[Chromosome aberrations and the origin of tumors (author's transl)]

Traumatic origin of a meningioma?

The case of a 41-year-old pregnant woman is reported who was found dead in her apartment 5 months after she had suffered a severe head injury due to a car accident. An autopsy, a meningioma (4 cm in diameter) was found localized in the right parieto-temporal region which had probably caused an epileptic seizure leading to central dysfunction and to death. The criteria concerning the diagnosis of a traumatic meningioma are discussed. In the present case, a causal connection between a former head trauma and the development of the tumor had to be refuted.

Carcinogenic effects of cadmium on the prostate of the rat

The carcinogenic effects of cadmium were tested in an animal experiment to check the results of epidemiological studies showing that the incidence of prostatic carcinoma is above average in workers industrially exposed to high cadmium levels. For this purpose 1.9 mg CdCl2 (1.2 mg Cd/kg body weight) was injected into the right ventral prostatic lobe of 12-month-old male inbred rats of the Okamoto-toki strain. Simple hyperplasia was found in 38, atypical hyperplasia in 29, atypical hyperplasia with severe dysplasia in 11 and invasive prostatic carcinoma in 5 of 100 animals 270 days after the injection. Various mechanisms are discussed in connection with the carcinogenic action of cadmium.

Aneuploidy patterns in Drosophila melanogaster

By using an appropriate scheme, various combinations of losses and gains of chromosomes I and II arising in oocytes of Drosophila melanogaster were obtained. The frequencies of these combinations can be arranged as special sequences or patterns which we call "aneuploidy patterns." Aneuploidy patterns were established for spontaneous, colchicine-induced, and X-ray-induced exceptions and were shown to be highly specific for the agent tested. Such patterns can be obtained very quickly, because only exceptional progeny survive. By establishing aneuploidy patterns for chemical agents one would get information of the "aneuploidizing" action of the compounds tested.