Differential inhibition of postnatal brain,spinal cord and body growth by a growth hormone antagonist

Background  

Growth hormone (GH) plays an incompletely understood role in the development of the central nervous system (CNS). In this study, we use transgenic mice expressing a growth hormone antagonist (GHA) to explore the role of GH in regulating postnatal brain, spinal cord and body growth into adulthood. The GHA transgene encodes a protein that inhibits the binding of GH to its receptor, specifically antagonizing the trophic effects of endogenous GH.     

Stereoselective synthesis of functionalized trans-2,5-disubstituted tetrahydrofurans

[reaction: see text] The addition of the titanium enolates of N-acetyl, N-propionyl, and N-bromoacetyl (R)-oxazolidin-2-ones to gamma-lactol 2, derived from (S)-glutamic acid, afforded trans- and cis-2,5-disubstituted tetrahydrofurans (trans/cis ratio: R = H, 2:1; R = Me, 8:1; R = Br, 10:1) after desilylation with aqueous HF/CH3CN. Chromatographic separation and LiBH4 reduction allowed the efficient preparation of the corresponding trans-2,5-disubstituted tetrahydrofuran diols and the recovery of the chiral auxiliary.     

Effect of three-body forces on the lattice dynamics of noble metals

A simple method to generate an effective electron-ion interaction pseudopotential from the energy wave number characteristic obtained by first principles calculations has been suggested. This effective potential has been used, in third order perturbation, to study the effect of three-body forces on the lattice dynamics of noble metals. It is found that three-body forces, in these metals, do play an important role. The inclusion of such three-body forces appreciably improves the agreement between the experimental and theoretical phonon dispersion curves.