ABSTRACT
A 29-year-old male patient with acute hepatitis B developed agranulocytosis about 2 months after the clinical onset of the hepatitis. Bone marrow examination showed hypercellularity and maturation arrest of myeloid leukogenesis at the stage of metamyelocyte. Anti-neutrophil antibody was negative. Since the patient did not show spontaneous recovery for 2 months, the patient received granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, but the therapy was a very short course because he had an elevation of temperature and nausea. Sixty-eight days after admission, he was started on lithium carbonate at a dose of 600 mg per day. About 3 weeks later, peripheral granulocyte counts had recovered to normal level.
ABSTRACT
The inflammatory activity and biodegradation of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) were examined. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) sheet did not cause any inflammation in the chorioallantoic membrane of the developing egg. The i.v. injection of 14C-labelled poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) granules showed that 86, 2.5 and 2.4% of the total radioactivity administered were distributed in the liver, spleen and lung, respectively, and the radioactivity decreased slowly but steadily in most tissues examined during 2 month. Crude extracts of rat tissues showed that the activity degraded the poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) granules in vitro.
