Treatment of Paget's Disease of Bone with Synthetic Salmon Calcitonin

Thirteen patients with painful Paget''s disease of bone were treated as outpatients with low doses of synthetic salmon calcitonin 22·5-50 μg three times weekly. Treatment produced full remission of pain in a mean time of 5·5 weeks and a mean depression of serum alkaline phosphatase activity of 33%.The interval before symptomatic relief could not be predicted from the variables studied. The ultimate fall in serum alkaline phosphatase activity, however, could be predicted from the initial levels and from the early rate of decrease (P < 0·001). Biochemical resistance to treatment, which occurred in three cases, could be related to the dose and duration of treatment.Prolonged remissions of pain may occur which are not related to biochemical remission, to the dose of calcitonin, or to the duration of treatment. The side effects attributable to salmon calcitonin were transient nausea (in nine patients), transient flushing (in four), diarrhoea (in two), and rash (in one) though in only one patient did treatment have to be withdrawn prematurely because of these effects.     

Metal binding polysaccharide from the alga,Klebshormidium fluitans

Summary An alkali soluble polymer was prepared from the metal tolerant alga Klebshormidium fluitans which had a recombining capacity of 0.41 mg Cu⁺⁺/mg carbohydrate. Chemical preparation and properties, ion exchange behaviour, infra-red spectroscopy and acid hydrolysis indicate a polysaccharide containing uronic acid residues.     

Amino acid sequence studies on the alpha chain of human fibrinogen. Exact location of cross-linking acceptor sites

Human fibrinogen was clotted under conditions that promote latent factor XIII activity and in the presence of a radioactive substitute cross-linking donor ([14C]glycine ethyl ester). The labeled fibrin was reduced and alkylated in the presence of 6 M guanidinium chloride. After dialysis and freeze-drying, the preparation was separated into its constituent polypeptide subunits by chromatography on (carboxymethyl)cellulose in the presence of 8 M urea. Under the incorporation conditions used, the radioactivity was limited to gamma chains (one donor molecule/chain) and alpha chains (two donor molecules/chain). The labeled alpha chains were digested with cyanogen bromide and fractionated on Sephadex G-50. All the radioactivity was found in a fragment previously designated H alpha CNI, the largest of the cyanogen bromide fragments in the alpha chain. The fragment was further fragmented by digestion with plasmin, trypsin, chymotrypsin, and/or staphylococcal protease. The incorporated radioactivity was found to reside in equal amounts at two different sites located 38 residues apart. These were determined to be positions 88 and 126 in H alpha CNI, which correspond to glutamine-328 and glutamine-366 in the alpha chain.     

Isolation of fetal mouse motor neurons on discontinuous percoll density gradients

Summary The spinal cords of fetal NIH∶CR mice, gestational age Day 12 to 14, were dissected free of meninges and dorsal root ganglia, chemically dissociated, and layered onto discontinuous Percoll gradients at densities 1.040, 1.050, and 1.060 g/ml. After centrifugation (800 Xg for 15 min at 4° C), three morphologically, biochemically, and immunohistologically distinct cell populations were collected from the gradient interfaces. The first interface, located at a density of 1.040 g/ml, was choline acetyltransferase enriched (0.86±0.08) compared to the second and third fractions (0.42±0.01 and 0 pmol acetylcholine synthesized/μg protein, respectively). When simultaneously cultured with fetal mouse cardiac muscle on a gelatin-polylysine-laminin substrate in serum-free medium, these cells developed the characteristics of motor neurons. Dr. Strong is supported in part by a Research Fellowship from the Medical Research Council of Canada.     

Reduction of insect cold-hardiness using ice-nucleating active fungi and surfactants

The supercooling point (SCP) of an insect model, the lady beetle Hippodamia convergens Guérin-Menéville (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) was markedly elevated by treatment with aqueous suspensions of the filamentous, ice nucleation active (INA) fungi Fusarium avenaceum and slightly elevated by Fusarium acuminatum. Addition of the surfactant Tween 80 to the fungal suspensions further reduced the supercooling capacity of adult beetles. When used alone the surfactant Triton X-100 produced a greater SCP elevation than Tween 20 or Tween 80. The emulsifier gum arabic was ineffective in elevating beetle SCPs when applied alone and when added to INA fungal preparations it decreased their efficacy. Aqueous suspensions of both viable sporulating and viable pleomorphic (a permanent, degenerative, nonsporulating cultural state) forms of both fungal species were more effective in elevating the SCP than killed preparations except for the pleomorphic F. acuminatum suspension in which the killed form was slightly more active. Application of INA fungi applied in combination with surfactants may be useful in the development of methods for the biological control of overwintering freeze-susceptible insect pests by decreasing their capacity to avoid lethal freezing by supercooling.     

The use of molecular assays to identify plant pathogenic organisms vectored by biological control agents

The planthopper Prokelisia marginata VanDuzee (Homoptera: Delphacidae) has beenconsidered for the biological control of theweed Spartina alterniflora Loisel(Poaceae) in Willapa Bay, Washington, U.S.A. Prokelisia marginata is a stenophagousphloem-feeding insect with the potential totransmit bacterial plant diseases that could bemoved by less-specific vectors to other plantspecies. Initial assays with PCR primers thatare putatively specific for phytoplasmas gavepositive results in Spartina. However,subsequent analyses did not indicate thetransmission of the pathogen by theplanthopper. We sequenced the 16S ribosomalRNA (rRNA) gene of the bacterial species thatgave positive results in PCR. Comparisons withsequences available in GenBank suggested thatthe positive results using the putativelyspecific PCR primers were due to the presenceof such bacteria as Pseudomonas, Holomonas, Vibrio, and Acinetobacter. We did not find phytoplasmasin either Spartina or the planthopperP. marginata.