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The present report describes the findings on the infectivity of DNA partially purified from SV-40 which was propagated in the monkey kidney cells (BSC-1) in vitro and the importance of nucleic acids as oncogenic factors, particularly the induction of tumor by DNA in newborn hamsters. 593 newborn hamsters in total were used in the present experiments, and cannibalism among them posed as a serious problem. On 30 days postinoculation, very remarkable changes occurred in the liver, lung and subcutaneous areas. Cellular responses of the perivascular cells were predominant. and they were distributed in the interstitial tissues of the liver (liver cirrhosis in primates) and lung. Three hamsters of those subcutaneously inoculated with nucleic acids developed tumors and two tumors appeared in the subcutaneous tissues on 130 days postinoculation, which were identified to be the ones induced by intact SV-40 virus. Other tumors appeared in the liver, lung, intestinal ducts and abdominal surface at 126 days after subcutaneous injection. The cytological observations revealed multiple hemangiosarcoma combined with proliferation of the perivascular cells. On the other hand, cellular responses to nucleic acids were more marked by inoculation of the cell-free filtrate of BSC-1 infected by DNA than of DNA, and essential histologic findings were similar to the respo.nse to infectious DNA. Thirty-nine hamsters (30 per cent) developed tumor within about 200 days postinoculation of the filtrates. Sarcomas were common and they were confined to the subcutaneous tissues in 35 hamsters and to the peritoneum in two others by subcutaneous inoculation of the filtrates. The intestinal gland-cell carcinomas, however, could be induced at 37 and 59 days postinoculation in two hamsters of one litter (7 newborn hamsters) and in the other three newborn hamsters subcutaneous sarcomas were induced by inoculation of the same agent. These results suggest that the observation on the oncogenic capacity of nucleic acids would give us a clue to resolve the course of cancer from the view point of the infectious nucleic acid.

In the present communication the recent works done by the Rheumatism Research Group of Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Okayama University, are described. The principal findings may briefly be summarized as follows. 1. Pathohistological pictures of the synovial membrane are classified into six types. Among them, Fibrinoid type and Follicular-Fibrosis type are the representative ones of chronic rheumatoid arthritis. 2. For the evaluation of the systemic as well as the local activities in rheumatoid arthritis and for judging the therapeutic effect, some indices have been established. 3. Injection of steroid hormones into the local joints fails to give satisfactory results in advanced, chronic rheumatoid arthritis. In such instances the flushing of the joint with physiological saline solution is effective. 4. In the case of chronic rheumatoid arthritis where the inflammation of hand and phalangeal joints is marked, RA-test gives rapid and more intense reaction, and most of such cases are of Follicular-Fibrosis type. 5. When lymph follicles appearing in the synovial membrane are stained when methyl green pyronine, the arrangement of lymphoid cells and plasma cells becomes distinctly clear. By micro-autoradiographic observations it can be seen that ³H-thymindine injected into the joint cavity is mostly ingested by the lymphoid cells in lymph follicles. 6. In the observation by the fluorescent antibody method multinuclear leucocytes found in the joint fluid and in the peripheral blood react with 19S and 7S-gamma-globulins. 7. When the serum and the joint fluid of the patient with rheumatoid arthritis are fractionated, they separate into three peaks at 19S, 7S, and 4S. Both S. S. C. A.-test and L. F. T. tests reveal the peak at 19S. The serum of chronic hepatitis positive to RA-test and the serum of rheumatoid arthritis are found to react immunologically the same to anti-β2 M globulin sheep serum. 8. When the reticulo-endothelial system of rat is blocked by 900,000 molecules of poly-vinyl-pyrroridon, the ability of antibody production is diminished. 9. Chemical synovectomy of injecting osmic acid is effective to FibrinoidCoating type. Its action mechanism lies in the complete cleaning of the surface of synovial membrane. 10. By radiating synovectomy with 193Au a fairly good result can be expected. 198Au is ingested by those cells in the surface layer of the synovial membrane and also by histiocytes in the synovial membrane. When 5 mc of 198Au are injected into the knee joint, a marked necrosis of the synovial membrane occurs. When 198Au is added to the ascites cells of rabbit during the tissue culture, in the concentration of over 14 μC degeneration of these cells can be recognized. 11. From the examination results of prognosis on those 25 cases with 41 rheumatoid knee joints after surgical synovectomy, it is considered that this method is indicated for Follicular-Fibrosis type. Ones with rheumatoid knee joint of Fibrinoid-Coating type gold sol treatment should be resorted to. In the cases of hand joints, surgical synovectemy is to be recommended at a relatively early stage.

The streptococcal preparation, OK.432, with predominant host-mediated mode of action, was studied. By giving OK-432 to mice intraperitoneally prior to transplantation of Ehrlich carcinoma, a host-mediated action to increase life-span was clearly confirmed. Pretreatment with OK-432 was also effective against the development of Rauscher leukemia. The host-mediated action of OK-432 varied with the interval between its pretreatment and the inoculation of tumor cells. The effect was most marked when the transplant was performed immediatedly after the pretreatment, and became less marked when the transplant was made one week and two weeks after pretreatment. The host-mediated action can be observed even with a single dose of pretreatment, and becomes more potent as pretreatment was given repeatedly. The host-mediated action was weakened by concomitant pretreatment with cyclophosphamide or roentgen irradiation, and the mechanisms of such action was supposed to be associated with the function of the reticulo-endothelial system.

According to BUCHTHAL the histogram of duration and voltage from the motor unit of biceps brachii muscles gives only one peak respectively as can be seen in Fig. 14 in his paper which reports the data covering the experiment on 1,268 motor units. However, his histogram seems to be made of the spikes led off from several motor units because the histogram shows no much fluctuations in voltage as 50μV to 1,000μV and in duration as 1 msec to 20 msec. Therefore, if observations are actually based on a single motor unit, two peaks may reasonably be expected on the histogram, because two kinds of the motor units, kinetic (phasic) and tonic, have respective individual characteristics of their own shikes The histological observation shows that many white and red muscle fibers are intermingled with each other even in one single fasciculus, and it is supposed that the fasciculus does not correspond to a single motor unit. Moreover, the shape of the spikes, which was formerly considered as a motor unit, is not a pure diphasic form, but irregular and polyphasic ones, and also electromyographically a single motor unit controls the area of more than 10mm in width (BUCHTHAL). From these facts, it is probable that the histogram by BUCHTHAL was made of the spikes composed of muscle fibers belonging to several different motor units. Our observations done by the above stated method showed clearly the pure diphasic spikes. Therefore, we are of the opinion that these spikes obtained by our method are led off from only one or from a few muscle fibers belonging to the same motor unit. These spikes are lower than 550μV in voltage and shorter than 5.5 msec in duration and every individual spikes show uniform diphasic pattern. There exist two kinds of spike groups, in the histogram one which is composed of high voltage with short duration (1.0-1.5 msec.), and the other of low voltage with long duration (2.0-4.0msec.). The former may be of kinetic (phasic) motor unit and the latter is of tonic motor unit, because the white muscle fibers with a larger diameter may have a higher voltage than the red and the white fibers that perform rapid contraction may show shorter duration in wave form. In the two cases having spinal cord tumors, two kinds of spikes with respective and individual characteristics were observed in the same EMG. These will be two different kinds, kinetic (phasic) and tonic motor units. In the case of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, two kinds of spikes appeared, but since both of them were of short duration, they might be considered to be of kinetic (phasic) motor unit (or its intermediate motor unit). Furthermore, since its histological findings revealed that the red muscle fibers were all atrophied and degenerated and showd only white muscle fibers to be normal, it is obvious that the kinetic (phasic) motor unit with a shorter duration is derived from white muscle fibers. Therefore, in our opinion the widely accepted concept that spikes including even irregular wave forms all belong to the motor unit seems not to be true, but these spikes seem to represent a combination of several pure spikes though not so many, and those muscle fibers belonging to the same motor unit appear to be intermingling themselves in a relatively wide area. The reason for this contention may be explained as follows. If the muscle fibers belonging to the same motor unit were agglomerated, clearcut diphasic spikes should appear even with a fairly big electrode, and if the accepted concept be true, these spikes can never be picked up at the distance so far apart as 2.0cm. or 2.5cm. (0.5-1.2cm. by BUCHTHAL) as has been possible in our experiments. Furthermore, the histogram composed only of these pure spikes reveals two peaks, and therefore, we believe it is reasonable to say that these two peaks indicate the existence of kinetic (phasic) and tonic motor units. As a small number of motor units located in between these two peaks can be recognized, these are believed to be the muscle fibers possessing an intermediate stainability as revealed in the histological examination. However, further studies are required before giving any definitive conclusion on this point.

With an intention to establish definitely that detection of diatoms, vegetative plariktons, in the remains of a corpse will offer an unequivocal proof of death from drowning, even in the case where the suspected corpse has been cremated, the author observed organs and bones of 16 healthy adult rabbits which were drowned in a ditch, and burned as a whole with wood fire or incinerated in the electric oven. As the results it was found that diatoms can be detected in the interned organs so long as they remain. Even in the case where the corpse was cremated at high temperature, it is also possible to detect several kinds of diatoms in bones, the femur showing the greatest number followed by the humerus suggesting that long bones are more suitable for the detection of diatoms than any other bones, as they contain more numbers and kinds of diatoms. Thus it is concluded that detection of diatoms in the remains of the corpse suspected of drowning can definitely give an unequivocal evidence that the death is from drowning.