Acute and Subacute Toxicity of Aspilia Africana Leaves

This study was designed to evaluate the toxicity of the aqueous extract of Aspilia africana leaves. Oral doses of 500 mg/kg and 1000 mg/kg were administered for 28 days to rats after every 2 days for sub-acute toxicity. For acute toxicity, 5 doses of 2, 4, 8, 12 and 16g/Kg body weight were investigated in mice. The control groups consisted of mice or rats administered with distilled water. The signs of toxicity fluctuated lightly from one mammal to another throughout the experiment. The liver, kidneys and heart weight of rats revealed no significant differences between the test groups and the control. The results indicated that the medium lethal dose (LD₅₀) was found to be greater in females than males with an average of 6.6g/Kg body weight for both sexes. Regardless of the significant differences observed at certain points in some biochemical parameters (ALT, AST, ALP, Creatinine and Glutathione); none showed any linear dose responsiveness. On the other hand, most of the parameters investigated were found to be gender dependent. These results suggested that A Africana can be classified among substances with low toxicity.     

An outbreak of amebiasis spread by colonic irrigation at a chiropractic clinic

From June 1978 through December 1980, at least 36 cases of amebiasis occurred in persons who had had colonic-irrigation therapy at a chiropractic clinic in western Colorado. Of 10 persons who required colectomy, six did. Of 176 persons who had been to the clinic in the last four months of 1980, 80 had received other forms of treatment. Twenty-one per cent of the colonic-irrigation group had bloody diarrhea, as compared with 1 per cent of the non-irrigation group (P = 0.00013). Thirty-seven per cent of the colonic-irrigation group who submitted specimens had evidence of amebic infection on either stool examination or serum titer, as compared with 2.4 per cent in the non-irrigation group (P = 0.00012). Persons who were given colonic irrigation immediately after a person with bloody diarrhea received it were at the highest risk for the development of amebiasis. Tests of the colonic-irrigation machine after routine cleaning showed heavy contamination with fecal coliform bacteria. The severity of disease in this outbreak may have been related to the route of inoculation.     

Evidence for the phagocytic transport of intestinal particles in dogs and rats.

Fluorescent latex beads of two different colors were implanted into separate intestinal segments in individual dogs and rats. Mesenteric lymph node phagocytes subsequently contained multiple beads of one or the other color but rarely both colors, indicating that intestinal phagocytes transported the latex beads to the draining lymph node. Fluorescent labeled Escherichia coli was implanted into rat ligated intestinal segments, and rare mesenteric lymph node phagocytes subsequently contained fluorescent bacteria, suggesting that intestinal bacteria might be transported in the same manner as inert latex beads.     

Renovaskuläre Hypertonie

Zusammenfassung In der vorliegenden Untersuchung wurde das postoperative Blutdruckverhalten bei 35 Patienten mit renovaskulärer Hypertonie untersucht: 17 Patienten mit fibromuskulärer Dysplasie (FMD) und 18 mit arteriosklerotischen Gefäßwandveränderungen (ASS).Patienten mit FMD waren im Mittel jünger (31,8 Jahre), zeigten eine kürzere Hypertonieanamnese (1,8 Jahre) und waren prävalent weiblich (82%), während Patienten mit ASS deutlich älter waren (48,2 Jahre), eine längere Hypertoniedauer (2,6 Jahre) zeigten und bevorzugt männlich (78%) waren.In beiden Gruppen zeigte das intravenöse Pyelogramm einen vergleichbar hohen Anteil positiver Befunde (FMD=64%, ASS=61%).Postoperativ waren in der Gruppe mit FMD 47% (n=8) geheilt, 47% (n=8) gebessert und nur 6% (n=1) der Patienten geringgradig gebessert. Die vergleichbaren Werte für die Gruppe mit ASS betrugen 28, 55 und 17%. Für das Gesamtkollektiv war folglich ein guter Operationserfolg (geheilt und gebessert) in 88,5% der Fälle zu beobachten. Patienten mit ASS und postoperativ nur geringgradiger Besserung (n=3) zeigten eine auffallend lange Hypertonieanamnese (7,0±1,4 Jahre).Bei allen Patienten wurde präoperativ die seitengetrennte Bestimmung der Renin-Aktivität (PRA) im Nierenvenenblut durchgeführt und aus den Werten die PRA-Quotienten (PRA betroffene/nicht betroffene Seite) errechnet. Bei 27 Patienten wurde die Bestimmung 15 und 30 min nach intravenöser Stimulation mit 40 mg Furosemid wiederholt. PRA-Quotienten von 1,5 wurden als signifikant bezeichnet.Bei 31 Patienten mit einseitiger renovaskulärer Hypertonie wurde die Höhe des PRA-Quotienten zum postoperativen Blutdruckverhalten korreliert. Dabei zeigte sich zwischen der Gruppe der postoperativ Geheilten und der der postoperativ Gebesserten kein signifikanter Unterschied im mittleren PRA-Quotienten. Ferner ließen sich für das Gesamtkollektiv der 31 Patienten mit einseitiger renovaskulärer Hypertonie unter Ausgangs- und Stimulationsbedingungen keine signifikanten Korrelationen zwischen Höhe der PRA-Quotienten und postoperativem Blutdruckabfall ermitteln.Unsere Ergebnisse unterstützen nicht die weit verbreitete Ansicht, daß sich die seitengetrennte Bestimmung der PRA im Nierenvenenblut als Parameter für den zu erwartenden Operationserfolg bei Patienten mit einseitiger renovaskulärer Hypertonie eignet. Die Methode kann deshalb nach unserer Ansicht nicht mehr als obligater Bestandteile der präoperativen Diagnostik der renovaskulären Hypertonie empfohlen werden.     

Dactinomycin treatment of murine lupus erythematosus. I. Renal disease and longevity.

Three groups of female (NZB X NZW)F1 hybrid mice were treated with an intermittent regimen of dactinomycin (actinomycin D), 3.5 microgram. daily. Median survival was doubled in two of the groups and increased by more than 75 per cent in the third. Most of the treated animals never had significant proteinuria. When kidneys from 14 treated mice, which died between the ages of 11 and 20 months, were examined by light and fluorescence microscopy, most showed the lesions of normal aged CBA and C57BL/6 mice, some expansion of the mesangial matrix and increased cellularity, consistent with deposition of immunoglobulins and complement components in the mesangium, generally sparing the capillary loops. Four of the 14 animals, three of them long-lived, had advanced renal glomerular disease. These data indicate that dactinomycin, by whatever therapeutic mechanism, permits very extended survival of B/W female mice, the large majority of them without significant renal disease.     

Attenuation and vaccine potential of aroQ mutants of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis.

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, a gram-positive intracellular bacterial pathogen, is the etiological agent of the disease caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) in both sheep and goats. Attenuated mutants of C. pseudotuberculosis have the potential to act as novel live veterinary vaccine vectors. We have cloned and sequenced the aroB and aroQ genes from C. pseudotuberculosis C231. By allelic exchange, aroQ mutants of both C231, designated CS100, and a pld mutant strain TB521, designated CS200, were constructed. Infection of BALB/c mice indicated that introduction of the aroQ mutation into C231 and TB521 attenuated both strains. In sublethally infected BALB/c mice, both CS100 and CS200 were cleared from spleens and livers by day 8 postinfection. The in vivo persistence of these strains was increased when the intact aroQ gene was supplied on a plasmid in trans. Mice infected with TB521 harbored bacteria in organs at least till day 8 postinfection without ill effect. When used as a vaccine, only the maximum tolerated dose of CS100 had the capacity to protect mice from homologous challenge. Vaccination with TB521 also elicited protective immunity, and this was associated with gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) production from splenocytes stimulated 7 days postvaccination. The role of IFN-gamma in controlling primary infections with C. pseudotuberculosis was examined in mice deficient for the IFN-gamma receptor (IFN-gammaR(-/-) mice). IFN-gammaR(-/-) mice cleared an infection with CS100 but were significantly more susceptible than control littermates to infection with C231 or TB521. These studies support an important role for IFN-gamma in control of primary C. pseudotuberculosis infections and indicate that aroQ mutants remain attenuated even in immunocompromised animals. This is the first report of an aroQ mutant of a bacterial pathogen, and the results may have implications for the construction of aromatic mutants of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for use as vaccines.     

Endoscopic sphincterotomy in the management of benign and malignant extrahepatic biliary obstruction

One hundred twenty-one patients with extrahepatic biliary obstruction underwent endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST). This was followed by balloon occlusion catheter or dormia basket stone extraction in 106 patients with choledocholithiasis, and by transpapillary biliary endoprosthesis placement in 15 patients with malignant distal common bile duct obstruction. All patients had excellent biliary decompression. Complications not requiring surgical intervention were seen in six patients. This article shows that EST is a low-risk, effective therapy for benign and malignant extrahepatic biliary obstruction.