Vulvar vestibulitis syndrome (VVS) is a common cause of dyspareunia in pre-menopausal women. Little is known about sensory function in the vulvar vestibule, despite Kinsey’s assertion that it is important for sexual sensation. We examined punctate tactile and pain thresholds to modified von Frey filaments in the genital region of women with VVS and ageand contraceptive-matched pain-free control...

The serologic diagnosis of hydatidosis (caused by Echinococcus granulosus) can be made by different techniques, although the lack of standardization of the antigens affects the sensitivity, specificity and concordance among the different tests. We have applied the Western-Blot (WB) technique, associated with a purified antigen from sheep hydatid fluid, at 60 samples of serum from 14 patients su...

ÐEstrogens can in ̄uence the survival, plasticity and function of many adult neurons. Many of these effects, such as neurite outgrowth and increased dendritic spine density, are mediated by changes in neuronal cytoskeletal architecture. Since neuro®lament proteins play a key role in the maintenance and remodeling of the neuronal cytoskeleton, we postulated that changes in neuro®lament light chai...

Objective: The composite mechanical valve conduit has been most commonly used for patients who require combined aortic valve, root, and ascending aorta replacement, but is limited, especially in the elderly, because of the need for long-term anticoagulation. We report the ®rst consecutive series of patients in whom a composite stentless valve with graft extension, which does not require long-te...

Plasmid-based cloning and expression of genes in Escherichia coli can have several problems: plasmid destabilization; toxicity of gene products; inability to achieve complete repression of gene expression; non-physiological overexpression of the cloned gene; titration of regulatory proteins; and the requirement for antibiotic selection. We describe a simple system for cloning and expression of ...

In a stop signal paradigm to investigate the control of human saccades subjects were instructed to make a saccade to a visual target appearing suddenly l5° to the left or to the right of the fixation point. In 25% of the trials an auditory stop signal was presented after a variable delay that required the subject to inhibit the saccade. The stop signal was presented randomly at the target posit...

Predicting impacts of climate change or alternative management on both food production and environment safety in agroecosystems is drawing great attention in the scientific community. Most of the existing agroecosystem models emphasize either crop growth or soil processes. This paper reports the latest development of an agroecosystem model (Crop-DNDC) by integrating detailed crop growth algorit...

Whole-cell and single-channel recordings from rat dorsal root ganglion neurones were used to investigate the temperature dependence of currents through the capsaicin receptor (vanilloid receptor 1, VR1). Reducing the temperature from 31 to 148C inhibited the current induced by 0.5 mM capsaicin by 80%. The Q10 (temperature coefficient over a 108C range) of the whole-cell capsaicin-induced curren...

We recently reported a cardioselective and cumulative oxidation of cardiac mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) following subchronic administration of doxorubicin to rats. The mtDNA adducts persist for up to 5 weeks after cessation of doxorubicin treatment. Since the evidence suggests that this persistence of mtDNA adducts cannot be attributed to a lack of repair and replication, we investigated whether i...

The folate metabolic pathway has been exploited successfully for the development of antimicrobial and antineoplasic agents. Inhibitors of this pathway, however, are not useful against Leishmania and other trypanosomatids. Work on the mechanism of methotrexate resistance in Leishmania has dramatically increased our understanding of folate and pterin metabolism in this organism. The metabolic and...