Good seroresponse to enhanced-potency inactivated poliovirus vaccine in patients on chronic dialysis.

The outbreak of paralytic poliomyelitis in Finland in 1984 was halted by nationwide oral poliovirus vaccination campaign. Immunocompromised patients, including those with chronic uraemia and on continuous dialysis, were excluded from the oral vaccination group and instead were given a dose of the new enhanced-potency inactivated poliovirus vaccine before the campaign. We studied the antibody response to this vaccine in 49 patients on chronic dialysis, using conventional antigen of all three serotypes and two additional type 3 strains.

Phosphate binding by a myeloma protein.

A patient with IgG kappa myeloma had markedly elevated serum phosphate concentrations but no clinical features of hyperphosphataemia. The hyperphosphataemia was due to a high phosphate per protein unit than normal IgG.

Radioimmunoassay of haemoglobin F in K 562 cells following induction with renin substrate and erythropoietin.

To test the hypothesis of renin substrate (RS; angiotensinogen) being a precursor of erythropoietin (EP), the capacity of RS and EP to induce Hb synthesis was compared in cultured human erythroid leukaemia cells of the K 562 line after prestimulation with haemin. For this purpose a radioimmunoassay for haemoglobin F (HbF) was developed. This assay was shown to be specific for HbF, reproducible, and sensitive for 0.

Evidence that renin substrate (angiotensinogen) may be a precursor of erythropoietin.

We suggested a role for renin substrate (RS, angiotensinogen) in the biogenesis of erythropoietin (EP) (Nature 308:649-652, 1984). Purified RS was prepared from pooled plasma of healthy adult subjects, or from plasma of pregnant, healthy females. Antisera against human RS were shown to cross-react with purified human urinary EP, using a haemagglutination technique.

Comparison of C-terminal and N-terminal PTH in secondary hyperparathyroidism in renal failure.

In 89 patients with disorders in calcium regulation either C-terminal or N-terminal PTH or both, were elevated. In haemodialysis patients the results of C-terminal and N-terminal PTH measurements showed the same trend in 10 patients; in 30 patients only C-terminal and in four patients only N-terminal PTH was elevated. In patients with renal failure, creatinine clearance less than 30 ml/min, both C-terminal and N-terminal PTH were elevated in five patients, C-terminal PTH in 12 patients and N-terminal PTH in none of the patients studied.

Inhibitor binding assay for angiotensin-converting enzyme.

We describe a new principle for the determination of enzymes, here applied to angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE, EC 3.4.15.

Is renin substrate an erythropoietin precursor?

The biogenesis of erythropoietin is incompletely understood. One hypothesis maintains that erythropoietin is synthesized primarily in the kidney while according to another theory an erythropoietin precursor present in plasma is activated by a renal factor, erythrogenin. An attractive candidate for the erythropoietin precursor is renin substrate (angiotensinogen) which has chemical similarities with erythropoietin.

Two different primary lung malignancies after a successful kidney transplantation.

A patient with two histologically different primary pulmonary malignancies occurring simultaneously ten months after a successful cadaveric renal transplantation is reported. One tumor was an adenocarcinoma of the left lung and the other an oat cell carcinoma of the right lung. The differentiation of the two tumors was made by a fluorescein-conjugated antikeratin antibody staining technique.

Regulation of angiotensin converting enzyme.

Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE;EC 3.4.15.

Long-term 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol treatment in renal failure.

1,25-Dihydroxycholecalciferol (1,25-DHCC) was administered to four patients on maintenance hemodialysis and to four patients with renal failure not requiring hemodialysis. Secondary hyperparathyroidism was found in both groups of patients. Before initiation of 1,25-DHCC treatment both groups had serum 1,25-DHCC levels below the normal range (33.

The induction of angiotensin converting enzyme by its inhibitors.

The inhibitors of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), captopril and enalapril, were found to increase ACE concentration in cultured human endothelial cells from cord artery as measured with a novel ACE assay employing MK 351A, an inhibitor of ACE, and with immunofluorescense labeling using anti-human lung ACE antibody. Dexamethasone (10 nM) also increased ACE and potentiated the increase of cellular ACE caused by captopril. Similar effects of ACE inhibitors were seen in cultured human macrophages, particularly after prestimulation with E.

Sustained antihypertensive effect of captopril combined with diuretics and beta-adrenergic blocking drugs in patients with resistant hypertension.

Ten patients with severe hypertension and unsatisfactory blood pressure control during combined therapy with beta-adrenergic blocking drugs, diuretics, and vasodilators were treated with gradually increasing doses of captopril. Vasodilators were discontinued 24 hours prior to captopril administration. Six patients had essential, two renal, and two renovascular hypertension.

Induction of angiotensin I-converting enzyme by captopril in cultured human endothelial cells.

Captopril (2.0 microgram/ml) increased angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE, kininase II) activity from 6- to 16-fold in culture medium of human endothelial cells from umbilical cord artery. Immunohistochemically detectable ACE was markedly increased in these cells when using rabbit antihuman lung ACE antiserum.

Arthritis associated with Campylobacter jejuni enteritis.

Among 342 patients with infection due to Campylobacter fetus ss. jejuni, 8 cases (2.3%) of arthritis were found.

Viral culture and electron microscopy of ganglion cells in Meniere's disease and Bell's palsy.

Specimens of Scarpa's ganglion during vestibular neurectomy were obtained in 6 cases of Meniere's disease and specimens of geniculate ganglion in 2 cases of total facial nerve decompression and studied by tissue culture methods for detection of possible herpes and cytomegalovirus infection. In electron microscopy inclusions in the form of interwoven yarn-like structures, coarse aggregates of chromatin and light nuclear bodies were found in several vestibular ganglion cells. No typical herpes virus virions could be demonstrated.

OK 10 virus, an avian retrovirus resembling the acute leukaemia viruses.

The OK 10 virus complex was isolated from a liver tumour of a chicken which, as an embryo, had been inoculated intravenously with a field isolate of an avian leukosis virus. The OK 10 virus complex contains at least two viruses: the interference assay and serum neutralization test indicate that the helper virus belongs to subgroup A. One of the viruses, OK 10 V, induces distinct foci in chick embryo cells under agar overlay and cells from the foci form colonies in soft agar.