[Processes of scale formation in fish and Agnatha].

The formation of the scale cover in ancient fish and Agnatha was analyzed using paleontology data on some forms and by studying recent species according to the geochronological principle and morphological--genetic coupling approach. The histogenesis of true scale cover was transformed simultaneously but independently from dermal denticles, when the first process was accompanied by reinforcement of the bones and formation of head-body armor and dermal-like external elements of the skullcap. The scale cover is an independent organ system and is characterized by self-supporting conservative ancestral mechanisms of development.

[Modern evolutional developmental biology: mechanical and molecular genetic or phenotypic approaches?].

Heightened interest in the evolutionary problems of developmental biology in the 1980s was due to the success of molecular genetics and disappointment in the synthetic theory of evolution, where the chapters of embryology and developmental biology seem to have been left out. Modern evo-devo, which turned out to be antipodean to the methodology of the synthetic theory of evolution, propagandized in the development of evolutionary problems only the mechanical and molecular genetic approach to the evolution of ontogenesis, based on cellular and intercellular interactions. The phonotypical approach to the evaluation of evolutionary occurrences in ontogenesis, which aids in the joining of the genetic and epigenetic levels of research, the theory of natural selection, the nomogenetic conception, and the problem of the wholeness of the organism in onto- and phylogenesis may be against this. The phenotypic approach to ontogenesis is methodologically the most perspective for evolutionary developmental biology.

[Evo-devo and the I.I. Schmalhausen concept of the evolution of ontogeny].

Evo-devo is considered a special field of knowledge emphasizing the role of developmental processes and mechanisms in evolution and integrating the data of many disciplines studying various structural levels of biosphere organization. A mechanical approach to estimation of events is regarded as a specific feature of the evo-devo concept. In our opinion, the I.I. Schmalhausen concept of the evolution of ontogeny, opposing the reductionist approach of many contemporary evo-devo adherents, can be regarded as the fundamental basis of evo-devo.

[Morphogenetic approach to the formation of paired limbs in the course of tetrapodization].

Transition from sarcopterygians to tetrapods is analyzed based on new paleontological, ontogenetic, and molecular data. It is shown that transformation of skeletal fin elements into the tetrapod limb followed the patterns of divergent, parallel, and mosaic development. Morphogenetic plasticity and autonomy of these processes as well as the same developmental bauplan for the limbs of Urodela and Anura are proposed. Variations observed in these processes are regarded as a result of larval adaptations and heterochronies. The latter excludes recapitulation of successive archetypical states (transformation-development of the fish fin into tetrapod limb). The idea that the digits are a novelty relative to the distal radials of the fin is supported.

[Academician A.N. Severtsov and the present time].

Research and teaching activities are of Academician A.N. Severtsov are briefly considered. His scientific heritage is shown to be based on the extensive comparative morphological data on lower vertebrates. The concepts of phylembriogenesis and biological progress elaborated by A.N. Severtsov did not lost their importance as a theoretical and methodological background of the evolutionary morphology as a specific field of zoology dealing with regularities and mechanisms of morphological evolution. Their exploration is of great potential in developments of both epigenetic theory of evolution and particular phylogenetic reconstructions.

[Protective properties of certain external proteins of group B streptococci].

On the basis of genes, which control synthesis of externally localized proteins of group B streptococci (bac and scaAB), recombinant polypeptides P6 and ScaAB were obtained. Data on protective activity of these polypeptides during experimental infection of immunized mice as well as in opsonophagocytic test on cultivated peritoneal macrophages are presented. It has been shown that protective effect of specific antibodies to P6 was dependent from intensity of immune response. Titer of specific IgG to P6 equal 1:25000 was protective for mice during challenge with LD50. During sublethal challenge level of humoral immunity determined both rate of microorganism elimination and degree of decrease of concentration of streptococci in the spleen. Recombinant polypeptide ScaAB also had marked protective activity and protective titer ScaAB-specific IgG was significantly lower compared with the first polypeptide (1:1600). It has been established that both types of antibodies have opsonizing activity against different strains of group B streptococci. Opsonizing properties of antibodies to P6 were restricted to Bac protein-producing streptococci whereas specificity of antibodies to ScaAB was not restricted by type and group borders. Opsonization of both group B and group A streptococci was revealed. It has been established that protective efficacy mediated by antibodies was dependent not only from their opsonizing characteristics but also from availability of protein antigens, which under certain conditions can be shielded by capsular polysaccharide. It has been assumed that vaccine preparation developed on the basis of polypeptides P6 and ScaAB is promising for further research.

[The problem of organism integrity and its perspectives].

The organism integrity in onto- and phylogenesis is considered as an initial element of biosphere integrity and its evolution at the eukaryotic level. The Schmalhausen's concept of organism integrity is discussed in the context of his original strategy of evolutionary synthesis and his works on stabilizing selection. The perspectives of investigations on the problem of integrity and development of the principle of dynamic stability in contemporary evolutionary biology as integrating factors are discussed.

[Analysis of group B streptococcal gene scaAB encoding the protein involved in adherence and aggregation].

The portion of group B streptococcal (GBS) sequence encoding the ABC transport system was cloned and sequenced. The genetic region under study included scaAB gene, which was capable of encoding for putative adherence and aggregation factor, and scaR, which was encoding for putative represser. After the insertional inactivation of scaAB gene on the GBS chromosome streptococci increased the tendency for aggregation. The level of GBS adherence to vaginal epithelium was also different after scaAB inactivation. GBS sea operon was compared to similar ABC encoding bacterial operons.

[C-reactive protein as possible early prognostic marker of restenosis development in coronary artery stents]. / C-reaktivnyi belok kak vozmozhnyi rannii prognosticheskii marker stenozirovaniia protezov koronarnykh arterixi

AIM: To study possible link between inflammatory response of the body to stent implantation and development of instent restenosis. METHODS: C-reactive protein (CRP) was determined in 24 patients subjected to coronary stenting. Coronary angiography was repeated in 7.1-/+0.68 months after initial procedure. RESULTS: At repeat angiography positive results of stenting persisted in 18 while restenosis developed in 6 patients. All patients had increased CRP levels on days 2-3 after stenting. Day 2 CRP levels were higher in patients with than without restenosis (28-/+4.22 mg/l and 14.17-/+2.14 mg/l, respectively, p<0.05). CRP levels tended to normalize by day 5. CONCLUSION: Coronary artery stenting in patients with angina pectoris is associated with transitory elevation of CRP level. Day 2 CRP >or=24 mg/l with high degree of probability predicts restenosis in remote period.

[I. I. Shmal'gauzen's concept of the evolution of ontogeny]. / O kontseptsii évoliutsii ontogeneza I. I. Shmal'gauzena.

The concept of evolution of ontogenesis by I. I. Shmal'gauzen is presented as a result of reviewing some of his theoretical works. This concept appears to be the most consistent development of classical darwinism on the basis of a basically new (as compared with synthetic theory of evolution) evolutionary-synthetic approach. This latter has been based on the idea of the organism integrity in onto- and phylogenesis and the involvement of the organismic level (ontogenesis), together with the population and biocoenotic ones, in the evolutionary process as a whole.

[Evolution of cartilage in the skeletons of ancient anamniotes]. / Ob évoliutsii khriashcha v skelete drevnikh anamnii.

Owing to discoveries of ancient fossils of the Anamnia it was revealed that endo and exoskeletal tissue have an independent history of development. At early evolutional stages, the exoskeletal tissues were connected by various transitions and were at the stage of incomplete differentiation. During evolution variability of these tissues decreased; this resulted in disappearance of aspidin from the tegmentum, and dentin remained only in some primitive groups of fishes (sharks, Latimeria chalumnae, Lepidosteus osseus), while in most vertebrates the exoskeleton was formed exclusively from the osseous tissue. In the endoskeleton the cartilage evolutionally preceded the bone. It is rather difficult to draw any border between the calcified cartilage and the bone in the ancient vertebrates. When an osseous tissue healing occurs at some pathological processes in the vertebrae, a primitive state of the endoskeletal tissue is reproduced. Secondary progressive cartilage development during evolution in the anamnia is considered as a result of negative anabolism and connected with a slowed morphogenesis. Chondrification evidently increases plastic possibilities of the endoskeletal structures.