No abstract

Development of the facial profile between age 5 and the end of pubertal growth in patients with complete bilateral cleft lip and palate was studied by means of cephalometric x-rays taken at the age of 5, 10 and 15 years as well as at the end of the growth period. All 29 patients had been treated according to the same plan and operated upon by the same surgeon. Values for the ANB angle are typically very high in 5 year old children, and then decrease to values corresponding to those of the general population by the end of the pubertal growth period. Vertical development maintains the initial pattern; no compensatory vertical excess was observed. Due to the wide range in all measurements, the value of age-related mean values in a patient sample is of little consequence for individuals but can point out tendencies. The multidisciplinary concept of maintaining the initially protrusive position of the premaxilla by means of a passive plate at the newborn and infant stage, as well as using surgical procedures with limited retrusive effect proved to be correct in the long run: At the young adult stage the angle ANB remained positive for almost all patients except for those with multiple tooth agenesis in the upper arch. A potential benefit of two-stage palate repair is seen in the neutral vertical development of the patients examined. This hypothesis is supported by comparison with other studies from the literature.

The normal male of Drosophila subobscura displays polymegaly, which is the presence of two sizes of spermatozoa in the same testis. It is still unknown whether both kinds of sperm are able to fertilize the egg. An indicator of normal functioning of Drosophila spermatozoa is the replacement of the somatic histones by sperm-specific arginine-rich nucleoproteins during spermiogenesis. The appearance of these arginine-rich nucleoproteins in the two kinds of sperm was investigated using the fluorescent dye sulfoflavine, which stains basic proteins at pH 8.In the spherical nuclei of early spermatids of Drosophila subobscura the somatic histones fluoresced strongly, but fluorescence could not be detected in later stages when the spermatid nuclei were elongating. After elongation, however, the nuclei of both kinds of sperm, long and short, fluoresced brightly again, due to the presence of sperm-specific arginine-rich nucleoproteins. Half of the cysts of both types contained spermatid nuclei with aberrant fluorescent pattern including 5 9% of both cyst types which do not undergo histone transition at all.These results indicate that both sperm types may be functional.