Feline miliary eczema: megestrol acetate does not suppress immune responses.

Megestrol acetate was found to have no influence on immunological skin and corneal reactivity nor on antibody responses in guinea pigs. Its curative effect in feline miliary eczema is probably not, therefore, the result of interference with the immune response.

Immune protection of birds against a stock of Trypanosoma brucei.

Domestic chickens (Gallus domesticus) infected with a stock of Trypanosoma brucei exhibited a chronic infection that was spontaneously terminated by self-cure. They were then found to be immune to challenge with derivatives of the same trypanosome stock. It is suggested that the ability of birds to cure the infection and retain immunity is due to the particularly efficient nature of their immune responses. These results encourage the view that it may be possible to design effective trypanosome vaccines for use in mammals.

The course of Trypanosoma brucei ssp. infection in domestic chickens.

Three unrelated stocks of Trypanosoma (Trypanozoon) brucei were tested for their ability to infect domestic chickens. One of them, Lugala/55/EATRO/459, regularly produced a chronic infection. This was characterized by a low parasitemia (3-100 mouse infective organisms per ml of blood) that lasted for nine months in pullets and over one year in cockerels. Advances and remissions of the parasitemia were detected during the course of the infection. There was no obvious impairment of the health of the birds and their growth rate was indistinguishable from that of uninfected chickens. A second stock of T. brucei produced a transient infection that lasted for a few days only and a third failed to infect. These observations, of persistent symptomless infections, raise the possibility that domestic chickens and other birds may act as reservoirs in the cycle of infection in nature, as do many game animals.

Institutional support of continuing education as a fringe benefit for hospital pharmacists.

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which hospital pharmacists in Wisconsin received compensation for continuing education (CE) from their institutions and to compare this with their participation in CE activities. The study was conducted by a mail questionnaire sent to all pharmacists practicing in a hospital setting in Wisconsin. The usable response rate was greater than 45%. Persons in administrative positions received greater support for CE activities than staff in the areas of registration fees (P less than 0.005), travel expenses (P less than 0.0005), dues for professional organizations (P less than 0.0005), and compensatory time (P less than 0.0005). Pharmacists in the sample participated in an average of 123.8 hours of CE yearly, including 77.2 hours of journal reading. Staff size influenced the method of obtaining CE, with smaller staffs relying more heavily on journals and larger staffs on in-house programs. The amount of compensation did not influence total CE participation, suggesting that other factors might influence CE participation.

Trypanosoma brucei: the mechanism of remission in murine infections. A calculator simulation.

A simulation (using an electronic calculator program) of the growth of Trypanosoma brucei in the mouse is presented. This suggests that remission of the infection is effected by the removal of ever increasing numbers of the organisms as the immune (antibody) response develops, rather than that a gradual build-up of antibody on each trypanosome occurs until a fatal concentration is reached, simultaneously, on all of them. The program has enabled a theoretical examination to be made of the effect, on the trypanosome growth curve, of altering the doubling time of the organism, the rate of development of the immune response, and the efficiency of the antibodies. Suggestions are made for further extensions of the program to cover other parameters that may vary during the infections. It should also be possible to use similar simple programs, that do not employ advanced mathematics, to problems of the growth of many organisms.

An improved method for detection and titration of antibodies cytophilic for macrophages.

A new microtechnique for detection and titration of antibodies cytophilic for homologous macrophages is introduced and experiments designed to determine the optimum conditions for its performance reported. The technique employs a series of small chambers formed on a microscope slide by the application of a plastic film in which holes have been punched. The procedure uses 5 x 10(4) cells and 25 microliter of serum per chamber, and each test can be completed in 2 h. A permanent preparation results which can be examined as and when convenient.

Hypersensitivity to mineral oil in the domestic fowl.

Domestic fowl were found to be hypersensitive to a second injection of highly purified mineral oil if they had been primed 3 weeks previously with oil in the presence of mycobacteria. This response did not appear to be related to impurities originally present in the oil or introduced into it during sterilization, and did not follow priming with mycobacteria in vegetable oil or in saline. The reaction at the challenge site was prolonged and developed a characteristic histology identical to that found at the priming site. It is postualted that the hypersensitivity seen has an immunological basis and that birds are able to respond to antigenic determinants formed by long chain aliphatic hydrocarbons.