Effects of methyl isocyanate on rat muscle cells in culture.

Since the Bhopal disaster, in which the causal agent was methyl isocyanate (MIC), exposed people have complained of various disorders including neuromuscular dysfunction. In an attempt to gain some information about the response of muscle tissue to MIC its effects were investigated in cells in culture isolated from muscle of 2 day old rats. After treatment with a range of MIC concentrations (0.025-0.5 microliter/5 ml culture) the total number of nuclei of the two main cell types (fibroblasts and myoblasts) and the number of nuclei in muscle fibres (myotubes) were recorded. At lower doses which had little effect on the total number of nuclei, the formation of muscle fibres--that is, fusion of muscle cells--was prevented as the proportion of nuclei in myotubes was decreased. At higher doses both cell types were killed. This would suggest either an effect on muscle differentiation or a selective toxicity towards myoblasts. The observations were supported by light and electron microscopy.     

Human factors in firefighting: ergonomic-, cardiopulmonary-, and psychogenic stress-related issues

Summary There are many issues in firefighting that involve human factors and cardiopulmonary conditioning. Population-based mortality and disability surveillance studies suggest a relatively small but significant excess of disability but not mortality from nonmalignant cardiovascular disease for fire fighters. More targeted cohort and case-control studies do not support such an excess and instead suggest a strong healthy worker effect. Pulmonary function among fire fighters has been extensively studied, with contradictory findings. Extreme exposures and long-term exposure in combination with cigarette smoking may be risk factors for respiratory disorders and accelerated decline in airflow. It appears likely that individual fire fighters who show early signs of illness are often selectively transferred out of active firefighting positions. Despite exposure to substances such as carbon monoxide that may predispose to cardiovascular mortality and morbidity, excesses are not consistently shown in mortality studies. Clinical studies of individual fire fighters do suggest an elevated risk for myocardial ischemia. The ergonomic demands of firefighting are extreme at peak activity because of high energy costs for activities such as climbing aerial ladders, the positive heat balance from endogenous and absorbed environmental heat, and encumbrance by bulky but necessary protective equipment. The psychological stresses of firefighting include long periods of relative inactivity punctuated by highly stressful alarms and extremely stressful situations such as rescues, as reflected in physiological and biochemical indicators. Fire fighters are at risk for depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, although morale overall is generally much higher than in comparable occupations. Women firefighter candidates as a group perform less well on selection test simulating the demands of active firefighting, but some individual women perform very well.     

Freshly isolated hepatocytes as a model for studying the toxicity of paracetamol

The toxicity of paracetamol has been investigated in freshly isolated hamster hepatocytes. Two phases of toxicity have been identified. In phase 1, metabolic activation of paracetamol occurs with depletion of glutathione. In phase 2, there is progressive morphological damage, leading ultimately to cell death. This occurs even in the absence of further exposure to paracetamol. The thiol reductant, dithiothreitol, added at the start of phase 2, prevents and reverses the toxicological damage that would otherwise occur. Thus, it is most likely that paracetamol causes hepatotoxicity through oxidation of SH groups in key enzymes. N-Acetylcysteine, but not methionine, has an effect similar to that of dithiothreitol. This difference is probably due to oxidation of the enzymes involved in the conversion of methionine to cysteine, whereas N-acetylcysteine can still serve as a precursor of glutathione. The glutathione can act both by adduct formation with the metabolite of paracetamol and as a thiol reductant. Species differences in sensitivity to paracetamol toxicity were shown to be due to differences in the rate of oxidation of the drug to its toxic metabolite. Most people are relatively poor activators of paracetamol, but in few subjects the reaction proceeds quite rapidly, rendering such individuals more sensitive to the hepatotoxic effects of the drug.     

Bacteremia caused by a recently described novel Desulfovibrio species.

An obligately anaerobic, fastidious, slowly growing, spiral, gram-negative bacterium was isolated from the blood of a 75-year-old man with acute onset of pyrexia. The patient responded rapidly to appropriate antibiotic therapy. Extensive investigation failed to detect a focus for the infection. Phenotypically, the organism was consistent with Desulfovibrio species. Microscopic investigation revealed an organism with a vibrioid or spirillioid morphology with rapidly progressive motility by means of a single polar flagellum. Biochemically, the organism produced large amounts of H2S and contained desulfovirdin. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of the organism was found to be most similar to those of members of the genus Desulfovibrio, with identical sequence homology to the newly proposed species described by Tee et al. (W. Tee, M. Dyall-Smith, W. Woods, and D. Eisen, J. Clin. Microbiol. 34:1760-1764, 1996). This is a second unrelated isolation of this novel species from two widely different locations in Australia. The two isolates show some phenotypic differences, indicating that they are different strains of the same species.     

Comparison of a blood-free medium and a filtration technique for the isolation of Campylobacter spp. from diarrhoeal stools of hospitalised patients in central Australia.

Single specimens of diarrhoeal stool from 676 patients, mostly aboriginals aged less than 5 years, admitted to Alice Springs Hospital, central Australia, for diarrhoea between Sept. 1988 and Feb. 1989, were examined for Campylobacter spp. by culture on a blood-free medium with selective supplement (BFM; Oxoid) and blood agar overlaid with a membrane filter (FM). Campylobacter spp. were isolated on either BFM or FM or both from 225 patients. Campylobacter spp. were isolated on BFM alone from 75 patients and on FM alone from 213 patients (p less than 0.001; chi 2 test). Most campylobacters isolated on BFM were C. jejuni. All C. jejuni subsp. doylei, all "C. upsaliensis" except one, all C. laridis, C. fetus subsp. fetus and several uncharacterised Campylobacter isolates were isolated on FM only. C. jejuni was isolated on BFM but not FM from several patients, and vice versa. Serotyping of C. jejuni and C. coli isolated from both media showed the serotypes recovered from the two media to be different in some patients. In some patients concurrent infection with several species or serotypes (up to five) of Campylobacter, or both, was shown for the first time by the use of FM. We conclude that the use in combination of a selective medium and a non-selective medium with a filtration technique are better than either medium alone for the isolation of Campylobacter spp.     

Simultaneous determination of retinol and α-tocopherol by high pressure liquid chromatography in micro-volumes of serum

The lack of biochemical data to indicate the prevalence of marginal vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in the country is largely because of the difficulty of obtaining enough serum for analysis, especially from malnourished children. Efforts were therefore made to establish a high-pressure liquid chromatography system (HPLC) for the determination of retinol in micro-volumes of serum. Since our previous studies showed that tocopherol could be simultaneously determined in the same system, studies have been carried out for the determination of both vitamins using retinol acetate and -tocopherol acetate as internal standards. Trials were carried out to determine the most suitable sample treatment procedures and chromatographic system including composition of the mobile phase for handling 20 ml of serum. The HPLC system proposed enables successful separation and quantitation of retinol and α-tocopherol and their respective internal standards, retinol acetate and -tocopherol in less than 14 minutes. Reproducibility studies carried out with pooled sera showed a within day and between day variation of less than 8% and 13% respectively for retinol, whilst variations for α-tocopherol were higher, ranging from 8-16%. The proposed method is currently being applied to the determination of retinol and α-tocopherol in a group of malnourished children under six years of age.