Small myelinated perikarya in the cerebellar granular layer of mammals including man

Zusammenfassung Kleinzellen mit perikarieller Markscheide wurden in der Körnerschicht des Kleinhirns verschiedener Säuger und des Menschen gefunden. Diese Zellen treten bei der Maus erst am 8. Tag nach der Geburt auf und wurden nur in der Körnerschicht, offenbar als Körnerzellen, beobachtet.     

Starvation and gastrin storage in the pyloric antral mucosa of male rabbits

Résumé Parmi les lapins mâles privés de nourriture pendant une période de 72 h au maximum, la quantité de gastrine brutte par gramme fut la plus élevée chez les sujets soumis à ce test pendant 12 h et la moins élevée chez ceux qui l'ont subit pendant 72 h au maximum. L'activité gastrique de l'extrait brut n'était pas affectée par la privation de nourriture et aucune corrélation ne put être établie entre le taux de la glucose sanguine et la gastrine accumulée chez les lapins affamés.

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Acknowledgments. I am grateful to the M. R. C. London for the synthetic human gastrin I used. This work was supported by fund from University of Ibadan Senate Research Grant.     

Studies on the quaternary structure of the first enzyme for histidine biosynthesis

Resumen Se han realizado estudios de asociación-disociación por filtración en gel con el primer enzima de la biosíntesis de histidina enEscherichia coli, en presencia de sustratos y ligandos. Se observa una interconversión reversible entre las formas dímero, tetrámero y exámero, y una agregación irreversible de orden superior.     

The properties of neuraminidase-treated crystalline ceruloplasmin

Résumé On sait que la plasmine céruléenne crystalline rétroplacentaire humaine ainsi qua la plasmine apocérulécnne empêchent l'hémaglutination virale. Cet effet pourrait être attribué aux résidus d'acide sialique, car l'action préventive disparaît après traitement de la plasmine céruléenne par la neuraminidase.     

The importance of extracellular sodium and potassium for acetylcholine-evoked salivary secretion

Zusammenfassung Es wird gezeigt, dass die Speichelsekretionsrate der perfundierten SubmandibulardrÜse der Katze stark von der Natriumkonzentration im Perfusat abhängt. Die Sekretionsrate wird erhöht bei Perfusion mit kaliumfreier Lösung und reduziert während der Perfusion mit Lösungen erhöhter Kaliumkonzentrationen. Es ist möglich, dass ein durch Acetylcholin induzierter Natriumstrom in die Azinarzellen hinein den Sekretions mechanismus aktiviert.

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With the technical assistance of G.Pedersen.     

Birth of parthenogenetic mice that can develop to adulthood

Only mammals have relinquished parthenogenesis, a means of producing descendants solely from maternal germ cells. Mouse parthenogenetic embryos die by day 10 of gestation. Bi-parental reproduction is necessary because of parent-specific epigenetic modification of the genome during gametogenesis. This leads to unequal expression of imprinted genes from the maternal and paternal alleles. However, there is no direct evidence that genomic imprinting is the only barrier to parthenogenetic development. Here we show the development of a viable parthenogenetic mouse individual from a reconstructed oocyte containing two haploid sets of maternal genome, derived from non-growing and fully grown oocytes. This development was made possible by the appropriate expression of the Igf2 and H19 genes with other imprinted genes, using mutant mice with a 13-kilobase deletion in the H19 gene as non-growing oocytes donors. This full-term development is associated with a marked reduction in aberrantly expressed genes. The parthenote developed to adulthood with the ability to reproduce offspring. These results suggest that paternal imprinting prevents parthenogenesis, ensuring that the paternal contribution is obligatory for the descendant.     

The building blocks of planets within the 'terrestrial' region of protoplanetary disks

Our Solar System was formed from a cloud of gas and dust. Most of the dust mass is contained in amorphous silicates, yet crystalline silicates are abundant throughout the Solar System, reflecting the thermal and chemical alteration of solids during planet formation. (Even primitive bodies such as comets contain crystalline silicates.) Little is known about the evolution of the dust that forms Earth-like planets. Here we report spatially resolved detections and compositional analyses of these building blocks in the innermost two astronomical units of three proto-planetary disks. We find the dust in these regions to be highly crystallized, more so than any other dust observed in young stars until now. In addition, the outer region of one star has equal amounts of pyroxene and olivine, whereas the inner regions are dominated by olivine. The spectral shape of the inner-disk spectra shows surprising similarity with Solar System comets. Radial-mixing models naturally explain this resemblance as well as the gradient in chemical composition. Our observations imply that silicates crystallize before any terrestrial planets are formed, consistent with the composition of meteorites in the Solar System.     

Physiology: does gut hormone PYY3-36 decrease food intake in rodents?

Batterham et al. report that the gut peptide hormone PYY3-36 decreases food intake and body-weight gain in rodents, a discovery that has been heralded as potentially offering a new therapy for obesity. However, we have been unable to replicate their results. Although the reasons for this discrepancy remain undetermined, an effective anti-obesity drug ultimately must produce its effects across a range of situations. The fact that the findings of Batterham et al. cannot easily be replicated calls into question the potential value of an anti-obesity approach that is based on administration of PYY3-36.