A study was done to examine whether workers exposed to titanium tetrachloride had significantly higher risks of lung cancer, chronic respiratory disease, pleural thickening/plaques, or pulmonary ...fibrosis than referent groups. A total of 2477 employees from two titanium dioxide plants were studied. Of that group, 969 employees exposed to titanium tetrachloride were observed from 1956 through 1985 for cancer and chronic respiratory disease incidence and from 1935 through 1983 for mortality. A cross-sectional sample of 398 employees was evaluated for chest roentgenogram abnormalities. Cohort analyses showed that the risk of developing lung cancer and other fatal respiratory diseases was not statistically significantly higher for the titanium tetrachloride-exposed workers than for the referent group. Nested case-control analyses found no statistically significant association between titanium tetrachloride exposure and risk of lung cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and chest roentgenogram abnormalities. No cases of pulmonary fibrosis were observed among titanium tetrachloride-exposed employees. Smoking was found to be a strong predictor of lung cancer mortality in the nonexposed employees with an increased risk of dying from lung cancer up to 7-fold higher in current smokers than in nonsmokers.
Differential Display offers practical advice to researchers interested in using the technique of RT-PCR differential display to help them understand the function of individual genes in specific ...tissues or cells of an organism, either as part of normal development and ageing, or in disease processes.
By the year 2025, 68% of the world's population aged 65 and above, nearly 277 million people, will be residing in developing countries. The less industrialized nations have been the least studied to ...date, and may yield significant new information about the etiology and risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias. Although it is readily apparent that cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons are desirable, these can be meaningful only if based on comparable methodology. In this work we will discuss some general conceptual and methodological issues regarding epidemiological studies of dementia in developing countries. The topics discussed include community-based screening for dementia, screening instruments and their application in cross-cultural studies, steps in standardization of new or modified neuropsychological tests, and some special considerations in studying uneducated/illiterate populations.
The utility of differential display as a method of screening for differences in gene expression between a number of control and experimental conditions using small amounts of RNA and standard ...equipment and reagents found in most molecular biology laboratories has been demonstrated over the last 15 years. This chapter will discuss the advantages and limitations of differential display compared to some other methods used to study gene expression patterns and discuss some parameters of experimental design that should be considered prior to initiating a differential display screen. Methods for differential display reactions and verification of differential gene expression are presented.
The case of a patient with episodic hypothermia and profuse sweating believed to be due to diencephalic epilepsy is reported. Despite intensive investigations no other manifestations of hypothalamic ...dysfunction were found. Conventional antiepileptic drugs were without effect but the patient was successfully treated by total sympathectomy.
The ability of cells to alter gene expression in response to stimuli or during development and ageing underlies the plasticity of the central nervous system. Although there are multiple levels of ...control of gene expression, induction or repression of specific genes is an important first step in the regulation of the function of the CNS. Therefore, molecular screening and selection techniques based on comparing mRNA populations can reveal important differences in gene expression between and among brain tissues.
Differential display is a PCR-based screening method (for an overview see 1) that is especially useful to study changes in steady-state levels of mRNA in heterogeneous tissue such as brain for several reasons (1). First, this screening technique can be used to identify novel brain mRNAs or previously described mRNAs whose relative expression levels are altered as a result of a physiological change, a disorder, a disease state, or the administration of pharmacological agents. Secondly, it is possible to simultaneously compare multiple tissues, treatments, and time points (up to 60 comparisons per experiment and primer set) using small amounts of tissue from a number of individual animals for the original isolation of RNA. These features distinguish differential display from methods that require prior information about specific gene expression and from methods that are used to screen or select cDNAs from only two states. Moreover, differential display can be easily established in any laboratory that has basic molecular biology equipment and supplies.
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