Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to K Moser.
175 patients with metastatic breast cancer, treated with chemotherapy, were analyzed retrospectively to identify the characteristics of prognostic importance in predicting response to chemotherapy and survival from onset of the chemotherapy. The most significant factors were the sites of metastatic disease and an estimate of the total extent of disease.
40 patients with metastasized mamma carcinoma were immunized with T-antigen, in addition to cytostatic therapy. A second group of 40 patients received cytostatics only. No improvement of remission rates could be obtained by additional immunotherapy with T-antigen.
Cis-Dichlorodiammineplatinum (II) was administered in 23 patients with far advanced solid malignancies using a dose schedule of 50 mg/m2 every 3 weeks. All patients had previously progressive disease using conventional cytotoxic therapies. More than 50% of the patients had been pretreated with at least 4 different drugs. 9 patients, additionally, had been irradiated. In 4 instances there was objective tumor regression (duration: 1 to 4 months), in 7 patients tumor progression could be stopped for at least one month, 12 patients did not respond. By sufficient fluid administration combined with electrolyte substitution, furosemide and mannitol, no severe toxic side effects could be observed.
We used MTX as single drug treatment on the basis of an incremental dosage schedule, with doses increased from 250 mg/m2 to 750 mg/m2 or from 5 to 10 g, at intervals of 10 days. Moderately high MTX doses (750 mg/m2 at most) plus citrovorum factor rescue, failed to result in objective tumor regression in all of the 18 patients thus treated. High-dose MTX with CF rescue, by contrast, was found to produce partial remissions in 3 of the 19 cases treated thus far. Meticulous clinical monitoring and MTX serum level determinations are imperative for minimizing complications, if this drastic treatment regimen is employed.
During the last years our knowledge of the structural composition of erythrocyte membranes has markedly increased. It is the aim of this review to discuss hereditary changes of the erythrocyte membrane of pathophysiological significance on the basis of these recent biochemical findings. The report particularly deals with structural proteins, such as spectrin, and its possible significance for corpuscular deformation (e. g. spherocytosis). In addition, the importance of hemoglobinopathies and hereditary enzymatic defects for the development of hemolysis is discussed.
The author reports on the molecular biological site of action for cancerogenic substances. He shows how UV-radiation may lead to malignomas of the skin in the hereditary disease xeroderma pigmentosum and how ionising rays may cause changes of the DNA, the place of the genetic information. Since the virus genesis of malignant diseases has become more important lately, the author tries to point out the molecular biological connections of an eventual involvement of virus in the development of malignant diseases.
Palacos bone cement with and without contained gentamicin was tested for antibacterial efficacy using a rabbit model of a knee hemiarthroplasty and a challenge with intra-articular Escherichia coli. The gentamicin-containing cement prevented infection from challenge with Escherichia coli and protected against inadvertent operative infection as well. Antibiotic concentrations in synovial fluid and urine remained in the therapeutic range for three days, whereas levels in serum were always quite low. Eight per cent of the gentamicin had leached out of the bone cement by eight days, most of it during the first day. Thereafter, extremely small amounts of gentamicin left the cement on a daily basis. The amount of antibiotic leaching out in vitro was proportional to the surface area of the cement. More eluted into serum than into saline.
A single intravenous dose of one gram of cefazolin was administered prophylactically to forty-eight patients undergoing total joint replacement. The serum half-life of the antibiotic was 1.8 hours, the same value found in normal volunteers. The mean concentration in bone during surgery was 5.7 micrograms per gram of bone. The mean concentration in synovial fluid during surgery was 24.4 micrograms per milliliter of fluid.
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This paper outlines the procedure for the preparation of leucocyte-free reticulocytes and normocytes and details the activities of the key enzymes in reticulocytes, normocytes and leucocytes. An assesment of the error in normocyte enzyme analyses due to contamination with reticulocytes and leucocytes is enabled by these means.
Sialyltransferase activity was estimated in serum samples of patients with cancer and controls using immobilized asialo-fetuin as the acceptor and cytidine-5'-monophospho [14C] sialic acid as the donor. The data suggest that increased enzyme activity can be found in more than 80% of the samples from patients with malignant diseases.
The reverse transcriptase in plasma from leukaemic patients perfers the divalent cation Mn++ to Mg++ in the polymerase assay. The reverse is true for the enzyme from plasma of patients with breast cancer. This cation preference is analogous to the cation preference found in B- and C-type RNA-tumour viruses.
The diagnostic value of serum sialyl transferase, phosphohexose isomerase and lactate dehydrogenase determinations is discussed in respect to patients with malignant diseases. It was found that 80 % of the investigated cases showed an increase in serum sialyl transferase activity. Phosphohexose isomerase was elevated in 46.6 % and lactate dehydrogenase in 23.3% of the cases. The serum sialyl transferase activity was within the normal range in 13.3% of the patients. It is concluded that although the serum sialyl transferase activity is of great diagnostic significance in cases of suspected malignancy, total reliance cannot be placed on the determination of this sole parameter, but only in conjunction with others.
Human transfer factor was prepared from "buffy coat" of human donors by ultra filtration. These batches of transfer factor were tested for their ability to increase DNA-synthesis of antigen(mitogen) incubated lymphocytes. An increase of DNA-synthesis was measured by the ratio of appr. 2. Column chromatographic separation of transfer factor on sephadex G-10 or DEAE cellulose columns showed an elution pattern with many peaks. In the lymphoblastogenese assay some peaks were found to be stimulatory, others in contrast inhibitory. It seems likely from our results that transfer factor represents a mixture of different chemical compounds with activating or inhibitory action on lymphoblastogenesis.
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Increasing evidence has accumulated that the direct assay of reverse transcriptase in human blood cells is of value in the diagnosis of leukaemia. The isolation and characterization of this enzyme has shown that it possesses remarkable similarities to the DNA-polymerase of the RNA-tumour virus of simian sarcoma. Hence, leukaemic cells in humans are thought to possess a virus-related gene, namely, reverse transcriptase. Various clinical reports have established the presence of this enzyme in blood cells, not only in the case of morphologically-proven malignant change, but also in cases classified as non-leukaemic from the morphological picture, such as acute leukaemia in remission and in the pre-leukaemic state. In confirmation and augmentation of earlier views we now report on the presence of reverse transcriptase in a patient with pancytopenia, who subsequently developed acute leukaemia i.e. isolation of the enzyme occurred in the pre-leukaemic state.