Serum immunoglobulinD in infants and children.

Serum immunoglobulinD (IgD) concentration is usually low in healthy individuals as compared to other immunoglobulin classes. Most studies on serum IgD are concerned with serum levels in healthy adults but reference values for young children and infants are not easily available. In order to establish age specific reference values we measured IgD levels in serum of 184 healthy Icelandic children, age 0-14 years and 60 healthy blood donors age 18-63, using the ELISA technique. Special attention was paid to the youngest age groups. Results showed low IgD values in infants and young children, gradually increasing until the age of 10 but then decreasing with age. We conclude that IgD gradually increases with age in childhood as other immunoglobulin classes but later declines. These findings can be of importance in revealing the function of IgD in the immune system as well as in the diagnosis of the hyper-IgD syndrome.

Genomic instability and poor prognosis associated with abnormal TP53 in breast carcinomas. Molecular and immunohistochemical analysis.

Alterations of the TP53 gene were analyzed in samples from 87 primary breast cancer patients, using molecular and immunohistochemical approaches. Mutations were detected in 17% of the samples, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and constant denaturant gel electrophoresis (CDGE) on exons 5-8 of the TP53 gene, and were confirmed by sequencing. Abnormal TP53 protein staining was found in 55% of the primary samples, using the monoclonal TP53 antibody DO7. A statistically significant association was found between TP53 mutations and abnormal protein staining (p = 0.002). Our results suggest that dysfunction of the TP53 protein is associated with tumor progression, as we found an association between TP53 abnormalities and accumulation of genetic lesions, measured as overall allelic imbalance (AI), homogeneously staining regions (HSR) and strong ERBB2 overexpression. Furthermore, patients with TP53 mutation had a highly elevated risk of dying from breast cancer during the study period (p < 0.001, RR = 10.68) at a median follow-up time of 42 months. Abnormal TP53 staining was much more frequent than the mutations, but it was not of prognostic significance, whereas strong staining was an independent prognostic factor. We therefore conclude that loss of functional TP53 leads to genetic instability, resulting in poorer short-term prognosis, and that only strong staining of TP53, and not abnormal protein staining in general, is of prognostic significance.

Altered expression of CA-125 in breast carcinomas.

CA-125 is a high molecular weight glycoprotein that is best known as a tumour marker for ovarian carcinoma but has been found to be present on various epithelial surfaces including normal tissues. Elevated serum levels of CA-125 have been described in malignancies other than ovarian carcinoma as well as in inflammatory conditions. The expression of CA-125 was studied in paraffin-embedded tissue from 48 mammary carcinomas and 11 samples of normal mammary gland using two monoclonal antibodies, M2 and M11. CA-125 was detected in all normal tissue samples and 64% of the breast carcinomas. Eight of the thirty CA-125-positive carcinomas reacted with only one of the antibodies, indicating molecular change. In normal mammary tissue, CA-125 was seen on apical surfaces and in ductal contents, whilst the majority of the carcinomas (90%) expressed CA-125 in cytoplasmic granules, often showing membranous staining as well. In 16 samples of lymph node metastases CA-125 expression was similar to that seen in the primary tumour. Elevated serum levels of CA-125 were detected in only 3 out of 41 samples available from this patient group. No significant associations were detected with various clinical parameters. We conclude that CA-125 is normally expressed in the mammary gland and that the expression is frequently altered and sometimes absent in mammary carcinoma, possibly reflecting the loss of cellular polarity. Measuring serum levels of CA-125 is not relevant in breast carcinoma patients since one third of breast carcinomas were CA-125 negative and even patients with strongly CA-125-positive tumors had undetectable CA-125 serum levels.

Geographic Variation in Naupliar Growth and Survival in a Harpacticoid Copepod.

Newly hatched nauplii of Scottolana canadensis (Willey) collected from two locales in Maine were larger than Maryland nauplii when females were reared under identical conditions (20[deg]C and high food concentration, 2.5 [times] 105 algal cells ml[minus]1). Under high food concentration, Maryland nauplii had faster growth rates (log10 [mu]m h[minus]1) than Maine nauplii, but survivorship was similar. Growth rates were lower under low food concentration (0.5 [times] 105 cells ml[minus]1), and were the same for all locales, whereas survivorship of the Maine nauplii through NV was higher than the Maryland nauplii. We hypothesize that size-related differences in naupliar feeding efficiency may explain the variation in survival under low food stress.