Lipid specificity of surfactant protein B studied by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry.

One of the key functions of mammalian pulmonary surfactant is the reduction of surface tension to minimal values. To fulfill this function it is expected to become enriched in dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine either on its way from the alveolar type II pneumocytes to the air/water interface of the lung or within the surface film during compression and expansion of the alveoli during the breathing cycle. One protein that may play a major role in this enrichment process is the surfactant protein B. The aim of this study was to identify the lipidic interaction partner of this protein. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry was used to analyze the lateral distribution of the components in two SP-B-containing model systems. Either native or partly isotopically labeled lipids were analyzed. The results of both setups give strong indications that, at least under the specific conditions of the chosen model systems (e.g., concerning pH and lipid composition), the lipid interacting with surfactant protein B is not phosphatidylglycerol as generally accepted, but dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine instead.

[Symptoms, tumor stage and primary treatment in patients with colorectal carcinoma]. / Symptomatik, Tumorstadium und primäre Therapie bei Patienten mit kolorektalem Karzinom.

OBJECTIVE: To obtain population-related data, previously not available for Germany, regarding primary symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of patients with colorectal carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: During 1994, in the catchment area of Bonn (town of Bonn, districts of Euskirchen and Rhein-Sieg), there were 354 cases of newly diagnosed colorectal carcinoma. For all of them initial symptoms, primary diagnosis, cancer stage at time of diagnosis as well as surgical and conservative treatment were prospectively documented. By comparing entries from all relevant hospitals and doctors with those of the pathology institutes of the region, data of about 98% of all these patients were recorded. RESULTS: The average age of the patients was older (median of 69 for men, 72 for women) with more far metastases than in comparable groups reported by German university surgical departments. Only 4.6% of the group had occult blood in the stool as the only symptom. Most of the patients had local or regional metastases (T3-4: 63.9%; N1-3: 41%, respectively). Operations intended to be curative were possible in only 65.9% of the cohort. Adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy was given to 11.7%, using current consensus recommendations.

Patient education needs as reported by congestive heart failure patients and their nurses.

Patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) need considerable education to enable them to provide effective self-care for their chronic illness. No information has been published about the learning needs of this population. The purpose of this study was to examine hospitalized CHF patients and their nurses' perceptions regarding the importance and realism of typical patient education content. An instrument to assess learning needs was developed and piloted for use in this study. Thirty hospitalized patients and 26 nurses were surveyed. Both nurses and patients rated all information as important to learn and realistic to learn during the patients' hospitalizations. Patients and nurses agreed that medication information was the most important to learn. Generally, patients rated information as more important than nurses rated the same information areas. Suggested nursing interventions and future research endeavours are addressed.

Cloning of a full-length complementary DNA for fatty-acid-binding protein from bovine heart.

A full-length cDNA for bovine heart fatty-acid-binding protein (H-FABP) was cloned from a lambda gt11 cDNA library established from bovine heart muscle. The cDNA sequence shows an open reading frame coding for a protein with 133 amino acids. Colinearity with the amino acid sequences of four tryptic peptides was asserted. H-FABP isolated from bovine heart begins with an N-acetylated valine residue, however, as derived from analysis of the tryptic, amino-terminal-blocked peptide and the molecular mass of the peptide obtained via secondary-ion mass spectrometry. The molecular mass of the total protein is 14673 Da. Bovine H-FABP is 89% homologous to rat H-FABP and 97% homologous to the bovine mammary-derived growth-inhibition factor described recently by Böhmer et al. [J. Biol. Chem. 262, 15137-15143 (1987)]. Significant homologies were also found with bovine myelin protein P2 and murine adipocyte protein p422. Secondary-structure predictions were proposed for these proteins, based on computer analysis, which reveal striking similarities.

[Synchronization of tumor cells with 5-fluorouracil plus uracil and with vinblastine and irradiation of the synchronized cultures. A contribution to combined radio-chemotherapy]. / Die Synchronisation von Tumorzellen mit 5-Fluorouracil plus Uracil und mit Vinblastin und die Bestrahlung synchronisierter Kulturen. Ein Beitrag zur kombinierten Strahlen-Chemotherapie.

In this article, some arguments are put forward which support the conception of a combined radio-chemotherapy acting by a reversible inhibition of tumor cells with cytostatic drugs in a not cytocidal dose and the following selective killing by irradiation of the cells blocked in a radiosensitive phase. The two cytostatic drugs 5-fluorouracil (FU) and vinblastine (VLB), as inhibitors of DNA synthesis and mitosis, respectively, are tested in vitro both separately and combined in two tumor cell lines of the mouse, i.e. the Ehrlich ascites tumor and the sarcoma S 180. A cell-proliferative and, as far as possible, not cytocidal dose is used because of the inevitable side effects exerted by these drugs on normal tissues. A reversible synchronization of the ascites tumor is achieved even in the young mouse by FU in a dose of 15 ng to 500 ng (applied seven times every two hours), if the synchronization is controlled by applying the antimetabolite together with uracil in an equimolar concentration and then stimulating the growth of the cells inhibited during DNA synthesis by the administration of thymidine. The statistical analysis of dose-effect curves after X-ray irradiation shows an increased radiosensitivity of the synchronized cell population, provided that the optimum moment had been chosen for the irradiation.