scholarly journals The fate of 131I-labelled diphtheria toxin and toxoid in the skin of immune and allergic guinea-pigs

1959 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-234
Author(s):  
D. A. Long

Highly purified crystalline diphtheria toxin-protein, and toxoid prepared from it, were labelled with 131I, without change of potency, and injected intradermally into immune and allergic guinea-pigs. It is probable that actively immunized guinea-pigs localize these antigens and that localization is due to hypersensitivity of a type that cannot be transferred with serum; it is possibly of the delayed (tuberculin-type) of allergy.It is a pleasure to acknowledge the gift of highly purified (crystalline) diphtheria toxin, and toxoid prepared from it, from Dr C. G. Pope of the Wellcome Research Laboratories, England. Dr S. P. Masouredis of the Central Blood Bank of Pittsburgh kindly labelled these antigens, using the technique he devised. Dr W. J. Kuhns generously provided the human precipitating and non-precipitating diphtheria antitoxin*.The collimator head was made by Mr J. Nechaj of the University of Pittsburgh.All these collaborators gave me advice on matters of which I was ignorant; for this I am grateful.

Diphtheria antitoxin prepared in the horse and refined by peptic digestion when injected in very large doses into women in an advanced stage of pregnancy did not pass to the infant. In pregnant guinea-pigs diphtheria antitoxin (naturalserum, ex -guinea-pig) passed to the young in abundance; but, after peptic-digestion, this homologous antitoxin failed entirely to pass the placenta, the young being devoid of antitoxin at birth. The passage was not affected by the treatment of the natural serum with ammonium sulphate as used in the Gibson-Banzhaf (1910) process for the concentration of antitoxin. Diphtheria antitoxin (natural serum ex -horse) passed from pregnant guinea-pigs to their off spring in smaller amounts and much less readily than homologous antitoxin, and the quantity of antitoxin( ex -horse) so passing was reduced even further and very considerably as a result of peptic digestion. Even under the most favourable conditions homologous antitoxin takes sometime (2 or 3 days) to attain the same concentration in the young as in the mother; but once this concentration has been attained it is preserve data high level for long periods. Passive anaphylactics ensitization of guinea-pigs, either of the whole animal or the isolated uterus, is easily effected, in vivo or in vitro , by small quantities of diphtheria antitoxin (either natural serum or ammonium sulphate concentrated, ex -guinea-pig), but this property is completely lost when the homologous antitoxin is subjected to peptic digestion. It is not possible to sensitize anaphylactically guinea-pigs, in vivo or in vitro , by means of diphtheria antitoxin, ex -horse, whether the antibody is presented either in the form of natural serum, or concentrated by means of ammonium sulphate; and the result is the same when pepsin-refined diphtheria antitoxin ex -horse is used. When 5 or 10 units of diphtheria antitoxin ex -horse, whether as natural serum, ammonium-sulphate concentrated or pepsin-refined, are injected subcutaneously into guinea-pigs, the animals are rendered Schick-negative in a few hours. These antitoxins are eliminated in about a week, after which time the injected guinea-pigs are found to be Schick-positive again. If, however, the same amounts of antitoxin made in guinea-pigs are injected into guinea-pigs the result is different; the animals also become Schick-negative, but this condition is maintained for a month or longer. That is, homologous antitoxin is eliminated much more slowly; but if this natural serum antitoxin from the guinea-pig is subjected to peptic digestion it is eliminated as quickly as diphtheria antitoxin made in the horse. When diphtheria toxin is injected intracutaneously into guinea-pigs, a quantity of diphtheria antitoxin 50,000 times as large as that required to neutralize it in vitro is required for neutralization in the animal, and then only if injected intravenously within 1hr.; but little or no neutralization in vivo occurs if the intravenous injection is longer delayed, whatever type of homologous or heterologous antitoxin is administered.


1923 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. T. Glenny ◽  
Barbara E. Hopkins

1. The course of disappearance of passive immunity in rabbits injected with diphtheria antitoxin obtained from goats, men, guinea-pigs and cows, consists of the same three phases that follow the injection of horse serum.2. The rabbits examined were more responsive to goat, human and guinea-pig serum than to horse and cow serum.3. The course of disappearance of passive immunity in rabbits, horses and guinea-pigs injected with homologous antitoxin, consists of Phases A and B only, and Phase B is far slower than when heterologous serum is injected into rabbits.4. Sheep and goats eliminate antitoxin obtained from a horse at a very slow rate, and Phase C is hardly detectable.5. Natural immunity of horses to diphtheria toxin is gradually acquired by a number of increasing responses to external stimuli.


1926 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 613-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. W. Jungeblut ◽  
J. A. Berlot

1. Following massive doses of India ink injected intravenously into guinea pigs before a subcutaneous injection of diphtheria toxin-antitoxin mixture, no antitoxin was found in the blood serum for 3 weeks, as indicated by intracutaneous tests, whereas an appreciable amount could be detected in non-blocked, immunized control animals. 2. During the 4th week following immunization, the titer of the serum of blocked animals equaled that of non-blocked controls within the limits of the intracutaneous test dose. 3. The smaller doses of India ink used in these experiments, given before immunization, had no stimulating effect on the production of diphtheria antitoxin but, on the contrary, also inhibited the appearance of this antibody, although to a less extent.


1979 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 368
Author(s):  
Clinton B. Ford

A “new charts program” for the Americal Association of Variable Star Observers was instigated in 1966 via the gift to the Association of the complete variable star observing records, charts, photographs, etc. of the late Prof. Charles P. Olivier of the University of Pennsylvania (USA). Adequate material covering about 60 variables, not previously charted by the AAVSO, was included in this original data, and was suitably charted in reproducible standard format.Since 1966, much additional information has been assembled from other sources, three Catalogs have been issued which list the new or revised charts produced, and which specify how copies of same may be obtained. The latest such Catalog is dated June 1978, and lists 670 different charts covering a total of 611 variables none of which was charted in reproducible standard form previous to 1966.


1966 ◽  
Vol 05 (03) ◽  
pp. 142-146
Author(s):  
A. Kent ◽  
P. J. Vinken

A joint center has been established by the University of Pittsburgh and the Excerpta Medica Foundation. The basic objective of the Center is to seek ways in which the health sciences community may achieve increasingly convenient and economical access to scientific findings. The research center will make use of facilities and resources of both participating institutions. Cooperating from the University of Pittsburgh will be the School of Medicine, the Computation and Data Processing Center, and the Knowledge Availability Systems (KAS) Center. The KAS Center is an interdisciplinary organization engaging in research, operations, and teaching in the information sciences.Excerpta Medica Foundation, which is the largest international medical abstracting service in the world, with offices in Amsterdam, New York, London, Milan, Tokyo and Buenos Aires, will draw on its permanent medical staff of 54 specialists in charge of the 35 abstracting journals and other reference works prepared and published by the Foundation, the 700 eminent clinicians and researchers represented on its International Editorial Boards, and the 6,000 physicians who participate in its abstracting programs throughout the world. Excerpta Medica will also make available to the Center its long experience in the field, as well as its extensive resources of medical information accumulated during the Foundation’s twenty years of existence. These consist of over 1,300,000 English-language _abstract of the world’s biomedical literature, indexes to its abstracting journals, and the microfilm library in which complete original texts of all the 3,000 primary biomedical journals, monitored by Excerpta Medica in Amsterdam are stored since 1960.The objectives of the program of the combined Center include: (1) establishing a firm base of user relevance data; (2) developing improved vocabulary control mechanisms; (3) developing means of determining confidence limits of vocabulary control mechanisms in terms of user relevance data; 4. developing and field testing of new or improved media for providing medical literature to users; 5. developing methods for determining the relationship between learning and relevance in medical information storage and retrieval systems’; and (6) exploring automatic methods for retrospective searching of the specialized indexes of Excerpta Medica.The priority projects to be undertaken by the Center are (1) the investigation of the information needs of medical scientists, and (2) the development of a highly detailed Master List of Biomedical Indexing Terms. Excerpta Medica has already been at work on the latter project for several years.


NASPA Journal ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Herdlein

The scholarship of student affairs has neglected to carefully review its contextual past and, in the process, failed to fully integrate historical research into practice. The story of Thyrsa Wealtheow Amos and the history of the Dean of Women’s Program at the University of Pittsburgh,1919–41, helps us to reflect on the true reality of our work in higher education. Although seemingly a time in the distant past, Thyrsa Amos embodied the spirit of student personnel administration that shines ever so bright to thisd ay. The purpose of this research is to provide some of thatcontext and remind us of the values that serve as foundations of the profession.


2020 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 866-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita P Courcoulas ◽  
James W Gallagher ◽  
Rebecca H Neiberg ◽  
Emily B Eagleton ◽  
James P DeLany ◽  
...  

Abstract Context Questions remain about bariatric surgery for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) treatment. Objective Compare the remission of T2DM following surgical or nonsurgical treatments. Design, setting, and participants Randomized controlled trial at the University of Pittsburgh, in the United States. Five-year follow-up from February 2015 until June 2016. Interventions 61 participants with obesity and T2DM who were initially randomized to either bariatric surgical treatments (Roux-en-Y gastric bypass [RYGB] or laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding [LAGB]) or an intensive lifestyle weight loss intervention (LWLI) program for 1 year. Lower level lifestyle weight loss interventions (LLLIs) were then delivered for 4 years. Main Outcomes and Measures Diabetes remission assessed at 5 years. Results The mean age of the patients was 47 ± 6.6 years, 82% were women, and 21% African American. Mean hemoglobin A1c level 7.8% ± 1.9%, body mass index (BMI) 35.7 ± 3.1 kg/m2, and 26 participants (43%) had BMI < 35 kg/m2. Partial or complete T2DM remission was achieved by 30% (n = 6) of RYGB, 19% (n = 4) of LAGB, and no LWLI participants (P = .0208). At 5 years those in the RYGB group had the largest percentage of individuals (56%) not requiring any medications for T2DM compared with those in the LAGB (45%) and LWLI (0%) groups (P = .0065). Mean reductions in percent body weight at 5 years was the greatest after RYGB 25.2% ± 2.1%, followed by LAGB 12.7% ± 2.0% and lifestyle treatment 5.1% ± 2.5% (all pairwise P < .01). Conclusions Surgical treatments are more effective than lifestyle intervention alone for T2DM treatment.


1991 ◽  
Vol 266 (26) ◽  
pp. 17446-17453
Author(s):  
I.H. Madshus ◽  
H. Stenmark ◽  
K. Sandvig ◽  
S. Olsnes

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