Running effects on cognition and plasticity (ReCaP): study protocol of a longitudinal examination of multimodal adaptations of marathon running.

Regular moderate physical activity (PA) has been linked to beneficial adaptations in various somatic diseases (e.g. cancer, endocrinological disorders) and a reduction in all-cause mortality from several cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric diseases. This study was designed to investigate acute and prolonged exercise-induced cardio- and neurophysiological responses in endurance runners competing in the Munich Marathon. ReCaP (Running effects on Cognition and Plasticity) is a multimodal and longitudinal experimental study. This study included 100 participants (20-60 years). Six laboratory visits were included during the 3-month period before and the 3-month period after the Munich marathon. The multimodal assessment included laboratory measurements, cardiac and cranial imaging (MRI scans, ultrasound/echocardiography) and neurophysiological methods (EEG and TMS/tDCS), and vessel-analysis (e.g. retinal vessels and wave-reflection analyses) and neurocognitive measurements. The ReCaP study was designed to examine novel exercise-induced cardio- and neurophysiological responses to marathon running at the behavioral, functional and morphological levels. This study will expand our understanding of exercise-induced adaptations and will lead to more individually tailored therapeutic options.

Soluble Pityrosporum-derived chemoattractant for polymorphonuclear leukocytes of psoriatic patients.

The chemoattraction of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) from psoriatic patients, atopic patients and healthy control persons by Pityrosporum orbicularelovale was investigated using the Boyden chamber method. The chemotactical attraction of PMNs from psoriatic patients by Pityrosporum (stimulation index SI = 58 +/- 50) was significantly increased (p < 0.05) compared to PMNs from atopic patients (SI = 20 +/- 17) and control persons (SI = 26 +/- 24). This effect seems to be specific for Pityrosporum, since the chemotactical response to Staphylococcus epidermidis was not increased in psoriasis. The chemotactical factor produced by Pityrosporum is hydrophilic and is destroyed by acid hydrolysis, indicating its protein nature. The yeast Pityrosporum may thus play a role in the koebnerization of psoriasis.

[Therapeutic problem. Angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia]. / Therapeutisches Problem. Angiolymphoide Hyperplasie mit Eosinophilie.

A 35-year-old female patient suffered from angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia for 9 years, with multiple, exophytic tumours on her left pinna and the surrounding skin. Systemic treatment with gamma interferon and glucocorticoids, intralesional injections of glucocorticoids and argon laser therapy had no effect. After the tumours had been pared away by electrocautery the patient was free of symptoms for 1 year and then developed a small local recurrence. Recurrences are common in angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia. Malignant transformation has not been observed. We therefore regard non-radical surgery as the therapy of choice.

Anthralin is a potent inhibitor of pityrosporum orbiculare/ovale in vitro.

Two strains of Pityrosporum orbiculare/ovale were grown in a liquid medium and exposed to different concentrations of the imidazoles ketoconazole and clotrimazole as well as anthralin, liquor carbonis detergens and salicylic acid. With regard to growth inhibition of yeast cells, the efficacies of anthralin and the imidazoles were similar, a half-maximal inhibition being achieved with an anthralin concentration of 7 mg/l. Liquor carbonis detergens and salicylic acid also inhibited growth of Pityrosporum orbiculare/ovale, but only at much higher concentrations. The response to salicylic acid was mainly due to its acid pH.

Enzyme kinetic and inhibition analyses of cytochrome P450XVII, a protein with a bifunctional catalytic site. Quantification of effective substrate concentrations at the active site and their significance for intrinsic control of the hydroxylase/lyase reaction sequence.

An enzyme kinetic analysis of the cytochrome P450XVII-dependent testicular steroid-17 alpha-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase system was performed which catalyzes simultaneously, at one active site, the formation of androstenedione from progesterone (productive pathway, coordinated performance of both hydroxylase and lyase activities) and the formation of 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone as the intermediate (abortive pathway, isolated performance of hydroxylase activity only). Progesterone was used as the substrate and promegestone (17 alpha, 21-dimethyl-4,9(10)-pregnadiene-3,20-dione) or estradiol as competitive inhibitors, and description of the data was based on the discrimination of those alternative routes of progesterone metabolism. The overall catalytic activity of P450XVII obeyed Michaelis-Menten kinetics (control incubations: V = 440 nM/min with 80 nM P450XVII, Km = 140 nM), and KI values amounted to 6.8 microM for promegestone and to 23.5 microM for estradiol. In contrast, analysis of the rates of both abortive and productive events yielded curvilinear Eadie-Hofstee plots. The former presented an apparent negative cooperative behavior with nh = 0.78 in the region of Kh, while the latter presented an apparent substrate inhibition behavior with the maximal rate occurring at that progesterone concentration where nh for the abortive path reached its minimum. Consequently, the ratio of productive versus abortive catalytic events decreased with increasing substrate supply, but did not reach zero. Effective substrate concentrations [S]eff with respect to either the productive or the abortive pathway were derived from Hill plots. Linearization of Eadie-Hofstee plots and parallel calculation methods using these [S]eff instead of [S] yielded V = 236 nM/min and [S]eff(0.5) = 131 nM for the abortive events and V = 217 nM/min and [S]eff(0.5) = 38 nM for the productive events. Both promegestone and estradiol were identified as competitive inhibitors of either reaction after consideration of effective progesterone concentrations. With the inhibitors, ratios of productive versus abortive events were constantly higher at a given substrate concentration than in control incubations, although neither promegestone nor estradiol affected progesterone or 17 alpha-hydroxyprogesterone accumulation in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane compartment. Rather, a linear correlation between ratios of productive versus abortive events and the overall catalytic rate as a measure of E.S complex concentration was obtained irrespective of the absence or presence of inhibitor. It was therefore concluded that promegestone and estradiol inhibit access or binding of progesterone to P450XVII, whereas the relative efficiency of androgen formation is solely dictated by the local substrate concentration being effective with respect to E.S formation. A model of P450XVII function is presented which proposes that excess substrate at the active site of the P450XVII enzyme protein hinders a certain fraction of a putative transient intermediate from being retained at the bifunctional catalytic site with the consequence that it cannot be further processed to androgen.

The preservation of fungal cultures by lyophilization.

A method for the preservation of fungal strains is presented. The cultures are grown on Sabouraud glucose agar in glass ampoules and lyophilized without further processing. By this method the macroscopical morphology of the cultures is preserved, so that these can be used immediately without recultivation as reference cultures. All tested mould and yeast strains remained viable over the six months duration of the experiment, whereas the dermatophyte strains could only partially be recultivated.

PIXE analysis in uninvolved skin of atopic patients and aged skin.

PIXE (proton-induced X-ray emission) analysis was used to determine the elemental distribution in normal-appearing skin of patients suffering from atopic eczema and in the skin of elderly people. With this technique, elements with atomic numbers greater than or equal to 14 can be detected simultaneously in cryosections of skin biopsies down to a concentration of 1 ppm. Compared with a control group, the epidermal concentrations of Zn and Cu, which are constituent parts of a variety of enzymes, were increased in uninvolved skin of patients with atopic eczema. An increased concentration of these two metals might indicate that even in the epidermis of clinically normal skin of atopic patients, the content of certain enzymes is increased. In the epidermis of elderly people the level of K was lower and that of Ca was higher than in the epidermis of a younger age group. The decreased K level may reflect a reduction of the intracellular volume in the epidermis of aged skin. As high Ca concentrations inhibit the proliferation of and promote the differentiation of keratinocytes, elevated Ca levels may be of importance for the age-associated decrease in epidermal turnover rate.

Isolation and characterization of monoclonal antibodies directed against different epitopes of type-1-like fimbriae from a multifimbriated E. coli strain.

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were raised against purified fimbriae isolated from the uropathogenic E. coli strain WF96 (O7:K1:H6:F11rel,F10). This strain expresses at least four different types of fimbriae. 11 MAbs were selected for further characterization. They are directed against epitopes of a fimbrial type which is composed of 19.5 kDa subunits. It resembles type 1 fimbriae with regard to its high resistance to disruption by SDS. The MAbs were tested for crossreactivity to type 1 fimbriae and other fimbriae with known F-serotypes by ELISA. Two of these MAbs, Pili III 2F7 and Pili III 68C5, were directed against an epitope which was also found on MS fimbriae (type 1). Thus type 1 like fimbriae of E. coli WF96 share at least one epitope with MS fimbriae. Nevertheless, the antigenic properties of these two fimbrial types were found not to be completely identical, since all the other 9 MAbs were not crossreactive. The MAbs were not able to inhibit haemagglutination of erythrocytes of different species and thus not directed against adhesive sites of the fimbriae. All the epitopes detected by MAbs were accessible on native fimbriae; some of them were also detectable on denatured fimbrial subunits. Electron micrographs revealed that these epitopes were evenly distributed on the fimbrial organelle.

[Effect of an anthralin-containing hydrocolloid dressing in psoriasis vulgaris]. / Effekt eines Anthralin-haltigen Hydrokolloid-Verbandes bei Psoriasis vulgaris.

We investigated the effect of hydrocolloid dressings on the clearing of chronic plaque psoriasis. In comparison to a short-contact therapy with anthralin alone, following application of a hydrocolloid dressing accelerated the clearing of the plaques. This effect was significant after 3 weeks of therapy. A considerable improvement was achieved by the application of a hydrocolloid dressing containing anthralin. For this purpose anthralin in concentrations of 0.02 to 0.20 mg/cm2 was applied to the dressing immediately after it had been solved in acetone. The acetone was evaporated, and the anthralin was left on the dressing in a homogenous layer. In our study, the difference to short-contact anthralin was significant after 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks of therapy. We conclude that this new way of anthralin application is suitable for the treatment of psoriasis and has therapeutical as well as technical advantages over a treatment with anthralin ointments.

[Topical administration of cyclosporin in psoriasis vulgaris]. / Lokale Anwendung von Cyclosporin bei Psoriasis vulgaris.

Two groups of patients with chronic plaque psoriasis were topically treated either with 10% cyclosporin in a jelly base or with 5% cyclosporin in an ointment base under occlusion. We found that cyclosporin penetrates into the lower epidermis and the dermis, when it is applied under occlusion. Obviously, the target cells are neutrophil granulocytes, since they decrease in number under cyclosporin, whereas the other inflammatory cells as well as the epidermal proliferation remain unchanged. In contrast to systemic application of cyclosporin, we did not observe any clinical differences between plaques treated with cyclosporin and those treated with placebo.

An immunological study of otitis media with effusion. Antibodies directed against coagulase-negative staphylococci in the effusion fluid.

From 14 chronic middle ear effusions (MEEs), 17 strains of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CS) were isolated. We then used an ELISA method to determine the antibody titers against these microorganisms in the corresponding effusion fluids and the blood sera of the patients and compared them to the antibody titers against a group of standard CS. In most cases, no specific immune response could be detected against the infecting CS in either the effusion fluids or in the sera. Our results can be explained by the inability of most CS strains to provoke a specific immune response in chronically inflamed middle ears due to their inhibition by non-specific antibodies, which reach the middle ear cavity by plasma leakage. The non-specific antibody titer against Staphylococcus hominis, however, seems to be much lower than against the other CS species. We found a high specific antibody titer against the infecting CS in the effusion fluid of a single case, but not in the serum. This finding supports the hypothesis that the middle ear mucosa has the ability to produce autonomous, local antibodies which are independent of a systemic immune response.

A bacteriological study of otitis media with effusion. Concurrent coagulase-negative staphylococcal infections in the middle ear.

We investigated the bacteriology of 50 chronic middle ear effusions from 30 children (mean age, 5 years 4 months) and compared this with the microorganisms present in the external ear canals and adenoids of each patient to distinguish pure middle ear bacteria from probable contaminations. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CS), formerly considered to be non-pathogens, were the most frequently isolated bacteria in the middle ear effusions and were followed in incidence by alpha-hemolytic streptococci and group D streptococci. CS were found in 24% of all effusions and in 44% of the infected effusions. Most of the CS strains belonged to the species of Staphylococcus epidermidis. Although the majority of CS isolated from the middle ear effusions studied proved not to be contaminants, the populations of CS in the middle ear and external ear canal showed similar biochemical reaction patterns, antimicrobial susceptibilities, and in vitro production of mucus. No correlation was found between the bacteria present in adenoidal tissue and middle ear effusions.

Direct effect of androgens on progesterone binding and metabolism in rat testis microsomes.

A possible site of action at which androgens may control their own biosynthesis in rat testicular tissue in terms of an intratesticular feedback mechanism is investigated. It is shown that both progesterone (Ks = 0.45 microM) and testosterone (Ks = 14.7 microM) induce spectral changes at microsomal cytochrome P-450; these spectral effects are not additive and therefore both steroids may act on the same species of cytochrome P-450. This hypothesis is supported by the observation of competitive inhibition by testosterone of progesterone binding to solubilized microsomal proteins (Ki = 10.0 microM) and of progesterone conversion to androgens (Ki = 14.3 microM). It is concluded that rat testicular androgen biosynthesis is subject to feedback regulation not only via the pituitary-testicular axis but also by direct action of androgens on microsomal reactions dependent on progesterone-binding cytochrome P-450.