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Because there are many potential risks in the MR environment and reports of adverse incidents involving patients, equipment and personnel, the need for a guidance document on MR safe practices emerged. Initially published in 2002, the ACR MR Safe Practices Guidelines established de facto industry standards for safe and responsible practices in clinical and research MR environments. As the MR industry changes the document is reviewed, modified and updated. The most recent version will reflect these changes. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2013;37:501–530. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In the dimorphic fungus Cad Chitin is a fibrous polymer off-1,4-N-acetylglucosamine that constitutes a major structural component of the cell wall of many species of fungi, including those species that are pathogenic in humans. Because chitin is not found in mammals and its biosynthesis is normally essential for the shape and viability of the fungal cell (1, 2), chitin synthesis is an attractive target for the design of antifungal drugs. The most common medical mycosis is caused by Candida albicans, which is a diploid organism with no sexual cycle. This fungus is capable ofdimorphic growth where growth can occur by unicellular budding or filamentous hyphal extension and branch formation (3). The hyphal cell wall has three to five times the chitin content of the yeast cell wall (4, 5) and the cells have up to 10 times the in vivo chitin synthase activity (6). Three genes encoding chitin synthases have been cloned and sequenced in C. albicans (7,8,37). Two encode chitin synthase zymogens (CHSI and CHS2), homologous to the CHS genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The third chitin synthase gene, CHS3, is homologous to the S. cerevisiae CSD2 (9) gene (also called CALI) and is apparently the structural gene for an enzyme, which in S. cerevisiae, does not require proteolysis for its activity. Northern blot analysis of the C. albicans CHS genes showed that CHS2 mRNA levels were elevated in cells undergoing hyphal development, whereas the CHS1 mRNA was expressed only at low levels early in germ-tube formation (8).The role of each of the chitin synthase activities described in S. cerevisiae has been investigated by disrupting each of the relevant genes (for a review, see ref. 10). Gene disruptions are more difficult in C. albicans because the organism is constitutively diploid and because stable multiply marked strains are required for sequential gene disruptions. Sequential gene disruption of HEM3 of C. albicans has been achieved with two genetic markers (11), but host strains with sufficient markers for the disruption of more than one structural gene are not yet available. In this study, we employed the "ura-blaster" protocol originally described by Alani et al.(12) for use with S. cerevisiae, to disrupt all alleles of the hyphal-specific C. albicans CHS2 gene. This method allows the sequential disruption of target alleles. by using Ura3 auxotrophy as a single selectable marker. Because the selectable marker can be regenerated after the disruption of each allele, this method overcomes the need for multiply marked host strains and is, therefore, ideally suited for the analysis of families of genes such as the CHS genes in C. albicans. We show that the chs2 null mutant was still able to form germ tubes, albeit with a reduced chitin content compared with the isogenic wild-type parent. A prototrophic chs2-null mutant was still able to cause disease in normal and immunosuppressed mice and had a similar virulence to the parental CHS2 strain. A preliminary report of the construction of the Achs2::hisG null mutant has a...

Phospholamban (PLB) can be phosphorylated at Ser 16by cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase and at Thr 17 by Ca 2؉ -calmodulin-dependent protein kinase during ␤-agonist stimulation. A previous study indicated that mutation of S16A in PLB resulted in lack of Thr 17 phosphorylation and attenuation of the ␤-agonist stimulatory effects in perfused mouse hearts. To further delineate the functional interplay between dual-site PLB phosphorylation, we generated transgenic mice expressing the T17A mutant PLB in the cardiac compartment of the null background. Lines expressing similar levels of T17A mutant, S16A mutant, or wild-type PLB in the null background were characterized in parallel. Phospholamban (PLB)1 is a low molecular weight phosphoprotein in cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). Dephosphorylated PLB is an inhibitor of the affinity of SERCA2 for Ca 2ϩ , and phosphorylation of PLB during ␤-adrenergic stimulation relieves its inhibitory effects on SERCA2 (1, 2). The physiological importance of PLB has been elucidated through the generation of genetically engineered mouse models with alterations in cardiac PLB expression levels (3, 4). Ablation of PLB was associated with significantly enhanced Ca 2ϩ affinity of SERCA2 and myocardial performance (3, 5, 6). The elevated basal contractile parameters could be minimally stimulated by ␤-agonists (3, 7), whereas there were no alterations in the ␤-receptor signaling pathway or the phosphorylation states of other major cardiac phosphoproteins (8). On the other hand, overexpression of PLB was associated with significant depression of contractile parameters, which could be reversed upon phosphorylation of PLB during ␤-agonist stimulation (4). These results indicate that PLB is a key regulator of cardiac function and a prominent mediator of the ␤-adrenergic effects in the myocardium.In vitro studies have shown that PLB can be phosphorylated on Ser 10 by protein kinase C, Ser 16 by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA), and Thr 17 by Ca 2ϩ -calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMKII) (1, 9, 10). Each phosphorylation is associated with stimulation of the apparent affinity of SERCA2 for Ca 2ϩ . In vivo studies have shown that only Ser 16 and Thr 17 are phosphorylated in cardiac myocytes or perfused hearts (11, 12), whereas phosphorylation of PLB by protein kinase C has not been detected in vivo. Phosphorylation of PLB by PKA and CaMKII occurs during ␤-agonist exposure, although the relative contribution of each phosphorylation to the cardiac stimulatory effects is not presently clear. Each phosphorylation appears to occur independently of the other (13-16). Some studies have reported additive effects of PKA and CaMKII phosphorylation of PLB on SR Ca 2ϩ transport (13,14,17,18), whereas others (16, 19) have proposed that maximal stimulation of the Ca 2ϩ pump occurs by phosphorylation at a single site, and additional phosphorylation of the other site does not further stimulate the pump activity.Several in vivo studies have shown that Ser 16 phosphorylation or dephosphorylation precede...