UM Football 1968 defensive line starters

L-R: Cecil Pryor RE; Dan Parks, RT; Henry Hill, LT; Tom Goss, LE

Ueber die Secretions-Organe der Pflanzen : "Eine von der koenigl. Societaet der Wissenschaften zu Goettingen im December 1836 gekroente Preisschrift."

Mode of access: Internet.

The sex complex; a study of the relationships of the internal secretions to the female characteristics and functions in health and disease,

Mode of access: Internet.

The sex complex; a study of the relationships of the internal secretions to the female characteristics and functions in health and disease.

"This is not the kind of book that can usefully be taken through numerous editions, so with the issue of this edition it will finish its career."

Anterior adhesive areas and adjacent secretions in the parasitic flatworms Decacotyle lymmae and D. tetrakordyle (Monogenea: Monocotylidae) from the gills of stingrays

The monogeneans Decacotyle lymmae and D. tetrakordyle (Monocotylidae: Decacotylinae), from gills of the dasyatid stingrays Taeniura lymma and Pastinachus sephen, respectively, have a single aperture for adhesive secretion on each side of the anterior ventrolateral region. Rod-shaped bodies (S1) and electron-dense spherical secretion (S2) exit through specialised ducts opening adjacent to one another within these apertures. The S1 bodies are 230 +/- 11 nm wide and greater than or equal to4 mum long in D. lymmae and 240 +/- 9 nm wide and greater than or equal to3.3 mum long in D. tetrakordyle. The S2 bodies have a diameter of 88 +/- 7 nm in D. lymmae and 65 +/- 6 nm in D. tetrakordyle. The apertures are unusual in being extremely small (internal diameter, 3-5 mum). Each aperture has a slit-like surface opening as small as 160 nm wide, surrounded by muscle fibres indicating that they may be opened and closed. The aperture is also surrounded and underlain by muscle fibres that may aid in secretion from, or even eversion of, the tissue within the aperture. Sensilla/cilia are also found within the apertures. Additional secretions from anteromedian and anterolateral glands (body glands), each containing granular secretions, occur in profusion and exit anteriorly and posteriorly to the position of the apertures, through duct openings in the general body tegument. These granular secretions do not appear to be associated with anterior adhesion. Both species show similarities in aperture, underlying tissue, sense organ, and secretion detail, in accordance with findings from other monogenean genera, and which supports the importance of such data for phylogenetic studies.

A Bronchoscopic scoring system for airway secretions - Airway cellularity and microbiological validation

There is currently no validated scoring system for quantification of airway secretions in children. A user friendly, valid scoring system of airway secretions during flexible bronchoscopy (FB) would be useful for comparative purposes in clinical medicine and research. The objective of this study was to validate our bronchoscopic secretion (BS) scoring system by examining the relationship between the amount of secretions seen at bronchoscopy with airway cellularity and microbiology. In 106 children undergoing FIB, the relationship of BS grades with bronchocalveolar lavage (BAL) cellularity and infective state (bacterial and viral infections) were examined using receptor operator curves (ROC). BAL was obtained according to European Respiratory Society guidelines; first lavage for microbiology and second lavage for cellularity Area under the ROC was significant for total cell count (TCC) and neutrophil % but not for lymphocyte %. BS grade significantly related to infection positive state (chi(2)(trend) = 5.85, P = 0,016). The area under the ROC for infection positive state versus BS grade was 0.645, 95% Cl 0.527-0.763. The BS scoring system is a valid method for quantifying airway secretions in children undergoing bronchoscopy The system related well to airway cellularity and neutrophilia, as well as to an airway infective state. However, the system is only complementary to cell counts and cultures and cannot replace these laboratory quantification techniques.

The use of anticholinergic agents to treat excessive oropharyngeal and tracheal secretions in palliative care

Palliative care involves a multi-professional team approach to the provision of active, holistic care for patients and their families when the patient's disease is no longer responsive to curative treatment. Patient care encompasses medical and pharmacological intervention for symptom control, together with psychological, spiritual and social support for patients and families. Care is provided by teams in hospice, hospital or community environments. Although traditionally associated with providing care for cancer patients, palliative care services are increasingly providing for patients with non-malignant disease. Symptoms commonly associated with terminal phase of disease include pain, nausea, agitation, respiratory symptoms and general fatigue. During the last few days of life, patients may become weak, resulting in difficulty taking oral medication and have periods of unconsciousness. Some patients may require drug administration via subcutaneous infusion. A proportion of patients may develop difficulty clearing respiratory secretions causing a characteristic ‘death rattle’, which although not generally considered to be distressing for the patient, is often treated with a variety of anticholinergic drugs in an attempt to reduce the ‘noisy breathing’ for the benefit of relatives and others who may be closely associated with the patient.This study examined treatment of death rattle in two Hospices focusing on objective and subjective outcome measures in order to determine the efficacy of anticholinergic regimens in current use. Qualitative methods were employed to elicit attitudes of professionals and carers working closely with the patient. The number of patients recruited and monitored were small, many confounding factors were identified which questioned firstly the clinical rationale for administering anticholinergic drugs routinely to treat death rattle and secondly, the ethics of administering drug regimens to patients to treat death rattle with the primary aim of relieving distress for others. Ethnical issues, including those of consent are discussed in relation to their impact on the methodology of end of life studies in medicines management in palliative care.

Kunitzins: Prototypes of a new class of protease inhibitor from the skin secretions of European and Asian frogs

Amphibian skin secretions contain biologically-active compounds, such as anti-microbial peptides and trypsin inhibitors, which are used by biomedical researchers as a source of potential novel drug leads or pharmacological agents. Here, we report the application of a recently developed technique within our laboratory to “shotgun” clone the cDNAs encoding two novel but structurally-related peptides from the lyophilized skin secretions of one species of European frog, Rana esculenta and one species of Chinese frog, Odorrana schmackeri. Bioanalysis of the peptides established the structure of a 17-mer with an N-terminal Ala (A) residue and a C-terminal Cys (C) residue with a single disulphide bridge between Cys 12 and 17, which is a canonical Kunitz-type protease inhibitor motif (-CKAAFC-). Due to the presence of this structural attribute, these peptides were named kunitzin-RE (AAKIILNPKFRCKAAFC) and kunitzin-OS (AVNIPFKVHLRCKAAFC). Synthetic replicates of these two novel peptides were found to display a potent inhibitory activity against Escherichia coli but were ineffective at inhibiting the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans at concentrations up to 160 μM, and both showed little haemolytic activity at concentrations up to 120 μM. Subsequently, kunitzin-RE and kunitzin-OS were found to be a potent inhibitor of trypsin with a Ki of 5.56 μM and 7.56 μM that represent prototypes of a novel class of highly-attenuated amphibian skin protease inhibitor. Substitution of Lys-13, the predicted residue occupying the P1 position within the inhibitory loop, with Phe (F) resulted in decrease in trypsin inhibitor effectiveness and antimicrobial activity against Esherichia coli, but exhibits a potential inhibition activity against chymotrypsin.

DNA in Amphibian and Reptile Venom Permits Access to Genomes Without Specimen Sacrifice

Amphibian defensive skin secretions and reptile venoms are rich sources of bioactive peptides with potential pharmacological/pharmaceutical applications. As amphibian and reptile populations are in rapid global decline, our research
group has been developing analytical methods that permit generation of robust molecular data from non-invasive skin secretion samples and venom samples. While previously we have demonstrated that parallel proteome and venom gland
transcriptome analyses can be performed on such samples, here we report the presence of DNA that facilitates the more widely-used applications of gene sequencing, such as molecular phylogenetics, in a non-invasive manner that circumvents specimen sacrifice. From this “surrogate” tissue, we acquired partial 12S and 16S rRNA gene sequences that are presented for illustration purposes. Thus from a single sample of amphibian skin secretion and reptile venom, robust and complementary proteome, transcriptome and genome data can be generated for applications in diverse scientific disciplines.