Prevalence of human papilloma virus infection in patients with male accessory gland infection.

The frequency of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in the semen of patients with male accessory gland infection (MAGI) was evaluated. One hundred infertile patients with MAGI were classified into group A: patients with an inflammatory MAGI (n = 48) and group B: patients with a microbial form (n = 52). Healthy age-matched fertile men (34.0 ± 4.0 years) made up the control group (n = 20). Amplification of HPV DNA was carried out by HPV-HS Bio nested polymerase chain reaction for the detection of HPV DNA sequences within the L1 ORF. Ten patients in group A (20.8%) and 15 patients in group B (28.8%) had a HPV infection; two controls (10.0%) had HPV infection. Patients with MAGI had a significantly higher frequency of HPV infection compared with controls; patients with a microbial MAGI had significantly higher frequency of HPV infection compared with patients with an inflammatory form (both P < 0.05). Patients with MAGI and HPV had a slight, but significantly lower sperm progressive motility and normal morphology compared with patients with MAGI HPV-negative (P < 0.05). Elevated frequency of HPV infection occurred in patients with MAGI, suggesting that HPV should be investigated in the diagnostic work-up of these patients.

Surveillance of human papilloma virus infection and cervical cancer in kidney transplant recipients: preliminary data.

INTRODUCTION: Development of cancer after transplantation has rapidly became one of the leading causes of death in kidney transplant recipients with functioning grafts. Anogenital malignant neoplasms may occur with a 14-fold increased incidence, and human papilloma virus (HPV) infection has been recently identified as the leading cause of cervical carcinoma. We report the preliminary findings of a prospective study that evaluated the incidence of HPV infection and cervical carcinoma in a population of kidney transplant recipients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included 35 female recipients of a deceased donor kidney with at least 6 months of follow-up. All patients underwent a cervicovaginal brushing, an HPV DNA test, and a Papanicolaou test. RESULTS: Twenty-two patients (62.8%) were positive for HPV DNA. Thirteen of 22 HPV DNA-positive recipients (59%) demonstrated a high-risk HPV genotype. No cytologic anomalies were detected in Papanicolaou smears. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary data demonstrated a high incidence of HPV infection in renal transplant recipients. Most of our recipients exhibited a high-risk HPV genotype, which suggests higher aggressiveness of such infection in immunosuppressed patients. The HPV test is useful to monitor patients at higher risk of anogenital malignant neoplasms by identifying the cytologic anomalies at an earlier stage. This ongoing study will investigate the rate of progression of HPV infection and the clinical patterns of HPV-positive cytologic anomalies in renal transplant recipients.

Ontogeny of the electric organ discharge and the electric organ in the weakly electric pulse fish Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus (Hypopomidae, Gymnotiformes).

I recorded the electric organ discharges (EODs) of 331 immature Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus 6-88 mm long. Larvae produced head-positive pulses 1.3 ms long at 7 mm (6 days) and added a second, small head-negative phase at 12 mm. Both phases shortened duration and increased amplitude during growth. Relative to the whole EOD, the negative phase increased duration until 22 mm and amplitude until 37 mm. Fish above 37 mm produced a "symmetric" EOD like that of adult females. I stained cleared fish with Sudan black, or fluorescently labeled serial sections with anti-desmin (electric organ) or anti-myosin (muscle). From day 6 onward, a single electric organ was found at the ventral margin of the hypaxial muscle. Electrocytes were initially cylindrical, overlapping, and stalk-less, but later shortened along the rostrocaudal axis, separated into rows, and formed caudal stalks. This differentiation started in the posterior electric organ in 12-mm fish and was complete in the anterior region of fish with "symmetric" EODs. The lack of a distinct "larval" electric organ in this pulse-type species weakens the hypothesis that all gymnotiforms develop both a temporary (larval) and a permanent (adult) electric organ.

Plasticity of the electric organ discharge waveform of the electric fish Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus. I. Quantification of day-night changes.

The electric organ discharge of the gymnotiform fish Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus is a biphasic waveform. The female's electric organ discharge is nearly symmetric but males produce a longer second phase than first phase. In this study, infrared-sensitive video cameras monitored the position of unrestrained fish, facilitating precise measurement of electric organ discharge duration and amplitude every 2 h for 24 h. Males (n = 27) increased electric organ discharge duration by 37 +/- 12% and amplitude by 24 +/- 9% at night and decreased it during the day. In contrast, females (n = 8) exhibited only minor electric organ discharge variation over time. Most of a male's increase occurred rapidly within the first 2-3 h of darkness. Electric organ discharge values gradually diminished during the second half of the dark period and into the next morning. Modulation of the second phase of the biphasic electric organ discharge produced most of the duration change in males, but both phases changed amplitude by similar amounts. Turning the lights off at mid-day triggered an immediate increase in electric organ discharge, suggesting modification of existing ion channels in the electric organ, rather than altered genomic expression. Exaggeration of electric organ discharge sex differences implies a social function. Daily reduction of duration and amplitude may reduce predation risk or energy expenditure.

The dorsal filament of the weakly electric Apteronotidae (Gymnotiformes; Teleostei) is specialized for electroreception.

The Apteronotidae, a family of weakly electric fish from South America (Gymnotiformes), possess a structure called the dorsal filament with an unknown function and evolutionary origin. This study compared the gross anatomy of the dorsal filament of 13 species of apteronotids and used light microscopy to examine the filaments of Adontosternarchus balaenops, Apteronotus albifrons, and Apteronotus leptorhynchus. The dorsal filament is an unscaled, thin, tapering structure attached to a mid-dorsal groove on the posterior half of the fish's back. The interior of the filament is a gelatinous mucopolysaccharide matrix (connective tissue) containing blood vessels and a bilateral nerve in which nearly all the afferents are large (8-10 mu m) and heavily myelinated. The location of the anterior origin of the filament varies from 0.48 to 0.66 of the body length, posterior to the snout, in 13 species. The filament is covered with hundreds of large-type tuberous electroreceptors and some ampullary receptors, at approximately the same density and ratio as those on the nearby back. The morphology of the large-type tuberous receptors and their afferents suggests that they are phase-coding T-units. A double layer of epithelial cells separates the ventral side of the filament from the groove in the trunk of the fish, except at the anterior origin where the interior of the filament is continuous with the body. This specialized double epithelium could provide a high resistance barrier to electrical current. This study was unable to distinguish between two hypotheses: that the dorsal filament is a modified adipose fin (as suggested previously), retained only in this family of Gymnotiformes; or that it is a uniquely derived character of the Apteronotidae.

Phylogenetic relationships of the Santalales and relatives.

Determining relationships among parasitic angiosperms has often been difficult owing to frequent morphological reductions in floral and vegetative features. We report 18S (small-subunit) rRNA sequences for representative genera of three families within the Santalales (Olacaceae, Santalaceae, and Viscaceae) and six outgroup dicot families (Celastraceae, Cornaceae, Nyssaceae, Buxaceae, Apiaceae, and Araliaceae). Using Wagner parsimony analysis, one most parsimonious tree resulted that shows the Santalales to be a holophyletic taxon most closely related to Euonymus (Celastraceae). The santalalean taxa showed approximately 13% more transitional mutations than the group of seven other dicot species. This suggests a higher fixation rate for mutations in these organisms, possibly owing to a relaxation of selection pressures at the molecular level in parasitic vs nonparasitic plants. Outgroup relationships are generally in accord with current taxonomic classifications, such as the grouping of Nyssaceae and Cornaceae together (Cornales) and the grouping of Araliaceae with Apiaceae (Apiales). These data provide the first nucleotide sequences for any parasitic flowering plant and support the contention that rRNA sequence analysis can result in robust phylogenetic comparisons at the family level and above.

Plasticity of the electric organ discharge waveform of male Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus. II. Social effects.

Many electric fish produce sexually dimorphic electric organ discharges. Although electric organ discharges are comprised of action potentials, those of the Gymnotiform family Hypopomidae show significant plasticity in response to stress and time of day. We show here that male Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus (Hopkins 1991), adjusts the degree of sexual dimorphism in its electric organ discharge depending on immediate social conditions. Three to five days of isolation resulted in gradual decrease of two sexually dimorphic waveform characters: duration and amplitude. Introduction of a second fish to the experimental tank restored electric organ discharge duration and amplitude. Duration recovered quicker than amplitude, and both recovered faster in the presence of males than females. In studies of other electric fish species, treatment with steroid sex hormones have taken several days to increase sexual dimorphism in the electric organ discharge. The socially induced changes seen in this study are initiated too quickly to involve classic steroid action of genomic transcription and thus may depend on another mechanism. Socially induced regulation of the male's electric organ discharge waveform is consistent with the compromises in signaling strategy shown by other taxa with costly sexual advertisement signals.