Elektronenmikroskopische Beobachtungen bei experimenteller Poliomyelitis

Summary The lumbar motor columns of a cynomolgus monkey which had become tetraplegic after infection with a highly virulent strain of type 3 poliovirus were examined by electron microscopy. Within the cytoplasm of many endothelial cells of intraspinal blood vessels, as well as within the perikarya of numerous mononuclear inflammatory cells, there occurred regular arrays of dense particles which, on the basis of morphological evidence, could be identified as poliovirus crystals. The possible significance of virual replication by endothelial and mononuclear cells for poliovirus spread within the central nervous system is briefly discussed.     

Elektronenoptische Untersuchungen des Hauptstrom-Rauchkondensats der Partikelphase des Cigaretten- und Cigarrenrauchs

Summary Report on a method to produce, without refrigeration and solvents, a tobacco smoke condensate of the tobacco main-stream smoke of the particulate phase. Identification obtained by the electron fine beam diffraction of crystals in the sediment of the smoke condensate of cigarettes and cigars.

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Wissenschaftlicher Gast am Institut für Elektronenmikroskopie des Fritz-Haber-Instituts der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.     

Beobachtungen zum Kopulationspfropf des Mäuseweibchens

Summary The copulation plug of the female mouse acts by stimulation of the cervix in very short time. The stimulation delays the onset of the next oestrus. Removal of the plug from the cervix or vagina does not diminish the number of females becoming pregnant following mating. Removal of the plug before coagulation diminishes the number of pregnancies. We ascribe this effect to the reduced number of spermatozoa. The post-partum-ovulation and gestation do not differ from other pregnancies.     

Beobachtungen zur Fortpflanzungsfähigkeit juveniler Mäuseweibchen

Summary Prepuberal female mice often mate normally, but, although the genital organs are fully developed, a great number of matings is not followed by pregnancy. Progesterone, estrogen or both hormones administered during the first days p.c. did not enhance the number of pregnancies. It is concluded that the impaired fertility of the juvenile female is not due to the failure of one of the factors which bring about pregnancy, but, like in the senescent female, to the imbalance of the various functions.     

Beobachtungen über das Auftreten von Keratohyalingranula im Zellkern

Summary Electron microscopic studies on the oesophageal epithelium of the rat revealed for the first time intranuclear granules of keratohyalin. The results strongly suggest that these granules were extruded from the nucleus and were enlarged in the cytoplasm by ribonucleoprotein (RNP) particles aggregating to the keratohyalin.     

Beobachtungen an rezenten und fossilen (kaltzeitlichen) Strukturböden

Summary The shape and structure of stone rings and polygons on level ground and of the stone strips on slopes correspond closely in Spitzbergen and the Alps. Moreover, in both areas the frostsoil or permafrost, which must have remained frozen for several years at a time, undergoes the same changes at the surface during the annual thaw: it is always the pocket of finer soil or, in the case of sloping ground, the deposit of soil between the stone strips which thaws first. Figure 6 shows how, in an alpine stone strip rock structure, the level of the frostsoil sinks in the course of summer and rises again in late summer and early autumn.A study of the positions of the encased stones shows that about 50% of them lie with their longitudinal axes in the direction of the strips or parallel to the nearest edge of the polygons. Tabulation of our measurements (cf. table of results in Figures 8 and 9) indicates another but lower peak in the figures for stones lying at right angles to these directions.The establishment of these facts enables us to prove the existence of fossilized stone rings in boulders out-side the terminal moraines of the Würm period. Fossil formations developed when this period of the Ice Age was nearing its end. Since no other cause of preventing the water from permeating can be traced, we assume the existence of permafrost as responsible for the formation of boulders. This assumption allows us to establish a decrease in the average annual temperature of the Würm period. In the Rhine glacier area this decrease amounted to 12 °C.

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Den Herren cand. phil. F.Bachmann und H.Elsasser danke ich für rege Mitarbeit in Feld und Laboratorium sowie meiner Gattin und F.Bachmann für die Ausführung der Zeichnungen.     

Elektronenmikroskopischer Vergleich menschlicher Iriskapillaren bei Glaucoma simplex und bei Katarakt

Résumé Dans les cellules endothéliales de capillaires iridiens de glaucomateux, on a constaté une diminution du volume des mitochondries, des vésicules micropinocytotiques et du nombre des ribosomes libres ainsi qu'un amincissement de la membrane basale. En revanche, ces cellules sont riches en corpuscules tubulaires «rod-shaped tubular bodies» deWeibel etPalade.     

Halbdesmosomen bei Phytoflagellaten

Summary Half-desmosome like structures binding the cell to the theca have been found in the phytoflagellatePlatymonas. The tonofilaments are parts of the flagellar root system.     

Serum-Haptoglobintypen bei Leberkrankheiten

Summary More frequent occurrence of the homozygote haptoglobin type 1-1 was found in patients with liver cirrhosis in comparison with its frequency in the healthy population of Prague.     

Beobachtungen beim Transplantieren von Organanlagen am Embryo vonLoligo vulgaris (Cephalopoda,Decapoda)

Summary The author describes a method for transplanting the organ anlagen ofLoligo vulgaris embryos. The anlagen of the eye, the statocyste and the tentacle arm were explanted and transplanted in toto as homo- or heterografts on the vitelline syncytium in different regions of the embryo body. The transplanted anlagen combine perfectly with the host tissue and differentiate according to their original determination.     

Neue Substitutionsreaktionen bei Steroiden

Summary The intramolecular substitution of the angular methyl groups in steroids by attack of O-radicals derived from 6-, 11, and 20-alcohols is discussed. Irrespective of their genesis, these radicals abstract a hydrogen atom from one of the said methyl groups, suitably oriented in-position. The C-radicals thus formed give different products depending on the neighbouring groups.It is shown that 20-hydroxy-18-C-radicals combine with iodine atoms, to give 18-iodides which can befurther substituted through radicals to give potential 18-oxo-compounds in high yield. In the case of 20-cyanohydrines, the intramolecular reaction of the 18-C-radical with the cyano groups gives rise to the new 18-cyano-20-oxo-steroids.With 6- and 11-O-radicalssingle substitution in 19-position predominates, since the steric arrangement of the primary product favours the intramolecular ether formation over a second substitution reaction.A general reaction scheme for these transformations is proposed.

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Vorgetragen vonCh. Meystre am 23. 9. 61 anlässlich der Sommerversammlung der Schweiz. Chem. Gesellschaft in Biel (vgl. Chimia15, (1961), im Druck).

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Über Steroide 180. Mitteilung. 179. Mitt. vgl.A. Wettstein, Exper.17, 329 (1961).     

Die Erfahrungsnachwirkung bei Wahrscheinlichkeiten

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Serotoninstoffwechsel bei chronischem Alkoholismus

Summary Serotonin was determined in platelets of 47 patients with alcoholism during the state of withdrawal as well as in a group of healthy persons. The results show that serotonin values were significantly lower in the group of patients with alcoholism as compared with the control group of healthy persons.     

Lipoide und Virulenz bei Typhusbakterien

Summary Researches on lipids from various strains of theSalmonella group showed that in the content of neutral lipids there is no difference between virulent and not virulent strains. Virulent strains contain by far less phosphatides than not virulent or weakly virulent strains.     

Zwei neuartige Erkrankungen bei Insekten

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Neuartige Umwandlungen bei den Steroiden

Summary The problem of an efficient partial synthesis of the important corticosteroidal hormone, aldosterone, involves the ability to obtain steroids with functional groups at C-18. Thus, naturally occuring steroid alkaloids, holarrhimine and conessine, were degraded to nitrogen-free 18-hydroxysteroids.In order to find other more efficient methods of synthesis, attempts were made to effect direct functionalization of the unactivated angular methyl group 18 in steroids. This was achieved by known and by novel intramolecular substitution procedures.In the course of these investigations, conessin-type compounds, novel pentacarbocyclic steroids with four-and five-membered E ring as well as novel 18,20-oxido steroids were synthesized from pregnane derivatives. The lead tetraacetate oxidation of 20-hydroxypregnanes, leading to ether formation between C-18 and C-20, ultimately provided the key step for the first partial synthesis ofnat.-aldosterone. The latter work was carried out in close collaboration with the research group of the Pharmaceutical Department of CIBA Ltd., Basle.

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Erweiterte Fassung eines am 6. 5. 59 in der Zürcher Chemischen Gesellschaft sowie am 11. 6. 59 in der CIBA AG., Basel, vom Seniorautor gehaltenen Vortrages.     

Erythropoese bei bilateral nephrektomierten Kaninchen

Summary Our experiments with bilaterally nephrectomized rabbits, in contrast to experiments of other authors with dogs, demonstrated that the production of erythroblasts in the bone marrow in the absence of kidney tissues not only continues but that it can also be augmented following bleeding.

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Mit Unterstützung der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft.     

Thiaminpyrophosphatase bei der experimentellen Diphtherieintoxikation

Summary The determinations of thiamine pyrophosphatase activity were carried out in the liver homogenates of normal guinea-pigs and those poisoned with diphtheria toxin.The enzyme activity in the toxaemic liver tissue is twice that of normal guinea-pigs. It is supposed that this result may partly explain the increased level of pyruvic acid in the blood of patients with diphtheria. Further studies on this problem are under way.