Histochemical demonstration of alkaline phosphatase in human large intestine, normal and diseased

Alkaline phosphatase activity has been investigated by histochemical methods in normal and diseased human large intestine. The tissues were constantly maintained at 4 degrees C or below. Specimens were either frozen in liquid nitrogen, freeze-dried and embedded in glycol methacrylate for sectioning at 2 mu, or, fixed in ice-cold formol-calcium for frozen sectioning at 10 mu. The simultaneous coupling azo dye method using the substrates sodium alpha-naphthyl phosphate and Naphthol AS-BI phosphate, resulted in the demonstration of alkaline phosphatase activity in the surface epithelial cells, and the middle and upper crypts, of normal and transitional mucosa.

Contraceptive knowledge and practice among undergraduates at a Canadian university

A total of 509 undergraduate students aged 17 to 23 years, were tested to assess the adequacy of their knowledge of methods of birth control. A level of adequate knowledge was arbitrarily defined a priori as one standard deviation below the mean score of a random sample of second-year medical students, who were assumed to have more than adequate knowledge on the basis of prior courses in reproductive physiology and human sexuality. Of the undergraduate population sampled, 34 per cent were found to have inadequate knowledge. This population is in need of birth control information. Of nonvirgins in the sample, 20.2 per cent risk unwanted pregnancy, the majority (78.3 per cent) in spite of adequate knowledge. This suggests that lack of motivation, rather than purely lack of information, is an important factor contributing to the unwanted pregnancy rate of the college student population.

Effect of exercise on lipid metabolism of rats fed high carbohydrate diets

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether high carbohydrate diets or exercise would have a greater influence on certain parameters of lipid metabolism. Male Fischer rats were used in both experiments, separated into exercise and sedentary groups, and fed either a high sucrose (63%) or a high starch (63%) diet. There were no differences in body weight or food consumption between the two diets. Exercise resulted in a highly significant increase in food consumption in both experiments. Rats fed sucrose had a higher serum cholesterol value than rats fed starch. Diet did not influence serum triglycerides but the rats on excercise had significantly lower serum triglycerides than the sedentary rats. Liver weight was significantly larger in rats fed sucrose. Sucrose caused an increase in the activity of both glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and malic enzyme activities in liver tissue, whereas exercise caused an increase in the activity of these enzymes in adipose tissue.

Metabolic effects of exercise. I. Effect of exercise on serum lipids and lipogenesis in rats

To evaluate the metabolic effects of exercise, three groups of exercised male rats were compared to their sedentary controls at the end of 10 wk of voluntary exercise in rodent activity cages. Exercises rats consumed more food than sedentary rats but had greater weight gain only at the higher levels of activity. Exercised rats had significanlty lower serum triglycerides and higher values of adipose tissue alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase activity. At higher levels of physical activity, the exercised rats enhibited larger adrenal glands and lower values of hepatic glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. It is concluded that specific levels of voluntary exercise are needed to achieve specific metabolic effects.

A core library for community hospitals

The development, provision and promotion of improved information services has been given the highest priority in continuing medical education programs in Saskatchewan during the past three years. Core libraries based in community hospitals provide the foundation for a four point program which also includes personalized telephone consultations, automated Dial Access libraries and modern computerized bibliography and reprint retrieval services. Methods used to develop and promote core libraries are described.

Automated Simultaneous Turbidimetric Determination of Cholesterol in β- and pre-β-Lipoproteins

An automated method is described for simultaneously determining cholesterol in serum β- and pre-β-lipoprotein fractions. This fast, reproducible, accurate method depends on the ability of β- and pre-β-lipoproteins to form insoluble complexes with polyanionic polysaccharides such as heparin. Values obtained by this method and by similar manual methods described in the literature agree well. This method is extremely useful in mass screening for hyperlipidemias; in certain cases it may be more useful than the determination of only cholesterol or triglycerides.