[The relationship between maternal role attainment during pregnancy and empathy].

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between maternal role attainment during pregnancy and empathy. Sixty-seven pregnant women were asked to complete the Japanese version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index to measure their empathy, and were subsequently divided into a high-empathy group consisting of 13 subjects, and a low-empathy group consisting of 9 subjects. Data was collected from the 12th through the 30th gestational week by means of a semi-structured interview which was based on Rubin's conseptual model of maternal role attainment. The following results were obtained. 1. Eight subjects of the high-empathy group and 2 of the low-empathy group were judged to have reached the Introjection-projection-rejection phase. 2. High-empathy group subjects displayed Mimicry more of ten, had partners near them during Role-play, began Fantasy earlier, and expected more changes in themselves through Grief-work than low-empathy group subjects. 3. High-empathy group subjects were more prepared for the maternal role before conception, came in contact with people that served as a role model more often during pregnancy, and formed Binding-in earlier than low-empathy group subjects.

Displacing effects of chenodeoxycholic acid, ursodeoxycholic acid and sulfadimethoxine on plasma protein binding of tolbutamide.

The interactions between chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) or ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and tolbutamide including its displacement from plasma protein binding sites were investigated pharmacokinetically. An increasing concentration of unbound tolbutamide was observed in the in vitro experiment, conducted by equilibrium dialysis method at 30 degrees C after the addition of CDCA and UDCA to human serum albumin (HSA), bovine serum albumin (BSA) and rabbit plasma containing tolbutamide. Small changes in total plasma concentration of tolbutamide were noted after high dose (0.167 mg/kg/min) intravenous infusion of CDCA to rabbits receiving a constant intravenous infusion of tolbutamide, but, such an observation was not obtained with low dose (0.083 mg/kg/min) of CDCA or with either high or low dose of UDCA. These results seem to indicate the displacement of high doses of CDCA. The coadministration of sulfadimethoxine which not only displaces tolbutamide from binding sites but also inhibits its metabolism was investigated. A different plasma pattern was obtained under the same intravenous infusion conditions, as compared with the plasma pattern resulting from tolbutamide-CDCA or UDCA combination.

[In vitro cytotoxicity of methotrexate].

Five murine tumor cells (sarcoma 1509a, Gc-4, YAC-1, Dunn osteosarcoma, Lewis lung carcinoma) were exposed to methotrexate (MTX) at concentrations of 10(-1)-10(-9) mg/ml for 4-72 hours in vitro and then assayed for their viability. The effect of cell killing by MTX was dependent on both exposure time and concentration of the agent. MTX at a concentration of 10(-5) mg/ml killed the entire cell population in 72 hours, whereas the agent was not particularly effective even at a concentration of 10(-1) mg/ml on exposure for 4 hours. There was a close relation between doubling time of tumor cells and exposure time to MTX for killing entire populations of the tumor cells. The longer doubling time of the tumor cells was, the longer exposure time to MTX was needed to kill them. Lewis lung carcinoma was less sensitive to MTX than other sarcomas. The effect of citovorum factor (CF) on tumor cell killing by MTX was studied on sarcoma 1509a. After exposure to MTX sarcoma 1509a populations could not be rescued by the treatment of CF.