Effect of secretory activity of the salivary glands on morphology and function of the pancreatic islets

Chronic experiments on dogs showed that the loss of saliva by the animals through exteriorized ducts of the parotid, submandibular, and sublingual salivary glands causes morphohistochemical changes in the pancreatic islets indicative of reduced functional activity of the cells.Departments of Histology and Embryology and of Normal Physiology, Tomsk Medical Institute. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR I. V. Toroptsev.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 82, No. 11, pp. 1397–1399, November, 1976.     

Complications in surgical patients: A comparison of methods for identifying occurrence

Because reporting of complications by physicians is not reliable, monitoring of the hospital course of surgical patients by nurses can improve effectiveness of identifying complications. Monitoring the course of only those patients who remain in the hospital more than four postoperative days will disclose 90 per cent of complications expected in all patients undergoing operation. Twenty hours per week of a nurse's time is sufficient to monitor 1,300 such patients annually. Identification of patients with large hospital bills will include most patients with complicated hospital courses but does not discriminate them from the large number of uncomplicated courses which also generate large hospital charges.     

Ventricular arrhythmias induced in monkeys by the inhalation of aerosol propellants

After inhaling fluoroalkane gases, which are used as aerosol propellants, some people have died suddently and unexpectedly. Seeking an explanation, we had 14 monkeys inhale these gases. All developed ventricular premature beats, bigeminy, or tachycardia, which began at an average of 39 (SE +/-4.2) sec. Fluoroalkanes were present in blood, but arterial hypoxemia or hypercapnia was absent, and arterial pressure was reduced only slightly. In contrast, without fluoroalkanes, 3 min of asphyxia or anoxia caused arrhythmias in only one monkey whose arterial oxygen tension had fallen to 16 mm Hg. The ventricular arrhythmias caused in well oxygenated monkeys by fluoroalkane gases may either be mediated through beta adrenergic receptors, since propranolol abolished these arrhythmias, or result from a nonadrenergic, direct, toxic effect of these gases on the heart. These results suggest that some deaths after propellant inhalation may be caused by ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation.     

Blood zinc, copper, insulin and glucose levels in carbohydrate-sensitive and normal men given a sucrose or invert sugar tolerance test

Twelve carbohydrate-sensitive and 12 non-carbohydrate sensitive (normal) men were studied. Carbohydrate sensitivity was identified by hyperinsulinemic and normoglycemic responses to a sucrose load. In a blocked split-plot design, fasted subjects were given 2 g/kg body weight of sucrose or invert sugar, and responses of plasma zinc, copper, insulin, and glucose were determined. Erythrocyte zinc and copper also were measured. Blood samples were taken 0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 hours after the sugar loads were given. Plasma zinc, copper, insulin, and glucose did not differ significantly between the two sugar loads. Neither did erythrocyte zinc and copper differ significantly between the two load doses. Also, plasma zinc, copper, and glucose, as well as erythrocyte zinc and copper, did not differ significantly between the carbohydrate-sensitive and normal men. Plasma insulin was significantly higher in the carbohydrate-sensitive than the normal men. Plasma zinc did not change significantly between sampling times. Plasma copper declined progressively over the testing period. The greater the elevation of plasma glucose above the fasting level, the greater the plasma copper was depressed. Copper appears to be withdrawn from plasma after sugar loading to facilitate glucose uptake and metabolism.     

Orbital teratoma in the newborn A case report

A case of congenital orbital teratoma is presented with illustrations and discussion of typical radiographic features which may facilitate preoperative diagnosis and treatment.     

MHV68 complement regulatory protein facilitates MHV68 replication in primary macrophages in a complement independent manner

Murine gammaherpesvirus-68 (MHV68) is genetically related to human Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus and provides a tractable model to study gammaherpesvirus-host interactions in vivo and in vitro. The MHV68-encoded v-RCA product inhibits murine complement activation and shares sequence homology with other virus and host regulators of complement activation. Here we show that v-RCA is required for efficient MHV68 replication in primary murine macrophages, but not in murine embryonic fibroblasts. v-RCA-deficient MHV68 mutant viruses display defects in viral DNA synthesis in infected macrophages. Importantly, attenuated growth of v-RCA mutant viruses is not rescued in macrophages lacking critical components of the complement system including C3, indicating that the macrophage-specific role of v-RCA in MHV68 replication is complement-independent. This contrasts with the situation in vivo in which attenuated neurovirulence of v-RCA mutant viruses is rescued in C3-deficient mice. This study shows a novel, complement independent cell-type-specific function of a gammaherpesvirus RCA protein.