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Biomedical subjects

H H Hiatt

Publications and source records attributed to H H Hiatt.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Protecting the medical commons: who is responsible?

The resources for medical care are clearly finite, but demands on those resources are growing rapidly. Of particular concern are the demands on those resources for medical practices of three kinds: those that pose conflicts between the interests of the individual and those of society; those of no value or of undetermined value; and those for potentially preventable conditions. Such practices must be evaluated in terms of social and medical priorities, and this requirement will become more urgent with the establishment of national health insurance. Who will make decisions is less clear, but it is not likely to be physicians alone. It is imperative that physicians and other health providers work closely with professionals from many fields, and with consumers, to ensure the availability and dissemination of information that will permit decisions that are in the best interests of society.

Child↗

The isolation of large polysomes in high yield from unfractionated tissue homogenates.

It was found that if large quantities of both exogenous RNA and Mg-2+ were present during gentle tissue homogenization, the subsequent addition of deoxycholate to the whole homogenate produced a viscous mass from which polysomes could be isolated in large yields. These polysomes were substantially less degraded than those isolated by previous methods. In the case of rat liver, 15 ribosomes per mRNA was the species present in highest concentration. The parameters of this method were investigated and optimized. About 80 percent of the rRNA in the homogenates was recovered in the polysomes. Omission of deoxycholate permitted the isolation of less-degraded free polysomes as well. In the liver of fed rats these represented one-fourth of the total polysomes, in good agreement with results obtained by an independent approach. Using the method to isolate polysomes from the liver of starving rats, it was found that only about one percent of the large amount of monomers and dimers present resulted from polysome breakdown during isolation. It was further shown that random RNAase hydrolysis of polysomes could not produce the patterns of liver polysomes seen during starvation. Polysomes isolated by this procedure were quite stable in solution and were very active in cell-free protein synthesis. Application of this method without adaptation to eight other tissues also permitted the isolation of large polysomes in high yields.

Animals↗

Tenth Daniel C. Baker, Jr, memorial lecture. The physician's contribution to national security.

Nuclear weapons make possible the ultimate epidemic. Since their use would lead to human and material damage orders of magnitude more extensive than anything ever known, and since the medical community would be impotent to respond in any meaningful way, all efforts must be directed to the prevention of nuclear war. By ensuring that the medical realities are known to decision-makers and the people of the world, the medical community can help focus attention on the critical need for an effective prescription for prevention and thereby can contribute in an important fashion to national security.

Disasters↗