Effects of heat shock, stannous chloride, and gallium nitrate on the rat inflammatory response.

Heat and a variety of other stressors cause mammalian cells and tissues to acquire cytoprotection. This transient state of altered cellular physiology is nonproliferative and antiapoptotic. In this study, male Wistar rats were stress conditioned with either stannous chloride or gallium nitrate, which have immunosuppressive effects in vivo and in vitro, or heat shock, the most intensively studied inducer of cytoprotection. The early stages of inflammation in response to topical suffusion of mesentery tissue with formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP) were monitored using intravital microscopy. Microvascular hemodynamics (venular diameter, red blood cell velocity [Vrbc], white blood cell [WBC] flux, and leukocyte-endothelial adhesion [LEA]) were used as indicators of inflammation, and tissue levels of inducible Hsp70, determined using immunoblot assays, provided a marker of cytoprotection. None of the experimental treatments blocked decreases in WBC flux during FMLP suffusion, an indicator of increased low-affinity interactions between leukocytes and vascular endothelium known as rolling adhesion. During FMLP suffusion LEA, an indicator of firm attachment between leukocytes and vascular endothelial cells increased in placebo and gallium nitrate-treated animals but not in heat- and stannous chloride-treated animals, an anti-inflammatory effect. Hsp70 was not detected in aortic tissue from placebo and gallium nitrate-treated animals, indicating that Hsp70-dependent cytoprotection was not present. In contrast, Hsp70 was detected in aortic tissues from heat- and stannous chloride-treated animals, indicating that these tissues were in a cytoprotected state that was also an anti-inflammatory state.

Gender differences in participation and responsiveness to a health intervention for older Americans.

Women increasingly outnumber men in the US population (Arber & Ginn, 1993), but most research has been conducted with men (Stacey & Olesen, 1988). The purpose of this study was to determine whether older men and women differ in their participation rates and in their responsiveness to a health intervention. Three hundred sixty-three health maintenance organization members with osteoarthritis, 60 years of age or older, were randomly assigned to a control group or to receive social support, education, or a combination of education and social support, education, or a combination of education and social support. Of the 363 randomly assigned members, 245 completed all of the follow-up assessments. Men and women volunteered in proportion to their representation in the osteoarthritis population. Although the genders differed in several ways, the interventions were equally effective for men and women, and the study results applied to both genders.

Predicting health care use among older osteoarthritis patients in an HMO.

OBJECTIVE: To determine factors that predict health care use among members of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs). Demographic, health, and psychological factors were examined simultaneously. METHODS: Participants were HMO members 60 years of age or older who had osteoarthritis (OA). All participants reported symptoms of OA, with 90% of the diagnoses confirmed by evaluation of physician records. RESULTS: Age, the presence of other medical conditions, quality of well-being, and the Health Worries subscale from the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales accounted for 11.2% of the total variance in health care contacts. A model including prior health care use, age, quality of well-being, physical impairment, and pain accounted for 29.5% of the variance in utilization rates. CONCLUSION: The best single predictor of health care utilization was prior use of the system. Being older, more impaired, and having lower well-being scores were also predictors of health care use.

Cloning and nucleotide sequence of a full length cDNA encoding ribosomal protein L27 from human fetal kidney.

Differential screening of a human fetal kidney cDNA library resulted in the isolation of D69, eventually renamed HumRPL27, which was expressed at higher levels in fetal kidney than in adult kidney. The 476 bp cDNA insert from HumRPL27 contains an open reading frame of 135 amino acids displaying 100% identity to rat RPL27 and chicken RPL27 predicted protein sequences although 64 and 38 silent base pairs changes respectively are found at the DNA level. In Northern blots, a 1.0 kb HumRPL27 mRNA transcript is expressed abundantly in all fetal tissues examined and at lower abundance in adult tissues. Southern analysis of HumRPL27 suggests the presence of multiple copies of the gene in human, rat, mouse and hamster DNA.

Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy: incidence and mortality, 1968--1972.

To determine the number of tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies (T-As) from 1968 to 1972 and their associated morbidity and mortality rates, a questionnaire was sent to all the hospitals listed in the Directory of the American Hospital Association (6,759). The data were analyzed and statistical projections were made. An analysis was also made of the summary report of the "Study on Surgical Services for the United States," with regard to the incidence of T-A was also made. The results are presented in the following report.

Globus hystericus -- office evaluation by phychological testing with the MMPI.

Ninety-nine patients, twenty-three men and seventy-six women, who complained of a lump in the throat were evaluated with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, which revealed that these patients had a higher than average score on the depression and the hypochondriasis scales. The intensity of this finding was greater in males. One must never overlook the possibility of a neurotic patient also having serious organic disease.