Faculty Bibliography

Federal health officials said Thursday that a drug prescribed to treat high blood pressure and heart disease should be used 'with great caution, if at all,' and that the safety of related drugs taken by millions of Americans is unclear. The warning from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute applies to large doses of the short-acting form of nifedipine, which is marketed as Procardia by Pfizer Inc. and as Adalat by Bayer Co. As a class, the drugs are the most widely prescribed in the United States, with 87.3 million prescriptions written last year for an estimated 6 million people. More than 2 million of the prescriptions were for the short-acting form of nifedipine

The effects of beta-muricholic acid and hyocholic acid on cholesterol cholelithiasis were examined in two animal models. The following experiments were carried out: A) In a gallstone prevention study, prairie dogs were fed the lithogenic diet with or without 0.1% beta-muricholic or 0.1% hyocholic acid for eight weeks. B) In a second prevention study, hamsters were fed the lithogenic diet with or without 0.1% beta-muricholic acid or 0.1% hyocholic acid for six weeks. C) In a gallstone dissolution study, hamsters were fed the lithogenic diet for six weeks to induce stones; stone dissolution was examined during administration of a cholesterol-free purified diet with or without 0.1% beta-muricholic acid or 0.1% hyocholic acid. In the prevention study in prairie dogs (A), both bile acids failed to prevent stone formation, the cholesterol saturation index of bile was 0.89 in the lithogenic controls, remained unchanged with hyocholic acid and increased to 1.52 in the beta-muricholic acid group. In the prevention study in hamsters (B), beta-muricholic acid completely inhibited the cholesterol cholelithiasis (0% stone incidence); the cholesterol saturation index of bile was 1.78 (compared to lithogenic controls, 1.37). Hyocholic acid reduced stone incidence to 16% with a cholesterol saturation index of 0.98. In the dissolution study in hamsters (C), preexisting cholesterol gallstones were not dissolved by either hydrophilic bile acid after feeding these bile acids for an additional six weeks; at the end of the experiment, the cholesterol saturation indices were below unity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The synthesis of virulence factors and other exoproteins in Staphylococcus aureus is controlled by the global regulator, agr. Expression of secreted proteins is up-regulated in the postexponential growth phase, whereas expression of surface proteins is down-regulated by agr. The agr locus consists of two divergent operons, transcribed from neighboring but non-overlapping promoters, P2 and P3. The P2 operon sequence, reported here, contains 4 open reading frames, agrA, C, D, and B, of which A and C appear to encode proteins of a classical 2-component signal transduction pathway. The P3 operon specifies a 0.5 kb transcript, RNA III, which is the actual effector of the agr response, and, incidentally, encodes the agr-regulated peptide delta-hemolysin. Transcriptional fusions have shown that both P2 and P3 are agr sensitive (function in an agr+ but not in an agr- background) and deletion analysis has shown that all four of the P2 ORFs are involved; agrA and agrC seem to be absolutely required for the transcriptional activation of the agr locus, whereas agrB and agrD seem to be partially required. Since transcription of P2 requires P2 operon products, the P2 operon is autocatalytic, and is thus admirably suited to the need for rapid production of exoproteins at a time when overall growth is coming to a halt

Smokers in their 30s and 40s suffer five times as many heart attacks as nonsmokers in the same age group, researchers from Britain are reporting in what they say is the largest study of heart attack survivors. The risk of heart attacks for young adult smokers is about double what had previously been believed, said the researchers from Oxford University, who conducted the study in Britain. 'When cigarette smokers have a heart attack in their 30s and 40s, there is an 80 percent chance that tobacco caused it,' said Dr. Rory Collins, a co-author of the report, in Saturday's issue of The British Medical Journal

Smokers in their 30s and 40s suffer five times as many heart attacks as nonsmokers in the same age group, researchers from Britain are reporting in what they say is the largest study of heart attack survivors. The study, led by researchers at Oxford University, is reported in the Aug 19, 1995 issue of The British Medical Journal

Then in July, only five weeks after the transplant, the cancer was found to have spread to both of his lungs. By Aug. 7, less than a month after the first spread appeared, the cancer had metastasized to his abdomen. Mantle's death came a little more than two months after he received a new liver. 'I don't know that we have ever seen one that moved this fast,' Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, the liver transplant pioneer at the University of Pittsburgh, said in an interview yesterday. 'The only thing I can think of that would make this cancer go as fast as it did is invasion into the bloodstream because it would be unlikely to spread as fast through the lymph system or by direct extension. Surprising though it may be, it looks like the only rational explanation.' No one knows when Mantle's cancer began. And no one can be sure that it would not have spread as fast without the transplant surgery. But cancer experts said they presumed that the drugs used to suppress Mantle's immune system to prevent rejection of the organ contributed to the tumor's rapid spread by knocking out his defenses against the cancer

Tests showed weeks ago that the liver cancer from which Mickey Mantle died Sunday was an aggressive type. But the extraordinary speed with which the cancer riddled his body despite chemotherapy was surprising, particularly to doctors at Baylor Transplant Institute in Dallas where the Yankees great received a liver transplant June 8. Doctors and the family had been encouraged by the technical success of the surgery. Mantle began chemotherapy for the cancer, a tumor that had started in the liver and is known as a hepatoma. But examination of the liver that was removed showed the cancer had already spread to his bile ducts. Such spread does not necessarily predict the virulence with which the cancer attacked Mantle

Pathology tests showed weeks ago that the liver cancer from which Mickey Mantle died Sunday was an aggressive type. But the extraordinary speed with which the cancer riddled his body despite chemotherapy was surprising, particularly to his doctors at Baylor Transplant Institute in Dallas where the former New York Yankee basbeall star received a liver transplant June 8. Initially, the doctors and the Mantle family were encouraged by the technical success of the surgery. Mantle began taking chemotherapy for the cancer, a tumor that started in the liver and is known as a hepatoma. But pathology tests of the diseased liver that was removed in the transplant showed the cancer had already spread to his bile ducts. Such spread does not necessarily predict the virulence with which the cancer attacked Mantle

The heart surgery that former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins is scheduled to undergo on Aug 10, 1995 has become one of the most common operations performed in the US since it was developed about 30 years earlier. Dinkins is suffering from coronary artery disease, a condition that occurs when the arteries become narrowed or blocked, and will have bypasses on three coronary arteries. The risk of death is generally under 3% for such operations