Beta-dystroglycan: subcellular localisation in rat brain and detection of a novel immunologically related, postsynaptic density-enriched protein.

The distribution of a glycoprotein component of the muscle dystrophin complex, beta-dystroglycan, has been determined in subcellular fractions of adult rat forebrain. The results show that beta-dystroglycan is enriched in several membrane fractions, including synaptic membranes, but in marked contrast to dystrophin is not detectable in the postsynaptic density fraction. The antiserum also recognises a second molecular species of apparent molecular mass of 164 kDa which is highly enriched in the postsynaptic density fraction. Preabsorption of the antiserum with the antigen (a 22-mer peptide corresponding to the C-terminal sequence of rabbit skeletal muscle beta-dystroglycan) abolished reactivity against both beta-dystroglycan and the 164-kDa postsynaptic density-enriched protein, confirming that the two species are immunologically related. Enzymatic removal of N-linked oligosaccharide lowered the apparent molecular mass of beta-dystroglycan by 3 kDa but did not alter the mass of the 164-kDa species.

[Pericardial injuries due to mediastinoscopy (the anatomy of the recussus aorticus pericardii) (author's transl)]. / Untersuchungen zur Perikardgfährdung bei der Mediastinoskopie (Uber die Anatomie des Recussus aorticus pericardii)

According to results obtained on the topographical studies of the anatomy of the recessus aorticus pericardii the authors stress the possibility of the vulnerability of the pericard due to mediastinoscopy, since its retroaortal fold reaches up to the truncus brachio-cephalicus and its broad-assertion up to the a. pulmonalis.