Faculty Bibliography

FDA official on Aug 6, 1996 approved the first urine test to detect HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, but said it was not as accurate as the standard blood test. The urine test was approved as a supplemental diagnostic test, not as a substitute for the standard blood test

This study was designed to elucidate the effect of the synthetic androgen, methyltestosterone, on bile flow and biliary lipid secretion in female hamsters. Animals were divided into four groups and fed the following diets: group 1, lithogenic diet for three weeks; group 2, lithogenic diet + 0.05% methyltestosterone for three weeks; group 3, lithogenic diet for six weeks; group 4, lithogenic diet + 0.05% methyltestosterone for six weeks. At the end of each experimental period, the hamsters were operated on to establish external biliary fistulas. During the depletion of the endogenous bile acid pool (for two hours), the basal bile flow of group 4 was significantly smaller than that of group 3. Basal bile acid output was significantly lower in the methyltestosterone-fed groups 2 and 4 than in control groups 1 and 3. In contrast, groups 2 and 4 secreted more cholesterol than groups 1 and 3. Group 4 had a higher ratio of cholesterol output to phospholipid output than group 3. Increasing doses of taurocholate were infused after the bile acid depletion period, and it was found that methyltestosterone did not change the bile acid independent bile flow. The increments in cholesterol or phospholipid output induced per increment of bile acid output (linkage coefficients) were analyzed by linear regression. The methyltestosterone-fed groups (groups 2 and 4) had a higher linkage coefficient of cholesterol output to bile acid output than the control groups (groups 1 and 3). The linkage coefficients of phospholipid output to bile acid output of groups 2 and 4 were also higher compared to groups 1 and 3. The linkage coefficient of cholesterol output to phospholipid output of group 2 was higher than that of group 1. These results suggest that methyltestosterone stimulated the cosecretion mechanism of cholesterol and phospholipid in bile associated with an increasing ratio of cholesterol to phospholipid. In conclusion, the synthetic androgen, methyltestosterone, caused a decrease in basal bile flow and bile acid secretion, and an increase in basal cholesterol secretion and the biliary cholesterol-to-phospholipid ratio. These findings explain, in part, how methyltestosterone intensifies the formation of cholesterol gallstones in female hamsters.

Automated sequence analysis of a 410-bp region of the axyR gene in 105 Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates identified a polymorphic nucleotide that differentiated Mycobacterium bovis isolates from other complex members. All 29 M. bovis isolates sequenced had an adenine residue at nucleotide 285, whereas all 76 other complex isolates had a guanine residue. PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of oxyR with restriction endonuclease AluI in an additional 255 complex isolates from widespread intercontinental sources confirmed and extended the unique association of adenine at position 285 with M. bovis isolates

Bob Dole, who turns 73 on Jul 22, 1996, said on Jul 21 that if he was elected president, he would submit to an independent medical review of his health in the event that questions arose about his mental or physical ability to serve

WASHINGTON - Bob Dole, the likely Republican presidential nominee who celebrates his 73rd birthday on Monday, is in excellent health, Dole and two of his doctors said Saturday. He attributes his good health to the care he takes in keeping at a trim 178 pounds - he is 6 feet tall - and to running at least 30 minutes on a treadmill three or four times a week for a total of 14 miles. He said he ''loves ice cream, but I don't eat a lot of it.'' Dole also suggested that his energy and stamina ''must be due to good genes somewhere along the line.'' He also credited quitting smoking more than 30 years ago for helping preserve his health. Dole quit shortly after Surgeon General Luther Terry issued his pioneering report warning about the dangers of smoking in 1964. ''That's when I got the message,'' said Dole, adding that quitting ''was not easy.''

Bob Dole, the likely Repubilcan presidential nominee, is in excellent health, Dole and two of his doctors said the week of Jul 14, 1996 in extensive interviews about his health. Dole's health takes on particular significance because if he was elected president, he would be the oldest man to assume that office. Details concerning Dole's health status are discussed

Bob Dole, the likely Republican presidential nominee who turns 73 Monday, is in excellent health, Dole and two of his doctors said last week. He also credited quitting smoking more than 30 years ago for helping preserve his health. Dole quit shortly after Surgeon General Luther Terry issued his pioneering report warning about the dangers of smoking in 1964. 'That's when I got the message,' Dole said, adding that quitting 'was not easy.' Dole's health takes on particular significance because if he were elected president, he would be the oldest man to assume that office, only a bit younger than Ronald Reagan was at the start of his second term. And though Reagan and others developed cancer while president, Dole would also be the first cancer survivor to be elected to that office. He had a cancerous prostate gland removed in 1991 and has shown no trace of the cancer since then

Participants at an international meeting on AIDS in Vancouver the week of Jul 8, 1996 were jolted when some scientists said that continued use for a few years of new drug combinations, which already drive the AIDS virus to undetectable levels in the blood, might eradicate the virus from patients' bodies. Drug treatment could then be stopped forever for such people. For now, there is only the hope of such a result

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - New findings reported at an international AIDS conference last week promise to transform AIDS from a usually fatal disease into a chronic one that is treatable, many experts say. With news rapidly spreading about the landmark studies, which showed that new drug combinations can drive the AIDS virus to undetectable levels in blood, many people infected with the AIDS virus are questioning their treatment and asking practical questions for which their doctors are likely to have few immediate answers. An immediate question is whether patients should start on the combination drug therapy as soon as they are infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, or wait until the onset of AIDS, which may not occur for many years