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H Pons

Publications and source records attributed to H Pons.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Melatonin protects mice infected with Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus.

We investigated whether the administration of melatonin (MLT) reduces the death rate and evolution of the disease in mice infected with Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) virus. Our results show that, MLT protects mice infected with the virus. The mortality rate was reduced from 100% to 16% merely by increasing the dose from 0 to 1000 micrograms/MLT per kg body weight MLT significantly postponed the onset of the disease and death by several days. In surviving mice very high titres of VEE virus IgM antibodies were found seven weeks after virus inoculation. MLT significantly reduced VEE virus levels in blood and brain of infected mice and increased the survival rate when the length of pretreatment was augmented from 3 to 7 or 10 days before virus inoculation. Serum levels of interleukin-2 were not affected by MLT administration. In control mice receiving MLT as well as in infected mice treated or non-treated with MLT, interferon gamma levels in sera were increased. Interleukin-4 concentrations were found to be elevated in sera of non-infected mice receiving MLT, but did not differ from controls in infected mice treated or non-treated with the hormone. MLT reduced the degree of cell destruction produced by VEE virus in culture plates of chicken embryo fibroblasts. The protective effect of MLT warrants further investigation of the possibility of using this hormone for the treatment of humans and equines infected with VEE virus.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

[Role of the practitioner after accidents related to ionizing radiation].

Accidents due to ionizing radiations can be nuclear accidents, concerning a large part of the population, or radiological accidents which may, at higher doses, irradiate a limited number of persons. In case of nuclear accident, radioactive rejections lead to an irradiation and/or a contamination, and induce the "préfet" to take public health measures. According to the dose possibly received by the population, measures can be the continuation of normal life, confinement, distribution of stable iodine, restriction of certain food consummation, evacuation being the ultimate measure. General practitioner will be an important actor in the information of the populations. When a radiological accident occurs, the management will depend on the type of accident and the dose emitted. This treatment of medico-surgical emergency is an absolute priority, if traumatic lesions are associated, on nuclear risk, especially when prognosis for life is involved. Lesions associated to radiolesions worsen the prognosis.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed1994

[Molecular diagnosis of Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy in Venezuelan patients with the polymerase chain reaction].

Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD) are recessive X-linked neuromuscular diseases produced by allelic mutations in the human dystrophin gen. In the present study we determined the 14-deletion prone exons by multiplex PCR in 24 no related venezuelan patients with clinical diagnosis of DMD/BMD. We found 37% of intragenic deletions of which 77% were located at the "hot spot" deletion region that includes exons 44 to 55. The present study show that deletion frequency observed in venezuelan patients resembles some Asian populations and is lower than that observed in Europe and North America. The explanation of the low frequency detected in our patients is beyond the present study, but it is likely that different mutations, ocurring at other regions of the gene is determining a molecular heterogeneity of the DMD/BMD disease in Venezuela.

Chromosome Deletion↗
PubMed1985

Synergistic effect of albumin and transferrin on the mitogen stimulation of human mononuclear leukocytes in serum-free medium.

It is well known that optimal lymphocyte proliferation in vitro requires the supplementation of the culture medium with serum, the usual concentration varying between 5% and 20%. In an attempt to reduce the serum requirement of lymphocytes in culture, we have found that supplementation of RPMI 1640 medium with as low as 1% human serum allows an adequate proliferation of human peripheral blood lymphocytes cultured in microtiter plates in a CO2 atmosphere and stimulated by phytohemagglutinin. In serum-free cultures, the addition of albumin (4 mg/ml) or transferrin (10 micrograms/ml) allows a significant proliferation of lymphocytes. This permissive effect was cell concentration-dependent, being maximal at 2 X 10(5) cells/well. The simultaneous addition of albumin and transferrin produced a synergistic effect, the phytohemagglutinin-induced proliferation being higher than expected from the addition of the two proteins separately. This synergistic effect was observed in 89% of the subjects studied (8 out of 9). These results suggest that albumin and transferrin are required for optimal lymphocyte proliferation and that the serum can be partially substituted by these two proteins.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The epidemiological information system of the French national electricity and gas company: the SI-EPI project.

SI-EPI is epidemiological information system set up in 1978 in the national electricity and gas company, Electricité de France-Gaz de France (EDF-GDF). The worker population comprises about 150,000 individuals, involved in production, transmission and distribution of energy. SI-EPI was developed by the epidemiologists of the Occupational Health Department (180 physicians), and of the Sécurité Sociale Department (120 physicians). Several data bases constitute SI-EPI. The population data base contains demographic, socioeconomic and professional data about each worker. The health data base is an exhaustive register of sick leave, accidents, permanent disabilities, compensated diseases, causes of death and cancer incidence among active workers. The Occupational Exposure and Working Conditions data base includes the MATEX job-exposure matrix (30 potentially carcinogenic agents) and FINDEX files which record data obtained from the systematic individual surveillance of workers. The GAZEL cohort data base concerns a sample of more than 20,000 volunteer workers, followed since 1989; in addition to data from the data bases, it contains information collected from other different sources, including self-questionnaires. Numerous epidemiological studies based on SI-EPI data have been conducted by in-house epidemiologists as well as by external research groups. They include mortality and morbidity studies and address various topics and health problems. Their results are used for internal information, as well as for epidemiological research purposes.

Adult↗