Electronmicroscopical aspects of endometrial distrophy induced by oral contraceptives (author's transl)]

An electron-optical study on the endometrium of 5 controls and 25 patients subjected during 3-12 months to 0.25 mg norgestrel + 0.05 mg etinil-estradiol association treatment is performed. The most prominent electronmicroscopical features of endometrial changes are described, such as the asynchronical maturation of the epithelium and the stroma, the shorthening of the proliferative and secretory phases and the epithelial involution towards the last days of the cycle. Special emphasis is placed on the zonal distribution of these changes. An increase of the nostocitosis phenomena is reported and its significance as a complementary contraceptive mechanism is discussed.     

Social psychological and sexological aspects of oral contraception (author's transl)]

An inventory is made on the hindrances to the acceptance of contraception in general and oral contraception in particular. They are grouped as hindrances related to the social and psychological significance of "making children", hindrances related to the social and psychological significance of "having children" hindrances, related to the method of oral contraception itself, to be divided in social hindrances, psychological hindrances and medical hindrances and finally hindrances related to the provision of the pill to the individual user. Each of these is amply discussed, the author expresses the hope that by identification of these hindrances, lessons may be learned for the future, when other methods of contreception become available.     

Extracorporeal treatment with L-asparaginase (author's transl)]

L-asparaginase therapy is often limited by allergy or toxicity and probably in some cases by antibody mediated inactivation of the enzyme. These problems can be avoided by extracorporeal application of l-asparaginase. As the enzyme is a stable tetramer with high molecular weight it cannot pass through the dialysis membrane in contrast to the amino acid l-asparagin which is destroyed. The resulting l-asparagin depletion of the plasma is sufficient for therapeutic success. Effective extracorporeal l-asparaginase therapy is demonstrated in two patients with ALL who were resistant to other chemotherapy and could not be treated intravenously because of allergy and toxicity.     

Problems associated with the labelling of RNA with radioactive precursors in vivo (author's transl)]

The radioactivity of RNA, DNA and proteins in the liver, muscles and cerebrum of 30-day-old rats after labelling with [3H]uridine, [14C]uridine, [3H]cytidine or [3H]orotic acid was measured. It was found that after administration of [3H]uridine, the proteins were 5 - 10 times more radioactive than the RNA. After administration of [14C]uridine, the proteins were 1 - 2 times more heavily labelled than the RNA. Hydrolysis of the proteins followed by chromatography of the amino acids revealed that the protein labelling was mostly due to [3H]glutamate. In the liver, [3H]orotic acid produced very specific labelling of the RNA. The radioactivity of the proteins is very slight. However, the specific labelling of the RNA in the muscles and cerebrum is not so pronounced with this precursor. [3H]Cytidine is an ideal precursor for RNA. The labelling of protein in all three organs examined is very slight, and furthermore, the specific activity of the RNA is 10 - 20 times higher than after labelling with uridine. We were also able to show that after labelling with radioactive uridine, the method of isolation of RNA by alkaline hydrolysis gives incorrect results, because [3H]amino acids interfere with the measurement of the specific activity of the RNA. The heavy labelling of proteins by [3H]-uridine must also be taken into account in histoautoradiography, because our experiments showed that in liver, the proteins in the cell nucleus are 3 times as radioactive as the nucleic acids. The particulate components of the cytoplasm are even 20 times more radioactive than the nucleic acids.