The impact of an elective curriculum in pathology.

Under the revised medical curriculum at Duke University, elective courses were offered in the third and fourth years beginning in 1968-1969. Departmental electives in autopsy, surgical, and systemic pathology were offered as major courses, and the subspecialty courses in cardiovascular, renal, pulmonary, pediatric, and neuropathology were taught by specialists in those areas. Special topics in subcellular and molecular pathology, neoplasia, environmental diseases, and experimental pathology were subscribed by medical and graduate students alike. To determine the impact of elective courses in pathology, these electives were compared to those offered by other basic science disciplines. Tabulation of total courses offered, student enrollment, and total academic credit hours were constructed for each basic science area. The data show that over the six year study period the students elected more courses in pathology than in any other basic science. The most heavily subscribed electives in pathology were those that were clinically oriented, such as cardiovascular or renal pathology. One impact of this elective system may be to enhance recruitment. During the period studied, 29 Duke graduates interned in pathology compared to six under a comparable time period in the traditional curriculum.

Iron metabolism and cell membranes. III. Iron-induced alterations in HeLa cells.

The morphologic characteristics of acute iron loading were studied in HeLa cells incubated in an iron-enriched Eagle's medium containing 500 mug/ml of iron. Chemical studies showed that ferritin synthesis was rapidly induced and the concentration of intracellular ferritin increased up to 72 hours. Closely coupled with an increase in HeLa cell ferritin was a marked decrease in the rate of cell multiplication. The significant ultrastructural findings of iron-induced HeLa cell injury are characterized by the appearance of both autophagic multivesicular and residual bodies over the first 72 hours of iron incubation. The prominence of multivesicular bodies was noted after only 4 hours' incubation, with iron and myelin figures first appearing after 6 hours. Thus, the partial arrest of cell multiplication was associated with an increase in cytoplasmic residual bodies containing iron and other debris. The distribution of intracellular ferritin within HeLa cells differs significantly from the distribution described previously in hepatic parenchymal cells. In HeLa cells, ferritin particles were confined to lysosomal vesicles and were not identified in cell sap, endoplasmic reticulum, or Golgi apparatus.