The tratment of non-specific urethritis.

The treatment of non-specific urethritis should aim at curing the individual, preventing reinfection and eliminating the pool of infection from the community. Tetracyclines, the rubber condom and sound advice are the basis of treatment. Many patients have symptoms that arise from anxiety and guilt rather than from infection, and this possibility calls for special consideration. It is emphasized that non-specific urethritis can be eliminated from our community by existing means. The favourable outlook merits an active and positive approach to treatment.     

Acute epididymitis attributable to chlamydial infection -- preliminary report.

Two cases of acute epididymitis are described in which there was found to be a significant rise in the titre of antibodies to the chlamydial group of organisms. It is suggested that chlamydial infection is a cause of acute epididymitis.     

Migration of leucocytes into the uterus after acute removal of ovarian progesterone during early pregnancy in the sheep

The effects of acute deprivation of progesterone during early pregnancy on the occurrence of maternal leucocytes in uterine tissues was studied in sheep. Ovariectomy on day 21 of pregnancy resulted in a rapid influx of polymorphonuclear (PM) leucocytes into both caruncular and intercaruncular (glandular) endometrium but not into the myometrium. The infiltration had commenced by 24 hours after ovariectomy when the fetal membranes appeared histologically normal. By 72 hours after ovariectomy infiltration of PM leucocytes and degradation of the fetal syncytium were severe and extensive. The effect was specifically due to progesterone deprivation in pregnant animals since it was not seen in progesterone-treated ovariectomized pregnant animals or in non-pregnant animals ovariectomized in the mid luteal phase of the oestrous cycle. The PM leucocyte influx was not associated with changes in the number of intra-epithelial lymphocytes, the occurrence of which was only slightly reduced at the time of attachment. The results implicate maternal progesterone as a local anti-inflammatory agent within the gravid uterus and also show that total expulsion of lymphocytes from uterine epithelia at implantation is not a mechanism for immunoprotection of the sheep fetal allograft.     

Input that contradicts young children's strategy for mapping novel words affects their phonological and semantic interpretation of other novel words.

Children tend to choose an entity they cannot already label, rather than one they can, as the likely referent of a novel noun. The effect of input that contradicts this strategy on the interpretation of other novel nouns was investigated. In pre- and posttests, 4-year-olds were asked to judge whether novel nouns referred to "name-similar" familiar objects or novel objects (e.g., whether japple referred to an apple or a binder clip). During an intervening treatment phase, they were asked to pick the referents of novel nouns from pairs of familiar objects (Experiments 1 and 3) or were taught subordinate names for familiar objects (Experiment 2). Most resisted the lure of phonological similarity in the pretest but increased selection of name-similar familiar objects over novel ones in the posttest. In Experiment 3, which involved monosyllables that differed in initial phoneme from the familiar words, treatment produced this effect only when accompanied by a rhyme-sensitization procedure. Experiment 2 included two other age groups: 2-year-olds, who were less resistant to phonological similarity in the pretest and responded to the treatment like the 4-year-olds; and adults, who nearly always selected the novel objects in the pretest and posttest. For children, the impact of treatment was positively associated with ability to detect phonological similarity and negatively associated with vocabulary size.     

Analysis of an anti-progesterone antibody: variable crystal morphology of the Fab' and steroid-Fab' complexes.

Anti-progesterone monoclonal antibodies are being used for structural studies of antibody-antigen interaction, for their ability to block pregnancy shortly after fertilization, and for hormone immunoassay. A mouse anti-progesterone monoclonal Fab' fragment has been crystallized in its native form and co-crystallized with seven different, but structurally related, steroids. The crystals show interesting preferences in their crystal morphology, depending on the bound steroid ligand. The X-ray crystallographic analysis of this Fab', complexed with a series of related steroid ligands, should reveal details of the chemistry of antibody-antigen union and provide insights into how steroids interact with proteins.