A convenient infant tourniquet

A simple, readily available blood pressure cuff designed specifically for neonates, infants, and small children is recommended for use in hand surgery as a tourniquet. Most institutions that have pediatric medicine or surgical departments have these as stock, and thus the problem of illfitting standard cuffs can be avoided where a tourniquet is needed.     

Human monocyte-lymphocyte interaction: a new technique.

A rosette-type assay of the physical interaction between lymphocytes and monocytes after treatment with neuraminidase-galactose oxidase (NGAO) is reported. Monocyte-lymphocyte (ML) rosette formation and subsequent lymphocyte proliferation occurred when either lymphocytes or homologous monocytes were treated with NGAO and cultured together. Maximal ML rosette formation took place at 37 degrees C 4 hr after culture in media containing 10% serum at lymphocyte to monocyte ratios of 10:1 to 20:1. The percentage of rosette formation correlated with the extent of thymidine incorporation when increasing concentrations of NGAO were used. When NGAO-treated monocytes were added to untreated T and non-T lymphocytes, they bound preferentially to T lymphocytes and induced proliferation only in the T subpopulation. These results indicate that the ML rosette assay measures a highly specific monocyte-lymphocyte physical interaction after a mitogenic stimulus which is an early event in lymphocyte activation since it reflects the degree of subsequent lymphocyte proliferation.     

A novel predictive technique for the MHC class II peptide-binding interaction

Antigenic peptide is presented to a T-cell receptor through the formation of a stable complex with a Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) molecule. Various predictive algorithms have been developed to estimate a peptide's capacity to form a stable complex with a given MHC Class II allele, a technique integral to the strategy of vaccine design. These have previously incorporated such computational techniques as quantitative matrices and neural networks. We have developed a novel predictive technique that uses molecular modeling of predetermined crystal structures to estimate the stability of an MHC Class II peptide complex. This is the 1st structure-based technique, as previous methods have been based on binding data. ROC curves are used to quantify the accuracy of the molecular modeling technique. The novel predictive technique is found to be comparable with the best predictive software currently available.     

In vitro interaction of bleomycin with collagen--equilibrium dialysis technique

In an earlier communication, we have presented the results of our study on in vitro interaction of bleomycin with collagens of sepia, fish and rat skins using spectrophotometry. Since the spectrophotometric method does not involve physical separation of the bound and unbound portion of the drug, it was considered worthwhile to test the validity of the use of spectral data by equilibrium dialysis. In the present communication, the values of binding between bleomycin and soluble collagens representing vertebrate, lower vertebrate and invertebrate determined independently at pH 7.4 and 3.0 are presented.