The present study describes the PCR amplification of GM-CSF-inhibitory factor (GIF) and Uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) encoding genes of pseudocowpoxvirus (PCPV) from the Indian Dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius) infected with contagious ecthyma using the primers based on the corresponding gene sequences of human PCPV and reindeer PCPV, respectively. The length of GIF gene of PCPV obtained from camel is 795 bp and due to the addition of one cytosine residue at position 374 and one adenine residue at position 516, the open reading frame (ORF) got altered, resulting in the production of truncated polypeptide. The ORF of UDG encoding gene of camel PCPV is 696 bp encoding a polypeptide of 26.0 kDa. Comparison of amino acid sequence homologies of GIF and UDG of camel PCPV revealed that the camel PCPV is closer to ORFV and PCPV (reference stains of both human and reindeer), respectively.

In a sheep production system, effects of body composition on nutrient requirements for maintenance, tissue deposition and lean meat production may be important. Composition of body fractions differing in expected metabolic activity was measured for 12 nonpregnant, nonlactating, 3- to 4-yr-old ewes from each of seven breeds representing diverse body size and performance characteristics. Half the ewes in each breed had ad libitum access to feed and half were fed at maintenance levels for an average of 41 d. Ewes were slaughtered after a 72-h fast. Empty bodies were divided into visceral organs and blood (ORB); gastrointestinal tract and internal fat (GIF); head, hooves and pelt (HHP); and carcass (CAR). Water, fat, ash and the remaining fat-free dry organic matter (FFDOM) contents were determined for each fraction. Mean empty body weight (EBW) was 60.8 kg and mean composition was 47.6% water, 34.1% fat, 14.8% FFDOM and 3.5% ash. Among breeds, larger mature size generally was associated with a higher percentage of fat and a lower percentage of water (P less than .01), in agreement with carcass composition. Ewes with ad libitum access to feed had more fat and less water in their EBW than did those fed at maintenance levels, especially in the GIF fraction. Distribution of EBW averaged 58.1%, CAR, 19.0%, GIF, 15.4% HHP and 7.5% ORB. The larger, faster growing breeds had the highest proportion of the EBW and of each chemical component located in the carcass. The smaller, more prolific breeds had the highest percentages of EBW in the ORB and GIF fractions. Effects of these large genetic differences in body composition and tissue distribution on production efficiency need to be evaluated.

The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare two methods of jejunal biopsy-endoscopic (EB) and suction (SB). Jejunal EB was performed using an Olympus GIF P20 endoscope in 119, and SB with a modified Crosby capsule in 254 patients. A light microscope with micrometer was used for the analysis and measurement of biopsy specimens. Calculated per patient, the total average number of all adequate specimens was: jejunal or duodenal mucosa -2.97 in EB and 0.93 in SB; jejunal mucosa only -2.82 in EB and 0.89 in SB group. Duodenal mucosa was unintentionally biopsied in 17.1% of EB and in 3.7% of SB. Jejunal mucosal specimens were selected for measurement at random -82 from the EB and 24 from the SB group. The difference in height between EB and SB specimens was not significant (EB: 0.72 +/- 0.13 mm; vs SB: 0.77 +/- 0.14 mm). The difference in length was significant (EB: 2.57 +/- 1.24 mm; vs SB: 3.22 +/- 1.38 mm; P = 0.03). The advantages of the EB over the SB technique included elimination of fluoroscopy, no failures in obtaining biopsies and a 97% success rate in obtaining specimens adequate for histological analysis. It also enabled the biopsy site to be chosen and several specimens to be taken, providing additional tissue for various analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

Jejunal endoscopic biopsy is suggested as a good alternative to the suction biopsy, wherever paediatric upper gastrointestinal endoscopy is available.

Among 1000 successive endoscopic examinations carried out in the first 6 months of 1990 in a laboratory of endoscopy 443 cases (44.3%) of sliding hiatus hernia were analysed. The examination was carried out with an Olympus GIF-Q10 fibroscope without pharmacological premedication. The diagnosis was based on the criteria described by Dagradi and Trujillo at all. In 296 cases sliding hiatus hernia was the only pathological abnormality in the endoscopic examination. In 85 cases it was associated with mucosa inflammation in the oesophagus, and in 1 case with carcinoma of the oesophagus. No correlation was found between frequency of endoscopic finding of hiatus hernia and sex and age. The analysis showed that in 110 out of 172 cases earlier routine radiological examination (63.9%) failed to demonstrate the hernia, whose direct signs were found in endoscopic examination. In no case radiological findings suggested the presence of oesophageal changes. It seems that endoscopic diagnostic of sliding hiatus hernia may contribute to explanation of the cause of "non-characteristic" gastric symptoms which in over half the cases were the cause of referral of the patients to this examination.

Downloading medical images on the Web creates certain compromises. The tradeoff is between higher resolution and faster download times. As resolution increases, download times increase. High-resolution (photographic quality) electronic images can potentially play a key role in medical education and patient care. On the Internet, images are typically formatted as Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) or the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) files. However, these formats are associated with considerable data loss in both color depth and image resolution. Furthermore, these images are available in a single resolution and have no capability of allowing the user to adjust resolution as needed. Images in the photo compact disc (PCD) format have higher resolutions than GIF or JPEG, but suffer the disadvantage of large file sizes leading to long download times on the Web. Furthermore, native web browsers are not currently able to read PCD files. The FlashPix format (FPX) offers distinct advantages over the PCD, GIF, and JPEG formats for display of high-resolution images on the Web. A Java applet can be easily downloaded for viewing FPX images. FPX images are higher resolution than JPEG and GIF images. FPX images offer rich resolutions comparable to PCD images with shorter download times.

As from 1983, endoscopy with biopsy in general anesthesia was used instead of the capsule suction method in children with suspected coeliac disease in a county hospital. A study was carried out to evaluate mean endoscopy time, duration of general anesthesia, complications and quality of biopsies. An ordinary Olympus GIF-Q endoscope (diameter 11 mm) was used in 17 patients, eight boys and nine girls. Mean age was 5.9 years (range 11 months-14 years). Mean endoscopy time was 5.3 min. and of duration of general anesthesia 13.6 min. No serious complications such as perforation or bleeding were recorded. All the biopsies that were taken were considered representative. In coeliac disease the method is time-sparing, less harmful to the children, provides representative biopsies and gives fewer complications.

OBJECTIVE

To study the clinical application and the safety of electronic gastroscopy in infants at ages of 0-3 months.

METHODS

An Olympus electronic gastroscope GIF 260 or GIF 230 was applied in 177 infants at ages of 0-3 months with upper gastrointestinal symptoms. An ECG Monitor II was used for monitoring heart rate, cardiac rhythm and pulse transcutaneous oxygen saturation in 65 infants during the whole process of gastroscopy. Some related treatments were performed under the electronic gastroscope, such as removal of foreign body, topical administration of antihemorrhagic drugs, reduction of volvulus of stomach and bougienage of oesophagus.

RESULTS

All 177 infants were examined successfully and they all well tolerated. Forty-two cases demonstrated positive findings in 68 cases of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Ninety-two cases demonstrated positive findings in 104 cases of recurrent vomiting. Under the electronic gastroscope, removal of foreign body in the upper gastrointestinal tract was performed in 5 cases; topical administration of antihemorrhagic drugs or electrocoagulation for stopping bleeding in 22 cases; reduction of volvulus of stomach in 3 cases.

CONCLUSIONS

As a safe and visual means for diagnosis of digestive tract diseases, the electronic gastroscopy may be recommended for wide application in infants at ages of 0-3 months.

60 patients (p) with ages ranging between 19 and 73 (32 females and 28 males) were selected and randomized for a prospective study about he confirmation of endoscopic wounds reported like giardiasic duodenitis: a nodular whitish puncture over the mucous with a focal or diffuse pattern over. We tested the correlation between the endoscopic findings and the results of histopathology and fecal tests. A duodenoscopy until the second portion was made with an Olympus GIF-Q equipment, 2 biopsies were taken from the duodenal bulb and from the second portion. 45 (p) exhibited a typical aspect before mentioned. In this group we found the protozoa in the biopsies of 35 (p) (77.78%). The fecal test were positive for 22 of these (p) (48.88%) and negative for 23 (51.12%). 15 (p) had a normal duodenoscopy; 13 of these (p) had a negative biopsy (86.66%) and only two cases (13.33%) resulted in a positive biopsy for giardia. The results for the fecal tests were negative in 93.34% (p). The most common symptoms were: upper-abdominal pain (67.50), acidity (62.50%), pyrosis (25%) diarrhea (10%) and constipation (10%). The results of our study confirm that endoscopic lesions of duodenum observed as a whitish nodular puncture, over the mucous with a focal or diffuse pattern were compatible with a duodenitis caused by giardia lamblia. It was confirmed in the majority of cases with biopsy and in almost 50% of fecal test performed.

Human neuronal growth inhibitory factor (GIF), a metalloprotein classified as metallothionein-3, is specifically expressed in mammal central nervous system (CNS). In these Studies the specific antibody to human GIF was prepared and used to search the epitope of human GIF by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and sequence comparison. The result of ELISA showed the epitope of human GIF may locate on a octapeptide (EAAEAEAE) in the alpha-domain of human GIF, and the result of nerve cell culture indicated that the biological activity of GIF may be affected by the specific antibody.

In order to examine the elusive functional mechanism of GIF (Neuronal growth inhibitory factor, GIF) and elucidate the possible relationship between GIF and Alzheimer's disease, we constructed bait1 plasmid (pHyblex-GIF) by cloning GIF cDNA directly in frame with plasmid pHyblex, and used the yeast two-hybrid system to screen Alzheimer's disease human brain cDNA library and found the GIF-interacting proteins. The final results from coimmunoprecipitation and western blotting experiments confirmed that interacting proteins specifically binds to GIF. After sequencing the nucleotide of the putative positive plasmids and searching for homologues, we found that one of these is the part of human nuclear dUTPase protein sequence. Then the dUTPase genes are cloned into pGEX-4T-1, the fusion expression vector of GST,and highly expressed in E. coli BL21. The proteins dUTPase and GIF were purified and obtained by affinity chromatography, thrombin digestion and gel filtration on Sephacryl S100. It demonstrated that the proteins dUTPase and GIF had the growth inhibitory activity on co-cultured neuron in vitro. The inhibitory curve was very similar to the GIF. It's possible that dUTPase is one of the proteins interacting with GIF in Alzheimer's disease human brain extracts.

An 86-year-old man with dysphagia underwent gastrointestinal fiberscopy (GIF) and was found to have a circumferential type 3 advanced carcinoma in the upper thoracic esophagus and a type 2 tumor in the posterior wall of the gastric body. Microscopic examination of biopsy specimens of both tumors demonstrated moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. He was diagnosed as having stage IVb (T3N0M1b) esophageal carcinoma with gastric wall metastasis. A total of 60 Gy in 30 fractions of three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) was first administered to the esophageal carcinoma, next to the gastric wall metastasis. Concurrent chemotherapy was not given because of the patient's refusal. No subjective morbidity was observed during the treatment. In the GIF study immediately after 3D-CRT, both esophageal and gastric wall tumors had attained a complete response. The dysphagia dissolved as the esophageal tumor shrunk. The patient has been doing well for 17 months after the start of 3D-CRT. No local recurrence was observed in either the esophagus or the stomach during follow-up GIF. Considering the dismal prognosis of esophageal carcinoma patients with intramural metastasis to the stomach, a watchful follow-up is needed.

Complications of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy were analyzed in 30 cases with hepatic metastasis from colorectal cancer from July 1993 to February 2000 in our department. Thirty patients were treated with three kinds of arterial infusion course that mainly consisted of 5-FU. Complications resulting in interruption of therapy occurred in 10 patients (33%), and there was no difference in the incidence rate of complications among the three chemotherapy regimens. The complications with our therapy were hepatic arterial occlusion in two patients, catheter tip dislocation in four patients, fistulus between the hepatic artery and common bile duct in two patients, and fistulus between the hepatic artery and duodenal bulb in two patients. Four patients who had severe complications with fistulus all underwent hepatectomy, especially right hepatic lobectomy in two cases. Sixty percent of our patients had complications after hepatectomy, so regular GIF and DSA are necessary to prevent severe complications after hepatectomy.

Cognitive impairments and motor dysfunction are commonly observed behavioral phenotypes in genetic animal models of neurodegenerative diseases. JNPL3 transgenic mice expressing human P301L-mutant tau display motor disturbances with age- and gene dose-dependent development of neurofibrillary tangles, suggesting that tau pathology causes neurodegeneration associated with motor behavioral abnormalities. Although gait ignition failure (GIF), a syndrome marked by difficulty in initiating locomotion, has been described in patients with certain forms of tauopathies, transgenic mouse models mirroring human GIF syndrome have yet to be reported. Using the open field and balance beam tests, here we discovered that JNPL3 homozygous mice exhibit a marked delay of movement initiation. The elevated plus maze excluded the possibility that hesitation to start in JNPL3 mice was caused by enhanced levels of anxiety. Considering the normal gait ignition in rTg4510 mice expressing the same mutant tau in the forebrain, GIF in JNPL3 mice seems to arise from abnormal tau deposition in the hindbrain areas involved in locomotor initiation. Accordingly, immunohistochemistry revealed highly phosphorylated paired helical filament tau in JNPL3 brainstem areas associated with gait initiation. Together, these findings demonstrate a novel behavioral phenotype of impaired gait initiation in JNPL3 mice and underscore the value of this mouse line as a tool to study the neural mechanisms and potential treatments for human GIF syndrome.

There are several types of fungal sinusitis. The classification depends on the degree of invasion of the sinuses. The overarching categories are non-invasive and invasive fungal sinusitis. There are three subtypes of non-invasive fungal sinusitis (FS): Fungal ball (FB), saprophytic fungal sinusitis (SFS), and allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS). Similarly, there are three subtypes of invasive fungal sinusitis (IFS): acute invasive rhinosinusitis (AIRS), chronic invasive rhinosinusitis (CIRS), and granulomatous invasive sinusitis (GIFS). To accurately diagnose fungal sinusitis, a physician must take into account several variables, including patient history and clinical presentation, imaging, endoscopic biopsy with histopathology, and lab work. For this activity and to ease following the material, we classify the infections into allergic fungal sinusitis, fungal ball, invasive fungal sinusitis, and granulomatous sinusitis. The other categorization of fungal sinusitis has its basis on the immune-competence profile of patients. The broad understanding is that immunocompromised patients are the primary victims of fungal sinusitis. The non-invasive fungal sinusitis tends to primarily occur in immunocompetent individuals as opposed to invasive sinusitis's which are more prevalent in immunodeficiency. Invasive fungal sinusitis could be fatal in that the infection could spread into the intracerebral space; this correlates with an increase in mortality and morbidity of victims.[1][2] Immunocompromised patients should take special precautions and should be aggressively treated should there be any suspicion of fungal sinusitis.[1]

There is a correlation between the clinical expression of various allergic disorders and an abnormal production of IgEs. A series of factors were recently described which are probably involved in this hyperproduction of IgEs: the IgE binding factors SFA and EFa, the glycosylation enhancing or inhibiting factors GEF and GIF and interleukin 4. It seems that there is also a correlation between the incidence of viral infections of the respiratory tract and an abnormal production of IgEs. Finally there are hereditary predispositions for the development of allergic diseases. It is interesting to try to group in an hypothetical scheme all the different factors which seem to act in conjunction to produce a shift to an IgE overproduction by atopic B lymphocytes.

A comprehensive study about the structural engineering of high quality nanoporous anodic alumina optical microcavities (NAA-μCVs) fabricated by rationally designed anodisation strategies to enhance the light-confining capabilities of these photonic crystal (PC) structures is presented. Two types of NAA-μCV architectures are produced: (i) GIF-NAA-μCVs composed of a cavity layer featuring straight nanopores that is sandwiched between two gradient-index filters (GIFs) with sinusoidally modulated porosity in depth, and (ii) DBR-NAA-μCVs formed by sandwiching a cavity layer with straight nanopores between two distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), in which the porosity is engineered in a stepwise fashion. The geometric features of GIF-NAA-μCVs and DBR-NAA-μCVs are engineered and optimised through a systematic modification of the anodisation parameters (i.e. cavity anodisation time, cavity anodisation current density, anodisation period and number of anodisation pulses, and pore widening time). This methodology enables fine-tuning of the optical properties of GIF-NAA-μCVs and DBR-NAA-μCVs, such as quality factor and position and width of resonance band, to generate NAA-μCVs with unprecedented quality factors (i.e. 170 ± 8 and 206 ± 10 for the first and second order resonance bands - threefold and fourfold quality enhancement as compared to previous studies). Our results demonstrate that an optimal design of the geometric features and the nanoporous architecture of NAA-μCVs can significantly enhance resonant recirculation of light within these PC structures, creating new opportunities to develop ultrasensitive optical platforms, highly selective optical filters, and other photonic devices.

A correlation between natural killer (NK) cell activity and growth inhibition (GI), as measured in an in vitro assay with B16 melanoma cells, mediated by a serum growth-inhibitory factor (GIF), among various strains of mice has been demonstrated. Beige mice (bg/bg), known to express low NK-activity, were also low in GIF activity and showed increased susceptibility to both B16 melanoma cells and another solid tumor (Lewis lung carcinoma) in vivo. In vivo treatment with various protease inhibitors that reduced NK-activity, also reduced growth inhibition mediated by GIF. Protease inhibitors that did not affect NK-activity did not affect GIF either. All of 4 B16 melanoma clones selected against GIF in vitro and resistant to GIF showed both resistance to NK-cells in vitro and increased growth potential in vivo. However, P-815, an NK-resistant cell line, was sensitive to GIF.

OBJECTIVE

To develop new criteria of gastric and duodenal mucosa image assessment using endoscopic system for narrow band imaging (NBI).

METHODS

Endoscopic and morphological findings were compared in 460 patients with different chronic diseases of the stomach and duodenum. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy was made according to the standard technique by the gastroduodenoscope EVIS EXERA-II GIF H180 (Olympus, Japan) with NBI-system. Biopsy material was studied by standard pathomorphological techniques.

RESULTS

The novel system of the visual picture evaluation during conduction of endoscopic investigations in monochromatic light provides higher significance of identification of inflammatory and destructive processes in mucosa including foci of structural alterations, their location and extent.

CONCLUSIONS

We propose a protocol for description of the endoscopic picture in conduction of examinations with application of the NBI-system of visualization in monochromatic light. It can help physicians to correctly estimate the image and interpret the detected changes.

Growth inhibitory factor / metallothionein III (GIF / MT-III) is reported to have the unique property of suppressing neuronal survival and neurite promotion in vitro. We investigated changes in the expression of GIF mRNA within the facial nucleus using in situ hybridization as well as changes in the function of the facial nerve after nerve injury. Following crushing injury just distal to the stylomastoid foramen, movement of the ipsilateral whiskers was eliminated but returned by the 7th day. GIF mRNA expression decreased at 3 days after injury and returned in 7 days. However, when the nerve was cut and sutured immediately, it took one month for the facial function to recover. In this case, GIF mRNA expression decreased 3 days after injury, remained at a low level for 14 days, and finally returned in 3-4 weeks. Thus, changes in the expression of GIF mRNA were found to be closely related to the facial nerve function.

Using single crystal V2O5 as a sample, we tested the performance of the new aberration corrected GATAN spectrometer on a monochromatised 200 kV FEG FEI (S)TEM. The obtained V L and O K ELNES were compared with that obtained in a common GATAN GIF and that in the new spectrometer, without monochromatised beam. The performance of the new instrumentation is impressive: recorded with an energy-resolution of 0.22 eV, the V L(3) edge reveals all the features due to the bulk electronic structure, that are also revealed in near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) with a much higher energy-resolution (0.08 eV). All features of the ELNES and NEXAFS are in line with a theoretical spectrum derived from band-structure calculations.

BACKGROUND

The aim of the study was to evaluate the difference in macroscopic picture of the stomach in patients with food allergy and in non-atopic patients with H. pylori infection.

METHODS

In the study, patients with atopic diathesis, suffering from dyspepsia or abdominal pain were analysed. The study group included 72 women aged 16-57 years (mean age 36.5 years) and 38 men aged 16 and 60 years (mean age 34.4 years). Control group was formed of 40 patients without atopy (13 men and 27 women, aged 18-56 years--mean age 34.8 years), with endoscopically and histologically confirmed gastritis. All the patients underwent endoscopy of upper gastrointestinal tract with the use of fiberoscope GIF-E OLYMPUS and video endoscopy monitor OEV 203 OLYMPUS (Japan). The following features of gastritis were considered in endoscopic assessment: oedema, reddening and fragility of mucous membrane, spotted and macular exudate, flat and raised erosions, proliferation and atrophy of mucosal folds, vascular network, intramural extravasation, mucosal structure. The results obtained were verified statistically with chi-squared independence tests for 2 x 2 tables.

CONCLUSIONS

Statistical analysis of the incidence of these signs of inflammation in patients with food allergy did not show significant differences in relation to subjects with non-atopic gastritis.