regression plot of the SRF. The threshold pressure varied from 0 to 50 mmHg (mean, 16.21 +/- 2.86 mmHg). The distribution profile of the threshold values showed that there were two separate populations of mechanosensitive receptors: 1) wide-dynamic-range mechanonociceptors (WDR-MN) with mean threshold pressure of 2.89 +/- 0.75 mmHg (range, 0-7 mmHg; n = 22); and 2) high-threshold mechanonociceptors (HT-MN) with mean threshold of 33.26 +/- 2.52 mmHg (range, 19-50 mmHg; n = 13). 6. Discharge evoked by esophageal peristalsis was studied in five WDR-MN and five HT-MN units. Whereas all five WDR-MN units (threshold value, 2.6 +/- 0.96 mmHg) responded to peristalsis, none of the HT-MN units (threshold value, 31.2 +/- 4.01 mmHg) did so. The mean response to peristaltic contraction in WDR-MN units was 5.32 +/- 1.36 imp/s, which was 24.7% of the maximal response (21.53 +/- 1.92 imp/s; n = 5) at 120 mmHg. The duration of evoked response to peristaltic contraction was 10-12 s. 7. The activity profile of the units to 60-s balloon distension at near threshold and higher pressures showed three patterns: 1) rapid adaptation, 2) slow adaptation, and 3) slow adaptation with after discharge. The rapidly adapting fibers became slowly adapting with greater degrees of esophageal distension. The units that showed rapid or slow adaptation at low-distension pressure became indistinguishable from one another at high-distension pressure.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS) PMID: 2230925 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] ---------------------------------------------------------------