Unchanged renal haemodynamics following high dose ascorbic acid administration in normoalbuminuric IDDM patients.

The object of the study was to test whether high dose ascorbic acid (AA) could normalize glomerular hyperfiltration in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) patients. A prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo (tartaric acid, TA) controlled study design was used, with parallel treatment lasting 4 weeks. Measurements were made before and after treatment, on 24 normoalbuminuric, normotensive male IDDM patients, who were randomized to ascorbic acid (n = 12, age 35 years (18-39), diabetes duration 12 years (2-12), BP 128/82 mmHg (SD 14/6)), or to placebo (TA) (n = 12, age 30 years (19-36), diabetes duration 8 years (2-17), BP 119/75 mmHg (SD 9/7). The intervention consisted of 6 enterosoluble tablets of 500 mg AA or 213 mg TA, twice a day, being daily doses of 6 g AA or 2.55 g TA. No significant differences in any of the parameters measured were seen, when comparing results following AA or placebo treatment. The glomerular filtration rate (GFR, clearance of 125I-iothalamate) was unchanged while effective renal plasma flow (ERPF, clearance of 131I-hippuran) tended to decline in both groups. The GFRs before and after treatment in the AA-treated group were 141 (SD 15) and 134 (SD 12) ml min-1 1.73 m-2; NS (2p = 0.09). In the TA-treated group they were 142 (SD 19) and 137 (SD 16) ml min-1 1.73 m-2; NS (2p = 0.20). The ERPFs in the AA group were 584 (SD 93) and 545 (SD 47) ml min-1 1.73 m-2; (2p = 0.06). In the TA group they were 618 (SD 108) and 574 (SD 98) ml min-1 1.73 m-2 (2p = 0.03). The filtration fractions (FFs) in the AA group were 0.244 and 0.246 NS.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Pedigree analyses of yeast cells recovering from DNA damage allow assignment of lethal events to individual post-treatment generations.

Haploid cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were treated with different DNA damaging agents at various doses. A study of the progeny of individual such cells (by pedigree analyses up to the third generation) allowed the assignment of lethal events to distinct post treatment generations. By microscopically inspecting those cells which were not able to form visible colonies we could discriminate between cells dying from immediately effective lethal hits and those generating microcolonies (three to several hundred cells) probably as a consequence of lethal mutation(s). The experimentally obtained numbers of lethal events (which we call apparent lethal fixations) were mathematically transformed into mean probabilities of lethal fixations as taking place in cells of certain post treatment generations. Such analyses give detailed insight into the kinetics of lethality as a consequence of different kinds of DNA damage. For example, X-irradiated cells lost viability mainly by lethal hits (which we call 00-fixations); only at a higher dose also lethal mutations fixed in the cells that were in direct contact with the mutagen (which we call 0-fixations), but not in later generations, occurred. Ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-treated cells were hit by 00-fixations in a dose dependent manner; 0-fixations were not detected for any dose of EMS applied; the probability for fixation of lethal mutations was found equally high for cells of the first and second post treatment generation and, unexpectedly, was well above control in the third post-treatment generation. The distribution of all sorts of lethal fixations taken together, which occurred in the EMS-damaged cell families, was not random.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Ericksonian hypnosis and strategic interventions for sexual orientation confusion.

Erickson's utilization approach provides a model of hypnotic and strategic intervention for persons seeking psychotherapy because of sexual orientation confusion. Case studies outline examples of hypnotic and strategic short-term interventions. These cases include the use of metaphor, utilizing resistances, anchoring, and synesthesia.