Acta Medica Okayama volume16 issue4

Our experience with Brachet test on twenty-four leukemic patients has shown a high degree of reliability of the test for differentiating acute leukemias. A standard method has been described which is simple enough to be carried out routinely. The test, however, is not without pitfalls and need be interpreted with some caution. From the fact that urine hydrolysis can be closely simulated by the enzymatic action of pure DNase solution, it is suggested that the urine factor responsible for the nuclear lysis is DNase excreted in the human urine. The possible mechanism and implication of the test have been discussed in relation to the results obtained.

The effects of high fatty acids such as oleic, richinoleic, linoleic, linolenic, palmitic and stearic acids, on the respiration, glycolysis, organic phosphate synthesis of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells, were studied. The unsaturated fatty acids added to the media enhanced the respiration of the tumor cells at the concentration lower than 0.2 mM, after a short incubation period and inhibited the respiration in a high concentration 0.4 mM. The saturated fatty acids did not show such effect. All the fatty acids, both of saturated and unsaturated, effected the increase in lactate formation in tumor cells, especially markedly at higher concentration being accompanied by the WQ increase and RQ around 1. The respiration lowered by the fatty acids was ameliorated by the addition of glucose. The lactate formation from glucose was greatly enhanced by the addition of fatty acids but hardly from pyruvate. The unsaturated high fatty acids proved to have a strong uncoupling action for oxidative phosphorylation. This effect could be recognized slightly in the saturated fatty acids. The addition of high fatty acid resulted in the striking decrease in ATP and ADP with the increase in AMP. With these results the discussion was conducted concerning the specificity of tumor cell related to the glucose and fatty acid metabolism.

1. Morphological observations were carried out on the strain HeLa cells cultured under various oxygen tension. 2. The growth of the strain HeLa cells in the present experiments was markedly inhibited when they were cultured under high oxygen tension or in nitrogen gas environment. It has been clarified that air offers the most optimal gas environment. 3. Effects of the changed gas environment on the fine structures of HeLa cells were studied by phase contrast microscope and electronmicroscope. As the results it has been found that in these cells cultured under a high oxygen tension there occurs a marked swelling of mitochondria. Under anaerobic condition, however, these cells undergo degeneration, as in oxygen environment revealing no swelling of mitochondria but rather contraction. 4. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of HeLa cells cultured under oxygen environment is transformed from its vesicular form to lamellar form. The mechanism of lamellar transformation of ER is obscure but no morphologic connection with nuclear, cytoplasmic and mitochondrial membranes has been detected. 5. A discussion was made on these findings concerning the changes in fine structures of the cells, with a special reference to the swelling of mitochondria and morphological changes of ER under oxygen environment.

The fibrinolytic activity of plasmin present in menstrual blood has been studied by means of the Fibrin-Plate Method, and utilizing the findings of such a study, the identification of menstrual blood stain in legal medicine has been conducted. As the result, it has become clear that the identification of a very small amount of menstrual blood is possible, for an example, only one thread from the menstrual blood stained cloth 1.0 cm2. in size, and with the blood stain left in a room temperature for as long as two years, or with the blood stain left in water for one month, it is possible to identify menstrual blood. Aside from menstrual blood, no other toco-gynecological blood responds to this Fibrin-Plate Method.

As the results of present study on plasmin in menstrual blood by means of the Fibrin-Plate Method, a large amount of plasmin as much as dilution of 1: 100 or 1:1,000 of the menstrual blood serum, has been found in a natural form and it is deduced that the incoagulability of menstrual blood is the result of the plasmin formation in the same blood serum. Further, it has been recognized that this plasmin is found in a rather large quantity in the blood of the second menstrual day and it is decreased by the fifth day. In addition, the plasmin of menstrual blood is contained in the globulin fraction of the same serum, especially markedly in β-globulin fraction. On the other hand, it has also been clarified that in the circulating blood during menstruation no plasmin is present in natural state and that a large quantity of inactive plasminogen still exists in menstrual blood.

The authors have succeeded in isolating a biologically-active leukemia virus from leukemic tissues of AKR mice with a fluorocarbon. From the chemical analysis of the biologically-active virus fraction it has been clarified that the AKR leukemia virus is of the RNA type.