Clinical characterization of cardiovascular abnormalities associated with feline mucopolysaccharidosis I and VI.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to define the cardiovascular abnormalities present in young and adult cats affected with the lysosomal storage diseases mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) I and MPS VI. METHOD: Eighteen cats affected with MPS I and 10 cats affected with MPS VI were evaluated by physical examination, electrocardiography and echocardiography. Electrocardiography (ECG) was performed on all MPS I and 9 of the MPS VI cats. Twelve unaffected cats underwent complete examinations for comparison purposes. RESULTS: No cardiovascular abnormalities were noted on physical examination. Measured ECG intervals were normal in affected cats; however, sinus arrhythmia was noted more frequently than in the unaffected cats. Significant echocardiographic abnormalities included aortic valve thickening, regurgitation and aortic root dilation. Significant mitral valve thickening was also noted. The severity of changes increased in older affected cats. CONCLUSION: As affected animals increased in age, more cardiac abnormalities were found with increasing severity. Significant lesions included the mitral and aortic valves and ascending aorta, but myocardial changes were not recognized. MPS I and MPS VI cats have similar cardiovascular findings to those seen in children and constitute important models for testing new MPS therapies.

Towards deciphering phloem: a transcriptome analysis of the phloem of Apium graveolens.

Events occurring in the phloem tissue are key to understanding a wide range of developmental and physiological processes in vascular plants. While a considerable amount of molecular information on phloem proteins has emerged in the past decade, a unified picture of the molecular mechanisms involved in phloem differentiation and function is still lacking. New models to increase our understanding of this complex tissue can be created by the development of global approaches such as genomic analysis. In order to obtain a comprehensive overview of the molecular biology of the phloem tissue, we developed a genomic approach using Apium graveolens as a model. cDNA libraries were constructed from mRNAs extracted from isolated phloem of petioles. Expression data obtained from the analysis of 989 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and the transcript profile deduced from a cDNA macroarray of 1326 clones were combined to identify genes showing distinct expression patterns in the vascular tissues. Comparisons of expression profiles obtained from the phloem, xylem and storage parenchyma tissues uncovered tissue-specific differential expression patterns for given sets of genes. The major classes of mRNAs predominantly found in the phloem encode proteins related to phloem structure, metal homeostasis or distribution, stress responses and degradation or turnover of proteins. Of great interest for future studies are the genes we found to be specifically expressed in the phloem but for which the function is still unknown, and also those genes described in previous reports to be up or downregulated by specific interactions. From a broader prospective, our results also clearly demonstrate that cDNA macroarray technology can be used to identify the key genes involved in various physiological and developmental processes in the phloem.

Relationship of the pelargonium flower break carmovirus (PFBV) coat protein gene with that of other carmoviruses.

The 3'-terminal 1500 nucleotides of the genome of pelargonium flower break carmovirus (PFBV) were sequenced from RT-PCR amplification products. One large ORF was found, encoding a 345 amino acid protein of Mr 37 kDa, which corresponds to the coat protein, as confirmed by immunoprecipitation of products of in vitro transcription and translation. The sequence also included the putative promoter of the coat protein gene subgenomic RNA, as well as its 5' and 3' untranslated regions. The PFBV coat protein was more similar to that of saguaro cactus virus and carnation mottle virus than to that of other carmoviruses. Despite the lower level of similarity of CP gene sequences compared to the RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene sequences of small icosahedral viruses used in taxonomic studies, PFBV CP sequence comparisons and alignments confirmed that PFBV is related to carmoviruses, tombusviruses and a dianthovirus, as previously concluded from the analysis of a PFBV RdRp gene fragment.