Interaction between theophylline and oestrogen in the rat uterus

Theophylline alone or in the presence of 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 or 1 microgram oestradiol-17 beta/100 g body wt increase uterine RNA and protein content 6 h after administration. Uterine oedema induced by physiological doses of oestradiol-17 beta was increased further in the presence of theophylline. Theophylline decreased the number of eosinophils in the blood and concurrently decreased oestrogen-induced uterine oesinophilia at doses of 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10 or 30 micrograms oestradiol-17 beta/100 g body wt. Oestrogen binding by uterine eosinophils in vitro increased in the presence of theophylline. This effect of theophylline could explain the increase of oestrogen-induced uterine oedema in vivo.

Effect of theophylline and triiodothyronine on some early estrogenic responses in the rat uterus

Theophylline increases and triodothyronine decreases uterine edema induced by physiological doses of estradiol-17 beta. Both of them decrease estrogen-induced uterine eosinophilia and the number of blood eosinophils, suggesting an explanation for the results in the uterus.

[Presence of resistance factors to antibiotics in multiresistant enterobacteria]

The present study was carried out with 111 multiresistant pathogenic strains of enterobacterias isolated from different sources with increased resistance to three or more antibiotics. Among the identified species are included E. coli, Shigella sp., Salmonella oranienburg, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Citrobacter freundii. In general, the minimal inhibitory concentration of antibiotics was above 100 microgram/ml and in some cases it was superior to 1000 microgram/ml. Resistance transfer factors were detected in 72% of the strains; 33% movilized the complete pattern of resistance and 67% did it partially because some of the determinants were not transfered. The Citrobacter strains show a high frequency of transference (10(-1)), while for the others species it was in the order of 10(-2)--10(-3). The use of a multi-inoculator allows to perform in a simple way the preliminar evaluation about the presence or absence of R transfer factors in multiresistant strains. This technique has shown good correlation with the data obtained by the usual dilution and plating method.

Passage of mannitol from mother to amniotic fluid and fetus

Ten pregnant women and three pregnant sheep received mannitol intravenously. The results show that during late pregnancy this substance appears in amniotic fluid, and when the fetus is alive, its concentration increases with time, reaching values which are higher than those simultaneously obtained in maternal plasma. The experiments performed in sheep show that in fetal urine the concentration of mannitol reached values 10 to 20 times higher than those found in fetal plasma. This supports the hypothesis that the fetal kidney has an important role in the transference of this type of substance from the mother to the amniotic fluid.

Disappearance of para-amino-hippurate from amniotic fluid

Eight pregnant women and three pregnant sheep received 400 mg of para-amino-hippurate (PAH) intraaminotically. Serial samples of amniotic fluid and maternal blood were obtained. In sheep samples of fetal blood were also withdrawn. PAH appeared in maternal plasma in all the cases. In all pregnant women PAH disappeared slowly from amniotic fluid (50% in 4 hours). In one ewe the study was performed as in humans and showed the same pattern of disappearance. In the other two, fetal urine was drained outside the amniotic fluid and PAH disappeared from it at a much faster rate (90% in 4 hours). PAH concentration in fetal urine was 100 times higher than in fetal plasma. Our findings in pregnant women seem to suggest that PAH disappears from the amniotic sac by a diffusion mechanism. On the other hand the results found in sheep also suggest that the fetus may have an active role in PAH concentration in amniotic fluid, eliminating part of the substance into maternal blood across the placenta but returning a major portion to the amniotic fluid with fetal urine.