Radiographic evaluation of complications after jejunoileal bypass surgery

A retrospective analysis of 89 patients who underwent jejunoileal bypass surgery for morbid obesity disclosed 33 complications that were detected radiographically. Intestinal obstruction (10.1% of patients), cholecystitis (5.6%), renal stones (4.5%), peptic ulcer (3.4%), megacolon (6.7%), and elongation of the small intestine with hypertrophy of the mucosal folds of the jejunum (6.7%) were diagnosed solely by radiographic means.     

Effective pulmonary capillary blood flow in infants with birth asphyxia

Effective pulmonary capillary blood flow was measured on the first day of life in twenty term infants with birth asphyxia and twenty-five normal term infants. The infants studied showed no clinical or laboratory evidence of respiratory distress. The mean effective pulmonary capillary blood flow of 121 ml/kg/min in the birth asphyxia group was significantly lower than the mean of 162 ml/kg/min in the normal group. The possible relationship of birth asphyxia and pulmonary hypoperfusion in the aetiology of the idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome is discussed.     

Preparation of toxic radio-iodinated ricin for use in ricin-ribosome interaction studies

Acidosis inhibits catecholamine-induced lipolysis in vivo and in vitro. The lipolytic response of canine subcutaneous adipose tissue to short (5 min) nerve stimulations at 4 Hz was, however, not influenced by hypercapnic acidosis (pH 7.0). The steady state outflow of glycerol during a prolonged nerve stimulation at 4 Hz was inhibited by 40 per cent (p less than 0.05) at pH 7.0. Similarly, glycerol outflow during vasodilatation induced by a 4 Hz stimulation in alpha-blocked adipose tissue was inhibited by 37 per cent (p less than 0.05). Post-stimulatory glycerol outflow was, however, not influenced by acidosis. This poststimulatory glycerol outflow, which may represent a complex wash-out phenomenon, forms the largest part of the response to short nerve stimulations. It is suggested that steady state, rather than poststimulatory lipolysis should be studied in order to see the influence of treatments such as acidosis on responses to nerve stimulation.     

Use of the method of mixed substrates to study the specificity of tRNA methylases

The absence of summation of the rate of methylation of positionally analogous cytidine residues in tRNA1Val, tRNAPhe, and tRNAMet in the case of simultaneous presence of two substrates in the incubation mixture was demonstrated by the method of mixed substrates. The same result was also obtained in the methylation of A19 (counting from the 3' end of the molecule) in tRNA1Val, tRNAPhe, tRNAfMet, tRNASer, and tRNAGlu individually and in the case of their mixing in pairs. These data are evidence that positionally analogous nucleotides in different RNAs are attacked by the same enzyme. Yeast tRNASer, already possessing a methyl group at the cytidine residue studied, proved to be an effective inhibitor of methylase, forming m5C with valine and phenylalanine tRNAs. The results obtained are evidence that differences in the primary and secondary structures at the site of methylation are not the deciding factors in the interaction of tRNA with methylases.     

Ultrastructural changes in the mycelia of Actinomyces hygroscopicus var. var. enhygrus--a proteolytic enzyme producer--during submerged fermentation

Ultrastructural changes were found to occur in the mycelium of Actinomyces hygroscopicus, strain 33x, which produced an exocellular proteolytic enzyme during submerged fermentation, in both laboratory and semiindustrial conditions (in 100-1 fermenters). In the course of the enzyme accumulation, numerous vacuoles appeared in the hyphae, some hyphae became wider, and the cell walls were more loose. The greatest structural changes were found in the intracytoplasmic membrane systems. The ultrastructural changes of the mycelium are not presumably connected with the accumulation of the enzyme, but are the result of the differentiation of cellular structures during aging of the cells and their transition to the stage of autolysis.