[Plasma malondialdehyde in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and in patients with coronary disease]. / Malondialdehído plasmático en pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 2 y en pacientes con enfermedad coronaria.

UNLABELLED: After intracoronary platelet aggregation, malondialdehyde (MDA), a lipid peroxide product is released. MDA renders some lipoproteins more atherogenic. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the sanguineous concentration of MDA in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) and patients with coronary disease. We measured methods and material MDA in plasma of 131 consecutive normal subjects, 44 hyperlipidemic, hyperglycemic patients with type 2-diabetes mellitus (DM2), 60 normolipidemic patients with angina, and 62 normolipidemic patients with acute myocardial infarction with and without DM2. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The concentration of MDA was lowest in normal subjects (42.5 +/- 7.2 micrograms per deciliter), intermediate in those with DM2 (62.7 +/- 10.1 micrograms per deciliter, p < 0.002), and highest in those with myocardial infarction (101.6 +/- 31.7 micrograms per deciliter, p < 0.001). The mean MDA concentration of patients with infarction was similar to that of patients with angina (121.8 +/- 51.9 micrograms per deciliter, p < 0.07). Stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that MDA was a possible predictor of myocardial infarction. CONCLUSIONS: The increase of plasma MDA might be a biochemical marker of coronary artery disease. We suggest that MDA levels greater than 62.7 micrograms per deciliter could indicate a high risk for myocardial infarction.

[Immunity, the trophoblast and decidua]. / Inmunidad, trofoblasto y decidua.

It is as if the embryo has learnt to foil the maternal inflammatory/immune system. Acting through trophoblastic protein-1, the conceptus inhibits prostaglandin F-2a synthesis and thereby prolongs corpus luteum survival. In addition, that protein (an interferon variant), suppresses T cell proliferation. Other interferons (b and g), prostaglandin E-2 and progesterone, synthesized by trophoblast and decidua, act in concert to help the embryo to elude the aggression of the immune system. Failure of these mechanisms leads to reactivation of maternal killer T cells, mononuclear infiltration in the conceptus and its demise.

[Premature ovarian insufficiency and nuclear organizer regions in triplicate]. / Insuficiencia ovárica prematura y regiones organizadoras nucleolares en tripleta.

Silver-staining of the nucleolus organizer region, which represents transcription of ribosomal ribonucleic acid genes, was herein studied in the acrocentric chromosomes of a patient with premature ovarian failure. The demonstration of an additional nucleolar organizer region in the peripheral lymphocytes, suggests a causal relationship between transcriptive activity and this type of ovarian failure.

[Simultaneous identification of the nucleolar organizing regions and G bands in obstetrical cytogenetic studies]. / Identificación simultánea de las regiones organizadoras nucleolares y de las bandas G en el estudio citogenético en obstetricia.

An improvement of the silver-staining method of the nucleolus organizer region with simultaneous trypsin-Giemsa-banding is described. The combined demonstration of such regions (which express the transcriptive activity of ribosomal ribonucleic acid genes) and the precise identification of chromosomes, particularly acrocentric chromosomes, should be of value in the investigation of parents with spontaneous abortion in whom abnormal acrocentric chromosomes are often encountered.

[Pancreatic beta cells and cytokines]. / Las células beta del páncreas y citocinas.

Over the past decade the study of Interleukins and Interferons has advanced from functional descriptions to detailed structural understanding. The ability of these growth factors to act, directly or through immune mechanisms on the pancreatic beta-cell and to affect in vitro and in vivo both its morphology and physiology, indicate that they may play a role in the pathogenesis and prevention of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Also, the relation between these cytokines-constitutive or upon stimulation maybe useful to predict the development of diabetes mellitus.

[Interleukins, interferon and the development of the endometrial epithelium]. / Interleucinas, interferón y desarrollo del epitelio endometrial.

The subject of endometrial epithelial growth control by the cytokine system has been scantily addressed in the literature. This article analyses the effects of cytokines on the endometrium in order to improve our understanding regarding the autocrine, paracrine and systemic mechanisms that govern cell differentiation and tumor formation in human endometrial epithelial cells.

Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in human serum proteins in "normal" individuals and cancer patients.

The electrophoretic pattern of serum proteins of 100 "normal" adults and 97 non treated patients bearing different types of neoplasias were comparatively studied in polyacrylamide gel to find out if there are specific proteins or protein patterns in cancer. Densitometry was used to complete the study so as to analyze quantitative differences for each one of the regions of the arbitrarily divided electrophoregram of both types of sera. Strictly standardized colorimetric technique was used to quantify total proteins. Protein nomenclature was taken from literature data. As an average we found more bands in the cancer bearing patients than in "normal" individuals that also showed greater colour affinity in proteins. In the different regions, the main feature of neoplasia case was the presence of fewer bands in the post albumin (PA) and alpha-beta (post-beta) zones and many in 7s-globulin region (7s-g) than those found in "normals". The most important changes in the electrophoretic pattern of cancer patient serum were: a) Decrease in prealbumin (Pa), albumin (Alb), some from the postalbumin region (PA) and transferrin (T); frequent absence of ceruloplasmin (Cer) and complement factor 3 (C3) in a reduced number of cases. b) Marked increase of one alpha 1 glycoprotein in the PA region, hemopexin, haptoglobins and alpha 2-macroglobulin. Densitometry was useful to improve data obtained from visual analysis of gels but it could not make a quantitative differentiation of changes observed in beta and 7s-g regions. There was no significant difference in total protein concentration. Advantages and limitations of this method are discussed and results obtained are analyzed.