5q- anomaly in a patient with disseminated teratoma

A 5q- anomaly associated with other chromosome anomalies was found in the infiltrated bone marrow of a patient with a highly malignant teratoma originally located in the mediastinum. There was no evidence of a second malignancy, and it is likely that the 5q- anomaly was, indeed, associated with the malignant teratoma cells.     

HLA antigens in affective disorders and schizophrenia

The distribution of HLA antigen frequencies has been studied in patients with affective disorders. There were no significant differences between bipolar patients, unipolar patients, or controls. Preliminary data on HLA antigen distribution in schizophrenic patients are reported. Our negative results in affective disorders are discussed in relation to HLA studies reported from other laboratories, with special reference to some potential methodological problems.     

Trimellitic anhydride-induced airway syndromes: Clinical and immunologic studies

This report describes a spectrum of respiratory symptoms in workers exposed to trimellitic anhydride (TMA), a biologically reactive chemical used in the plastics industry. Fourteen workers who had worked on a unit which synthesized TMA were evaluated by clinical and immunologic methods. Respiratory syndromes induced by TMA inhalation included asthma and rhinitis of the immediate type, late onset asthma with systemic symptoms, and airway irritation. TMA was shown to couple rapidly to human serum albumin, forming an immunoreactive hapten-protein complex. The workers' immunologic reactivity to this complex could be quantitated and correlated with the three respiratory syndromes. The asthma-rhinitis syndrome was mediated by IgE antibody specific for the TMA hapten. The syndrome of late onset asthma with systemic symptoms was accompanied by elevated levels of TMA-specific IgG antibody. Rheumatoid factor in high titer was found in one worker with IgE-mediated asthma and in two workers with asthma of late onset. Lymphocyte reactivity of TMA-HSA was demonstrated in three workers representative of the three clinical syndromes. Leukocyte histamine release was demonstrated to TMA-HSA in one worker with high levels of IgE antibody specific for TMA-HSA who had severe symptoms of acute rhinitis and asthma.     

Growth of diploid cells from breast cancers

Cell cultures were derived from normal and cancerous breast tissues and from metastases by methods that selected for relatively adherent epithelial aggregates. Karyotypic analyses of first or second passage cultures yielded predominantly normal diploid cells. Nonclonal aberrations were more common in tumor-derived than in normal cultures. Three of the cultures that originated from metastases were characterized by abnormal clones. These results support observations based on DNA content, which indicate that a considerable fraction of breast cancers are composed predominantly of diploid cells. They differ greatly from chromosomal findings in long-term cultures of tumor effusions and thus emphasize the karyotypic diversity that can be found in tumors from a single tissue of origin--the breast.     

Angled aorta ("sigmoid septum") as a cause of hypertrophic subaortic stenosis

Review of the hearts of seven patients in whom hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy had been diagnosed by the usual clinical and morphologic criteria revealed diminished angles between the interventricular septa and ascending aortas in three cases. The angles in these three hearts were 90 to 110 degrees, as compared with a mean value of 145 degrees in the other four hearts with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy and 140 +/- 14 degrees in 55 control hearts. None of the patients with hypertrophic subaortic stenoses and angled aortic roots died of the heart disease, and none had either asymmetric ventricular hypertrophy or evidence of familial cardiomyopathy. It is proposed that in patients with angled aortic roots and left ventricular hypertrophy, subaortic obstruction may develop due to narrowing of the left ventricular outflow tract, resulting in clinical and morphologic findings of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. In hearts with angled aortic roots the top of the ventricular septum is tipped toward the mitral valve, rather than tapered toward the aorta, as in normal hearts. This configuration narrows the outflow tract of the left ventricle and can result in systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve, the illusion of asymmetric septal hypertrophy when studied by M-mode echocardiography, a subaortic pressure gradient, and a subaortic endocardial plaque. This less serious form of hypertrophic subaortic stenosis should be distinguished from other forms of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.     

The effect of beta adrenergic blockade on bronchial sensitivity to acetyl-beta-methacholine in normal and allergic rhinitis subjects.

The effect of propranolol inhalation on sensitivity to methacholine inhalation was studied in normal and allergic rhinitis subjects to determine whether beta adrenergic blockade alters sensitivity to mediators in nonasthmatic atopic individuals. A partial beta adrenergic blockade is suggested as being instrumental in asthma. Hay fever patients studied showed similar effects and also developed asthma for the first time.     

Cytotoxicity of ionophore A23187 for basophils and other human blood cells.

The calcium ionophore A23187(A23) at concentrations exceeding 1 microgram/ml has been shown to be progressively cytotoxic for human blood basophils, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and erythrocytes. Toxicity to basophils was considered to be manifested by the increasing inability of 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) to inhibit histamine release (HR) at increasing concentrations of A23. The toxicity to neutrophils and lymphocytes was demonstrated by decreased lactate production (LP) after incubation with A23 of Ficoll-Hypaque fractions greatly enriched in each respective cell type. Red cells present in dextran-sedimented leukocytes were increasingly susceptible to lysis during washing subsequent to exposure to increasing concentrations of A23. A concentration of 4 microgram A23/ml, which is cytotoxic at 37 degrees C, produced optimal and noncytotoxic HR at 22 degrees C. It was possible to reduce A23 concentrations required for optimal HR by increasing Ca++ from 0.6 to 3 mM.