Short-course chemotherapy of pulmonary tuberculosis in pneumoconiotic patients

This is the first prospective clinical trial recorded to date of short-course chemotherapy in pulmonary tuberculosis complicated by pneumoconiosis. Forty-eight anthrasillicotic and 11 silicotic patients with previously untreated pulmonary tuberculosis completed 9-month, short-course chemotherapy regimens: 2 months of daily streptomycin, isoniazid, rifampicin, and pyrazinamide followed by daily isoniazid and rifampicin for 7 months (2SHRZ/7HR). There were 3 treatment failures (5%). The remaining 56 patients (95%) all had their sputum converted within 4 months (mean, 1.5 months). Bacteriologic relapses were noted in 3 patients (5%) after 18 to 40 months of follow-up (mean, 28.4 months). The relapses occurred within 7 months after chemotherapy was stopped. There were 2 deaths from nontuberculosis causes during the follow-up period. Fifty-one patients (90%) remained bacteriologically sterile for 28.4 +/- 6.1 months. These results suggest that the 2SHRZ/7HR regimen is satisfactory in treating anthrasilicotic or silicotic patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, though antituberculosis chemotherapy seemed less effective in patients with pneumoconiosis than in those without pneumoconiosis.

Purification and properties of Acid phosphatase from plump and shriveled seeds of triticale

A major triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) endosperm acid phosphatase (EC 3.1.2.2) (APase) from sib-lines producing plump and shriveled seed was purified 140- and 230-fold to a specific activity of 94 and 153 micromoles per minute per milligram protein respectively, by ammonium sulfate fractionation, ion-exchange chromatography, chromatofocusing, affinity column chromatography, and gel filtration. The purified enzyme from both materials is a monomeric glycoprotein with an apparent molecular weight of 45,700 +/- 500 containing 12% carbohydrate and an apparent isoelectric point of pH 5.9. It hydrolyzes tri- and di-phosphate of nucleosides as well as phosphate esters and exhibits characteristics of ATP-hydrolase and phosphatase. About 2-fold more of the APase was isolated from shriveled seeds, and the purified enzyme exhibited 3- and 5-fold higher V(max) for p-nitrophenyl phosphate and ATP, respectively, than that of plump seed. The I(50) for Pi concentration was 5.5-fold higher in APase of shriveled seed than the plump one. These varied quantitative and kinetic properties substantiate the role of APase in lines with shriveled seeds being reduction of starch accumulation by depleting substrates and energy supply in the cytosol.

Effect of laser microbeam irradiation of the nucleus on the cleavage of mouse eggs in culture

Two-cell mouse eggs were irradiated by a helium-cadmium laser on a spot of about 4 micron2 (d = 2.2 micron) in one or both nuclei either continuously or repeatedly at 0.36 erg micron-2 sec-1 and then cultured to observe cellular development. After exposing one nucleus to the microbeam to five or seven 1-sec pulses (1.80 or 2.52 ergs micron-2, respectively), about 45% developed to the 3-cell stage in 24 hr of culture. In overnight cultures of the 2-cell eggs in which both nuclei were irradiated for 9 or 20 sec continuously, 40 (9 sec) and 50% (20 sec) of the eggs remained at the 2-cell stage, while 45 (9 sec) and 25% (20 sec) developed to the 4-cell stage. Irradiating only one nucleus in a 2-cell egg by seven pulses in a spot of 4 micron2 amounting to 10 ergs reduced cleavage 45%. When both nuclei were each irradiated by a 9-sec continuous laser beam (totaling 13 ergs), about 40% of the embryos of the 2-cell stage did not divide. The effect of seven pulses on the blastomere cleavage of 2-cell mouse eggs appeared to be comparable to that of continuous 9-sec laser irradiation. Both pulse and continuous laser microirradiation methods may be developed for inactivation of the nucleus as a nonpipetting , less injurious method for enucleation of mammalian eggs.

Entire litters developed from transferred eggs in whole body X-irradiated female mice

The sensitivity of mouse eggs to sublethal X-irradiation was determined in vitro and in vivo with regard to the development of donor litters in foster mothers. One thousand seven hundred fifty-eight unfertilized eggs of agouti dark-eyed donor mice were transferred into 293 unirradiated or X-irradiated, mated female pink-eyed mice. Two hundred thirty-nine recipients became pregnant; of these 35 produced litters containing solely dark-eyed fetuses. Sublethal doses of X-radiation administered to donor eggs in vitro before transferring into unirradiated recipients did not influence significantly the number of litters of exclusively dark-eyed fetuses produced. However, recipients irradiated by 250 roentgens (r) produced more solely dark-eyed litters than did those irradiated with 100 r. In 21 pregnant females irradiated by 100 r, only 3 (14%) developed solely dark-eyed fetuses as compared to 22 pregnant females irradiated by 250 r, of which 13 (59%) developed solely dark-eyed fetuses, all from unirradiated, transferred eggs. Of another group of 22 pregnant females which received 250 r body irradiation and subsequently received eggs also irradiated by 250 r, only 7 (32%) produced litters of dark-eyed fetuses. No one female of these three groups carried native fetuses. Such radiation-induced infertility resulting from damage of native eggs rather than loss of mother's ability to carry a pregnancy, is frequently remedied by egg transfer.

Interaction of male and female germ cells of two mammalian species in culture

When viewed by scanning electron microscopy, the heads of mouse spermatozoa are smaller than those of the hamster. The vitelline microvilli of hamster eggs are longer than those of the mouse egg. Both these factors may contribute to the enhanced interaction of mouse spermatozoa and hamster eggs. Treating unfertilized mouse eggs with Newcastle disease virus causes the viteline microvilli to elongate, thus improving the interaction between mouse eggs and hamster spermatozoa.

Microinjection of mouse eggs

A technique has been developed for injecting known amounts of liquids into fertilized one-celled mouse eggs by use of a calibrated ocular micrometer superimposed on the terminal regions of the injection pipette. From 128 pronuclear eggs, each injected with 180 or 770 cubic microns of bovine gamma globulin at a concentration of 25 milligrams per milliliter in citrate-Locke's solution and then transferred to the oviducts of pregnant foster mothers, 18 living fetuses developed; from 74 eggs, each injected with 2730 cubic microns, 5 fetuses survived. The living fetuses that developed from the injected eggs were smaller than normal in 6 of 23 surviving experimental fetuses as contrasted to only 1 of 19 control fetuses.