[Differential Diagnosis of Mediastinal and Hilar Lymphadenopathy with Focus on Occupational Diseases]. / Differenzialdiagnose bei mediastinaler und hilärer Lymphadenopathie mit Fokus auf berufsbedingte Krankheitsbilder.

Hilar and mediastinal lymphadenopathy may represent a diagnostic challenge in clinical practice. This article is intended to facilitate differential diagnosis by a systematic description of relevant pathologies, notably with occupational etiology. Clinical findings of relevant diseases, i. e. of tuberculosis, chronic beryllium disease, sarcoidosis, lung cancer, malignant lymphoma, Epstein-Barr virus infection, and histoplasmosis are compared.Case history, imaging and laboratory tests have important diagnostic impact. But also invasive methods can be necessary in order to exclude and prove malignancy, infection or autoimmune disease.

Soil warming alters nitrogen cycling in a New England forest: implications for ecosystem function and structure.

Global climate change is expected to affect terrestrial ecosystems in a variety of ways. Some of the more well-studied effects include the biogeochemical feedbacks to the climate system that can either increase or decrease the atmospheric load of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Less well-studied are the effects of climate change on the linkages between soil and plant processes. Here, we report the effects of soil warming on these linkages observed in a large field manipulation of a deciduous forest in southern New England, USA, where soil was continuously warmed 5°C above ambient for 7 years. Over this period, we have observed significant changes to the nitrogen cycle that have the potential to affect tree species composition in the long term. Since the start of the experiment, we have documented a 45% average annual increase in net nitrogen mineralization and a three-fold increase in nitrification such that in years 5 through 7, 25% of the nitrogen mineralized is then nitrified. The warming-induced increase of available nitrogen resulted in increases in the foliar nitrogen content and the relative growth rate of trees in the warmed area. Acer rubrum (red maple) trees have responded the most after 7 years of warming, with the greatest increases in both foliar nitrogen content and relative growth rates. Our study suggests that considering species-specific responses to increases in nitrogen availability and changes in nitrogen form is important in predicting future forest composition and feedbacks to the climate system.

Ammonium and chloride extrusion: hyperpolarizing synaptic inhibition in spinal motoneurons.

The reversal potential of postsynaptic inhibition shifts toward resting membrane potentials in cat spinal motoneurons after intravenous infusion of ammonium salts(1 to 3 millimoles per kilogram of body weight). Simultaneously, the depolarizing action of intracellularly injected chloride ions on the inhibitory membrane is enhanced and recovery therefrom is prolonged. Passive membrane properties remain unaltered. The results indicate a blocking of active extrusion of chloride which normally maintains a high ionic gradient for hyperpolarizing inhibition.

Postsynaptic inhibition: intracellular effects of various ions in spinal motoneurons.

Long-lasting depolarizing shifts of the electromotive force of post-synaptic inhibition occurred after tracellular injection of ammonium ions, basic amino acids, hydrogen ions, and some bivalent heavy-metal ions. These substances act on specific postsynaptic membrane sites.

Calcium-dependent depression of a late outward current in snail neurons.

Neuron cell bodies of Helix pomatia were voltage-clamped with a 300-millisecond depolarizing test pulse (pulse II) delivered I second after a depolarizing conditioning pulse (pulse I). The outward current, measured 200 milliseconds after the onset of pulse. II, exhibited a strong depression that was dependent on the presence of pulse. I. The maximum depression of the pulse II outward current occurred when pulse I voltages lay in the range over which calcium influx is inferred to be greatest; depression of the pulse II current subsided as pulse I potentials approached the putative calcium equilibrium potential. In the presence of extracellular [ethylenebis(oxyethylenenitrilo)]tetraacetic acid (EGTA) or D600, the intensity of the pulse II current became largely independent of pulse I, approaching the values of maximal depression seen in normal Ringer solution. On the other hand, lowering the intracellular pH with extracellular carbon dioxide-carbonate buffer had no measurable effect on the outward currents. Other experiments showed that it is primarily the calcium-dependent, outward-current hump of the N-shaped late current-voltage curve that is depressed by presentation of the conditioning pulse. It was concluded that distinct from an early potassium-activating role, calcium entering during a depolarization leads, during a subsequent depolarization, to a depression of the calcium-activated potassium system that persists for many seconds.

Development of two types of calcium channels in cultured mammalian hippocampal neurons.

Calcium influx through voltage-gated membrane channels plays a crucial role in a variety of neuronal processes, including long-term potentiation and epileptogenesis in the mammalian cortex. Recent studies indicate that calcium channels in some cell types are heterogeneous. This heterogeneity has now been shown for calcium channels in mammalian cortical neurons. When dissociated embryonic hippocampal neurons from rat were grown in culture they first had only low voltage-activated, fully inactivating somatic calcium channels. These channels were metabolically stable and conducted calcium better than barium. Appearing later in conjunction with neurite outgrowth and eventually predominating in the dendrites, were high voltage-activated, slowly inactivating calcium channels. These were metabolically labile and more selective to barium than to calcium. Both types of calcium currents were reduced by classical calcium channel antagonists, but the low voltage-activated channels were more strongly blocked by the anticonvulsant drug phenytoin. These findings demonstrate the development and coexistence of two distinct types of calcium channels in mammalian cortical neurons.

Single channel studies on inactivation of calcium currents.

Inactivation of calcium channels has been attributed to a direct reaction of calcium ions entering the cell with the calcium channel. For a single channel this hypothesis predicts a correlation between the amount of calcium entering during an opening or a burst of openings and the subsequent closed times. No such correlation was found, and the possibility that, upon entry, calcium ions produce inactivation is excluded.

Inactivation and block of calcium channels by photo-released Ca2+ in dorsal root ganglion neurons.

Calcium channels are inactivated by voltage and intracellular calcium. To study the kinetics and the mechanism of calcium-induced inactivation of calcium channels, a "caged" calcium compound, dimethoxy-nitrophen was used to photo-release about 50 microM calcium ion within 0.2 millisecond in dorsal root ganglion neurons. When divalent cations were the charge carriers, intracellular photo-release of calcium inactivated the calcium channel with an invariant rate [time constant (tau) approximately equal to 7 milliseconds]. When the monovalent cation sodium was the charge carrier, photorelease of calcium inside or outside of the cell blocked the channel rapidly (tau approximately equal to 0.4 millisecond), but the block was greater from the external side. Thus the kinetics of calcium-induced calcium channel inactivation depends on the valency of the permeant cation. The data imply that calcium channels exist in either of two conformational states, the calcium- and sodium-permeant forms, or, alternatively, calcium-induced inactivation occurs at a site closely associated with the internal permeating site.

The role of chloride transport in postsynaptic inhibition of hippocampal neurons.

Hippocampal inhibitory postsynaptic potentials are depolarizing in granule cells but hyperpolarizing in CA3 neurons because the reversal potentials and membrane potentials of these cells differ. Here the hippocampal slice preparation was used to investigate the role of chloride transport in these inhibitory responses. In both cell types, increasing the intracellular chloride concentration by injection shifted the reversal potential of these responses in a positive direction, and blocking the outward transport of chloride with furosemide slowed their recovery from the injection. In addition, hyperpolarizing and depolarizing inhibitory responses and the hyperpolarizing and depolarizing responses to the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid decreased in the presence of furosemide. These effects of furosemide suggest that the internal chloride activity of an individual hippocampal neuron is regulated by two transport processes, one that accumulates chloride and one that extrudes chloride.

A fast activating presynaptic reuptake current during serotonergic transmission in identified neurons of Hirudo.

An electrogenic serotonin (5-HT) uptake process was characterized in the serotonergic Retzius-P cell synapse of the leech, and the simultaneous activation of this presynaptic reuptake and the postsynaptic response was monitored during evoked transmitter release. A presynaptic, Na(+)-dependent inward current upon application of 5-HT was isolated at membrane potentials between -80 and +60 mV. Its identification as a transmitter uptake current was confirmed by monitoring accumulation of the autofluorescent 5-HT analog 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine during activation of this current. To study the kinetics of 5-HT reuptake in functional synapses, transmitter release was stimulated by flash photolysis of the Ca(2+)-caging DM-nitrophen. The results demonstrate that reuptake activates with a minimal delay of less than a millisecond during synaptic transmission. It acts as a rapid transmitter removal system to determine the time course of the postsynaptic response and monitors the kinetics of transmitter clearance at the synaptic site.