In patients with persistently active rheumatoid arthritis despite methotrexate therapy, repeated doses of infliximab in combination with methotrexate provided clinical benefit and halted the progression of joint damage.

This paper describes a large‐scale reservoir characterization experiment carried out in Oman in 1991 which comprised the acquisition, processing and interpretation of a 28.4 km2 3D multicomponent seismic experiment over the Natih field. The objective of the survey was to obtain information on the fracture network present in the Natih carbonates from shear‐wave anisotropy. Shear‐wave anisotropy in excess of 20% time splitting was encountered over a large part of the survey. The seismic results are confirmed by geological and well data but provide additional qualitative information on fracturing where this was not available before. Regions of stronger and weaker shear‐wave anisotropy appear to be fault‐bounded. The average well flow rates (which are fracture‐dominated) within such blocks correlate with the average anisotropy of the blocks. The further observation that the anisotropy is largest in the fracture gas cap of the reservoir suggests that shear waves can provide a direct hydrocarbon indicator for fractured rock.

Apoptotic cells, e.g. postinflammatory neutrophils, were reported to be engulfed by phagocytes without induction of an inflammatory response. We investigated the humoral immune response of BALB/c mice after repeated injection of viable or apoptotic human T cells. Following interleukin‐2 (IL‐2) deprivation, phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)/IL‐2 expanded human T‐cell lines were irradiated with UV‐B light to induce apoptosis, confirmed by propidium iodide staining of Triton X‐100‐lysed cells. Indirect immunofluorescence was used to detect antilymphocyte antibodies 7 days after each injection. We found high levels of antilymphocyte antibodies in all animals immunized with viable T cells, whereas animals injected with apoptotic cells showed a significantly reduced humoral immune response. We conclude that apoptotic cells induce poor xenoreactive T‐cell responses when compared with viable cells.

Sera from 75 patients with Myasthenia gravis were tested for acetylcholine receptor antibodies using acetylcholine receptors from human skeletal muscle. From the crude Triton x-100 extract, which has so far been used for antibody tracing, a pure acetylcholine receptor preparation was obtained by affinity chromatography using alpha-Najatoxin-Sepharose 4B. When the purified 125J-alpha-Bungarotoxin-acetylcholine receptor complex was applied in a radioimmunoassay 80% of the Myasthenia gravis patients had acetylcholine receptor antibodies in contrast to none of the tested control persons. Inspite of using a pure acetylcholine receptor preparation, no clear-cut correlation was found between the amount of serum acetylcholine receptor antibodies and the clinical stage of the disease. When individual antibody titration curves were established, different reaction patterns were observed indicating either different antibody specificities in regard to antigenic determinants on the receptor molecule or differences in the antibody affinity.

A new spectrophotometric method for the determination of adenosine deaminase is described. Adenosine is deaminated to inosine, the latter is cleaved by an inosine-guanosine specific nucleoside phosphorylase to hypoxanthine and ribose-1-phosphate. Hypoxanthine can be oxidized further to uric acid by xanthine oxidase or to allantoin by xanthine oxidase and uricase. The hydrogen peroxide formed in these reactions is reduced by catalase to water. In the presence of high concentrations of ethanol, equivalent amounts of acetaldehyde are produced. The acetaldehyde is oxidized NAD(P) dependent and the production rate of NAD(P)H is recorded at 334 nm. The new method is suitable for the detection of adenosine deaminase in whole blood, lymphocytes, sera and tissues.