Cholera in Portugal, 1974.I. Modes of transmission

In April-November 1974, Portugal had a cholera epidemic caused by Vibrio cholerae El Tor Inaba with 2467 bacteriologically confirmed hospitalized cases and 48 deaths. Most of the country was affected, with 17 of the 18 districts reporting cases. V. cholerae was isolated from 42 per cent of shellfish tested during the epidemic, and an epidemiologic study found that a history of consumption of raw or poorly cooked cockles was significantly more common among cholera patients than among paired controls. Water from a spring and a brand of commercially bottled water were also found to be vehicles of transmission of cholera. Although night soil was sometimes used on gardens, consumption of raw fruits and vegetables was not associated with illness.     

Postintubation subglottic stenosis and cor pulmonale

In rats exposed to 400 revolutions (during 6 min and 40 sec) in rotating Noble-Collip drums essentially the same increase of the active form of hepatic glycogen phosphorylase as in animals studied 6 min and 40 sec after epinephrine (50 microgram/kg) or glucagon (100 microgram/kg), both i.v., was observed. However, in rats injured daily for 6 days, on day 7 this enzyme response was substantially blunted.     

Fatal gastrointestinal haemorrhage due to coexisting primary aorto-enteric and aorto-colic fistulae. Complicating untreated atheromatous abdominal aortic aneurysm

We report a case of aorto-enteric and aorto-colonic fistulae in a 73 year old man with no previous abdominal surgery which resulted in massive gastrointestinal haemorrhage and death and was undiagnosed despite several hospital admissions and endoscopic examinations. This case serves to highlight an extremely rare but fatal condition, which is potentially treatable, if an early diagnosis is made.     

Methionine transport by pig colonic mucosa measured during early post-natal development

New-born pig proximal colon, incubated in vitro, transports methionine with a Km of 0-33 mM and a Vmax of 0-62 mumole cm-2h-1. There is still a net transport of methionine on day 4, but the Km now increases to 10 mM and the Vmax falls to 0-15 mumole cm-2h-1. There is no net transport of methionine across proximal colons taken from 10-day-old pigs. 2. The mean intramucosal concentration of methionine, following incubation in medium containing 1 mM methionine, is 7-18+/-0-8 mM for the new-born, 0-55+/-0-05 mM for the 4-day-old and 0-31+/-0-06 mM for the 10-day-old pig. 3. Both methionine and glucose cause an immediate increase in the short-circuit current of new-born and 1-day-old pig colons. The kinetics for this interaction with methionine gives a Km for methionine of 0-24 mM and a maximum effect of 27 muA cm-2. This effect is not seen in 4- or 10-day-old pigs. 4. Net Na+ transport across the new-born pig proximal colon, measured in the absence of methionine, is about three times that calculated from the measured short-circuit current. Methionine increases the mucosal to serosal flux of Na+ by an amount roughly equal to that predicted from the increase in short-circuit current. The ability of glucose and methionine to affect short-circuit current is lost by day 4. 5. Short-circuit current, measured in the absence of methionine or glucose, increases between day 1 and 2 of post-natal life. This increased electrogenicity is maintained for up to at least 10 days after birth. 6. The pig proximal colon has many of the properties of a small intestine at birth. It actively transports methionine and the presence of methionine stimulates the absorption of Na+. These effects could be physiologically important in the pig, where the normal absorptive function of the intestine is temporarily inhibited at birth by the intestinal transmission of immune globulins.     

Traffic of dynamin within individual Drosophila synaptic boutons relative to compartment-specific markers

Presynaptic terminals contain several specialized compartments, which have been described by electron microscopy. We show in an identified Drosophila neuromuscular synapse that several of these compartments-synaptic vesicle clusters, presynaptic plasma membrane, presynaptic cytosol, and axonal cytoskeleton-labeled by specific reagents may be resolved from one another by laser scanning confocal microscopy. Using a panel of compartment-specific markers and Drosophila shibire(ts1) mutants to trap an intermediate stage in synaptic vesicle recycling, we have examined the localization and redistribution of dynamin within single synaptic varicosities at the larval neuromuscular junction. Our results suggest that dynamin is not a freely diffusible molecule in resting nerve terminals; rather, it appears localized to synaptic sites by association with yet uncharacterized presynaptic components. In shi(ts1) nerve terminals depleted of synaptic vesicles, dynamin is quantitatively redistributed to the plasma membrane. It is not, however, distributed uniformly over presynaptic plasmalemma; instead, fluorescence images show "hot spots" of dynamin on the plasma membrane of vesicle-depleted nerve terminals. We suggest that these dynamin-rich domains may mark the active zones for synaptic vesicle endocytosis first described at the frog neuromuscular junction.