Contribution of histamine H1- and H2-receptors to the effect of compound 48/80, a potent histamine releaser, upon asphyxiation and body temperature in mice was investigated in the present experiments. Compound 48/80 showed an apparent protective potency against hypoxia and significantly prolonged the latencies for convulsions and death in a dose-dependent manner. Compound 48/80 also decreased the body temperature, which was in relation with the antihypoxic effect. Both the H1-receptor antagonist, dimethindene, and the H2-receptor antagonist, ranitidine, attenuated the hypothermic effect of compound 48/80, indicating the involvement of central histamine through both the H1- and H2-receptors. Ranitidine had no effect on the protective effect of compound 48/80 against hypoxia-induced lethality, whereas dimethindene completely antagonized it. These results suggest that the protective effect of compound 48/80 against hypoxia is mediated through histamine H1-receptors and is not related to its ability to induce hypothermia.
Animal ; Anoxia/*drug therapy/physiopathology ; Body Temperature/*drug effects ; Convulsions/prevention & control ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Receptors, Histamine H1/*physiology ; Receptors, Histamine H2/*physiology ; p-Methoxy-N-methylphenethylamine/*pharmacology

Hypophosphatasia is a clinically heterogeneous inheritable disorder characterized by defective bone mineralization and the deficiency of serum and tissue liver/bone/kidney alkaline phosphatase activities. Due to the mineralization defect of the bones, various skeletal findings can be radiologically observed in hypophosphatasia. Bowing and Bowdler spurs of long bones are the characteristic findings. The Bowdler spurs reported on in the previous pertinent literature were observed in the perinatal aged patients and these lesions have rarely involved adolescents. We herein report on a 14-year-old girl with fibular Bowdler spurs.
Adolescent ; Bone Diseases/pathology/radiography ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Fibula/pathology/*radiography ; Humans ; Hypophosphatasia/pathology/*radiography

OBJECTIVE: Altered serum S100B protein levels have been shown in several psychiatric disorders. Our aim was to investigate whether plasma S100B is different in patients with panic disorder (PD) when compared with controls. Our second aim was to investigate whether treatment with SSRIs have an effect on S100B levels in patients with PD. METHODS: The sample included 32 patients diagnosed with PD (21 women, 11 men) per DSM-IV criteria and 21 healthy controls (11 women, 10 men). S100B levels were measured with BioVendor Human S100B ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay) kit. RESULTS: 14 patients were not on drug treatment (43.8%) while 18 patients were taking various SSRIs. Median S100B value was 151.7 pg/mL (minimum-maximum: 120.4-164.7 pg/mL) in the control group, 147.4 pg/mL (minimum-maximum: 138.8-154.1 pg/mL) in the drug free group and 153.0 pg/mL (minimum-maximum: 137.9-164.7 pg/mL) in the treatment group. Kruskal-Wallis analysis showed a significant diffrerence among the three groups (z=9.9, df=2, p=0.007). Follow up Mann-Whitney-U tests indicated that while the control and the patients with treatment were not significantly different (z=-0.05, p=0.96), there were significant differences between the control group and untreated patients (z=-2.6, p=0.009) and treated and untreated patients (z=-3.0, p=0.003). CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that, serum S100B protein level might be decreased in untreated PD patients and that patients who were treated with SSRIs had similar S100B level to healthy controls.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Panic Disorder* ; Plasma ; Serotonin*

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Chronic arthritis of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) involves weight-bearing joints and can occur in patients without a history of acute attack. Our aim was to investigate a possible causal relationship between FMF and osteoarthritis in a population in which FMF is quite common. METHODS: Patients with late stage primary osteoarthritis were enrolled, and five MEFV gene mutations were investigated. The frequency of MEFV gene mutations was compared among patients with osteoarthritis and a previous healthy group from our center. RESULTS: One hundred patients with primary osteoarthritis and 100 healthy controls were studied. The frequency of MEFV gene mutations was significantly lower in the osteoarthritis group (9% vs. 19%). M694V was the most frequent mutation (5%) in the osteoarthritis group, whereas in the control group, E148Q was the most common (16%). In subgroup analyses, the mutation frequency of patients with hip osteoarthritis was not different from that of patients with knee osteoarthritis and controls (7.1%, 9.7%, and 19%, respectively). There were no differences among the three groups with respect to MEFV gene mutations other than E148Q (8.1% vs. 3.6%). E148Q was significantly lower in the osteoarthritis group than in the controls (16% vs. 1%), although the mutations did not differ between patients with knee osteoarthritis and controls. CONCLUSIONS: In a population with a high prevalence of MEFV gene mutations, we did not find an increased mutation rate in patients with primary osteoarthritis. Furthermore, we found that some mutations were significantly less frequent in patients with osteoarthritis. Although the number of patients studied was insufficient to claim that E148Q gene mutation protects against osteoarthritis, the potential of this gene merits further investigation.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Case-Control Studies ; Chi-Square Distribution ; *Cytoskeletal Proteins ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Familial Mediterranean Fever/diagnosis/epidemiology/*genetics ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Mutation ; Osteoarthritis, Hip/diagnosis/epidemiology/*genetics/surgery ; Osteoarthritis, Knee/diagnosis/epidemiology/*genetics/surgery ; Phenotype ; Risk Factors ; Turkey/epidemiology ; Young Adult