RESUMEN
We investigated the relationships between tumor necrosis factor (TNF) gene polymorphism, circulating TNF-alpha (TNF-alpha) concentrations, and bone mineral density (BMD) in the lumbar spine. TNF gene polymorphisms studied were the Nco I polymorphism within the first intron of TNF-beta (TNF-beta) and three single nucleotide polymorphisms in the promoter region of the TNF-alpha gene, at positions -857, -863, and -1031. Allelic variants of the TNF gene were identified using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis in 177 postmenopausal Japanese women within 10 years after menopause, aged 56.4 +/- 4.5 years (mean +/- SD). A significantly higher prevalence of the alleles TNF-alpha-863A (20.3% versus 9.9%) and TNF-alpha-1031C (21.3% versus 12.4%) was seen in the low BMD group (Z-score < 0, n = 91) than in the high BMD group (0 < Z-score, n = 86). In genotype analysis, although difference did not reach a significant level, women with the rarest allelic variants, i.e., homozygous TNFbl, TNF-alpha-863A, and TNF-alpha-1031C, showed the lowest BMD Z-scores. Women with another rarest allelic variant, TNF-alpha-857T/T had significantly lower BMD Z-scores than did women with TNF-alpha-857C/T or -857C/C. The BMD Z-score decreased significantly with an increase in the total number of such rare alleles. Serum concentrations of TNF-alpha did not differ significantly among groups divided by genotypes. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the total number of rare alleles, in addition to the body mass index and the number of years since menopause, was an independent predictor of the BMD. These presumptive functional polymorphisms of the TNF gene may be associated with the lumbar spine BMD in early postmenopausal Japanese women.
Asunto(s)
Pueblo Asiatico , Densidad Ósea/genética , Vértebras Lumbares/metabolismo , Polimorfismo de Nucleótido Simple , Posmenopausia , Factor de Necrosis Tumoral alfa/genética , Absorciometría de Fotón , Cartilla de ADN/química , Ensayo de Inmunoadsorción Enzimática , Femenino , Humanos , Japón/epidemiología , Desequilibrio de Ligamiento , Linfotoxina-alfa/genética , Persona de Mediana Edad , Osteoporosis Posmenopáusica/epidemiología , Osteoporosis Posmenopáusica/genética , Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa , Polimorfismo de Longitud del Fragmento de Restricción , Factor de Necrosis Tumoral alfa/metabolismoRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Menstruation and ovulation are the main events during the menstrual cycle. Menstruation may influence the complete blood count because of its blood loss. Since ovulation is an inflammatory-like phenomenon, white blood cell count may change during ovulation. For these reasons, we have investigated the complete blood count and peripheral serum concentrations of associated cytokines during the normal menstrual cycle. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Normal healthy female volunteers (N = 9; age, 21-33 years) with menstrual cycles of 25-33 days recorded basal body temperature every day and venous blood samples were collected three times per week. Complete blood count was performed and erythropoietin, granulocyte-colony, stimulating factor, interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-6 and hormones (FSH, LH, estradiol and progesterone) were measured. RESULTS: The red blood cell, total white blood cell, granulocyte and platelet counts showed no statistically significant changes during the menstrual cycle when using analysis of variance with the Scheffe F-test. No changes in erythropoietin, interleukin-1 beta and interleukin-6 were seen throughout the menstrual cycle. In contrast, serum granulocyte-colony stimulating factor concentrations increased significantly to 28.0 +/- 3.1 pg/ml (mean +/- S.E.M.) during the ovulatory phase, compared to 10.7 +/- 0.6 pg/ml in other phases. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that menstrual blood loss does not affect the complete blood count and suggest that granulocyte-colony stimulating factor plays and important role in the mechanism of ovulation.
Asunto(s)
Eritropoyetina/sangre , Factor Estimulante de Colonias de Granulocitos/sangre , Interleucina-1/sangre , Interleucina-6/sangre , Ciclo Menstrual/fisiología , Adulto , Análisis de Varianza , Recuento de Células Sanguíneas , Eritropoyetina/análisis , Femenino , Factor Estimulante de Colonias de Granulocitos/análisis , Humanos , Interleucina-1/análisis , Interleucina-6/análisis , Ciclo Menstrual/sangre , Radioinmunoensayo , Valores de ReferenciaRESUMEN
Antibiotics, especially cephems, have been improved remarkably in the last 20 years. In order to evaluate the improvement of antibiotics used for the prophylaxis of infections after radical hysterectomy, two groups of patients (group A, 1978-1979, n = 54; group B, 1985-1987, n = 55) were examined in regard to bacteriological and clinical effects. In spite of the improvement of antibiotics, the positive rate of bacteriological analysis had increased from 44.4 to 76.4%. Obvious decrease of gram-negative bacilli and increase of gram-positive cocci (GPC), e.g. Enterococcus, were observed. In contrast, fever index and febrile morbidity of group B decreased significantly more than those of group A. These results indicate that the improvement of antibiotics has brought more effective prophylaxis in the postoperative infection in spite of the high positive rate of GPC.
Asunto(s)
Cefalosporinas/uso terapéutico , Infecciones por Bacterias Gramnegativas/prevención & control , Infecciones por Bacterias Grampositivas/prevención & control , Histerectomía , Enfermedad Inflamatoria Pélvica/prevención & control , Premedicación , Infección de la Herida Quirúrgica/prevención & control , Femenino , Infecciones por Bacterias Gramnegativas/epidemiología , Infecciones por Bacterias Grampositivas/epidemiología , Humanos , Japón/epidemiología , Persona de Mediana Edad , Enfermedad Inflamatoria Pélvica/epidemiología , Estudios Retrospectivos , Infección de la Herida Quirúrgica/epidemiologíaRESUMEN
The mesometrial artery (MA), which is the final part of the uterine artery in guinea pig, supplies nutrients and oxygen to the fetus and placenta during pregnancy. Accompanying fetal growth, MA increases 8-fold in diameter, and 30- to 50-fold in weight, protein content and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) content. The importance of MA in the maintenance of pregnancy was examined by comparing the proliferative rate of MA during pregnancy and abortion induced by antiprogesterone RU38486 30 mg/kg. MA was incubated in Medium 199 with 185kBq/ml 3H-thymidine for 4h and the rate of 3H-incorporation into MA was used as the proliferative rate. The proliferative rate of MA during the first trimester (day less than 20) was 2,825 +/- 1,036 Bq/mg.h, which is almost 100 times higher than the rate in diestrus animals. During the later course of pregnancy, the proliferative rate decreased logarithmically, being 352 +/- 58 (40 less than or equal to d less than 50), 158 +/- 23 (50 less than or equal to d less than 60) and 75 +/- 10 (60 less than or equal to d). The proliferative rate of MA was measured also in animals which received RU38486 30 mg/kg at 24-48 h prior to the measurement and whose fetuses were still alive. The proliferative rates of MA in such animals decreased markedly to 141 +/- 21 (40 less than or equal to d less than 50) and 37 +/- 8 (50 less than or equal to d less than 60) (p less than 0.01), which means that the proliferation of MA is reduced even before the death of the fetus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)