Levator tucking.

Nine cases of ptosis were repaired by levator tucking. There were 4 postoperatuve complications. Tucking seems to offer no advantage over levator resection or the Fasanella-Servat procedure in the lesser degrees of ptosis. A new firmer tucking procedure is suggested for those who wish to try this technique.     

Lateral Phase Separations in Membrane Lipids and the Mechanism of Sugar Transport in Escherichia coli

Changes in slope of Arrhenius plots for transport can, in some instances, be detected at two different temperatures for cells that have a relatively simple fatty-acid composition in the membrane lipids. These characteristic temperatures correlate with the characteristic temperatures that define changes of state in membrane phospholipids as revealed by the paramagnetic resonance of the spin label TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl). The higher of these characteristic temperatures is that at which the formation of solid patches of membrane lipids is first detected. The lower is the end point of the course of lateral phase separations, at which all the membrane lipids are in a solid phase. For cells enriched for elaidic acid, the rate of transport increase by as much as 2-fold as the temperature is decreased by less than 1 degrees , at the higher characteristic temperature. At this characteristic temperature, lateral phase separations begin in the membrane phospholipids. This is also the temperature where one predicts a striking increase in the lateral compressibility of the membrane lipids. These data are thus interpreted to indicate that a component of the transport system vertically penetrates one or both monolayer faces of the membrane during transport, or that some other event involving the lateral compression of the phospholipids is important for transport.     

A study of the immunosuppressive activity of methylene dimethane sulphonate (MDMS) in relation to its effectiveness as an anti-tumour agent

The anti-tumour action of methylene dimethane sulphonate (MDMS) has been further investigated in relation to its immunosuppressive properties. Following a dose of 10 mg/kg, the proportion of permanent regressions of Yoshida lymphosarcoma transplants is lower in animals treated during the first 5 days of tumour growth. Re-implants on day 28 to those animals in which regression of the tumour had occurred indicated that the immune response to the tumour increases during the first 7 days of tumour growth.     

Primary mediastinal trophoblastic teratomas.

Three cases of primary mediastinal trophoblastic teratoma are described. One patient died from respiratory failure during the initial chemotherapy, Another patient with advanced disease is now apparently free from disease after multiple-drug chemotherapy. The third patient is alive and well four years after a combination of surgery, radiotherapy, and multiple-drug chemotherapy. In the diagnosis and assessment of response to treatment in these tumours emphasis is placed on the measurement of the tumour cell markers, chorionic gonadotrophin and alpha-fetoprotein, by radioimmunoassay. The efficacy of multiple-drug regimens is discussed together with a review of the literature.