CLASSIFICATION OF THYMUS-DERIVED AND MARROW-DERIVED LYMPHOCYTES BY DEMONSTRATION OF THEIR ANTIGEN-BINDING CHARACTERISTICS

Antigen-binding cells of T and B origin can readily be determined by quantitating the number of sheep erythrocytes per rosette after glutaraldehyde fixation. The T1 and T2 populations have low antigen-binding properties and are very unstable without fixation. The B1 and B2 populations are stable and correlate with precursor and secretory cells. Fixation of rosettes permits a sensitive test for studying differentiation of T and B cells

DNA deaminases: AIDing hormones in immunity and cancer

It is well established that hormones can cause cancer, much less known is how they induce this change in our somatic cells. This review highlights the recent finding that estrogen can exert its DNA-damaging potential by directly activating DNA deaminases. This recently discovered class of proteins deaminate cytosine to uracil in DNA, and are essential enzymes in the immune system. The enhanced production of a given DNA deaminase, induced by estrogen, can lead not only to a more active immune response, but also to an increase in mutations and oncogenic translocations. Identifying the direct molecular link between estrogen and a mutation event provides us with new targets for studying and possibly inhibiting the pathological side-effects of estrogen

Any difference? Use of a CAM provider among cancer patients, coronary heart disease (CHD) patients and individuals with no cancer/CHD

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among cancer patients has been described previously, prevalence of use has not commonly been compared to other disease groups in a true population sample where CAM use or cancer is not the main focus. The aims of the present study are to (1) examine how CAM use in cancer patients differs from people with a previous CHD diagnosis and people with no cancer or CHD diagnosis in an unselected general population and (2), investigate the use of a CAM provider among individuals with a previous cancer diagnosis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 8040 men and women aged 29 to 87 in the city of Tromsø, Norway filled in a questionnaire developed specifically for the Tromsø V study with questions on life style and health issues. Visits to a CAM provider within the last 12 months and information on cancer, heart attack and angina pectoris (heart cramp) were among the questions. 1449 respondents were excluded from the analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among the 6591 analysed respondents 331 had a prior cancer diagnosis, of whom 7.9% reported to have seen a CAM provider within the last 12 months. This did not differ significantly from neither the CHD group (6.4%, p = 0.402) nor the no cancer/CHD group (9.5%, p = 0.325).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>According to this study, the proportion of cancer patients seeing a CAM provider was not statistically significantly different from patients with CHD or individuals without cancer or CHD.</p

Lifelines Performance and Management following the 22 February 2011 Christchurch Earthquake, New Zealand: Highlights of Resilience

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the city of Christchurch at 12:51pm on Tuesday 22 February 2011. The earthquake caused 182 fatalities, a large number of injuries, and resulted in widespread damage to the built environment, including significant disruption to the lifelines. The event created the largest lifeline disruption in a New Zealand city in 80 years, with much of the damage resulting from extensive and severe liquefaction in the Christchurch urban area. The Christchurch earthquake occurred when the Canterbury region and its lifelines systems were at the early stage of recovering from the 4 September 2010 Darfield (Canterbury) magnitude 7.1 earthquake. This paper describes the impact of the Christchurch earthquake on lifelines by briefly summarising the physical damage to the networks, the system performance and the operational response during the emergency management and the recovery phase. Special focus is given to the performance and management of the gas, electric and road networks and to the liquefaction ejecta clean-up operations that contributed to the rapid reinstatement of the functionality of many of the lifelines. The water and wastewater system performances are also summarized. Elements of resilience that contributed to good network performance or to efficient emergency and recovery management are highlighted in the paper

Heterotoxicity of Human Serum V.

Intravenous injections of fresh human serum (FHS) with an operative alternative complement pathway (ACP) were toxic for mice. The toxic reaction was manifested by intravascular hemolysis, hemoglobinuria, and a slight prolongation in the mean activated thromboplastin time, prothrombin time and thrombin time. In moribund animals, this was followed by a profound thrombocytopenia and alterations in the leukocyte counts. Marked to slight leukopenia developed in animals dying relatively quickly, while leukocytosis was observed infrequently in animals dying after a protracted shock, and only in concurrence with hemoconcentration and thrombocytopenia. Although the latter sequence of events was not investigated extensively, it may have led to intravascular coagulation. During the acute phase of the reactions, the deposition of platelets mainly in the lungs, and erythrocytes mainly in the liver, was demonstrated by accumulation of radioactive labelling of platelets and erythrocytes, respectively. Histologic sections of the lung revealed hemorrhagic lesions and the accumulation of ‘platelet-like’ thrombi in the pulmonary vessels. The blood films of animals injected with active serum showed erythrocytes ghosts, but no hemagglutination or distinctive microangiopathic changes. The fatal consequence of serum injections could not be prevented by the administration of cortisone, histamine and serotonin antagonists, anticoagulants, or by &lt;i&gt;β&lt;/i&gt;-adrenergic blockade. The injections of homologous erythrocytes lysed by human serum, but not of sonicated red cell, produced histopathologic lesions suggestive of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) in the lungs. It is suggested that the interaction of complement and the coagulation system might induce the development of syndromes characterized by DIC or TTP, or thrombotic phenomena in other conditions.</jats:p