Retroperitoneal lipomas are known for their rarity and varied presentations. We are reporting a case of giant retroperitoneal lipoma which presented as inguinal hernia.

Successful reproduction requires precise temporal coordination among various endocrine and behavioural events. The circadian system regulates daily temporal organization in behaviour and physiology, including neuroendocrine rhythms. The main circadian pacemaker in mammals is located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the anterior hypothalamus. The SCN sends direct efferents to the reproductive axis via monosynaptic projections to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurones. This communication generates circadian endocrine rhythms as well as the preovulatory luteinizing hormone (LH) surge necessary for successful ovulation. One SCN peptide thought to be important for the regulation of oestrous cycles is vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP). VIP neurones from the SCN contact GnRH cells, and these cells are preferentially activated during an LH surge in rats. Unlike adult rats, prepubertal females do not exhibit oestrous cycles, nor do they exhibit an LH surge in response to oestradiol positive-feedback. The present study was undertaken to determine the extent to which the development of a ‘mature’ reproductive axis in female rats is associated with modifications in VIP contacts on GnRH neurones. The brains of diestrus adult (approximately 60 days of age) and prepubertal (21 days of age) female rats were examined using double-label fluorescence immunohistochemistry for VIP and GnRH, with light and confocal microscopy. Although the total number of GnRH-immunoreactive neurones did not differ between adult and prepubertal females, adults had a significant increase in the percentage of GnRH cells receiving VIP contacts compared to juveniles. These data suggest that the development of reproductive hormone rhythms and oestrous cyclicity may be, in part, due to modifications of VIP input to the GnRH system.

Developmental exposure to the agricultural fungicide vinclozolin can impair reproductive function in male rabbits and was previously found to decrease the number of immunoreactive-gonadotropin-releasing hormone (ir-GnRH) neurons in the region of the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT) and rostral preoptic area (rPOA) by postnatal week (PNW) 6. To further examine the disruption of GnRH neurons by fetal vinclozolin exposure, in the current study, pregnant rabbits were dosed orally with vinclozolin, flutamide, or carrot paste vehicle for the last two weeks of gestation. Offspring were euthanized at birth (males and females), PNW6 (females), PNW26 (adult males), or PNW30 (adult females) of age. At birth and in adults, brains were sectioned and processed for immunoreactive GnRH. The numbers of immunoreactive GnRH neuronal perikarya were significantly decreased in vinclozolin-treated rabbits at birth and in adult littermates. By contrast, there was an increase in GnRH immunoreactivity in the terminals in the region of the median eminence. Analysis of PNW6 female brains by radioimmunoassay (RIA) revealed a two-fold increase in GnRH peptide content in the mediobasal hypothalamus in vinclozolin-treated rabbits. This finding was complemented by immunofluorescence analyses that showed a 2.8-fold increase in GnRH immunoreactivity in the median eminence of vinclozolin compared to vehicle-treated females at PNW30. However, there was no difference between treatment groups in the measures of reproduction that were evaluated: ejaculation latency, conception rates or litter size. These results indicate that subacute, prenatal vinclozolin treatment is sufficient to create perdurable alterations in the GnRH neuronal network that forms an important input into the reproductive axis. Finally, the effect of vinclozolin on the GnRH neuronal network was not comparable to that of flutamide, suggesting that vinclozolin was not acting through anti-androgenic mechanisms.

Glutamate, acting through its N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) and non-NMDA receptors in the hypothalamus, regulates reproductive neuroendocrine functions via direct and indirect actions upon gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurones. Previous studies indicate that the NMDA receptor subunit NR2b undergoes changes in protein and gene expression in the hypothalamus in general, and on GnRH neurones in particular, during reproductive ageing. In the present study, we examined whether the NR2b-expressing cell population, both alone and in association with the NR1 subunit (i.e. the latter subunit is necessary for a functional NMDA receptor), is altered as a function of age and/or steroid hormone treatment. Studies focused on the anteroventral periventricular (AVPV) nucleus of the hypothalamus, a region critically involved in the control of reproduction. Young (3-5 months), middle-aged (9-12 months), and aged (approximately 22 months) female rats were ovariectomised and, 1 month later, they were treated sequentially with oestradiol plus progesterone, oestradiol plus vehicle, or vehicle plus vehicle, then perfused. Quantitative stereologic analysis of NR2b-immunoreactive cell numbers in the AVPV showed an age-associated decrease in the density of NR2b-immunoreactive cells, but no effect of hormone treatment. In a second study, immunofluorescent double labelling of NR2b and NR1 was analysed by confocal microscopy of fraction volume, a semi-quantitative measure of fluorescence intensity. No effect of ageing was detected for immunofluorescent NR1 or NR2b alone, whereas the NR2b fraction volume increased in the oestradiol plus vehicle group. With ageing, the fraction volume of the NR2b/NR1-colocalised subunits increased. Together with the stereology results, this suggests that, although fewer cells express the NR2b subunit in the ageing AVPV, a greater percentage of these subunits are co-expressed with NR1. Our results suggest that the subunit composition of NMDA receptors in the AVPV undergo both age- and hormonal-regulation, which may be related to previous observations of changes in functional responses of reproductive neuroendocrine systems to NMDA receptor modulators with ageing.

Objectives

To assess the influence of moderate, acute weight loss on on‐water rowing performance when aggressive nutritional recovery strategies were used in the two hours between weigh in and racing.

Methods

Competitive rowers (n  =  17) undertook three on‐water 1800 m time trials under cool conditions (mean (SD) temperature 8.4 (2.0)°C), each separated by 48 hours. No weight limit was imposed for the first time trial—that is, unrestricted body mass (UNR1). However, one of the remaining two trials followed a 4% loss in body mass in the previous 24 hours (WT−4%). No weight limit was imposed for the other trial (UNR2). Aggressive nutritional recovery strategies (WT−4%, 2.3 g/kg carbohydrate, 34 mg/kg Na+, and 28.4 ml/kg fluid; UNR, ad libitum) were used in the first 90 minutes of the two hours between weigh in and performance trials.

Results

WT−4% had only a small and statistically non‐significant effect on the on‐water time trial performance (mean 1.0 second, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.9 to 2.8; p  =  0.29) compared with UNR. This was despite a significant decrease in plasma volume at the time of weigh in for WT−4% compared with UNR (−9.2%, 95% CI −12.8% to −5.6%; p<0.001).

Conclusions

Acute weight loss of up to 4% over 24 hours, when combined with aggressive nutritional recovery strategies, can be undertaken with minimal impact on on‐water rowing performance, at least in cool conditions.

Six million children live in poverty in America's inner cities. These children are at high risk of exposure to pesticides that are used extensively in urban schools, homes, and day-care centers for control of roaches, rats, and other vermin. The organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos and certain pyrethroids are the registered pesticides most heavily applied in cities. Illegal street pesticides are also in use, including tres pasitos (a carbamate), tiza china, and methyl parathion. In New York State in 1997, the heaviest use of pesticides in all counties statewide was in the urban boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Children are highly vulnerable to pesticides. Because of their play close to the ground, their hand-to-mouth behavior, and their unique dietary patterns, children absorb more pesticides from their environment than adults. The long persistence of semivolatile pesticides such as chlorpyrifos on rugs, furniture, stuffed toys, and other absorbent surfaces within closed apartments further enhances urban children's exposures. Compounding these risks of heavy exposures are children's decreased ability to detoxify and excrete pesticides and the rapid growth, development, and differentiation of their vital organ systems. These developmental immaturities create early windows of great vulnerability. Recent experimental data suggest, for example, that chlorpyrifos may be a developmental neurotoxicant and that exposure in utero may cause biochemical and functional aberrations in fetal neurons as well as deficits in the number of neurons. Certain pyrethroids exert hormonal activity that may alter early neurologic and reproductive development. Assays currently used for assessment of the toxicity of pesticides are insensitive and cannot accurately predict effects to children exposed in utero or in early postnatal life. Protection of American children, and particularly of inner-city children, against the developmental hazards of pesticides requires a comprehensive strategy that monitors patterns of pesticide use on a continuing basis, assesses children's actual exposures to pesticides, uses state-of-the-art developmental toxicity testing, and establishes societal targets for reduction of pesticide use.

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Two-terminal integrated circuit temperature transducers (Analog Devices' AD 590) were used to fabricate skin and rectal probes for the monitoring of mean body temperature. They are inexpensive, robust, easily constructed and of low mass. The skin sensor system described is capable of being solidly attached regardless of the body contour such that it remains integral throughout profuse sweating and vigorous movement. Both types of probe are stable, accurate to within +/- 0.05 degree C over the physiological range of measurement and exhibit 100% response times of approximately 60 s to a square wave stimulus of 10 degrees C.

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Groups of male and female beagle dogs were given daily doses of 400 mg of various mixtures of naphthylamines for up to 109 months. Survivors were killed at 128 months. A variety of pathological conditions was diagnosed, but the only effect related to treatment was the induction of bladder neoplasms. All dogs which received pure 2-naphthylamine developed transitional-cell carcinomas of the bladder within 34 months. Two of 8 dogs receiving 6% 2-naphthylamine in 1-naphthylamine developed early carcinoma and 2/8 dogs receiving 0.5% 2-naphthylamine in 1-naphthylamine developed haemangioma of the bladder. Some of the dogs receiving 1-naphthylamine (total dose 950 g) and the controls had focal cystitis or hyperplasia, but no neoplasia of the bladder. These results confirm the carcinogenicity of 2-naphthylamine to dogs. No carcinogenic effect of 1-naphthylamine was observed, indicating that it is at least 200 times less potent as a carcinogen than 2-naphthylamine. The incidence of bladder cancer in dogs fed mixtures of both naphthylamines explains why previous experimental and epidemiological studies of impure 1-naphthylamine have revealed carcinogenicity.

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