Home-cage running-wheel activity of mice congenitally infected with Toxoplasma was recorded over 24 days. Infected mice were consistently more active than uninfected controls over the entire testing period. This finding extends previous studies and indicates that such increased activity levels occur not only in novel but also in familiar environments, and suggests that congenital toxoplasmosis tends to render mice "hyperactive'. If such behavioural alterations occur in wild mice, it is likely that infected mouse intermediate hosts would be more susceptible to predation by cats, the definitive hosts of Toxoplasma.

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An observational study using videorecordings and computer-assisted data analysis was undertaken in order to investigate the behaviour of mice infected with larvae of Toxocara canis. The findings indicated that the infection had a marked effect on five readily and reliably differentiable categories of murine behaviour. A marked increase in the number of shorter bouts of each of the five behaviours was also associated with the infection. These results support previous findings and further suggest that T. canis infection affects the way in which mice respond to their environment. In particular the infection appears to be associated with hyperactivity in mice. Possible causes of such behavioural abnormalities as well as implications of these findings for clinical studies concerned with relationships between T. canis infection and hyperactivity in children are discussed.

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Therapeutic concentrations (0.3-1.5 mg/l) of pentamidine isethionate and pentamidine mesylate, obtained after parenteral administration of either drug, did not affect oxygen consumption in the stimulated neutrophilic granulocyte. At concentrations of 0.7, 1.1 and 1.5 mg/l, superoxide production, hydrogen peroxide production, myeloperoxidase (MPO)-mediated iodination and hexose monophosphate shunt activity were suppressed relative to untreated cells (P less than 0.001 in each case). The depression in each activity was dose-related. There was no significant difference between the drugs with regard to these impairments in neutrophilic granulocyte function. This lowered respiratory burst activity, which would lead to a depression of MPO-dependent and MPO-independent processes in stimulated neutrophilic granulocytes, may be due to drug induced dysfunction of NADPH-oxidase.