Expression and characterization of functional recombinant bovine follicle-stimulating hormone (boFSHalpha/beta) produced in the milk of transgenic rabbits.

Bovine follicle-stimulating hormone (boFSH) is a heterodimeric glycoprotein that belongs to the pituitary gonadotropins. Bioactive FSH is composed of alpha and beta subunits which require extensive N-glycosylation and sialylation. The mammary gland of transgenic livestock is an attractive source for the synthesis of post-translationally modified proteins. Two mammary gland-specific gene constructs with the cDNA for the boFSH alpha (boFSHalpha) and beta (boFSHbeta) subunits controlled by bovine alpha-s1 casein regulatory sequences were co-microinjected into fertilized rabbit oocytes. Two FSHalpha/FSHbeta double transgenic rabbit lines were established. The transgene expression was strictly lactation and mammary gland specific. Protein analysis revealed the presence of the boFSH heterodimer in the milk of transgenic rabbits showing a molecular weight similar to that of purified pituitary gland derived boFSH (boFSH-P). Subunit specific antibodies detected both polypeptides with the expected molecular sizes. Biochemical characterization demonstrated the expected isoelectric points of the recombinant boFSH. The presence of the post-translationally added terminal sialic acid residues was indicated by wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) lectin Western blotting. The biological activity of the recombinant mammary gland produced boFSH was determined using a FSH-dependent reporter cell line. The bioactivity of the recombinant boFSH was comparable to that of purified boFSH-P.

Avoidant attachment as a risk factor for health.

A style of coping with stress is described which has been observed in cancer patients and in highly dependent, insecurely attached individuals. This coping style includes the suppression of negative emotions and avoidance of support seeking. It is suggested that this pattern of responses is potentially dysfunctional insofar as it tends to perpetuate distress and may increase vulnerability to a broad range of illnesses. These considerations provide the basis for a provisional conceptual model, which links avoidant attachment style to the regulation of negative affect and to symptoms of psychological and physical ill-health. This is tested on a sample of young adults under stress and predictions from the model are largely supported.

Exercise thallium-201 scintigraphy in the diagnosis and prognosis of coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the discriminant accuracy of exercise thallium-201 myocardial perfusion scintigraphy for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. DATA IDENTIFICATION: A survey of the National Library of Medicine MEDLINE database. STUDY SELECTION: The key medical subject headings used were coronary disease, myocardial infarction, radionuclide imaging, and thallium. A total of 122 retrieved studies were considered relevant and were reviewed in depth. DATA EXTRACTION: Only studies reporting both the sensitivity and specificity of thallium scintigraphy were analyzed. RESULTS: Discriminant accuracy for diagnosis and prognosis was summarized in terms of pooled sensitivity and specificity. CONCLUSIONS: Exercise thallium scintigraphy is useful in the noninvasive diagnosis of coronary artery disease, especially in patients with abnormal resting electrocardiograms, restricted exercise tolerance, and intermediate probability of having disease at the time of testing as well as of defining the prognosis of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease, especially in those with previous myocardial infarction. Because of various shortcomings in the published record, however, the marginal discriminant accuracy and cost effectiveness of thallium scintigraphy compared with conventional clinical assessment and exercise electrocardiography remain controversial.

Incremental prognostic power of clinical history, exercise electrocardiography and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in suspected coronary artery disease.

The incremental ability of a clinical history, exercise electrocardiography (ECG) and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy to identify coronary events in the year after testing was assessed in 1,659 patients with symptoms suggestive of coronary artery disease (CAD), 74 of whom suffered a coronary event in the year after testing. Prognostic power was quantified in terms of the area under receiver operating characteristic curves derived from logistic regression. In 1,451 patients with normal rest ECG findings, a clinical history alone provided the most prognostic power (area = 72%). This improved significantly (by 5%) only when both tests were analyzed. In contrast, clinical history had significantly less prognostic power in the 208 patients with abnormal rest ECG findings (area = 58%), but each test then provided a significant incremental improvement in these patients (by 14% for each). A strategic model was thereby developed for prognostic assessment that recognizes the incremental power of these tests in specific patient groups as well as their overall accuracy and monetary cost. This strategy stratified individual patient risk for subsequent coronary events over a full order of magnitude (from 2 to 22%) at a 64% reduction in the cost of testing compared to performing both stress tests in all patients.

Marital quality and disturbed child behaviour.

A set of 12 measures based on separate reports by husbands and wives was used to determine whether families of children displaying disturbed behaviour have poorer marital relations than those of children without presenting symptoms. Following an initial discriminant analysis which revealed significant differences between a clinical and non-clinical group of marital pairs, cluster analysis of the total sample yielded three subgroups with greater homogeneity. Two discriminant functions distinguished significantly between these groups; the first function, which accounted for most of the variance, arranged the groups in linear order along a general dimension of marital quality. The second, smaller function separated the middle group from the two extremes which represented mainly clinical and non clinical cases respectively. The quality of marital relations was found to decline from high levels of mutual regard and consensus in the non-clinical group to mutual dissatisfaction in the clinical group and this was greater for wives than husbands. In the middle group, of mixed clinical and non-clinical cases, the wives remained strongly committed to parental and marital roles but dissatisfaction was expressed in the quality of their interpersonal conduct. In general the wife's evaluation of her husband was an important contributor to her level of marital satisfaction and, in turn, to the general quality of the marital relation.

Contrasting resources in disturbed and non-disturbed family systems.

Previous research has shown that problems in family functioning and psychological disturbances in children are closely related. To increase understanding of this complex interaction the present review sets out to make explicit certain aspects of the relationship between child psychopathology and the quality of family life. The usefulness of the concept of resources for analysing major aspects of family functioning (contextual, intra-familial and extra-familial) is discussed within a systems framework and is then applied to a wide range of empirical studies which relate important features of family functioning to disturbed behaviour in children. It is found that interpersonal conflict in the lives of parents before marriage may severely constrain their own psychological development. When the psychological effects of such early disadvantage are amplified by marital conflict other family members are also affected. The notion of resources requires such disabilities to be assessed as well as directing attention to non-family interactions which offer compensating supports.