CYTOPATHIC EFFECT OF THE ATYPICAL PNEUMONIA ORGANISM IN CULTURES OF HUMAN TISSUE.

Eaton, Monroe D. (Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.), Ann E. Farnham, Jeana D. Levinthal, and Anthony R. Scala. Cytopathic effect of the atypical pneumonia organism in cultures of human tissue. J. Bacteriol. 84:1330-1337. 1962.-Three strains of the atypical pneumonia agent were adapted to grow in continuous cell cultures of human amnion or human embryonic lung, with production of initial increased acidity followed by destruction of the cells. Evidence is presented that cytopathic effects of the organism were associated with intracellular growth and formation of microcolonies. Clumps of organisms stained specifically with fluorescein-labeled antibody, and showed distinctive tinctorial reactions with the May Grünwald-Giemsa stain. The cytopathic effect was prevented by fresh serum from a rabbit immunized with an egg-passage strain of the atypical pneumonia agent. Heating the immune serum to 56 C for 30 min abolished the neutralizing effect. The significance of heat-labile serum constituents in killing or inhibition of mycoplasma is discussed.     

The effect of water-logging on fixation of nitrogen by soil incubated with straw

Summary When straw was incubated with a calcareous soil under water-logged conditions nitrogen fixation occurred if the gas above the incubation contained oxygen: no detectable fixation occurred if oxygen was excluded. Moist soil failed to fix nitrogen when incubated with straw in either the presence or absence of oxygen.     

Electron microscope observations of radiation-induced Hela giant cells

Summary An electron microscope study of X-ray produced giant Hela cells is described. The results extend earlier light microscope observations to the sub-microscopic region where clear differences from normal structures are apparent. Of particular interest are intra nuclear inclusions, nucleolar fragments, membrane abnormalities and possible mitochondrial changes.This investigation was supported in part by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission and in part by a predoctoral fellowship CF 8984 from the National Cancer Institute, Public Health Service.