Recently revised diagnostic reference levels in nuclear medicine in Bulgaria and in Finland.

An EU twinning project entitled 'Strengthening of administrative structures for radiation protection and safe use of ionising radiation in diagnostics and therapy' was established between Bulgaria and Finland, lasting from June 2008 to May 2009. One component of the project was to improve the optimisation of patient protection in nuclear medicine (NM) through revising diagnostic reference levels (DRLs). The revised DRLs are based on national surveys on the numbers of NM procedures and activities given to the patients in different procedures. The survey in Bulgaria was carried out in 2008 and that in Finland in 2007. National DRLs were established for the most frequent and dose-relevant examinations. The proposed DRLs in both countries are in good agreement with other national recommendations in Europe.

Proliferation defects and genome instability in cells lacking Cul4A.

The Cul4A gene, which encodes a core component of a cullin-based E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, is overexpressed in breast and hepatocellular cancers. In breast cancers, overexpression of Cul4A strongly correlates with poor prognosis. In addition, Cul4A is required for early embryonic development. The early lethality of mouse embryos prevented a detailed analysis of the functions of Cul4A. Here, we used a strain of mice carrying floxed alleles of Cul4A to study its role in cell division, in vitro and in vivo. Embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) show a severe deficiency in cell proliferation after deletion of Cul4A. We observed that the Cul4A protein is abundantly expressed in the brain, liver and the mammary tissue of pregnant mice. Deletion of Cul4A in the liver impairs hepatocyte proliferation during regeneration after carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4))-induced injury. The Cul4A-deleted cells are slow in entering the S phase, and are deficient in progressing through the early M phase. Several cell-cycle regulators, including p53 and p27Kip1, are deregulated in the Cul4A-deleted cells. Expression of a dominant negative mutant of p53 causes significant reversal of the proliferation defects in Cul4A-deleted cells. The Cul4A-deleted cells show an aberrant number of centrosome, multipolar spindles and micronuclei formation. Furthermore, those cells are sensitive to UV irradiation and show reduced levels of unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS). Together, our observations indicate that Cul4A is required for efficient cell proliferation, control of centrosome amplification and genome stability.

High-temperature damage and acclimation of the photosynthetic apparatus : I. Temperature sensitivity of some photosynthetic parameters of chloroplasts isolated from acclimated and non-acclimated bean leaves.

The thermosensitivity of delayed fluorescence, the relative values of variable chlorophyll fluorescence and the degree of quenching of 9-aminoacridine fluorescene were studied in the chloroplasts from heat-acclimated and non-acclimated (treated 6 h at 52,5°C) young bean plants. The temperature sensitivity of each parameter studied was defined by that temperature at which chloroplast activity decreased by 50% (T50) of its maximum value. There was appreciable increase in the thermostability of membrane energization in chloroplasts isolated from acclimated and non-acclimated plants compared with the controls. The photosynthetic parameters differed according to the suspending medium and the preacclimation treatment. When chloroplast were suspended in phosphate buffer with the addition of stabilizing compounds (2 M sucrose or 0.5% human serum albumin) the thermostability of the thylakoid membranes increased, as was evident by the increases in T50 of about 8-10° C (sucrose) and 2-5° C (human serum albumin) for all the parameters investigated. Photoinduced quenching of 9-aminoacridine fluorescence decreased to some extent in the presence of protective compounds, but in chloroplasts from acclimated plants the T50 was practically equal to that for their long-lived luminescence under the same conditions. At the thylakoid membrane level, acclimation was clearly manifested as an increased thermostability of photoinduced proton-gradient formation.

High-temperature damage and acclimation of the photosynthetic apparatus : II. Effect of mono- and divalent cations and pH on the temperature sensitivity of some functional characteristics of chloroplasts isolated from heat-acclimated and non-acclimated bean plants.

The influence of mono- (K(+)) and divalent (Mg(2+)) cations and protons (pH) on the temperature sensitivity of thylakoid membranes was investigated in three groups of young bean plants (control, heat-acclimated and non-acclimated). Thylakoid-membrane function was monitored by second and millisecond delayed fluorescence and 9-aminoacridine fluorescence quenching. It was established that metal ions at investigated concentrations decreased the thermostability of the photosynthetic parameters - an increase of MgSO4 concentration from 0.1 to 20 mM decreased the temperature of their half-inactivation (T50) by 13°C. At the same time the pH dependence of the thermal stability of these parameters showed a maximum at pH 5.5-6.5. The half-inactivation temperatures of those photosynthetic parameters connected with the ability of the thylakoid membrane to form light-induced proton gradients increased by 6-7°C in the heat-acclimated plants compared with the control. It was assumed that the temperature inactivation of photosynthetic electron transfer and the energization of the thylakoid membrane was determined both by the thermoinduced dissociation of the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b protein complex from PSII, leading to destruction of the excitation energy transfer to the reaction centres, and by the thermal denaturation of the membrane-protein components. The rate of these processes was probably controlled by the size of the negative surface charge and the viscosity of the thylakoid membrane.