Chromosome Abnormalities in Patients Treated with Chlorpromazine,Perphenazine, and Lysergide

In a chromosome study on leucocyte cultures made in 13 patients treated with chlorpromazine, 15 treated with perphenazine, and nine treated with lysergide, a significantly higher frequency of gaps, breaks, and hypodiploid cells in the patients treated with perphenazine and lysergide occurred compared with the 41 controls studied. It is concluded that if some drugs can induce major chromosome abnormalities, and less toxic alternatives are available, the latter should be used in preference.     

Sequential Entry of Transforming Markers into Neisseria meningitidis After Chromosome Alignment

The kinetics of appearance of transformants as a function of time of exposure to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was examined in Neisseria meningitidis. Incubation with chloramphenicol for as long as 2 hr, which probably leads to chromosome alignment, resulted in augmentation of the lag period before the appearance of the first transformants. The lag periods thus found were dependent upon the marker tested. This permitted the construction of a time map according to the lag periods observed for individual markers. This map was in general agreement with the chromosome map of the recipient strain as determined by marker frequency analysis. Transformation of recipient cells with chromosomes aligned by growth to the stationary phase showed the same type of increased lag in the appearance of transformants before the logarithmic phase of growth had again been reached. These results support the assumption that the nature of the marker accepted by a recipient cell corresponds to the marker present at the replication point of the chromosome. In the absence of DNA and protein synthesis, the uptake of one marker seems to be successively followed by other markers in a linear order determined by the chromosome of the recipient cell.     

Localization of monoaminergic neurons in the central nervous system of Astacus astacus Linné (Crustacea)

Summary The cellular localization of biogenic monoamines in crustaceans was studied by means of a highly specific and sensitive fluorescence method devised by Falck and Hillarp. It was found that neurons displaying specific fluorescence in the central nervous system were confined to the protocerebrum, the medulla externa and interna and the ventral nerve cord. The method allows a distinction between the fluorophores of 5-hydroxytryptamine (and 5-hydroxytryptophan), which emit the yellow light, and the fluorophores deriving from the catecholamines (and DOPA), which emit the green light. Green-fluorescent neurons occurred abundantly in the aforementioned parts of the central nervous system while yellow-fluorescent neurons were sparsely present in the same parts.The present work has been carried out at the departments of Histology and Zoology at the University of Lund. The authors take great pleasure in expressing their warmest thanks for laboratory facilities, provided by Professors Erik Dahl (Zoological Institute) and Bengt Falck (Histological Institute).The research reported in this document has been sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Grant AF EOAR 66-14 through the European Office of Aerospace Research (OAR), United States Air Force and by a grant from the Swedish Natural Science Research Council 99-32 (nr 5995).