Interventional fetal balloon valvuloplasty for congenital heart disease—current shortcomings and possible perspectives

Fetal cardiac interventions are new and relatively unknown investigational options for modifying congenital heart disease in utero. Techniques for safer access to the fetus must be improved, and selection criteria for patients for whom these procedures are potentially beneficial must be developed. Currently, antenatal cardiac intervention attempts are being made to either prevent or reverse hydrops in fetuses with cardiac valve disease or outflow tract obstruction or to recruit hypoplastic ventricles. Most important are early detection and referral of these fetuses, thereby enabling timely procedures with improved outcomes. However, performing successful fetal cardiac interventions requires multidisciplinary collaboration between obstetricians, pediatric cardiologists, pediatric cardiac surgeons, and anesthesiologists, as each discipline provides specific skills for these critically ill babie

Induction of neutralizing antibodies specific for the envelope proteins of the koala retrovirus by immunization with recombinant proteins or with DNA

Background: The koala retrovirus (KoRV) is the result of a transspecies transmission of a gammaretrovirus with fatal consequences for the new host. Like many retroviruses, KoRV induces lymphoma, leukemia and an immunodeficiency that is associated with opportunistic infections in the virus-infected animals. We recently reported the induction of neutralizing antibodies by immunization with the recombinant ectodomain of the transmembrane envelope protein p15E of KoRV. Since the neutralization titers of the p15E-specific sera were only moderate, we investigated the use of the surface envelope protein gp70 to induce neutralizing antibodies. Findings: We immunized rats and goats with the recombinant gp70 protein of the KoRV, an unglycosylated protein of 52kD (rgp70/p52) or with the corresponding DNA. In parallel we immunized with recombinant rp15E or with a combination of rp15E and rgp70/p52. In all cases binding and neutralizing antibodies were induced. The gp70-specific sera had titers of neutralizing antibodies that were 15-fold higher than the p15E-specific sera. Combining rp15E and rgp70/p52 did not significantly increase neutralizing titers compared to rgp70/p52 alone. High titers of neutralizing antibodies specific for gp70 were also induced by immunization with DNA. Since KoRV and PERV are closely related, we investigated cross-neutralization of the antisera. The antisera against p15E and gp70 of PERV and KoRV inhibited infection by both viruses. Conclusion: The envelope proteins of the KoRV may therefore form the basis of an effective preventive vaccine to protect uninfected koalas from infection and possibly an immunotherapeutic treatment for those already infected

Development of an instrumented materials irradiation test for FFTF

The development of an advanced test assembly for use in the Fast Flux Test Facility is described. The facility will be used to characterize alloys for in reactor use. (FS

An apparatus for obtaining the tensile properties of irradiated materials at elevated temperatures /

"Operated for the Atomic Energy Commission by the General Electric Company under Contract # W-31-109-Eng-52.""HW-38991 ; Metallurgy and Ceramics ; (TID-4500, 10th Ed.).""September 14, 1955."Mode of access: Internet