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Biomedical subjects

B Williamson

Publications and source records attributed to B Williamson.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Hospital-treated myocardial infarction and the general practitioner.

Patients who had a myocardial infarction were interviewed with their spouses in hospital and after returning home. Advice about rehabilitation, such as that recently recommended by the Working Party of the Royal College of Physicians, was often not received. General practitioners have great opportunities for organising a graded programme of rehabilitation and may often communicate ideas more easily to their patients than hospital staff. However, some practitioners are reluctant to do this work.

Family Practice↗

An endotoxin-induced serum factor that causes necrosis of tumors.

In studying "hemorrhagic necrosis" of tumors produced by endotoxin, it was found that the serum of bacillus Calmette--Guerin (BCG)-infected mice treated with endotoxin contains a substance (tumor necrosis factor; TNF) which mimics the tumor necrotic action of endotoxin itself. TNF-positive serum is as effective as endotoxin itself in causing necrosis of the sarcoma Meth A and other transplanted tumors. A variety of tests indicate that TNF is not residual endotoxin, but a factor released from host cells, probably macrophages, by endotoxin. Corynebacteria and Zymosan, which like BCG induce hyperplasia of the reticulo-endothelial system, can substitute for BCG in priming mice for release of TNF by endotoxin. TNF is toxic in vitro for two neoplastic cell lines; it is not toxic for mouse embryo cultures. We propose that TNF mediates endotoxin-induced tumor necrosis, and that it may be responsible for the suppression of transformed cells by activated macrophages.

Adjuvants, Immunologic↗

Tetracycline and acne vulgaris: a clinical and laboratory investigation.

A satisfactory clinical response to long-term oral tetracycline treatment was associated with a mean serum tetracycline of 1.98 mug/ml. The surface lipid showed an increased triglyceride, decreased free fatty acids, and decreased cholesterol, and the amount of keratin within the pilosebaceous duct was reduced. At this dose level there was no quantitative decrease in the bacterial flora though there was a decrease in the fatty acids. We believe that the latter was due to a direct inhibition by tetracycline on extracellular lipases.

Acne Vulgaris↗

Further observations on the pathogenesis of acne.

The composition of the lipid of the forehead skin surface and the sebum excretion rate were determined in 217 subjects and controls. Acne was associated with an increase in serum excretion rate and in the squalene and wax and sterol esters in surface lipid. The changes in sebum excretion rate and squalene were statistically significant only in women, but acne in men was associated with a significant decrease in the free fatty acid content or surface lipid.The increased amounts of squalene and wax esters may lead to pilosebaceous obstruction in acne subjects. The increased sebum excretion rate in acne may ensure increased production of sebaceous triglyceride substrate available for lipolysis to irritant free fatty acids, which may then mediate the inflammatory changes of acne.

Acne Vulgaris↗