Evidence to suggest that women's sexual behavior is influenced by hip width rather than waist-to-hip ratio.

Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is an important ornament display that signals women's health and fertility. Its significance derives from human development as a bipedal species. This required fundamental changes to hip morphology/musculature to accommodate the demands of both reproduction and locomotion. The result has been an obstetric dilemma whereby women's hips are only just wide enough to allow the passage of an infant. Childbirth therefore poses a significant hip width related threat to maternal mortality/risk of gynecological injury. It was predicted that this would have a significant influence on women's sexual behavior. To investigate this, hip width and WHR were measured in 148 women (M age = 20.93 + 0.17 years) and sexual histories were recorded via questionnaire. Data revealed that hip width per se was correlated with total number of sexual partners, total number of one night stands, percentage of sexual partners that were one night stands, number of sexual partners within the context of a relationship per year sexually active, and number of one night stands per year sexually active. By contrast, WHR was not correlated with any of these measures. Further analysis indicated that women who predominantly engaged in one night stand behavior had wider hips than those who did not. WHR was again without effect in this context. Women's hip morphology has a direct impact on their risk of potentially fatal childbirth related injury. It is concluded that when they have control over this, women's sexual behavior reflects this risk and is therefore at least in part influenced by hip width.

Determination of volatile anesthetics isoflurane and enflurane in mouse brain tissues using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

INTRODUCTION: A method for determination of the volatile anesthetics, isoflurane, and enflurane in mouse brain tissues using headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is described. METHODS: Halothane was used as internal standard (I.S.). Brain samples were completely homogenized in ice-cold water and isoflurane, enflurane, and I.S. were extracted with headspace. One milliliter of headspace gas was injected onto the GC-MS and separation was achieved by using porous layer open tubular (PLOT) capillary column with a solid stationary phase (GSC). As a result, isoflurane, enflurane, and halothane were cleanly separated. RESULTS: The method demonstrated satisfactory recovery (72% and 76% for isoflurane and enflurane, respectively) and linear calibration ranges of 0.015-2.20 and 0.0152-3.94 microg/sample for isoflurane and enflurane, respectively. Reproducibility calculated as CV% was 3.3-3.9% for all intraday and interday determinations. The procedure was applied for quantitation of isoflurane and enflurane in about 300 mouse brain samples for genetic behavioral study. DISCUSSION: The method was achieved and shown to be effective.

Mapping quantitative trait loci mediating sensitivity to etomidate.

Long- and Short-Sleep (LS and SS) mice were selectively bred for differences in ethanol-induced loss of the righting reflex (LORR) and have been found to differ in LORR induced by various anesthetic agents. We used a two-stage mapping strategy to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) affecting duration of LORR caused by the general anesthetic etomidate and brain levels of etomidate (BEL) following regain of the righting reflex. Analysis of recombinant-inbred strains derived from a cross between LS and SS mice (LSXSS) yielded a heritability estimate of 0.23 for etomidate-induced LORR and identified one marker that showed suggestive linkage for a QTL, on mouse Chromosome (chr) 12. Mapping in an F(2) population derived from a cross between inbred LS and SS (ILS and ISS) revealed a significant QTL for etomidate-induced LORR on Chr 12, and two significant QTLs mediating BEL on Chrs 6 and 12. Several QTLs showing suggestive linkage for etomidate-induced LORR and BEL were also identified in the F(2) population. Brain levels of etomidate in the RI and F(2) mice suggested that differences in LORR were due to differential central nervous system sensitivity, rather than differential etomidate metabolism. Interestingly, the region on Chr 7 has also been identified as a region influencing ethanol-induced LORR, suggesting the possibility of a common genetic mechanism mediating etomidate and ethanol sensitivity. These QTL regions need to be further narrowed before the testing of candidate genes is feasible.