Subject(s)
Biological Warfare , Industry , Microbiology , Cell Line , Containment of Biohazards , Decision Making , Ethics , Humans , International Cooperation , Military Personnel , Politics , Research , Security Measures , Toxins, Biological/chemical synthesis , Toxins, Biological/supply & distribution , Toxins, Biological/therapeutic use , Vaccines/chemical synthesis , Vaccines/supply & distributionABSTRACT
The Salmonella typhimurium histidine reversion test of Ames et al. was used to demonstrate the pheomelanin, the red-brown polymeric pigment produced in human skin and hair, becomes mutagenic after exposure to long wave-length UV-light; a finding consistent with the UV-induced somatic mutation hypothesis for the origin of freckles and the high susceptibility of redheads and blonds to sunlight-induced skin cancers.
Subject(s)
Hair Color , Hair/analysis , Melanins/radiation effects , Mutagens , Humans , Melanins/adverse effects , Melanosis/etiology , Skin Neoplasms/etiology , Ultraviolet Rays/adverse effectsABSTRACT
Pathogenicities of 10 temperature-sensitive mutants of Venezuelan encephalitis virus were studied using the hamster model of human virulence. The parental strain and nine of the temperature-sensitive mutants produced lethal infections in hamsters. Strain ts 126 showed reduced hamster virulence. Deaths with the lethal mutants usually occurred 1 to 3 days later than with parental virus. Nine mutants produced lower levels of viremia than parental virus. Attenuation of ts 126 was related to restriction of viral growth in spleen and probably bone marrow and to absence of the usual pathological lesions in hemopoietic tissues and brain, but was functionally unrelated to temperature sensitivity since temperatures of both normal and infected hamsters remained within the permissive range of the mutant. Deaths did not correlate with titers of the 10 mutants in blood at permissive temperatures or with reversions of four temperature-sensitive mutants to non-temperature-sensitive virus in hamsters.