[Stress among public safety and security forces. Genetic and physiopathology]. / Lo stress nelle Forze dell'Ordine. Genetica e fisiopatologia.

Hans Selye used the word "stress" exactly 68 years ago, in hi paper "A syndrome produced by diverse nocuous agents", published in Nature. The syndrome termed as "stress" induces hormonal autonomic responses and, over time, these hormonal changes can lead to ulcers, high blood pressure, arteriosclercosis, arthritis, kidney disease and allergic reactions. The aim of this study is to analyse the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), the response of the body to external stimuli, and the current knowledge about biochemistry, physiology and stress genetics. The police forces work is a complex profession, particularly liable to stress disease, as the adverse occurrences of the social life add to the stressing events specifics of callings regarding public order keeping. The results of the present study suggests the advisability of instituting a preventive monitoring for these workers.

Low-copy microsatellite markers for Pinus taeda L.

Eighteen low-copy and genomic microsatellite markers were tested for Mendelian inheritance and then assayed in 41 Pinus taeda L. samples drawn from five regions in the southern United States. The PCR products had multiple alleles, high levels of polymorphism, and little non-specific priming. Fifteen of the 18 markers were informative for a P. taeda three-generation RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) pedigree, and a P. taeda population survey revealed three to 28 alleles per locus. The highest allele numbers and polymorphic information content (PIC) values were associated with complex repeat sequences and (or) with sequences consisting of the longer strings of perfect repeats. The abundance of low- to rare-frequency alleles also accounted for high PIC values in both types of markers. Low-copy microsatellites are useful for the large, complex pine genome, especially in the absence of entire gene sequences in public databases and with the low levels of polymorphism in markers developed from expressed sequence tags (ESTs).

Numerical abnormalities of chromosomes 1 and 10 in endometrial adenocarcinoma: fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of 23 archival paraffin-embedded samples.

Retrospective analysis of chromosomal changes in endometrial carcinoma was performed by fluorescence in situ hybridization on free nuclei isolated from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue. We examined 23 archival samples for numerical aberrations of chromosomes 1 and 10 with the use of specific DNA probes for the pericentromeric and centromeric regions of these two chromosomes. Numerical aberrations of chromosomes 1 and 10 were detected in 39% of the case analyzed, and the frequency of trisomy 10 tended to increase as the histological grade worsened. Our findings confirm the association of cytogenetic anomalies involving chromosomes 1 and 10 with endometrial carcinoma, as reported by other studies, and suggest that changes in centromere 10 copy number may correlate with the degree of tumor differentiation.