Preservation of Human Kidneys for Transplantation: Preliminary Results with a Gambro Perfusion Machine

Twenty-six human cadaveric kidneys have been preserved for up to 36 hours by continuous perfusion with 4·5% albumin solution on a Gambro machine. Of these, 20 kidneys were transplanted, and six were discarded owing to poor perfusion characteristics during storage. Immediate function was obtained with four kidneys, of which two had been preserved for over 30 hours.Satisfactory renal function has been obtained with 17 kidneys, and three kidneys were lost owing to rejection or technical complications. It is our experience that human kidneys can be successfully preserved for up to 36 hours by this technique.     

Disruptive Action of Potassium Phosphotungstate on φT, the Temperate Bacteriophage of Bacillus megaterium 899a

Although untreated phiT may be dried on grids without damage, they were disrupted when negatively stained with potassium phosphotungstate. The potassium phosphotungstate reacted with phage suspended in phosphate buffer, and the altered but still-viable phage was disrupted only on drying. Stability of altered phage was not recovered by dialysis against 10(-3) M Mg(2+).     

Altered morphogenesis of the immature hamster uterus following neonatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol

Abstract. In previous studies, we found that a single neonatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) resulted in severe hyperplasia and a high incidence of endometrial adenocarcinoma in the uterus of adult hamsters. These observations prompted us to investigate the consequences of DES exposure on earlier stages of uterine morphogenesis. After neonates were treated within 6 h of birth (day 1) with 100 μg of DES or oil vehicle, uterine tissue morphometry plus cell labelling indices following in vivo pulse labeling with [³H]thymidine were determined on days 3–21 of life. The sequential findings were: (1) a precocious (day 3) burst of cellular proliferation throughout the uterus, (2) an early period (days 3–9) of hypertrophy and increased cell density in the luminal epithelium, (3) an extreme acceleration of uterine growth resulting in a persistent increase in total uterine mass (threefold enhancement on days 5–21), (4) precocious development of endometrial glands (day 9) that were sites of intense but transient proliferative activity, (5) a middle period (days 9–15) when the percentage of stromal cells engaged in proliferative activity was reduced, (6) a second wave (days 15–21) of enhanced proliferative activity in the luminal epithelium, and (7) later development (day 21) of reduced cell density in the uterine stroma, apparently due to increased intercellular collagen accumulation. These results support our working hypothesis that the acute uterotropic response to neonatal DES treatment initiates a change in the developing hamster uterus, and later estrogenic stimulation promotes neoplastic progression in the DES-altered adult organ, perhaps due to disruption of stromal-epithelial interactions.     

Silver-resistant Enterobacteriaceae from hospital patients

The inclusion of agar medium containing 0.5 mM AgNO3 in the hospital laboratory replicating system for routine antibiotic-susceptibility determinations resulted in identification of species of Enterobacteriaceae (Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, and Citrobacter freundii) with silver resistance. Since the study began in October, 1975, 11 in-hospital patients receiving silver sulfadiazine for burn wound prophylaxis have yielded silver-resistant bacteria from their infected burns. During this treatment routine burn-site cultures from these patients yielded 230 isolates of Enterobacteriaceae, including 211 which were sulfonamide-resistant, 97 of which were also silver-resistant, and 38 of which were untested for silver resistance. Seven silver-resistant but sulfonamide-sensitive isolates were incidentally recovered from respiratory specimens from four nonburn patients with silver tracheostomy tubes, one silver-resistant sulfonamide-sensitive isolate was recovered from a small infected burn on the foot of an Emergency Room patient. Previous treatment of this burn was unknown. Representative AgNO3-resistant E. coli isolates from four patients were serologically untypable. Serotyping of representative isolates of K. pneumoniae showed a diversity of types except from two patients who had been in the same ward at the same time.