Colon carcinoma pathogenesis. An epidemiological study (author's transl)]

The mean incidence age for rectal carcinoma in women rose significantly in the township of Karlsruhe between 1971-1975 from 61,5 to 70,9 years, while the incidence age for colon carcinoma in men decreased significantly from 67,5 to 65,0 years. In the world incidence statistics of colon carcinoma in males, Karlsruhe ranks 16th (13,2 cases per 100 000 inhabitants), whereas the city ranks second for rectal carcinoma in males (18,5 cases/100 000). Prevalence patterns of gastric, colonic, and rectal carcinoma differ between individual districts of Karlsruhe. Time-related pathogenetic influence factors are discussed in extenso.     

Renal acidification disturbance in vitamin D deficiency (author's transl)]

Extensive studies of renal acidification process have been performed in states of vitamin D deficiency. Results show that the process of hydrogen ion excretion is strongly impaired on the entire length of the nephron. Vitamin D and parathyroid hormone probably interfere within tubular cells regulating the concentration of calcium and cyclic AMP; the modification of such an equilibrium carried out by vitamin D deficiency would explain the renal dysfunction.     

Acute toxoplasmosis with necrotizing vasculitis (author's transl)]

Acute toxoplasmosis was diagnosed in a Japanese woman aged 31 years after the discovery of a raised lysis titre and agglutinins resistant to 2-ME, as well as early increases in specific IgM followed later by increases in specific IgG. A high fever was present and signs of mainly distal polymyositis. The muscle lesion was confirmed by EMG examination. No increase in muscle enzyme levels was noted at any stage of the disease. Muscle biopsy demonstrated inflammatory lesions in interstitial tissue and perimysium, and, more particularly, segmental necrotizing arteritis in several arterioles. All the arteriolar lesions were at the same stage of development. After prednisolone (60 mg/day) had failed to produce improvement, spiramycin was given and caused apyrexia in 48 hours and definite disappearance of all muscle signs within several days. Recovery was complete and there was no return of symptoms 18 months later. The authors discuss the association of acute toxoplasmosis, polymyositis, and necrotizing vasculitis, and suggest a possible pathogenic role for the immune complexes deposited on the arterial walls.     

Ultrastructural changes of hypertrophied myocardium in severe experimental hypoxia. Effects of diphosphothiamine and of an antagonist of the vitamin B1. (author's transl)]

The ultrastructural changes occurring in hypertrophic heart cases during severe experimental hypoxia, conducted intermittently for 140 and 250 hours, are reported in the present study. For this purpose, serial right myocardial specimens of control and treated groups of animals were obtained and examined by electron-microscopy. Most areas of the individual myocardial tissue taken during prolonged degrees of exposures to normobaric hypoxia, showed an increased number of mitochondria, their prominent destructive changes, enlargement of cisternae of sarcoplasmic reticulum, reduction and derangement of the cristae and an increase of glycogen and lipif droplets cellular content. Different responses were associated with the various experimental designs which include simple hypoxia, hypoxia with administration of Diphosphothiamine (DPT, 30 mg/hie/Kg body weight) and hypoxia with administration of an antagonist of the vitamin B1, neopyrithiamine (PyTh, 20 mg/die/Kg body weight). Alterations in the fine structure of myocardial cells and cellular organelles could complement the increased glycolitic activity and phospholipid biosynthesis for the compensatory mechanism of the heart to hypoxic stimulus. These changes were most evident in the hypoxic animals treated with PyTh because of a large disturbance of energy production caused by the antivitamin. Most of ultrastructural and glycogen content changes disappeared when DPT was administered to the animals in hypoxia. However, the mitochondria were larger in size and their matrices had higher electron density than in the normal control animals. The significance of the morphological and biochemical findings are discussed.     

Ultrastructure and formal pathogenesis of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (author's transl)]

An embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of the nasopharynx of a 10 year old boy is analysed with light and electron microscopy. With regard to cell shape and cytoplasmic features the following four tumour cell types could be distinguished: 1. Undifferentiated mesenchymal cells with a big loosely packed nucleus and a small cytoplasmic rim with only few cell organelles; 2. Undifferentiated tumour cells with a broad cytoplasmic body which contains a dense network of nonspecific intermediate filaments with a diameter of about 100 A; 3. Immature rhabdomyoblasts with randomly orientated specific myofilaments; 4. Fully differentiated rhabdomyoblasts with well developed myofibrils often showing a sarcomeric pattern. Glycogen deposits which were seen in great masses in many tumour cells were regarded to result from degenerative processes within the tumor. The cellular stages in the development of rhabdomyoblasts are basically identical to those known from the embryogenesis and regeneration of striated muscle. From these observations the two following developmental pathways are suggested: 1. Origin of the tumour from an undifferentiated mesenchymal cell; 2. Atypical regeneration of striated muscle which terminates in malignant progressive tumour growth. At present, the body of information about rhabdomyosarcomas supports the assumption of an origin from immature mesenchymal cells. Nevertheless, the second theory cannot be totally excluded.     

Spectrophotometric investigations on aflatoxin B1 and aflatoxin G1 (author's transl)]

UV-spectrophotometric and fluorescence-spectrophotometric investigations have been performed on the aflatoxins B1 and G1 with the aim of their unequivocal identification and quantitative estimation in the routine examination. The lower limits of the quantitative and semiquantitative estimations have been found to be 0,4 ng (thin layer chromatography, semiquantitative), Imug/ml (UV-spectroscopy) and 10 ng/ml (fluorescence spectroscopy) for the aflatoxin B1 and 0,3 ng (TLC, semiquantitative), 1 mug/ml (UV-spectroscopy) and 1 ng/ml (fluorescence spectroscopy). Quinine sulfate in 0.1 n sulfuric acid was successfully utilized as a convenient standard substance for quantitative fluorescence spectroscopic estimations of the aflatoxins B1 and G1. In an extensive series of estimations the fluorescence intensity of aflatoxin B1 in chloroform in the range of 0,01-10 mug/ml has been compared with that of equally concentrated solutions of quinine sulfate in sulfuric acid. The ratio of the intensities was 0.5 : 1(0.509 : 1). Similar comparative estimations of aflatoxin G1 in chloroform in the range of 0.001 bis 1 mug/ml and quinine sulfate in sulfuric acid resulted in a ratio of 5 : 1 (4.99 : 1). These ratios have been found using a fluorescence spectrophotometer Beckman SF 1078.