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The molecular states of collagen in the aortas of age-matched stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive (SHRSP) and normotensive Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY) were studied by analyzing its extractability under defined conditions. The monomeric and oligomeric collagen extractable with 0.5 M acetic acid/6 M urea from aortic homogenates of 9-month-old SHRSP and WKY comprised approx. 0.6 and 2.0%, respectively, of the total collagen. On incubation of the acetic acid/urea-extracted residues with pepsin at 4 degrees C, the levels of the collagen alpha 1(I) and alpha 2(I) chains solubilized from the SHRSP residues were both less than 50% of those from the WKY residues. When the residues were incubated with pepsin at 15 or 25 degrees C, the differences became smaller. When the acetic acid/urea residues were hydrolyzed with cyanogen bromide, nearly identical peptide maps were obtained for SHRSP and WKY. The aortas from 2-month-old SHRSP and WKY contained much larger proportions of acid/urea-extractable collagen than those of the older rats (8.2 and 13% of the respective total collagen). The levels of the alpha 1(I) and alpha 2(I) chains solubilizable from the respective residues by pepsin at 4 degrees C were similar to each other. These results indicate that aortic collagen fibrils in SHRSP are stiffened more prominently than those in WKY.

Contractile proteins were extracted from thoracic aortae of 9-month-old spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone (SHRSP) and normotensive Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY). The average wet weight of the aortae from SHRSP was approximately 1.6-fold heavier than that of WKY. On polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the myofibrillar extracts prepared from normalized, equal weights of aortae of SHRSP and WKY, both the compositions and concentrations of major polypeptides including myosin heavy chains and actin were nearly identical in these extracts. The myosins purified from these extracts contained identical light chains of about 20- and 17 kDa. Proteolytic peptide maps of the heavy chains of myosin from SHRSP were also indistinguishable from those of WKY, suggesting that the same isoforms of myosin are expressed in both aortae. From these results it is suggested that the qualitative differences may be small, if any, between the major contractile proteins in the aortae of SHRSP and those of WKY.

Protein kinase C phosphorylated both the 19 21 - kDa regulatory light chains and heavy chains of bovine brain myosin. The major phosphorylation sites of the light chains were on their threonyl residues, while those for myosin light chain kinase were on their seryl residues. Whereas several non-muscle regular myosins have been reported to be phosphorylated by different types of protein kinases at the non-helical small segments at the tail ends of the heavy chains, the phosphorylation sites for protein kinase C were localized on the head portion of the heavy chains of brain myosin. The possible role of phosphorylation of brain myosin by protein kinase C in the regulation of motility of neural cells is discussed.

A case of endometrial adenocarcinoma in a 62-year-old woman with malignant pericardial effusion is presented. The patient underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, pelvic node dissection, and paraaortic node biopsy. Postoperatively, she was placed on a combination chemotherapy regimen of cisplatin, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide. The patient developed cardiac tamponade during the course of chemotherapy. Although we first suspected cardiotoxic effect of doxorubicin, cytologic examination revealed adenocarcinoma cells in the pericardial fluid. A review of the literature revealed no other cases of cardiac metastasis from endometrial carcinoma diagnosed during life.

A case of secondary syphilis which involved the uterine cervix is presented. This case was suspected to be invasive cervical carcinoma by macroscopic and colposcopic examinations, but cytologic and histologic preparations revealed syphilitic granuloma. Clinical process and serologic tests confirmed this. Computer tomography revealed swelling of para-aortic lymphnodes as well as inguinal lymphnodes.