Azathioprine Maintenance Therapy to Prevent Relapses in Autoimmune Pancreatitis

Steroids are used to induce remission in autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP). Low-dosage steroid therapy or immunosuppressant (IMs) has been proposed as maintenance therapy to prevent AIP relapse. Few and conflicting data have been published on the efficacy of azathioprine (AZA) in preventing AIP relapse. The aim of this study was to evaluate the indication and efficacy of AZA as maintenance therapy to prevent disease relapse in AIP

Crop changes from the XVI century to the present in a hill/mountain area of eastern Liguria (Italy)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chronological information on the composition and structure of agrocenoses and detailed features of land cover referring to specific areas are uncommon in ethnobotanical studies, especially for periods before the XIX century. The aim of this study was to analyse the type of crop or the characteristics of soil cover from the XVI century to the present.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This diachronic analysis was accomplished through archival research on the inventories of the Parish of St. Mary and those of the Municipality of Pignone and from recent surveys conducted in an area of eastern Liguria (Italy).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Archival data revealed that in study area the primary means of subsistence during the last five centuries, until the first half of the XX century, was chestnuts. In the XVIII and XIX centuries, crop diversification strongly increased in comparison with previous and subsequent periods. In more recent times, the abandonment of agricultural practices has favoured the re-colonisation of mixed woodland or cluster-pine woodland.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Ancient documents in the ecclesiastic or municipal inventories can be a very useful tool for enhancing the knowledge of agricultural practice, as well as of subsistence methods favoured by local populations during a particular time and for reconstructing land use change over time.</p

Inducing Ni Sensitivity in the Ni Hyperaccumulator Plant Alyssum inflatum Nyárády (Brassicaceae) by Transforming with CAX1, a Vacuolar Membrane Calcium Transporter

The importance of calcium in nickel tolerance was studied in the nickel hyperaccumulator plant Alyssum inflatum by gene transformation of CAX1, a vacuolar membrane transporter that reduces cytosolic calcium. CAX1 from Arabidopsis thaliana with a CaMV35S promoter accompanying a kanamycin resistance gene was transferred into A. inflatum using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Transformed calli were subcultured three times on kanamycin-rich media and transformation was confirmed by PCR using a specific primer for CAX1. At least 10 callus lines were used as a pool of transformed material. Both transformed and untransformed calli were treated with varying concentrations of either calcium (1–15 mM) or nickel (0– 500 lM) to compare their responses to those ions. Increased external calcium generally led to increased callus biomass, however, the increase was greater for untransformed callus. Further, increased external calcium led to increased callus calcium concentrations. Transformed callus was less nickel tolerant than untransformed callus: under increasing nickel concentrations callus relative growth rate was significantly less for transformed callus. Transformed callus also contained significantly less nickel than untransformed callus when exposed to the highest external nickel concentration (200 lM). We suggest that transformation with CAX1 decreased cytosolic calcium and resulted in decreased nickel tolerance. This in turn suggests that, at low cytosolic calcium concentrations, other nickel tolerance mechanisms (e.g., complexation and vacuolar sequestration) are insufficient for nickel tolerance. We propose that high cytosolic calcium is an important mechanism that results in nickel tolerance by nickel hyperaccumulator plants

Ribbon Crystals

A repetitive crystal-like pattern is spontaneously formed upon the twisting of straight ribbons. The pattern is akin to a tessellation with isosceles triangles, and it can easily be demonstrated with ribbons cut from an overhead transparency. We give a general description of developable ribbons using a ruled procedure where ribbons are uniquely described by two generating functions. This construction defines a differentiable frame, the ribbon frame, which does not have singular points, whereby we avoid the shortcomings of the Frenet-Serret frame. The observed spontaneous pattern is modeled using planar triangles and cylindrical arcs, and the ribbon structure is shown to arise from a maximization of the end-to-end length of the ribbon, i.e. from an optimal use of ribbon length. The phenomenon is discussed in the perspectives of incompatible intrinsic geometries and of the emergence of long-range order

\u3ci\u3eSenecio Conrathii\u3c/i\u3e N.E.Br. (Asteraceae), a New Hyperaccumulator of Nickel from Serpentinite Outcrops of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa

Five nickel hyperaccumulators belonging to the Asteraceae are known from ultramafic outcrops in South Africa. Phytoremediation applications of the known hyperaccumulators in the Asteraceae, such as the indigenous Berkheya coddii Roessler, are well reported and necessitate further exploration to find additional species with such traits. This study targeted the most frequently occurring species of the Asteraceae on eight randomly selected serpentinite outcrops of the Barberton Greenstone Belt. Twenty species were sampled, including 12 that were tested for nickel accumulation for the first time. Although the majority of the species were excluders, the known hyperaccumulators Berkheya nivea N.E.Br. and B. zeyheri (Sond. & Harv.) Oliv. & Hiern subsp. rehmannii (Thell.) Roessler var. rogersiana (Thell.) Roessler hyperaccumulated nickel in the leaves at expected levels. A new hyperaccumulator of nickel was discovered, Senecio conrathii N.E.Br., which accumulated the element in its leaves at 1695 ± 637 µg g−1 on soil with a total and exchangeable nickel content of 503 mg kg−1 and 0.095 µg g−1, respectively. This makes it the third known species in the Senecioneae of South Africa to hyperaccumulate nickel after Senecio anomalochrous Hilliard and Senecio coronatus (Thunb.) Harv., albeit it being a weak accumulator compared with the latter. Seven tribes in the Asteraceae have now been screened for hyperaccumulation in South Africa, with hyperaccumulators only recorded for the Arctoteae and Senecioneae. This suggests that further exploration for hyperaccumulators should focus on these tribes as they comprise all six species (of 68 Asteraceae taxa screened thus far) to hyperaccumulate nickel

Session 17 Ecophysiology

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Long-term treatment of duodenal ulcer with pirenzepine; gastric pH values and incidence of relapses: an open pilot study

Twenty-three endoscopically healed duodenal ulcer patients entered a long-term treatment with pirenzepine for 1 year (two 25-mg tablets at breakfast and two tablets at bedtime). One day before and 7 days after the long-term treatment started, gastric pH and BAO were measured in each patient after fasting. The patients were clinically examined monthly and underwent endoscopy 4, 8 and 12 months after the trial started or when they complained of ulcer symptoms. Blood and urine laboratory tests were carried out before treatment began and 6 and 12 months afterwards. Eighteen of the 22 patients that completed the trial (82%) did not relapse. The statistical analysis tended to show a relationship between absence of pH increase and relapses. No severe side-effects or changes in the results of laboratory tests were observed