[The results of a questionnaire concerning pulmonary tuberculosis patients' opinions with regard to their disease]. / Rezultatele sondajului de opinie al unui esantion de bolnavi de tuberculoza pulmonara privitor la boala lor.

To a lot of 134 TB patients, admitted for different periods in our pneumology department, a questionnaire with 8 simple questions was applied respecting the sociologic enquiry method. The analyse of the results allowed the identification of one group of 30% of patients who could become noncompliant to the treatment because of lacking of elementary sanitary knowledge and of a second group of 8-10% of patients requiring psychologic support.

[Eosinophilic pleurisy (a study of 27 cases)]. / Pleurezia cu eozinofile (un studiu pe 27 de cazuri).

After reviewing the specific literature mainly on cytokines role in eosinophilic pleural chemotaxis, the study on 27 cases of eosinophilic pleurisy is presented. Only 3 cases were malignant pleurisies. The ratio between blood and pleural fluid eosinophils has no semiologic significance. Tuberculosis and parasitoses have no special significance. Autonomous eosinophilic pleurisies are regarded as a distinct nosologic entity. Their prognosis is favourable. The glucocorticoids are the choice treatment.

[Pleural involvement in Rustitskii-Kahler disease (a clinical case report)]. / Determinare pleurala în boala Rüstitzki-Kahler (prezentare de caz clinic).

The author presents a case with pleural effusion expressing a secondary pleural involvement in Rüstitzki-Kahler disease during a solitary plasmocytoma of the 8th rib. Biologically the monoclonal protein was an IgM, a rather seldom met evolution of myeloma. Blood electrophoresis and immunoelectrophoresis modifications were reflected in the pleural fluid too. The case stresses the difficulties met in the etiological diagnosis of pleurisies.

[The characteristics of bacterial respiratory infections in patients with humoral immunodeficiencies]. / Particularitati ale infectiilor bacteriene respiratorii la bolnavi cu imunodeficite umorale.

The paper deals with 8 cases of different forms of bacterial respiratory infections (bronchiectasis, pleuropneumonia, tuberculosis), in which humoral immune deficits were noted: 2 dysgammaglobulinemia with IgA absence, 3 hypogammaglobulinemia with IgG deficit as well as IgA and IgM absence, 2 hypogammaglobulinemia with IgG and IgM deficit and IgA absence, and 1 hypogammaglobulinemia with IgA absence and IgM deficit. Stress is laid on the indications given by the antibody titer research, the pleural exudate hypoproteinemia being also added to those already known. A correct chemotherapy associated with the substitution treatment proved to by efficient.

Stimulation of transient elevations in cytosolic Ca2+ is related to inhibition of Pi transport in OK cells.

Stimulation of changes in cytosolic free calcium by parathyroid hormone was determined in three opossum kidney (OK) cell types, OK wild-type, OKP clone, and OKH clone. All three types of OK cells express parathyroid hormone (PTH)-sensitive adenylate cyclase and adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) production. However, only the OK wild-type and the OKP clone respond to PTH with inhibition of sodium-dependent Pi transport and transient increase in cytosolic calcium. Characterization of the increases in cytosolic calcium in the wild-type and OKP clones revealed they were due in part to stimulation of Ca2+ release from intracellular stores, probably by inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3), which was stimulated by PTH. PTH-stimulated Ca2+ transients were also inhibited by protein kinase C activation. These data are compatible with PTH receptor-mediated phospholipase C activation and its feedback inhibition by protein kinase C. The OKH cells demonstrated a slow increase in cytosolic calcium when stimulated by cyclic nucleotides but no evidence for PTH stimulation of Ca2+ release from intracellular stores. Thus the absence of an inhibitory response of sodium-dependent Pi transport to PTH in the OKH cells is associated with the absence of the rapid transient elevations of cytosolic Ca2+ such as those produced by IP3 production. These data suggest an important cooperative role for cAMP and the phospholipase C-stimulated Ca2(+)-protein kinase C message system in the regulation of Pi transport.

Oxidation of 2-hydroxyestradiol and its incorporation into melanin by mushroom tyrosinase.

The presence of catechol in a reaction mixture has been shown previously to promote oxidation of 2-hydroxyestradiol by mushroom tyrosinase. It was now found that the oxidized products of the catecholesterogen are incorporated into melanin under the influence of the enzyme. Whether the oxidation is restricted to tyrosinase or to enzymes with specific steroid oxidizing properties was examined by separating tyrosinase on agarose gel followed by hydroxylapatite. The effectiveness of separation was monitored electrophoretically. Two bands of enzyme activity of 127 kDa were found. One of these bands could be cleanly separated from the other. The fraction which contained the single band, as well as the one which contained both bands, had similar apparent Km values; i.e. 1.5 x 10(-4) and 2.1 x 10(-4) M. They both catalyzed oxidation of 2-hydroxyestradiol but only in the presence of catechol. All enzyme fractions showed the same pattern of activity towards the estrogen. HPLC analysis of reaction products of catechol indicated that not all of the substrate was consumed during the reaction. About 26% remained unreacted at an initial concentration of 100-400 microM of catechol. This remaining catechol, rather than its reaction products, appears to function as activator of the steroid reaction. The data are consistent with the presence on the enzyme of an allosteric activator site specific for catechol and an active site with a much lower structural specificity occupied by the catecholestrogen.

The entrapment of biological active substances into liposomes. II. Effects of oral administration of liposomally entrapped insulin in normal and alloxanized rats.

Insulin (I) was entrapped into liposomes of various lipid compositions. After oral administration, some of the normal rats treated with neutral liposomes (c) and (d) having egg yolk lecithin, prepared with 2 or 4 mg I/ml respectively, showed a decrease in blood glucose at 2 and 4 hrs. In alloxanized rats (75 mg alloxan/kg body weight) the positive liposomes (f) have induced in some animals a decrease in blood glucose at both time intervals after oral treatment. When neutral liposomes (c) were administered to diabetic rats (125 mg alloxan/kg body) the blood glucose decreased in 9 of 12 animals from 391 to 125 mg/100 ml blood, at 3 hrs after oral treatment. At 1 h, the effect had appeared in 3 of 14 animals. The neutral liposomes (g) having synthetic lecithin, induced a decrease in blood glucose in 5 of 10 animals. A good correlation was observed between decreased glucose and increased insulin levels with the same variability throughout the treated group. No increased insulin levels were observed in diabetic control and normal rats. By the RIA method, the insulin entrapment was 8%. Histological studies have shown that at 35 min after oral administration, neutral liposomes (c) penetrate deeply into the intestinal wall of alloxanized rats as compared both to the neutral liposomes with synthetic lecithin (g) or to the positive ones (f).