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B Jordan

Publications and source records attributed to B Jordan.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Separate P2T and P2U purinergic receptors with similar second messenger signaling pathways in UMR-106 osteoblasts.

UMR-106 rat osteogenic sarcoma cells express two calcium signaling P2 purinergic receptors. One is a P2U receptor with EC50's for adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and uridine triphosphate (UTP) of 2.6 and 2.4 microM, respectively. The other is a novel P2T receptor for adenosine diphosphate (ADP) (EC50 0.4 microM), adenosine 5'-O-(2-thiodiphosphate). (EC50 5 microM), 2-methylthio ATP (EC50 0.2 microM), and 2-methylthio ADP (EC50 0.04 microgram M). Responses to these ligands are desensitized by ADP but not by UTP. Responses to UTP and ATP are desensitized by UTP but not by ADP or adenosine 5'-O-(2-thiodiphosphate). 2-ChloroATP interacts with both receptors at high concentrations but with only the P2T receptor at low concentrations (EC50 0.05 microM). The weak platelet P2T receptor antagonist AMP blocks this P2T and not the P2U receptor. Addition of ATP after UTP desensitization of P2U receptors inhibits subsequent responsiveness to ADP but evidence for rapid conversion of ATP to ADP complicates interpretation of this apparent antagonism of P2T receptors by ATP. A subpassage of UMR-106.P135 cells lose P2U but retain P2T ligand responsiveness. Activation of either P2 receptor increases cellular IP3 concentrations in UMR-106 cells. Neither receptor can activate divalent cation entry as evidenced by their lack of effect on Mn++ quenching of fura-2 fluorescence. Neither receptor can modify parathyroid hormone receptor-mediated elevation of cellular cyclic AMP. This receptor for ADP demonstrates many of the same characteristics of the ADP receptor which we have previously reported as a P2T receptor expressed in K562 and Dami cells.

Adenosine Diphosphate

Communications between medical referrers and child psychiatry staff.

Communicating in organisations is often seen as the key to good practice, good relationships and good service. A survey was conducted on what communication was wanted by medical referrers to a Department of Child and Family Psychiatry, the types of feedback preferred, and its timing and content. The main finding was that paediatricians received different and better information about referred patients than general practitioners.

Child

[Continuous oxygen therapy at home. Observations of oxygen users after an instruction program].

The benefit of continuous domiciliary oxygen therapy (OCD) directly depends on the number of hours the oxygen is used daily. The observance of a correct regime is rarely met at present. For this reason we have done a prospective study for 24 months, assessing the compliance of 64 patients from 28 to 82 years of age. All these patients received a systematic and personal programme of education for 2 days in hospital. We subsequently measured, without the knowledge, either of the patient or the person caring from them, the quarterly oxygen usage. The mean duration of oxygen therapy was 14.7 +/- 3.6 hours. It remained stable during the 2 years of observation: 51% of the patients achieved a treatment of 15 hours or more and 10%, 10 hours or less. We did not find a significant correlation between the hours of compliance and the age, sex, FEV1, FVC and PaO2 or haemoglobin saturation. A significant statistical correlation with the PaCO2 was obtained. The more educated patients had better compliance levels than those of lesser education. The results obtained were better than those found in the literature at the present time. Perhaps it is explained by the level of education given. It cannot be excluded, however, that our severe criteria for the prescription of OCD has selected a population which was more susceptible to achieving good compliance. However, these results encourage the initiation of another prospective study using a control group to make a better assessment of the impact of education on the patient and his carers by the improved compliance in OCD.

Adult

Relatives' recall of a psychiatric interview.

One hundred seventeen patients from the Burke Rehabilitation Center (White Plains, NY) with clinically diagnosed dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) were identified for a case-control study (CCS) designed to assess risk factors for DAT. A psychiatric evaluation was part of the Burke dementia workup. The study sample was composed of 96 relatives who (a) were present with the patient at the psychiatric evaluation and (b) were interviewed for the CCS. The data for this study were the relatives' responses to the question "Did your relative (patient with DAT) ever see a psychiatrist?" The recall of relatives, regardless of relationship category (spouse, adult children, and others) did not exceed the 50% recall predicted by chance. When the age of the relative and length of time between the two interviews were considered, they did not modify these results.

Adult

YAC power.

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Animals

The 11q13 amplicon of a mammary carcinoma cell line.

Fifteen to 20% of breast carcinomas show amplification of genes located at 11q13. The HST/FGFK and INT2 fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-related genes and the BCL1 locus are usually present in the amplification units. We have investigated the structure and chromosomal location of the 11q13 amplicon of the MDA-MB-134 mammary carcinoma cell line by using in situ chromosomal and pulsed field gel hybridizations. The results indicate that a limited number of amplification units are involved in the constitution of an extended chromosomal region located on 11q. These units do not show any important rearrangement over rather large distances around the HST/INT2 and BCL1 loci.

Blotting, Northern

Molecular mapping of the human T cell receptor gamma (TRG) genes and linkage of the variable and constant regions.

In the human T cell receptor gamma (TRG) locus, fourteen variable (TRGV) genes belonging to four subgroups have been identified upstream of two constant region (TRGC) genes. Three joining segments, JP1, JP and J1, have been localized upstream of TRGC1, and two others, JP2 and J2, upstream of TRGC2. In this report, we demonstrate that a unique Xho I fragment of 120 kilobases (kb) contains the fourteen TRGV genes and that the hybridization of that fragment in pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) allows linkage of the variable region to the constant region locus. We also show that the variable and the constant regions are remarkably close to each other since the distance between V11, the most 3' V gamma gene, and JP1, the most 5' J gamma segment, is only 16 kb. With its 14 V gamma genes, spanning 100 kb, the two C gamma genes and 5 joining segments covering less than 40 kb and only 16 kb separating the most 3' V gene from the most 5' J segment, the human TRG locus spans 160 kb of genomic DNA and represents a particularly condensed locus compared to the other rearranging gene loci.

Amino Acid Sequence

Compliance and the patient's perspective: controlling symptoms in everyday life.

Non-compliance with medical advice is poorly understood. Most of the existing literature considers the problem only from the doctor's point of view. We undertook a diachronic, qualitative study of the illness experiences of 19 women to try to understand non-compliance from the patient's perspective. Three-fourths of our study group had ceased to follow their doctor's recommendations by four months post-diagnosis. Their non-compliance could not be explained by the fact that the women held understandings of their illnesses which were incongruent with their physician's; nor were they unable to understand the diagnosis they received. A consideration of the roles that their diagnosis and treatments played in their daily lives proved more useful in explaining their failure to follow physicians' recommendations. Patients' use of treatments reflected their desire to control symptoms within the constraints of their daily routines.

Activities of Daily Living

Cosmopolitical obstetrics: some insights from the training of traditional midwives.

In most countries of the third world, strategies for development in the health sector include efforts to upgrade the skills of village level health care workers, including traditional birth attendants (TBAs). In spite of several decades of experience, training programs for TBAs have not been particularly successful. Drawing on data from several years of ethnographic fieldwork with Maya midwives in Yucatan and on participation in government-sponsored training courses for indigenous midwives, this paper examines some of the reasons underlying this failure. Paramount among these are differences in world view and the misapplication of didactic modes of teaching in situations where learning in the apprenticeship mode is more appropriate and culturally customary.

Clinical Competence

Views of what's wrong: diagnosis and patients' concepts of illness.

A group of women were interviewed about their construction of their illness experiences before they saw a physician and subsequently over a period of several months following consultation. It was found that the physician's input was one of many components of their post-consultation understanding of their illnesses. The women built up their understandings in an interactive process, drawing significantly on their prior histories, ongoing experiences and social worlds. They continually tried out, adjusted and reworked the construction of their illnesses to adapt them to the exigencies of everyday life. We conclude that illness explanations are dynamic entities whose adequacy is determined by their usefulness within the extra-medical social environment.

Adult

A study of functionally active amino acids involved in the interaction of HLA-A2 or HLA-A3 molecules with cytolytic T lymphocytes.

A large series of HLA-A2/HLA-A3 recombinant genes were generated by using the in vivo recombination technique. These genes have each been modified in the last two-thirds of the third exon such that one or several HLA-A2-specific substitutions have been made in the HLA-A3 gene and vice versa. The recombinant genes were transfected into the murine cell line P815 and the transfectants were used as targets for a series of 20 human CTL lines or clones specific for HLA-A2 or HLA-A3, or restricted by HLA-A2 and specific for influenza A. Several patterns of anti-HLA-A2, anti-HLA-A3, and HLA-A2-restricted anti-influenza CTL activity were observed and when uncloned cell lines were studied, a progressive selection of some clones with a similar pattern of activity was regularly found. From the comparison of these different patterns the following conclusions can be drawn: 1) In most but not all cases both domains of the class I molecule were essential for CTL recognition, but residue 152 was critically important for the majority of CTL tested; 2) amino acids 114/116 were also critical in most cases, and their position close to amino acid 152 in the tertiary structure of the molecule may have some functional significance; and 3) amino acid 161, although highly conserved, plays an unexpected but very important role in CTL function.

Amino Acids

Hybrid genes between HLA-A2 and HLA-A3 constructed by in vivo recombination allow mapping of HLA-A2 and HLA-A3 polymorphic antigenic determinants.

HLA-A2 and -A3 genes have been modified in their third exon (second domain) by using in vivo recombination. In this method Escherichia coli are transfected with a plasmid which contains two highly homologous sequences (e.g., the third exons of HLA-A2 and -A3) and has been linearized by cleavage between these two sequences. Circularization takes place in the bacteria by homologous recombination leading to hybrid A2-A3 sequences. The analysis by DNA sequencing of a number of such recombinants shows that they indeed occur by homologous recombination (no insertions or deletions) and that the probability of crossing over decreases as the distance from the free end of DNA in the homologous region increases. No double recombinants were observed. These hybrid exons were reinserted into either HLA-A2 or HLA-A3 genes, thus generating a panel of functional hybrid genes containing one or several HLA-A2 specific substitutions in an HLA-A3 background or vice versa. These genes were expressed by transfection into murine P815-high transfection efficiency recipient cells. Serologic analysis leads to the conclusion that expression of polymorphic antigenic determinants specific for HLA-A2 (detected with M58, A2A28M1, and CR11.351 mAb) is linked to the presence of threonine residue (amino acid (AA) 142) and/or histidine residue (AA 145) and valine residue (AA 152). The expression of specific HLA-A3 polymorphic determinants (recognized by GAP-A3 mAb) is correlated with the existence of a asparagine residue (AA 127) and a aspartic residue (AA 161). But aspartic residue 161 contributes with glutamic acid residue 152 in the formation of the A3 epitope recognized by the anti-A3 mAb X1.23.2.

Antibodies, Monoclonal

H2-restricted recognition of cloned HLA class I gene products expressed in mouse cells.

Long-term syngeneic mouse cytolytic T lymphocyte (CTL) clones were obtained from DBA/2 (H2d) mice immunized with P815 (H2d) cells transfected with cloned human class I histocompatibility genes, HLA-CW3 or HLA-A24. Three distinct patterns of specificity were defined on P815 HLA transfectant target cells. One clone lysed HLA-CW3 but not -A24 transfectants, and a second lysed HLA-A24 but not -CW3 transfectant target cells. The third clone lysed P815 targets transfected with either HLA gene. None of the CTL clones lysed L cells (H2k) transfected with the same HLA genes or human targets that expressed these HLA specificities. Several lines of evidence indicated that recognition of HLA transfectants by these CTL clones was H2 restricted. First, lysis of P815 HLA transfectants could be inhibited by anti-H2Kd monoclonal antibody. In addition, the anti-P815-HLA CTL clones could lyse a (human X mouse) hybrid target that expressed both HLA class I and H2Kd antigens, but not a clonal derivative that no longer expressed H2Kd. The most direct evidence for H2-restricted recognition of P815-HLA transfectants by the syngeneic CTL clones was obtained by double transfection of mouse L cells (H2k) with both HLA and H2 class I genes. L cells transfected with HLA and H2Kd genes were susceptible to lysis by the same CTL clones that lysed the corresponding P815-HLA transfectant targets. Thus under certain conditions, CTL recognition of xenogeneic class I histocompatibility gene products can be restricted by other class I gene products.

Animals

Naltrexone and Alzheimer's disease.

Naltrexone, an oral opiate antagonist, was administered to nine patients with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's-type dementia (ATD) in a two-phase design: an open dose-ranging phase and a double-blind placebo-controlled trial for patients who showed improvement during the open phase. After a three day placebo (baseline) period, patients received increasing doses of naltrexone over two weeks up to a maximum daily dose of 100 mg. Assessments were made at baseline and at daily dose of 5 mg, 50 mg and 100 mg. Testing was done 2 to 4 hours after medication was administered. Any patient who showed cognitive/behavioral improvement on a given dose of naltrexone was then treated with this dosage in a double-blind crossover comparison to placebo. Criteria for inclusion in the double-blind phase consisted of improvement on three behavioral scales and at least one cognitive test on a given dose of naltrexone. Each double-blind phase followed a one-week washout and was two weeks long. Two of the nine patients demonstrated apparent cognitive enhancement on 100 mg daily of naltrexone and were then tested in the double-blind crossover period. Only one of these patients improved during active naltrexone administration. We conclude that the opiate antagonist naltrexone in a dosage range of 5-100 mg daily is not efficacious in ATD.

Alzheimer Disease

Essential fatty acid supplementation in tardive dyskinesia.

Preclinical and clinical observations suggest that enhancement of prostaglandin activity inhibits catecholamine release and may have antidyskinetic effects. A double-blind therapeutic trial with prostaglandin precursor essential fatty acids was conducted in 16 patients with tardive dyskinesia. No beneficial effects were seen.

Clinical Trials as Topic