ABSTRACT
Somatomedin C (SMC; insulin-like growth factor I) is thought to mediate the effects of growth hormone (GH) mainly on skeletal growth. SMC is produced in the liver but its production by various other fetal tissues including the brain, suggests a local regulatory role rather than a general one. A substance cross-reacting with recombinant human SMC (rSMC) was localized in the central nervous system (CNS) of the normal control and Snell dwarf mice by the unlabeled antibody peroxidase-antiperoxidase technique. rSMC-immunoreactive substance (rSMC-IRS) was found in the neuronal cells of forebrain structures. These included the caudate nucleus/putamen, hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, globus pallidus and amygdala. No positive cells were found in the cerebral cortex. Investigation of the dwarf brain showed rSMC-IRS distributed in identical areas of the brain, although the intensity of the staining of rSMC-IRS was found to be weaker than that of the positive cells in the normal brain. Moreover, the number of positive cells was found to be less than in the normal brain. After treatment with bovine GH for 3 days the reduced number of positive cells and weaker staining in the cerebral sections of the dwarf mice did not change. Thus, rSMC may represent another peptide which is common to both the endocrine and the nervous system, with a potential neurotransmitter/neuromodulator function in the CNS.
Subject(s)
Insulin-Like Growth Factor I/analysis , Somatomedins/analysis , Animals , Brain/immunology , Brain Chemistry , Brain Mapping , Growth Hormone/pharmacology , Immunoenzyme Techniques , Immunohistochemistry , Mice , Mice, Mutant StrainsABSTRACT
Alcoholic stupor with aspiration has been the most commonly recognized cause of lung abscess. Eighty-nine patients treated for lung abscess in a large community hospital from 1968 through 1982 have been described. Forty-six percent of these patients were 60 to 80 years of age. The most common predisposing factors included pneumonia, immunosuppression steroid therapy, carcinoma at a distant site, alcoholism, and lung cancer. Surgical therapy was employed in 23 patients when there was suspicion of cancer and failure to improve with medical management. Fifty-seven percent of patients were either cured or improved at the time of discharge. Twenty-nine percent died from other causes during hospitalization, and 9 percent died as a direct result of the abscess. Thus, the patients encountered in the community hospital setting tended to be older and had a wide variety of illnesses that precipitated the development of lung abscesses.
