The Scottish Women's Hospitals: the first World War and the careers of early medical women.

The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service (SWH) was a women's organization that equipped fourteen women's hospital units across Europe during the First World War. About one hundred female doctors of different backgrounds served with the SWH. The aim of this study is to investigate how the experiences of women doctors during the First World War affected their later careers. This retrospective cohort study included the 92 women doctors who survived the War, as well as another 6 volunteers who qualified in medicine shortly after the War. By studying their publications, (auto)biographies, obituaries, genealogical databases and entries in the Medical Directory, their lives and careers are reconstructed. This study argues that, even though wartime service undoubtedly had an enormous impact on this group of brave and forward-thinking women, the beneficial effects on the position of women doctors, as a whole, were negligible.

Comparison of proteins in CSF of lateral and IVth ventricles during early development of fetal sheep.

This study examines the relationship between plasma proteins in blood and in CSF in the developing brain of sheep fetuses between 30 and 60 days gestation. Five proteins account for the very high concentration of protein in fetal CSF (over 1000 mg/100 mg/100 ml at 30 days): alpha-feto-protein, fetuin, albumin, alpha 1-antitrypsin and transferrin; the concentration of each protein is similar in lateral and IVth ventricular CSF at 30 days. By 40 days there is considerable decrease in protein concentration in lateral ventricular CSF. At this age in the IVth ventricle the overall total was unchanged, although there were changes in concentration of individual proteins. At 60 days the concentration of each protein in both compartments had fallen below that at 40 days; the marked concentration difference between lateral and IVth ventricular CSF was still present. Experiments using i.v. [125I]- or [3H] labeled plasma proteins in 30-40-day fetuses showed that very little protein penetrated into lateral ventricular CSF by 3-5 h after injection; in the same experiments [125I]albumin reached a CSF/plasma ratio of about 15% in the IVth ventricle (compared with 55% for the natural steady state). Autoradiographic studies carried out on material from the same animals did not give evidence for transfer of labeled protein across the choroid plexuses although any such penetration may have been below the threshold of the method. Other explanations for the high concentration of protein in CSF that were considered include penetration via cerebral vessels and synthesis of plasma proteins by choroid plexus epithelial cells or neurons within the brain.

Identification of fetuin in human and rat fetuses and in other species.

The fetal protein, fetuin, has previously only been identified in species belonging to the order Artiodactyla. Samples of fetal, newborn and adult human (Homo sapiens) and rat (Rattus norvegicus) plasma and tissues have been studied using three techniques: (a) crossed immunoelectrophoresis of plasma against each of four different anti-fetuin antisera (two anti-cattle, one anti-pig and one anti-sheep); (b) the peroxidase-antiperoxidase technique applied to agarose gels containing plasma spots; (c) the indirect immunoperoxidase technique applied to human fetal tissue sections. In human fetal samples all three methods gave evidence for the presence of fetuin except late in gestation and in the newborn. Adult plasma was negative. In rat fetuses only plasma was tested, by methods (a) and (b). Positive reactions were obtained for both fetal and adult samples; the fetal samples cross-reacted with several of the anti-fetuins, adult samples reacted with only one. All the fetal and embryonal plasma samples tested with the peroxidase-antiperoxidase method were positive for fetuin except for the chicken. Thus fetuin appears to be distributed in at least five mammalian orders (Artiodactyla, Primates, Rodentia, Carnivora and Perissodactyla).

Proteins in cerebrospinal fluid and plasma of fetal pigs during development.

The concentrations of total protein, alpha-fetoprotein, fetuin, transferrin and albumin have been measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma of fetal pigs from 26 to 109 days gestation. Plasma total protein concentration was lowest in the youngest fetuses but thereafter it was between 1,500 and 2,200 mg/100 ml. alpha-Fetoprotein was the predominant plasma protein early in development but its concentration declined throughout the fetal period. alpha-Fetoprotein, fetuin and transferrin accounted for over 65% of the total protein concentration at all fetal ages. Albumin was not detectable in either plasma or CSF at 26 days and did not account for more than 10% of total plasma protein concentration at later stages of gestation; in contrast fetuin was the major protein in plasma (and CSF) later in fetal development. In CSF the concentration of fetuin was highest (178 +/- 8 mg/100 ml) at 26 days. The concentrations of total protein (961 +/- 95 mg/100 ml), alpha-fetoprotein (406 +/- 77 mg/100 ml) and transferrin (195 +/- 19 mg/100 ml) were highest at 31 days after which the concentration of all the main proteins fell very considerably. Albumin was first detected in CSF at 38 days and contributed less than 10% of total protein concentration at later fetal ages. Possible origins of plasma proteins in fetal CSF are discussed. Differences in CSF: plasma ratios for different proteins are consistent with a specific transfer mechanism between their two compartments; but synthesis by fetal choroid plexus or brain has not been excluded.