[Technical summary and experiences of urinary reconstruction in mouse kidney transplantation].

The present paper summarizes the methods and technical key points for urinary reconstruction in mouse kidney transplantation. Both bladder patch and ureter implantation techniques are feasible options for urinary reconstruction in mouse kidney transplantation. The dominant complication in bladder patch technique is ischemic necrosis of patch and distal ureter and is associated with donor mouse strains and surgical skills. The most common complication in ureter implantation technique is urine leakage and is related to recipient mouse gender and technical skills. The key technical points for bladder patch method are estimation of blood supply for bladder patch and properly trimming and suturing bladder walls. The key points for ureter implantation method are properly trimming and fixation of the ureter. Comparing with the bladder patch, the ureter implantation technique is faster, its complications are easier to be repaired by secondary surgery, but the risk of urine retention is higher at late time. The timeliness of surgical intervention is a key factor for successfully repairing the early urinary complications.

Recognition of chemical compounds in contaminated water using time-dependent multiple dose cellular responses.

An early determination of toxicant compounds of water contaminations can gain critical time to protect citizens' health and save substantial amounts of medical costs. To determine toxins in real time, a multi-dose classification algorithm using cellular state variable identification (CSVID) is developed in this paper. First, the dynamic cytotoxicity response profiles of living cells are measured using a real-time cell electronic sensing (RT-CES) system. Changes in cell number expressed as cell index (CI) are recorded on-line as time series. Then CSVID, which reflects the cell killing, cell lysis and certain cellular pathological changes, is extracted from those dynamic cellular responses. Finally, a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm based on CSVID is employed to classify chemical compounds and determine their analogous cellular response pathway. In order to increase the classification accuracy, a majority vote of the class labels is also proposed. Several validation studies demonstrate that CSVID-based classification algorithm has great potential in distinguishing the cytotoxicity response of the cells in the presence of toxins.

Projections of diencephalic dopamine neurons into the spinal cord in mice.

The aim of this study is to investigate the pathway of diencephalic dopaminergic (DA) neuronal innervating into the spinal cord in mice, the pathway is postulated relevant to clinical restless legs syndrome (RLS). Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemistry was used to identify the DA neuron. The fluorescent tracer Fluoro-Gold (FG) was stereotaxically injected into the T10-L5 spinal cord of CBL57 mice (n=20) seven days before the animals were sacrificed. The diencephalic sections were stained with TH antibody and the FG tracer present in the diencephalic DA neurons were examined under fluoresce microscope. The average number of total DA neurons per side in A11, A12, A13 and A14 was 66+/-8, 221+/-12, 350+/-17 and 254+/-21 respectively. After being injected into the spinal cord, FG reached the DA neurons within the A10 and A11 groups, but didn't target to any other DA neuron groups including the A8 and A9 groups in substantia nigra (SN). The diencephalic A11 DA neurons possessed long axons extending over several segments and possibly traversing the entire length of the spinal cord. It is the first time to report A10 and A11 DA neuron projections into the spinal cord in mice.

G309D and W437OPA PINK1 mutations in Caucasian Parkinson's disease patients.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the G309D and W437OPA mutations in PINK1 gene are present in American Caucasian population of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: We searched for the G309D and W437OPA mutation by sequencing the regions of interest in the PINK1 gene in 237 unrelated Caucasian patients. RESULTS: None of the 237 samples showed the G309D or W437OPA mutations. CONCLUSIONS: The G309D and W437OPA mutations in PINK1 gene probably do not represent common causes of familial or sporadic PD in a Caucasian population.

Factors affecting the initial extraction of ovine gonadotropins.

The method of tissue homogenization as well as the solvents used for extraction influenced the protein yield, the specific activity of the oLH and oFSH, and the total units of each hormone recovered. Use of the Tekmar homogenizer (Method 2) produced a fivefold increase in the total yield of oLH per Kg glands (2390 units, Method 2; 474 units, Method 1) and the relative potency of this partially purified LH from the 80% ethanol precipitate was increased (0.16 times NIH-LH-S18, Method 2). By combining the aqueous extraction--ammonium sulfate precipitation with a subsequent ethanolic acetate extraction (Methods 3 and 4) the combined yields provided a 2.4-fold increase in oLH and 1.4-fold increase in oFSH. Thus the total units recovered of oFSH and oLH can be increased simply by changing the methods of homogenization and extraction.

Malignant hyperthermia associated with enflurane anesthesia: a case report.

Malignant hyperthermia syndrome associated with various anesthetic agents has been well documented, but none has been reported with enflurane (Ethrane). This particular case is the first involving exposure for the second time to enflurane anesthesia after a six-month interval in which malignant hyperthermia resulted. A patient subject to malignant hyperthermia does not necessarily develop rigidity after succinylcholine for the intubation as noticed in this case. However, with the abnormal production of heat in the soda lime canister with tachycardia, tachypnea, rapidly rising body temperature and hypertonicity of skeletal muscles during anesthesia one should suspect malignant hyperthermia. The treatment of malignant hyperthermia involves cooling procedures, correction of acidosis, use of steroids and procainamide, and acetaminophen to facilitate lowering the body temperature.