Polyunsaturated fatty acids in the blood of spontaneously or induced muricidal male Wistar rats.

Serum levels of several n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids were compared in male Wistar muricidal (Mu) and non-Mu rats. The Mu behavior was either spontaneous or induced by long-term isolation, feeding with a starch-enriched polyunsaturated fatty acid diet (PUFA+S), water restriction, or adrenalectomy (ADX). Arachidonic acid (ARA) levels were lower in diet-induced (PUFA+S) Mu rats than in their non-Mu controls. Total n-6 fatty acid levels were also lower in spontaneously Mu rats than in spontaneously non-Mu rats. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and total n-3 fatty acids levels were lower in rats with isolation-induced Mu behavior. The n-3/n-6 ratio was higher in spontaneously Mu rats than in spontaneously non-Mu rats. The changes in ARA levels were greater than those in DHA levels, possibly due to the higher blood-brain barrier passage of arachidonic acid. The results were analyzed in the light of recent results showing a role of PUFAs in human and animal behavior.

Nutritional parameters modify muricidal behavior of male Wistar rats: preventive effects of amino acids and 4' Cl diazepam.

In male Wistar rats fed a diet enriched in polyunsaturated fatty acids and starch (PUFA+S), the percentage of muricidal (Mu) rats increased to 82% within 60 days. Mu rats had higher serum triglyceride levels and lower cholesterol levels than non-Mu rats. Water intake decreased in all rats on the PUFA+S diet concurrently with the increase in the proportion of Mu rats; protracted water restriction in rats fed standard diet also increased the percentage of Mu rats. In the offspring of two Wistar females fed the PUFA+S diet, the proportion of young Mu rats was 67%. When the PUFA+S diet was replaced with standard diet, the induced Mu behavior was not reversed. PK11195 (6 mg/kg i.p.), clonazepam (0.2 mg/kg i.p.), and flumazenil (15 mg/kg i.p.) were ineffective in reversing the induced Mu behavior, whereas 4'-chlorodiazepam (5 mg/kg i.p.) or muscimol (0.5 mg/kg i.p.) caused reversals of 63% or 50%, respectively. A 5-hydroxytryptophan overload (60 mg/kg i.p.) also reversed Mu behavior by 71%. All reversal effects were temporary. Pretreatment with yeast for 7 days before the PUFA+S diet was given prevented induction for more than 90 days on the PUFA+S diet, while similar pretreatment 4'Cl-diazepam resulted in 71% prevention of induction. The results are analyzed in terms of the involvement of endozepin, vasopressin, and serotonin receptors, and of possible genetic parameters.

[French military dental surgeons during World War I]. / Les chirurgiens dentistes français aux armées pendant la Grande Guerre.

A statute of dental surgeon of the Navy and later of the Army was created in February 1916 among the corresponding French military Health Departments. Under the pressure of the military events, after two years of "shifty" acting of the soldier-dental surgeons on the front line and irresolution of the Government, Justin Godart created at last a Corps of military dental surgeons and stomatologists. Problems of bucco-dental health raised as soon as the autumn 1914 by the trench war and the repair of "broken Jaws" (gueules cassées) induced by the new weapons of this war will be brilliantly and economically solved by this Corps suppressed after Armistice. A permanent Corps foreseen in 1945 seems revived in France with the 15 December 1993 decree amid the already provided new European Union.

[Different pathogenic power of the original BCG strain of the Pasteur Institute and of an isoniazid resistant strain. Histopathological study and significance of local abscesses after inoculation of guinea pig]. / Pouvoir pathogène différent de la souche de BCG historique de l'Institut Pasteur et d'une souche isoniazido-résistante. Etude histopathologique et signification des abcès locaux après inoculation au cobaye

The inoculation into guinea pigs of 10 mg of BCG, obtained either from the Pasteur Institute original strain, or from a mutant isoniazid resistant strain, B1 catalase positive, caused in 40.4% of cases, the onset of abscesses at the point of injection. The frequency and course of these abscesses appear quite different with the two strains, 92.8% with the classical strain, persisting in more than half of the cases after one year, and 23.5% with the INH-resistant strains which regressed within 6 months. Histologically, the structure of the recent abscesses, with a large histiocytic wall often rich in bacteria, and a very cellular necrotic content, appears different from that of old abscesses with a thin wall and a heterogeneous content, calcification with reaction to foreign bodies, and presence of granules due to the persistance of bacteria. The INH-resistant strain is thus in the guinea pig, less aggressive and more rapidly eliminated than the classical Pasteur strain. The course and morphology of abscesses in guinea pigs are very similar to certain old lesions of human tuberculosis and involve, in all strains, phenomena of cell immunity both general and local.