Tuberculin skin test reactivity of health care students in a country with a low prevalence of tuberculosis.

Setting: Health care students in Sweden.

Objective: To analyse the distribution of tuberculin skin test (TST) reactions and epidemiological factors related to TST reactivity.

Design: TST reactivity was analysed in 1190 students.

Rat alveolar and interstitial macrophages in the fibrosing stage following quartz exposure.

Exposure to quartz induces pulmonary inflammation and development of fibrosis. In order to study the fibrosing process, we investigated morphology, function and phenotype of alveolar (AMs) and interstitial (IMs) macrophages at an early stage of fibrosis in rats. Rats were exposed by intratracheal instillations of 10 mg quartz (n=8) or saline (n=8) and studied 3 months later.

Human cytogenetic biomonitoring using flow-cytometric analysis of micronuclei in transferrin-positive immature peripheral blood reticulocytes.

We have developed a method to isolate and analyze nascent human reticulocytes in peripheral blood for the presence of micronuclei (MN). For a very short time peripheral reticulocytes show residual expression of the transferrin receptor. Using immunomagnetic separation of cells expressing the transferrin receptor, a population of immature reticulocytes (Trf-Ret) was isolated from peripheral blood.

Absence of genomic instability in mice following prenatal low dose-rate gamma-irradiation.

Purpose: To determine whether mice exposed to an extended low dose of gamma-irradiation during most of their prenatal period express increased frequencies of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (fMPCE) and/or micronucleated normochromatic erythrocytes (fMNCE) several weeks after the end of irradiation.

Methods: Female CBA/Ca mice were gamma-irradiated for an average of 16 days during their pregnancy. The mice were exposed to dose rates of 0, 44, 99 and 265 mGy/day.