In the present pilot study, our aim was to investigate whether associations could be demonstrated in psychiatric patients between the changes in plasma lipid and lipoprotein levels expected during treatment with psychoactive drugs and the changes in the patients' depressive and hostile behavior. One hundred and fourteen patients with various psychiatric disorders (depressive episode in bipolar affective disorder, depressive episode or recurrent depressive disorder, paranoid schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorders) were included in the study. The following examinations were carried out in each patient on admission and at discharge: (1) the plasma lipid parameters total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and triglycerides (TRI) were determined, and (2) the psychopathological features were recorded employing the AMDP system and the AMDP Syndrome Scales. Within the context of a naturalistic clinical setting with a choice of psychoactive drugs available, patients were subdivided at the end of treatment into eight treatment groups, as follows: group 1, treatment with butyrophenones; group 2, treatment with tricyclics; group 3, treatment with butyrophenones and tricyclics; group 4, treatment with butyrophenones, tricyclics and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors; group 5, treatment with butyrophenones and lithium; group 6, treatment with tricyclics and lithium; group 7, treatment with butyrophenones, tricyclics and lithium; and group 8, treatment with butyrophenones, tricyclics, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and lithium. To compare the changes in the eight treatment groups, mixed general linear models including diagnosis, gender, age, body mass index changes, and baseline values were applied using proc GLM of SAS. Butyrophenones induce an increase in TC, LDL, and TC/TRI ratio, whereas tricyclics lead to an increase in TC, LDL, VLDL, and TRI. In combined medication of butyrophenones and tricyclics the effects of tricyclics predominate. Comedication of lithium inhibits the increase in TC and LDL induced by butyrophenones and/or tricyclics. Treatment groups with lipid changes of the same type (decrease, no change, or increase) were combined in "lipid change groups". Analyses of variance or covariance (with psychopathological admission value as covariate where there were significant differences in psychopathological admission mean values between the groups) of these lipid change groups with regard to the changes in the Depressive Syndrome Scale and the Hostility Syndrome Scale gave results which are interpreted as follows: an increase in TC or LDL inhibits the remission of hostility, whereas an increase in TRI with concomitant decrease in TC, or else a relatively greater increase in TRI than in TC promotes the remission of hostility. A decrease in TRI or VLDL promotes the remission of depression. Our data and findings published in the literature may suggest that systemic changes in plasma lipid parameters, at the cellular l...

We present here a 1770 bp-long cDNA which encodes a murine type II keratin. Sequence comparisons of the keratin with those of various type II keratins expressed in mouse epidermis and internal stratified epithelia reveal that the new keratin is unrelated to epithelial keratins. Rather the structural organization of its amino- and carboxyterminal domains and the high content of cysteine and proline residues in these regions suggest that the keratin represents a murine type II hair keratin. This assumption was confirmed by in situ hybridization which localized the mRNA of the keratin in upper cells of the hair cortex and in suprabasal cells of the central core unit of filiform papillae of the tongue. Hybrid selection analyses revealed that the keratin has a molecular weight of 58 kD. It remains to be seen whether the keratin corresponds to MHb 3 or MHb 4.

No abstract

Neogenesis of functional hair follicles in the tail skin of adult mice can quantitatively be demonstrated after long-term treatment with tumour-promoting phorbol esters. The ability to induce the formation of new hair follicles correlates with the hyperplasiogenic and tumour-promoting capacity of the phorbol esters. Hyperplasiogenic but nonpromoting phorbol esters do not lead to the formation of new hair follicles.