Acta Medica Okayama volume19 issue6

Macromolecular PVP was introduced intravenously into rabbits for a long period of 3 months, 10 g of PVP in total, and the observations were carried out to see disturbances in hematopoiesis, lymphopoiesis, and immune reaction with special reference to the histologic changes of marrow, liver, spleen and lymph nodes. The results were as follows: 1. A mild anemia was induced by the PVP injection. RE cells of liver and bone marrow were swollen moderately but otherwise no significant histologic changes were induced in bone marrow and liver. 2. A severe lymphocytopenia resulted: the RE cells of lymph follicles were blocked by PVP, the follicles collapsed into a homogeneous mass with fibrosis and minimized lymphopoietic tissues. These results suggest that RE cells of the so-called germinal centers are important for the reproduction or the differentiation of lymphocytes. 3. Intravenous injection of egg albumin caused the serum antibody formation with a marked proliferation of plasma cells around small vessels in lymph nodes and spleen as in the case of control animal. The data indicate that plasma cells are solely responsible for the serum-antibody formation and plasma cell may differentiate from adventitial cells of small vessels but not from lymphocyte or reticulum cell.

There is as yet no plausible and convincing explanation for the etiology of rheumatoid arthritis. The authors investigated anti-synovial tissue antibody in the body fluid of rheumatoid arthritis by means of indirect immunofluorescent technic using non-affected synovial tissues as antigen. As the result the anti-synovial tissue antibody was detected in 7 cases of the 15 synovial fluid samples of rheumatoid arthritis and in two out of the six serum samples. The site of the localization of this antibody was demonstrated to be in the synovial membrane, especially in synovial cells and in the small blood vessel walls situated immediately adjacent to the synovial surface, but it was found in no connective tissues other than synovial membrane. It seems that this anti-synovial tissue antibody should be considered as an independent factor from rheumatoid factor, and that rather than the rheumatoid factor it is more actively associated with the localization and progression of chronic inflammation within the rheumatoid arthritis joint.

Human brain turnors removed from 126 patients were histochemically examined and following results were obtained. 1. In general, alkaline phosphatase activity is decreased in poorly differentiated gliomas, but is not related to the tumor cell infiltration. 2. All the cases of alkaline phosphatase negative gliomas have poor reconvalescent course and most of the positive cases show good reconvalescence. 3. Alkaline phosphatase, leucine aminopeptidase and acid phosphatase activities are remarkable in fibroblastic meningioma, moderate or feeble in meningocytic meningioma, and negative in malignant meningioma. 4. The activities of alkaline phosphatase, β-esterase, leucine aminopeptidase and acid phosphatase are decreased in most of meningocytic meningiomas when the duration of symptoms and signs is short. 5. Succinic dehydrogenase, malic dehydrogenase, isocitric dehydrogenase and β-glucuronidase are strongly reactive in malignant meningioma; from strong to moderate in meningocytic meningioma and from moderate to feeble in fibroblastic meningioma. 6. There is a slight increasing tendency of the activities of succinic dehydrogenase, malic dehydrogenase, isocitric dehydrogenase in fibroblastic meningioma and p·glucuronidase for a short duration of symtoms and signs. 7. In the case of acoustic neurinomas the higher the alkaline phosphatase activity, the longer is the duration of symptoms and signs.

Adenovirus type 12 is of human origin and it shows carcinogenic activity in experimental animals. With negatively stained particles of this virus electron microscopic observations were carried out. As the result it was demonstrated that its capsid, like other adenoviruses, is an icosahedron and each capsomere is of a hexagonal shape with a hollow in its center, each of which is surrounded by 6 adjacent capsomeres and is composed of numerous small subunit-like-particles.

For the purpose to study in vivo changes of the mice bearing Ehrlich ascites tumor with special emphasis on the problems of cellular antibody and serum antibody, a series of experiments such as neutralization tests in vivo and in vitro study of the effect of lymph-node cells from the tumor bearing animals on target cells were carried out, and the findings thus obtained are briefly summarized as follows : 1. Regional lymph-node cells from the mouse transplanted with Ehrlich ascites tumor cells show a marked cytotoxic action on their cultured target cells, JTC-11, synergistically with serum from mouse bearing Ehrlich cancer. 2. The tumor cells inoculated with lymph-node cells from the tumor bearing animals showed a retardation in growth and finally regressed. 3. Spleen and lymph nodes of tumor bearing animals showed a marked increase in weight.