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En una célula cualquiera existen miles de proteínas distintas ubicadas en regiones precisas de ésta y sometidas a un continuo recambio. Es así como existen proteínas ubicadas en porciones precisas de la membrana plasmática, en las membranas de particulare

INTRODUCTION Spinal cord infarction is the commonest vascular disorder of the spinal cord, but its incidence is low and difficulty in diagnosis means that often it is not recognized. Although cases of spinal cord infarction have been reported as complicating angiographic procedures, it rarely occurs nowadays. CLINICAL CASE We describe a case of spinal cord infarction following coronariography. The patient was a 61 year-old man with ischemic cardiopathy who was admitted to our hospital for coronariographic study. Immediately after the study had been done, the patient complained of acute, intense lumbar pain with paraesthesia and progressive weakness of his legs, developing paraparesia and sphincter disorders. Magnetic resonance of the spine was done and in the spinal cord an oval lesion was seen in the medullar cone which was compatible with infarction. Six months later this finding was unchanged. CONCLUSION A spinal infarction as a complication of invasive vascular studies, such as angiographies, is exceptional nowadays, but should be remembered as a possible adverse effect. It may be suspected in cases of acute lumbar pain with motor and sensory defects of the legs and may be confirmed on magnetic resonance studies of the spinal cord.

INTRODUCTION Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy type 2C (LGMD2C) is an autosomal recessive dystrophy due to the deficit of gamma-sarcoglycan, one of the proteins of the dystrophin-associated proteins complex (DAP). A new mutation in the gamma-sarcoglycan gene, 13q12, has been described recently and is exclusive of the gypsy community. OBJECTIVE To describe the clinicopathological and the genetic findings of eleven cases from a Spanish gypsy family with LGMD2C and the mutation C283Y. MATERIAL AND METHODS We describe a large gypsy family with the C283Y mutation and eleven affected patients. We have performed an extensive clinical and pathological study with immunohistochemistry and Western blot analyses in the eleven patients and a genetic study of a total of twenty-seven members of the family. RESULTS The patients presented a severe muscular dystrophy with a dystrophic pattern in the muscle biopsy, normal immunolabeling for dystrophin, very weak for alpha-, beta- and delta-sarcoglycan and absent for gamma-sarcoglycan. These eleven patients were found to be homozygous for the mutation and twelve other members of the family, heterozygous. CONCLUSIONS The clinical picture and the evolution of the disease herein described is similar to that observed in DMD. Two fundamental differences were found: the autosomal recessive mode of inheritance, and the normal immunohistochemistry and immunoblot for dystrophin in the skeletal muscle.

El aislamiento social puede entenderse como una forma de deprivación sensorial. Se sabe que ambientes enriquecidos o complejos estimularmente afectan al SNC tanto a un nivel anatómico como fisiológico. En nuestro estudio, se usaron dos grupos de ratas, uno formado por animales aislados durante 30 días desde el final de la lactancia y un grupo control, que permaneció en grupos de tres animales durante el mismo período. Se analizó en los animales el metabolismo oxidativo cerebral del hipocampo (areas CA1, CA3 y giro dentado) mediante histoquímica para la citocromo c oxidasa (CO). Los resultados muestran un incremento significativo de la actividad CO en todas las regiones estudiadas en el grupo aislado, con diferencias entre las areas hipocampales en ambos grupos. Se discute la sensibilidad de la histoquímica de la CO en el estudio del posible papel activador del estrés en los animales aislados

Raúl Ortiz1,3, José Prados1, Consolación Melguizo1, José L Arias2, M Adolfina Ruiz2, Pablo J Álvarez1, Octavio Caba1,3, Raquel Luque4, Ana Segura5, Antonia Aránega11Institute of Biopathology and Regenerative Medicine (IBIMER), 2Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain; 3Department of Health Science, University of Jaén, Jaén, Spain; 4Service of Medical Oncology, Virgen de las Nieves Hospital, Granada, Spain; 5CSIC-Estacion Experimental del Zaidin, Department of Environmental Protection, Granada, SpainAbstract: This work aimed to develop a new therapeutic approach to increase the efficacy of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in the treatment of advanced or recurrent colon cancer. 5-FU-loaded biodegradable poly(ε-caprolactone) nanoparticles (PCL NPs) were combined with the cytotoxic suicide gene E (combined therapy). The SW480 human cancer cell line was used to assay the combined therapeutic strategy. This cell line was established from a primary adenocarcinoma of the colon and is characterized by an intrinsically high resistance to apoptosis that correlates with its resistance to 5-FU. 5-FU was absorbed into the matrix of the PCL NPs during synthesis using the interfacial polymer disposition method. The antitumor activity of gene E from the phage ΦX174 was tested by generating a stable clone (SW480/12/E). In addition, the localization of E protein and its activity in mitochondria were analyzed. We found that the incorporation of 5-FU into PCL NPs (which show no cytotoxicity alone), significantly improved the drug's anticancer activity, reducing the proliferation rate of colon cancer cells by up to 40-fold when compared with the nonincorporated drug alone. Furthermore, E gene expression sensitized colon cancer cells to the cytotoxic action of the 5-FU-based nanomedicine. Our findings demonstrate that despite the inherent resistance of SW480 to apoptosis, E gene activity is mediated by an apoptotic phenomenon that includes modulation of caspase-9 and caspase-3 expression and intense mitochondrial damage. Finally, a strongly synergistic antiproliferative effect was observed in colon cancer cells when E gene expression was combined with the activity of the 5-FU-loaded PCL NPs, thereby indicating the potential therapeutic value of the combined therapy.Keywords: colon cancer, combined therapy, 5-fluorouracil, gene therapy, E gene, poly (ε-caprolactone)