Mercuric chloride-induced reactive oxygen species and its effect on antioxidant enzymes in different regions of rat brain.

The present study was undertaken to determine if in vitro exposure to mercuric chloride produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the synaptosomes prepared from various regions of rat brain. The effects of in vivo exposure to mercury on antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities in different regions of rat brain were also investigated. Adult male Sprague-Dawley (CD) rats were dosed with 0, 1, 2.0 or 4.0 mg HgCl2/kg body weight, for 7 days. One week after the last dose, animals were sacrificed by decapitation, their brains were removed and dissected and frozen in dry ice prior to measuring the activities of these enzymes. The results demonstrated that in vitro exposure to mercury produced a concentration-dependent increase of ROS in different regions of the rat brain. In vivo exposure to mercury produced a significant decrease of total SOD, Cu, Zn-SOD and Mn-SOD activities in the cerebellum of rats treated with different doses of mercury. SOD activity did not vary significantly in cerebral cortex and brain stem. GPx activity declined in a dose-dependent manner in the cerebellum with a significant reduction in animals receiving the 4 mg HgCl2/kg body weight. The activity of GPx increased in the brain stem while unchanged in the cerebral cortex. The results demonstrate that inorganic mercury decreased SOD activity significantly in the cerebellum while GPx activity was affected in both cerebellum and brain stem. Therefore, it can be concluded that oxidative stress may contribute to the development of neurodegenerative disorders caused by mercury intoxication.

17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase deficiency with minimal virilization and spontaneous reduction of serum androgens to normal female levels.

The testosterone biosynthesis defect, 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase deficiency, is generally characterized by marked virilization at puberty of children raised as females. We describe an unusual case with a persistent female body habitus presenting with primary amenorrhoea and mild facial hirsutism. Whilst awaiting gonadectomy, serum androgen concentrations were observed to fall spontaneously to within the adult female reference ranges. Location of the gonads was a problem and was finally achieved by magnetic resonance imaging.

Personality inventory responses of males with medically intractable seizures.

The psychosocial adjustment of 50 male patients to intractable seizures was assessed by comparing their responses to a combined version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) to the responses of 50 medical, psychiatric, or nonclinical controls who denied seizures. The two groups were significantly different (p < .01) on one MMPI and 10 CPI scales. Significant (p < .01) between-group differences were also reflected in 29 of the 704 personality inventory items. Those items were rationally clustered according to content into six conceptually identifiable subscales; 30 additional items with similar content that were significant at the .05 level were added to those subscales. Comparison of subscale scores of an additional 30 seizure and 30 nonseizure subjects using analysis of variance revealed F values that reached statistical significance (p < .05) in four cases and approached significance (p = .07) in another. Applying coefficients derived from discriminant analysis of the first samples correctly classified 99% of the original patients and 85% of the validation subjects. Results reveal a logical, understandable, and largely adaptive response to intractable seizures and offer little support for the concept of a dysfunctional or pathological interictal personality style.

Psychometric differentiation of biogenic and psychogenic impotence.

In a sequential clinical sample of 64 subjects exclusively diagnosed as either biogenically or functionally impotent, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and California Psychological Inventory (CPI) standard scales and the Beutler, et al., MMPI signs were all found to be ineffective in reliably classifying patients into the correct diagnostic groupings. Specific item analysis of the MMPI and CPI did identify a significant number of significantly differentiating individual items. Most of these items were shown to be reliably characterizable as indicating either performance anxiety or somatic complaint. Using these classifications of the items, the performance anxiety items were shown, consistent with theory, to be clearly associated with the functional impotence group. The somatic complaint items were shown to be clearly associated with the biogenic impotence group, presumably reflecting the symptoms of physiopathology, such as diabetes, underlying the biogenic condition.