Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G Weber.
Sixty patients suffering from psoriasis of all clinical forms have been treated with an increased dosage of Bromocriptin. The age of the patients ranged from 20 to 72 years. Patients with contraindications for Bromocriptin were excluded from the test. In 80% a remission or reduction of psoriasis lesions was noticed. Side effects in the form of nausea, dizziness and vomiting occurred in 15%, but decreased in the course of Bromocriptin therapy.
Pathological alterations of capillaries, accelerated epidermopoesis, increased rate and extent of metabolism in the psoriatic lesion and first manifestation of psoriasis rarely in the first 20 years of life made us decide to investigate the human growth hormone (STH) in blood serum. In 70 patients suffering from psoriasis we found that the extention of skin lesions was correlated to the STH levels, which were determined every 2 h all over the day. The average STH level in psoriasis was three times as high as average value in the group of 40 controls. Thus, one can conclude that psoriasis is caused by a persistence of STH with individual penetrance.
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Examining platelets plasma-membrane by freeze-etching (FE)-technique irregularly place among the "particles", some larger formations, called by us "protuberances" can be seen. These protuberances may represent the stomata of the open canalicular system (OCS) and the morphological aspect of an exocytotic process. Addition of prostacyclin to platelet rich plasma (PRP) leads to a decrease of the average value of protuberances which is statistically significant in comparison to control platelets.
In Austria there exist no regulations for the quality of peats and sludges of lakes for the external usage in balneotherapy. The results of our examinations showed that peats on the whole (Fig. 1) have much better bacteriological results than sludges of shallow, eutrophic lakes (Fig. 2). Typical intestinal germs appeared only in one of the five examined peats during a rain period down to 0.6 m beneath the surface. Three of the peats showed satisfying local and bacteriological conditions, one of the peats had a critical hygienic topography and high bacterial counts were found. The outcome of the bacteriological examinations of the three sludge-samples of two lakes showed quite a worse result. High levels of intestinal bacteria, E. coli, Enterococci, C. perfringens, were detectable. The averages of the bacterial counts of the peats and the sludges of lakes over the whole drilling length shows Fig. 3. The results of our examinations demonstrate that in most cases peats far away from human settlements may be used under appropriate conditions. To the contrary sludges of shallow, eutrophic lakes are not usable for balneological therapy because of the massive contamination with intestinal germs. There obviously is a danger for the patients to catch an illness when being treated with such sludges. Criteria for the bacteriological status of peloids are set up for discussion and the minimal quality demanded is that 1 g of peloid has to be free of intestinal bacteria.
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Yersinia enterocolitica was recovered from drinking water stemming from three different water supplies. The isolates were all biovar 1, subgroup V according to Winblad. Isolation of these strains was made at 37 degrees C on Endo- and Lorenz-agar after enrichment in buffered nutrient broth supplemented with oxgall, lactose and dextrose. Y. enterocolitica was identified with the API 20 E-System. For grouping the strains, additional biochemical tests were done with the Minitek-System. Y. enterocolitica would not have been identified with the routinely used IMVIC-scheme. Therefore, a more sensitive routine system in identifying waterborne bacteria seems to be necessary. Finally, to our knowledge this is the first report of isolations of Y. enterocolitica from drink water in Austria.
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Transstadial, transovarial and combined transstadial-transovarial transmission of Babesia microti in its tick vector, Ixodes ricinus, was studied. The ticks used (larvae, nymphs, females) were part of the progeny of nymphs collected in an area nearby Hanover. Specimens to be infected alimentarily were fed on parasitaemic Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). The ability to infect mammalian hosts of a tick stage was examined by feeding it on negative Golden Hamsters. B. microti was found to be transmitted transstadially from the alimentarily infected larva to the following nymphal stage, only. Thus, this nymph is the only stage transmitting the Babesia to mammalian hosts. Transovarial transmission could not be observed.
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The behavior of the capillary bed, increased epidermopoiesis, increased total metabolism of psoriasis efflorescence and its first manifestation, principally in the second decade of life, drew our attention to the behavior of the human growth hormone. A rise in the serum level of the human growth hormone compared with the normal (40 control subjects) significantly correlating with the extent of the skin symptoms, acuteness and therapy was established in the serum by diurnal determination in 70 psoriasis patients. According to this, psoriasis is the etiological consequence of hereditary persistence of production of the human growth hormone with individual penetrance.
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The binding of ethidium bromide to yeast phenylalanine-specific transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNAPhe) has been investigated in the pressure range from 1 atm to 9 kbar in the presence of 100 mM sodium chloride and 10 mM magnesium chloride, pH 7.7. One high-affinity binding site for ethidium is present, with a dissociation constant of 2.4 X 10(-6) M at 1 atm and 22 degrees C. Binding to this site is enhanced with increasing pressure, the dissociation constant reaching 2.9 X 10(-7) M at 2 kbar. Pressure also promotes the binding of ethidium to lower affinity sites of tRNAPhe. The standard volume change upon complex formation is found to be 25.6 +/- mL/mol for the first ethidium bound. If sodium is replaced by lithium in the buffer, the standard volume change is 23.3 +/- 0.5 mL/mol. We conclude that decrease of the electrostatic repulsion in the negatively charged tRNAPhe by binding of the positively charged ethidium is the main cause of the relatively large volume decrease upon complex formation. The electrostatic repulsion that must be present in this case, as well as in other nucleic acids, implies that intercalating binding sites are of the "soft" type as previously defined [Torgerson, P.M., Drickamer, H.G., & Weber, G. (1979) Biochemistry 18, 3079]. Model studies by others of the binding site characteristics are in agreement with this concept.
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