The effectiveness of short-term, low-dose, preoperative oral administration of neomycin and erythromycin base combined with vigorous purgation in reducing the incidence of wound infections and other septic complications of elective colon and rectal operations has been studied in a prospective, randomized, double-blind, clinical trial. One hundred and sixteen patients completed the study; all received mechanical preparation; 56 received neomycin-erythromycin base while 60 received an identical appearing placebo. The two patient groups were comparable in age distribution, clinical diagnoses, associated systemic diseases, types of operation performed and similar clinical features. The overall rate of directly related septic complications was 43 per cent in the placebo group and 9% in the group receiving neomycin and erythromycin base. The wound infection rates were 35% in placebo and 9% in antibiotic treated patients. Oral administration of neomycin and erythromycin base together with vigorous mechanical cleansing reduces the risk of septic complications after elective colo-rectal operations.

SUMMARY One hundred and thirty coded sera, 60 from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 70 from patients with other autoimmune rheumatic diseases were tested for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) binding activity by five different types of assay. These were enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (distinguishing IgG and IgM anti-ssDNA and anti-dsDNA), Crithidia luciliae, a nitrocellulose filter assay, the Amersham kit, and another modified Farr assay, the radioimmunoassay (RIA) (UK). The Crithidia test was the most specific, none of the controls was positive, but the least sensitive (13% positive only). The RIA (UK) was the most sensitive (57% positive). (Sigma, Poole, Dorset) (50 ig/ml in distilled water) and incubated for one hour at 37°C. Each well was then washed three times with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) (Flow, Ayrshire, Scotland) before the addition of 50 RI of dsDNA (10 Fig/ml) or ssDNA (5 [ig/ml), both in PBS. The dsDNA was prepared by treating calf thymus DNA (Sigma) with 1 U/4g S1 nuclease (Sigma) for 30 minutes at 37°C. The ssDNA was prepared by boiling calf thymus DNA for 10 minutes and cooling on ice for 15 minutes. After overnight incubation at 4°C the plates were washed three times with PBS. These were then treated with 100 RI of

The fine specificity of murine B 10.A/SgSn (B 10.A) T cells reactive with hen egg-white lysozyme (HEL) has been studied through the use of reduced, carboxymethylated HEL, a set of peptides encompassing the entire molecule, and a set of variant lysozymes from other species. Cells were taken from the lymph nodes draining the site of immunization at the base of the tail, and were restimulated in vitro with immunogen or analogue to measure T cell reactivity. Unlike B cell reactivity, which we have shown to be mainly associated with an epitope preserved in the N-C peptide (residues 1--17, Cys6--Cys 127, 120--129) most T cell reactivity appears to be directed towards a limited number of determinants on cyanogen bromide cleavage fragment II of HEL (LII) (13--105). This was confirmed by a cell-dilution assay in which antigen-reactive units are measured; reactivity was highest to LII, intermediate to N-C, and low but significant to cyanogen bromide cleavage fragment III (LIII) (106--129). Furthermore, priming with LII is as effective as immunization with HEL and results in the same extensive cross-reactivities to variant lysozymes. Although LII reactivity predominates in the response to HEL, injection of LIII and N-C reveals sizeable reactivity to the homologous peptides and to HEL. By cross-stimulation studies, specific epitopes could be defined in certain regions of HEL. B 10.A is clearly responsive to the overlap between N-C and LII (residues 13--17), and to an epitope in the region 106--121, but is poorly responsive to the C-terminal portion (120--129). The response to 106--121 is characterized by an exquisite specificity in which as little as a single amino acid substitution (Asn for Gln) is recognized.

Antipsychotic drugs have been shown to modulate immediate early gene (IEG) expression in rat brain regions that are associated with schizophrenia, which may be directly linked to their immediate therapeutic benefit. In this study, we analysed the expression profile of a series of IEGs (c-fos, c-jun, fra-1, Krox-20, Krox-24, arc, sgk-1, BDNF and NARP) in six rat brain regions (prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, striatum, nucleus accumbens, thalamus and cerebellum). Rats (n=5) were administered either clozapine (20 mg/kg i.p.), haloperidol (1 mg/kg i.p.) or the appropriate vehicle with pre-treatment times of 1, 6 and 24 h. IEG expression was analysed in these regions by Taqman RT-PCR. The spatial and temporal profile of IEG induction following antipsychotic drug treatment correlates with regions associated with the efficacy and side effect profile of each drug. In particular, sgk-1 expression levels after antipsychotic drug treatment may have predictive value when investigating the profile of a novel antipsychotic drug.