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Objective: To determine whether plasma concentrations of thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor (TAFI) in patients with type 2 diabetes were associated with components of metabolic syndrome (MS), including high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1, and LDL cholesterol.Research Design and Methods: We studied 136 consecutive patients with type 2 diabetes. Diagnosis of MS was diagnosed by current criteria. Hypercholesterolemia (HC) was defined as serum LDL cholesterol >140 mg/dl (3.6 mmol/l) or treatment with a statin. For comparisons, diabetic patients were divided into four groups: those with no MS and no HC (n = 38), with MS but not HC (n = 39), with no MS but with HC (n = 26), and with both MS and HC (n = 33).Results: Considering all patients with type 2 diabetes, plasma PAI-1 was strongly associated with MS components such as BMI, triglyceride, alanine aminotransferase, a homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, and hs-CRP. Plasma TAFI only correlated positively and independently with LDL cholesterol. Plasma concentrations of plasmin-alpha2-antiplasmin complex (PAP), a measure of fibrinolytic activity in blood, showed a significant negative correlation with plasma PAI-1 but not TAFI. Diabetic patients with both MS and HC had the highest serum hs-CRP concentrations and the lowest plasma PAP concentrations.Conclusions: LDL cholesterol is a main determinant of plasma TAFI in patients with type 2 diabetes. Coexistence of MS and HC synergistically accelerates inflammation and impairment of fibrinolysis via elevated concentrations of both TAFI and PAI-1, which inhibit fibrinolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replacement of external NaCl with LiCl induced cytoplasmic alkalinization in CCL-39 cells and rat L6 myoblasts expressing the endogenous Na+/H+ exchanger isoform NHE1. This Li+-induced alkalinization is due to activation of the Na+/H+ exchanger because it was completely inhibited by 100 µM ethylisopropylamiloride (apparent Kd=1 µM) and because it did not occur in exchanger-deficient PS120 cells. The effect of Li+ was not mimicked by Na+, K+, Cs+ and choline+. Li+ caused cytoplasmic alkalinization in PS120 cells expressing NHE1 or NHE2, but not NHE3, when Li+ was added to cells at a concentration high enough to saturate their external transport sites as predicted from Li+ affinities. Li+ did not induce phosphatidylinositol (PI) turnover or intracellular Ca2+ mobilization. Li+-induced alkalinization was not affected by protein kinase C down-regulation, loss of glycogen synthase kinase 3β caused by antisense oligonucleotide treatment, or pretreatment with calphostin C, pertussis toxin, MEK inhibitor PD98059 and PI3-kinase inhibitor LY294002. However, it was markedly suppressed by the tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein (10 µM). Thus, externally added Li+ activates NHE1 and NHE2 via a mechanism possibly involving a tyrosine kinase, causing an increase in cytoplasmic pH that could potentially affect various cell functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study, which attempted to obtain cross-sectional information on the development of the reaction time of mentally retarded children and to explain the data through the analysis of perceptual-motor factors. The mentally retarded subjects were 43 male children, ranging in age from seven to thirteen years, from a graded special school for the mentally retarded. The body reaction time of mentally retarded children was measured, dividing the time into the following two components: time required to start the motion in response to stimulus, and the time during which the muscles are contracting. The speed of reaction time of mentally retarded children is slower at each age in comparison with that of non-retarded children.

An 88-year-old woman who developed a nodule in a lesion of seborrheic keratosis on the frontal scalp was observed. Histopathologically, the nodule was characterized by lobular acanthosis consisting of glycogen rich clear cells and squamoid cells with squamous eddies and melanin blockade melanocytes. Each lobule was covered with an orthokeratotic horny layer which formed wedge-shaped masses in its central area without formation of an intervening granular layer. The clinical course and histopathological findings suggest that the tumor cells in seborrheic keratosis may tend to a new development of trichilemmal differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which examined the transverse magnetoresistance of a dysprosium nickel single crystal. Methodology; Results and discussion; Conclusions.

The idea of encoding and decoding multiple wavelength divisions simultaneously in optical fast frequency hopping code-division multiple access (FFH-CDMA) by periodic spectral feature of the sampled fiber Bragg grating was proposed for the first time. This is thought to be an effective method for the future device manufacture in the hybrid system of FFH-CDMA and wavelength-division multiple access (WDMA) for signal communication technology. It also shows the simultaneous programmability of FFH-CDMA coding pattern for multiple WDMA channels by controlling temperature. The experiment was carried out to study its feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]