Carrier screening for cystic fibrosis

A number of different models of CF carrier screening have now been tested in pilot trials. Apart from opportunistic and cascade testing (which are strictly speaking not true forms of screening), the major programmes have been directed either to young adults in primary care or to pregnant women in antenatal clinics. Only in the latter form of screening has sufficient data been collected to allow conclusions to be reached on the optimum mode of delivery. It seems very probable that when CF carrier screening passes into routine service, it will be the antenatal couple model that is used.     

Serum alpha-fetoprotein and neural tube defects in the first trimester of pregnancy

As part of the Medical Research Council randomized trial of vitamin supplementation in the prevention of neural tube defects (NTDs), maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) was available for 19 NTD pregnancies. Each of these was matched with four unaffected controls, by maternal age, participating centre, and duration of sample storage. The samples came from women whose gestational age ranged from 6 to 14 completed weeks. The median AFP level in the affected pregnancies was 1·2 multiples of the median value in unaffected pregnancies of the same gestational age (95 per cent confidence interval (CI) 0·83–1·59). This confirmed the view that serum AFP measurement is of no practical value in the detection of NTDs in the first trimester of pregnancy. The study also showed that folic acid supplementation, used as a method of preventing NTDs, had no effect on the concentrations of maternal serum AFP up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.     

Attitudes to prenatal screening,diagnosis and research among pregnant women who accept or decline an alpha-fetoprotein test

The aim of the study was to describe the opinion of pregnant women who had accepted or declined an alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) test, not only on AFP screening in general, but also on whether every pregnant woman should be offered amniocentesis (AC)/chorionic villus sampling (CVS) and an ultrasound scan for fetal malformations. An additional aim was to describe pregnant women's attitudes concerning continued research in the prenatal field. The study was performed as a questionnaire study in two regions over a 1-year period from 1 October 1988 to 30 September 1989. Results are based on answers from 3331 women who had taken an AFP test and 336 women who had declined the offer of a test. A total of 79 per cent of the women thought that an AFP test, 70 per cent that an ultrasound scan for fetal malformations, and 26 per cent that AC or CVS should be offered to all pregnant women. Fifty-nine per cent of the women were positive towards continued research in the prenatal field. Women who had had an AFP test were generally much more positive towards screening and research than women who had declined, who were generally against. Women who had left school without a high school degree were on average more positive towards the screening issues than women who had this degree. In conclusion, the results obtained in this study strongly suggest that women's attitudes are very dependent on how the prenatal screening programme is already organized in their local area.     

Expanding multiple marker screening for Down's syndrome to include Edward'S syndrome

Information on maternal age and maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein, unconjugated oestriol (uE₃), and human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) levels was used to investigate retrospectively the effect of estimating Edward's syndrome risk in women having multi-marker screening for Down's syndrome. The screened population comprised 15 pregnancies affected by Edward's syndrome, 15 with Down's syndrome and 5472 unaffected pregnancies. The use of all three markers to estimate Edward's syndrome risk would have led to the detection of 10–12 (67–80 per cent) cases with a false-positive rate of 0.3–0.6 per cent depending on the risk cut-off. A further case would have been detected as a result of screening for Down's syndrome alone. Similar results were obtained when the Edward's syndrome risk was based on uE₃ and hCG only. These data suggest that extending Down's syndrome screening to include Edward's syndrome risk will yield a high detection rate with only a small increase in the false-positive rate.     

Serum PAPP-A measurements in first-trimester screening for Down syndrome

Serum PAPP-A measurements taken from 254 women in the first trimester are reported. Eleven chromosomal abnormalities were detected. The mean serum PAPP-A levels in cases of Down syndrome were 0.44 MOM at 9 weeks gestation, 0.15 MOM at 10 weeks, and 0.29 MOM at 11 weeks. The PAPP-A level at 10 weeks was below those of pregnancies which aborted spontaneously. At 11 weeks, the pregnancies with Down syndrome recorded the lowest PAPP-A levels at that gestation. On this small sample, offering chorionic villus sampling to women with singleton pregnancies and a PAPP-A level below 0.3 MOM (approximately 6.5 per cent of this at-risk group) would have detected all the Down syndrome fetuses at 10 weeks and 50 per cent at 11 weeks without selecting those cases destined to abort. This suggests that serum PAPP-A should continue to be investigated as a potential first-trimester screening test for Down syndrome.     

Metabolism-independent chemotaxis of Pseudomonas sp. strain WBC-3 toward aromatic compounds

Pseudomonas sp. strain WBC-3 utilized methyl parathion or para-nitrophenol (PNP) as the sole source of carbon, nitrogen, and energy, and methyl parathion hydrolase had been previously characterized. Its chemotactic behaviors to aromatics were investigated. The results indicated that strain WBC-3 was attracted to multiple aromatic compounds, including metabolizable or transformable substrates PNP, 4-nitrocatechol, and hydroquinone. Disruption of PNP catabolic genes had no e?ect on its chemotactic behaviors w...     

8种植物对铀和镉的富集特性

研究8种植物在铀镉复合污染土壤条件下的吸收、富集和转运特性具有重要意义。在每千克土中施用铀、镉的浓度分别为150、15 mg·kg-1,采用主成分分析法对植物富集特性进行综合性评价。结果表明：白皮菜铀镉综合评价值最高,地上部、地下部、单株铀镉总含量、单株铀镉总积累量均最大,分别为90.03 mg·kg-1DW（干质量）、477.00 mg·kg-1DW、150.26 mg·kg-1DW和1 168.52 μg;花椰菜铀综合评价值最高,地上部、地下部铀含量分别为42.16、444.83 mg·kg-1DW,单株铀积累量达到255.42 μg;南瓜综合评价最低,单株铀镉积累量仅为58.47 μg;供试植物地上部铀含量均显著小于地下部铀含量,转运系数均小于1,根系是植物富集铀镉的主要器官。     

生物表面活性剂合成条件的优化及提取方法

利用油平板筛选法和排油圈法从辽河某油田的土壤样品中分离筛选高效的生物表面活性剂产生菌, 通过16S rRNA基因序列分析对所筛选菌株进行鉴定。采用L16(45)正交实验对所筛选菌株合成生物表面活性剂的条件进行优化。比较5种提取方法对发酵液中生物表面活性剂的提取效果。共分离得到17株菌,其中菌株A3、As和Y产表面活性剂的能力最强。16S rRNA基因序列分析表明,这3株菌均为假单胞菌属(Pseudomonas)。菌株A3、As、Y和 A3-As混合菌的生物表面活性剂提取量较优化前有明显的提高,其产量分别是优化前的8.4倍、6.4倍、5.6倍和5.7倍,其中,菌株As的生物表面活性剂产量最高,可达20.55 g/L。对于3种纯菌和A3-As混合菌而言,5种提取方法中均以CHCl3萃取的量最高;而对其他混合菌,5种提取方法的差别并不显著。菌株A3、As、Y均属于高效的生物表面活性剂产生菌,具有很好的应用前景。