Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) has a frequency of 0.2% in most populations of the world. In selected populations such as the Afrikaners in South Africa, the Christian Lebanese, and the French Canadians, the disease is more frequent due to the founder effect. Previous studies demonstrated that a single mutation at the LDL receptor locus, the so-called French Canadian deletion, makes up 60% of the mutant genes responsible for FH in the French Canadian population. In this study, efforts were directed to determine if there were other common LDL receptor mutations in this population. Three missense mutations were identified and each mutation was reproduced and expressed in vitro. Two of the three mutations result in the production of an LDL receptor protein that is not processed to its mature form at a normal rate. Molecular assays were developed to detect the mutations directly, and the LDL receptor genes of 130 French Canadian FH heterozygotes were screened for the presence of the three missense mutations as well as two deletions. LDL receptor mutations were detected in 76% of individuals and 14% had one of the three missense mutations. (J. Clin. Invest. 1990Invest. . 85:1014Invest. -1023.) familial hypercholesterolemia-LDL receptors hypercholesterolemia

Approximately 15% of patients treated for advanced head and neck cancer with surgery and radiotherapy will develop hypothyroidism. Those treated with total laryngectomy and radiotherapy are at greatest risk.

The development of severe secondary laryngeal changes in dogs aged six months or less supports the suggestion that immature brachycephalic dogs should undergo assessment and, if indicated, surgery as soon as any clinical signs of BAS are apparent.

In conclusion, Lym-1 had more potent direct and indirect cytotoxic effects than rituximab in lymphoma cells under conditions achievable in patients. Because the HLA-DR target antigen of Lym-1 is enriched on most B-cell lymphomas, these results support its complementary use in patients as an alternative to CD20 for monoimmunotherapy and for combination immunotherapy with rituximab, because the HLA-DR and CD20 antigens are physically and functionally coupled on human B cells.

RNA was isolated from 22 squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) obtained from diverse sites within the head and neck and from matched normal tissue where available. Tissue samples were then screened for expression of RNA from tumor suppressor gene p16 by utilizing semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. p16-Specific PCR amplification products generated from tumor samples were subject to further analysis by direct DNA sequencing to determine if any tumor sample harbored a p16 mutation. The results show the presence of mutations in 10 of 22 (45%) of the tumor samples. Mutations comprise two identical point mutations, two small deletions (1 bp and 2 bp), one single-nucleotide insertion, four larger deletions, and an insertion/deletion. No mutations in p16 have been identified by analysis of PCR products generated from normal matched tissue, suggesting that p16 alterations are generated by somatic mutation and are not germline in origin. All 22 samples were analyzed additionally by immunohistochemistry for nuclear expression of the retinoblastoma (RB) tumor suppressor gene product. Results show lack of RB nuclear expression in only one sample, suggesting that mutation of RB is an infrequent event in the development of SCC of the head and neck (SCCHN).