No association between schizophrenia and homozygosity at the D3 dopamine receptor gene.

The D3 dopamine receptor gene is an important candidate gene for schizophrenia, since (because of its almost exclusive expression in the limbic system) it combines the dopamine receptor hypothesis with the limbic system hypothesis of schizophrenia. A BalI restriction fragment length polymorphism of the D3 dopamine receptor gene has been typed in 107 schizophrenic patients and 98 normal controls from Sichuan (China). With regard to alleles or genotypes, no significant differences were obtained between controls from Europe and China, between patients and controls, and between patient subgroups and controls. These results indicate a lack of association between schizophrenia and the D3 dopamine receptor gene in our sample. Our findings are at variance with reports of a significant excess of homozygosity at the D3 dopamine receptor gene in schizophrenic patients from Wales (United Kingdom) and Alsace (France). In conclusion, further studies will be needed with larger samples of patients from Wales and Alsace as well as with samples of different racial groups to prove or disprove the initial positive association between schizophrenia and genotypes of the D3 dopamine receptor gene.

No association between alleles or genotypes at the dopamine transporter gene and schizophrenia.

The dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) is an important candidate gene for schizophrenia. A 40-bp VNTR (variable number of tandem repeats) polymorphism of DAT1 has been typed in 105 schizophrenic patients and 98 normal control subjects from Sichuan (China). Compared with allele frequencies for Caucasians reported in the literature, the Chinese population investigated showed a reduced frequency of the 9-copy allele and an increased frequency of the 10-copy allele. The observed frequency of genotypes was in agreement with the expected values according to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. No significant difference was found between patients and control subjects with regard to allele frequency, allele prevalence, and genotype counts. The results of the association study presented here are in agreement with the negative results of linkage analyses in schizophrenia pedigrees from Iceland (Kristbjarnarson et al., submitted) and from Utah (Byerley et al., 1993). Taken together, these studies suggest that variation in the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) is unlikely to be a factor in the etiology of schizophrenia. The observed differences in allele frequencies between Chinese and Caucasian groups suggest that the human transporter gene might be useful for the construction of evolutionary trees in humans and primates as illustrated by Cavalli-Sforza's work (Mountain et al., 1992).

[Effect of capsaicin on the release of substance P from spinal cord and blood pressure].

The role of substance P (SP) in the regulation of sympathetic outflow to the cardiovascular system was assessed. Intrathecal injection(ith) of capsaicin caused a release of SP from the spinal cord and resulted in an increase in blood pressure and heart rate accompanied by an elevation of plasma adrenaline and noradrenaline. This pressor response was blocked by ith SP antagonist D-Pro2, D-Phe7, D-Trp9-SP or antiserum against SP. The immunohistochemical study showed that the SP-like immunoreactivity in T-8 of the spinal cord was decreased as the amount of capsaicin administrated was increased. Spinal cord transection had no effect on pressor responses caused by ith 10 micrograms capsaicin. These results suggest that SP transmits excitatory information to the cardiovascular system via spinal sympathetic pathway.

[Circadian changes of atrial natriuretic peptide, cyclic AMP, cyclic GMP, sodium, blood pressure and heart rate in normal subjects].

To investigate the circadian change in the plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) concentrations and its relation to cyclic AMP (cAMP), cyclic GMP (cGMP) and serum sodium. This investigation was conducted on 22 normal subjects consisting of 16 men and 6 women with a mean age of 21.5 years. Blood samples, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and heart rate (HR), were collected and recorded every 8 hours during a 24 hour period. SBP and HR were highest at 1600 h (p less than 0.05). Plasma ANP concentrations at 0800 h (196.3 +/- 140.6 ng/L, p less than 0.01) and 1600 h (203.4 +/- 127.5 ng/L, p less than 0.01) were higher than at 2400 h (64.4 +/- 46.0 ng/L). Serum sodium, plasma cAMP, and cGMP were at the highest level at 1600 h (p less than 0.05). Plasma ANP correlated with plasma cAMP, cGMP, serum sodium, SBP, and HR (r = 0.378 - 0.419, p less than 0.05). This data supports the assumption that atrial wall distension seems to be a stimulus for ANP release.

Cleavage furrow formation of Rana amurensis eggs observed with fluorescence pattern photobleaching.

Taking advantage of the extremely slow lateral diffusion of proteins on Rana amurensis egg surface (Xu et al., 1984), it was possible to make a sharp concentric ring pattern on the egg surface by photobleaching of the fluorescein-labelled egg surface. The shape change of the pattern reveals the movement of the egg surface. The surface, even in front of the furrow tip, is drawn towards the furrow centre. The furrow tip differentiates into border and central lines as shown by the distribution of surface protrusions. Between the border and central lines the nascent membrane inserts while the width of furrow tip increases to nearly 100 microns.

[Study on the peptides of serum and gastric juice in patients with gastric cancer].

This investigation, conducted on 35 patients with advanced-stage gastric cancer, included 28 men and 7 women with a mean age of 50.1 years; also studied were 33 normal subjects as controls: 26 men and 7 women with a mean age of 45.8 years. Samples of blood and gastric juice were collected at fasting and in gastroscopy respectively. Substance P (SP), beta-endorphin (beta-EP), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), motilin (MTL), gastrin (GT), and leu-enkephalin (LEK) of the sera and gastric juices were measured by radioimmunoassay kits. In the patients, SP and beta-EP of serum and gastric juice, and VIP, MTL and LEK of gastric juice, were higher than in the normal subjects (p < 0.01); gastrin of serum and gastric juice were decreased (p < 0.01). Serum and gastric juice SP, beta-EP levels correlated negatively with the gastrin (r = 0.462-0.519, p < 0.05). These data support the assumption that study of the peptides of serum and gastric juice can show a clinically significant change in gastric cancer patients.