Intensive investigation in management of Hodgkin's disease.
(1/20402)
Ninety-eight patients with clinically localised Hodgkin's disease underwent laparotomy and splenectomy to determine the extent of microscopic spread. In 68 patients the procedure was carried out for untreated disease apparently confined above the diaphragm. Abdominal disease cannot be confidently excluded on the basis of non-invasive investigation at presentation. Clinical assessment of splenic disease was unreliable unless gross splenomegaly was present. Pedal lymphography was accurate in assessing para-aortic and iliac disease but of no value in assessing other intra-abdominal lymph node involvement, including that of the mesenteric lymph node. Trephine bone marrow biopsy findings were normal in all patients before surgery, and only one patient was found to have diseased bone marrow by Stryker-saw biopsy at operation. Liver disease was identified at operation in nine patients, some of whom were asymptomatic with clinically undetectable splenic and nodal disease. Detailed clinical staging failed to detect disease in one-third of patients who underwent laparotomy. These studies show that if radiotherapy is to remain the treatment of choice for disease truly localised to lymph nodes a detailed staging procedure, including laparotomy and splenectomy, remains essential. The value of this potentially curative treatment is considerably diminished in the patient who has been inadequately staged. (+info)
Mercury and Mink. II. Experimental methyl mercury intoxication.
(2/20402)
Adult female mink were fed rations containing 1.1, 1.8, 4.8, 8.3 and 15.0 ppm mercury as methyl mercury chloride over a 93 day period. Histopathological evidence of injury was present in all groups. Mink fed rations containing 1.8 to 15.0 ppm mercury developed clinical intoxication within the experimental period. The rapidity of onset of clinical intoxication was directly related to the mercury content of the ration. Mercury concentration in tissue of mink which died were similar, despite differences in mercury content of the diets and time of death. The average mercury concentration in the brain of mink which died was 11.9 ppm. The lesions of methyl mercury poisoning are described and criteria for diagnosis are discussed. (+info)
Pathological changes in chickens, ducks and turkeys fed high levels of rapeseed oil.
(3/20402)
Rations containing 25% of either regular rapeseed oil (36% erucic acid), Oro rapeseed oil (1.9% erucic acid), soybean oil or a mixture of lard and corn oil were fed to chickens, ducks and turkeys. The regular rapeseed oil ration caused growth depression, increased feed conversion and anemia in all species. All the ducks and some of the chickens fed the regular rapeseed oil ration died. These dead birds were affected with hydropericardium and ascites. No deaths in the turkeys could be attributed to the regular rapeseed oil ration but some turkeys fed this ration had degenerative foci characterized by infiltrations of histiocytic and giant cells in the myocardium. Severe fatty change in the heart, skeletal muscles, spleen and kidney was found at an early age in all birds fed the regular rapeseed oil ration. Less severe fatty change but no other lesions were found in birds fed the Oro rapeseed oil and soybean oil rations. (+info)
Decreased liver and lung drug-metabolizing activity in mice treated with Corynebacterium parvum.
(4/20402)
Injections of killed suspensions of Corynebacterium parvum (i.p.) in young male mice were followed by time- and dose-dependent decreases in the drug-metabolizing activity of liver microsomes and lung homogenates. In vitro assays with model substrates [aminopyrine, aniline, p-nitroanisole, and benzo(a)pyrene] were used to quantitate drug-metabolizing activity. It is likely that such decreases in mixed function oxidases activity will act to significantly alter the pharmacokinetics of concurrently or subsequently administered drugs. The results provide a possible mechanism to explain several previously reported immunochemotherapeutic interactions. (+info)
Suppression of Moloney sarcoma virus immunity following sensitization with attenuated virus.
(5/20402)
Murine sarcoma virus (Moloney strain) (MSV-M)-induced tumors are unusual in that they regularly appear less than 2 weeks after virus inoculation, progress for 1 to 2 weeks, and are rejected by normal adult BALB/c mice. Rejectio leaves the animals immune to tumor induction. In the present study, presensitization of normal adult BALB/c mice with attenuated MSV-M resulted in an altered pattern of tumor immunity. Injection of active MSV-M into the presensitized animals resulted in tumor induction and rejection similar to that observed in normal animals, but rejection failed to produce protection against the secondary inoculation with MSV-M. After the second inoculation with active MSV-M, tumors appeared and progressed but ultimately were rejected. Over 80% of the mice died, 25% after the primary challenge and the remainder after the secondary challenge. At death, all mice had histological evidence of leukemia which was the probable cause of death. The animals that died following the secondary challenge also had evidence of disseminated MSV-M. Solid tumor nodules were found in skeletal muscle distant from the original site of inoculation, and active MSV-M was isolated from spleen and lungs. The possibility that the results were produced by specific suppression of MSV-Moloney leukemia virus immunity is discussed. (+info)
Effect of portal-systemic anastomosis on renal haemodynamics in cirrhosis.
(6/20402)
In 12 patients with portal hypertension and repeated bleedings from oesophageal varices the central haemodynamics, portal pressure, and mean renal blood flow (RBF) were investigated immediately before and two to seven months after portal-systemic shunt. Cardiac output increased significantly, whereas arterial pressure was unchanged after operation. RBF, which was initially less than in controls, did not change. As portal pressure decreased significantly, a direct portal-renal, neural, or humoral reflex mechanism does not explain the subnormal RBF in cirrhosis. As plasma volume was large and unchanged after operation a "diminished circulating plasma volume" is an unlikely explanation. Therefore, on the basis of the present observations, previously postulated causes of renal hypoperfusion in cirrhosis need revision. (+info)
Prevention of collagen-induced arthritis by gene delivery of soluble p75 tumour necrosis factor receptor.
(7/20402)
Collagen type II-induced arthritis (CIA) in DBA/1 mice can be passively transferred to SCID mice with spleen B- and T-lymphocytes. In the present study, we show that infection ex vivo of splenocytes from arthritic DBA/1 mice with a retroviral vector, containing cDNA for the soluble form of human p75 receptor of tumour necrosis factor (TNF-R) before transfer, prevents the development of arthritis, bone erosion and joint inflammation in the SCID recipients. Assessment of IgG subclass levels and studies of synovial histology suggest that down-regulating the effector functions of T helper-type 1 (Th1) cells may, at least in part, explain the inhibition of arthritis in the SCID recipients. In contrast, the transfer of splenocytes infected with mouse TNF-alpha gene construct resulted in exacerbated arthritis and enhancement of IgG2a antibody levels. Intriguingly, infection of splenocytes from arthritic DBA/1 mice with a construct for mouse IL-10 had no modulating effect on the transfer of arthritis. The data suggest that manipulation of the immune system with cytokines, or cytokine inhibitors using gene transfer protocols can be an effective approach to ameliorate arthritis. (+info)
Systemic administration of rIL-12 synergistically enhances the therapeutic effect of a TNF gene-transduced cancer vaccine.
(8/20402)
Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is a potent antitumor cytokine, which induces and enhances the activity of natural killer (NK) cells, lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). IL-12 also stimulates IFN-gamma production from both T cells and NK cells. In this study, we transfected methylcholanthrene-induced fibrosarcoma (MCA-D) with TNF gene and investigated the therapeutic effect of TNF gene-transduced cancer vaccine and whether the vaccination effect is enhanced by systemic administration of recombinant IL-12 (rIL-12), in a murine model. TNF gene-transduced cancer vaccine or systemic administration of rIL-12 showed slight or moderate inhibition of pre-established tumor. However, simultaneous application of the vaccine and rIL-12 resulted in complete eradication. The cytotoxicity of CTL against parental tumor cells was enhanced with the combination of the vaccine and rIL-12, and IFN-gamma production from spleen cells also increased synergistically. Our findings show that synergistic enhancement of CTL activity and IFN-gamma production could play an important role in the antitumor effect of combination therapy using TNF gene-transduced cancer vaccine and rIL-12. (+info)