- Email: [email protected]
NUTRITION AT GREAT HEIGHTS
921
starch-gel electrophoresis at pH 8-6 (triethanolamine buffer) are shown in the accompanying figure. A variety of buffers were examined, with the finding that only limited separation of the components occurred at pH values near neutrality. The least separation (approximately 1 cm.) observed by Dr. Blume and colleagues at pH 6-2 is in keeping with my earlier experience, but the discrimination is less satisfactory than that afforded by the greater separation (4-5 cm.) at the higher pH. The suggestion that the two red"
Antral mucosal extracts had no obvious effect in 3 fasting subiects, as follows:
on
absorption
cell components are " isozymes is questionable in view of my studies1 which suggest that the slow component is a molecular aggregate of the fast component. Division of Genetics, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, New York, U.S.A.
PHILIP L. TOWNES.
A similar effect had been found earlier in 3 anxmic gastrectomised subjects with a whole-hog-stomach extract (’ Pepsac
given orally.2 NUTRITION AT GREAT HEIGHTS SIR,-Dr. Bender (April 6, p. 759) doubts the results of my studies on South American highland Indians who " behave disobediently towards at least one of the laws of nutrition". My observations show that these " laws " do not have general validity, and that during years or generations of living under extreme nutritional conditions man may adapt his metabolism to the circumstances. Unfortunately, it is impossible to make such long laboratory experiments in man, and there is therefore reason to accept and utilise the experimental conditions which Nature herself has created for man, even if the results differ from the traditional " laws ". Hospital de Ninos, Salta, Argentine.
Support for this work was provided by the research grants mittee of the United Manchester Hospitals, Manchester 13. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, Texas 75235.
com-
L. A. TURNBERG.
ARNE HOEYGAARD.
GASTRIC FACTOR IN IRON ABSORPTION SiR,—Ihave obtained some data in human experiments which tend to support the conclusion of Dr. Murray and Miss Stein (March 23, p. 614) that there is a factor in gastric juice which may enhance iron absorption. Tests were performed in normal volunteers, aged 23-28 years. Iron absorption was measured using [5 9Fe]-ferriccitrate, specific activity 3-15 mC per mg. (Radiochemical Centre, Amersham). 5[1. C 59Fe was dissolved in 100 ml. of water with 100 mg. ascorbic acid. This solution was sipped during the ingestion of a standard meal containing about 5 mg. of iron.2 In other tests, on subjects fasted for 12 hours, 5 {C 59Fe was dissolved in 50 ml. water with 100 mg. ascorbic acid, and 5 mg. inorganic iron as ferrous sulphate. Absorption was estimated from measurements of radioactivity excreted in the stools for 7-10 days. 2 weeks were allowed to elapse between tests on the same subject. Gastric juice produced in response to histamine stimulation was obtained from patients with iron-
deficiency anaemia, immediately cooled, and adjusted to pH 7 with 0-1N sodium hydroxide. After filtration through gauze to remove large particles, the juice was concentrated 8-10 times by suspension inCarbowax 6000 ’ in dialysis sacs at 4°C.3 Specimens of human stomach were obtained at operation from patients subjected to partial gastrectomy for duodenal ulcer. Extracts were made of the mucosa of the body of the stomach and of the antrum in isotonic saline in the cold and the residue removed by filtration. 5 ml. of the extract of mucosa or of the gastric-juice concentrate was given with the iron solution to assess their effect on absorption. Gastric-juice concentrate enhanced the absorption of iron given with food in 3 normal subiects, as follows:
Extracts of the gastric mucosa from the body of the stomach enhanced the absorption of iron in 5 fasting normal subjects, as follows: 2. 3.
The present tests were performed with neutralised solutions, and any effect due to acid, which might be raised in objection to the findings of Dr. Murray and Miss Stein, was therefore eliminated. The results tend to confirm their interpretation that there is an iron-absorption-enhancing factor in the gastric juice of anaemic subjects and also to suggest that this factor might arise in the mucosa of the body of the stomach but not in the antrum.
Turnberg, L. A. Q. Jl Med. 1966, 35, 107. Ishimori, A., Glass, G. B. J. Clin. Chem. 1961, 7,
457.
SERUM-&agr;-FŒTOPROTEIN AND PRIMARY HEPATIC CANCER of embryo-specific x-foetoprotein patients with primary carcinoma of the liver has been reported by Tatarinov4 in four cases. A project on the diagnosis and treatment of primary cancer of the
SiR,—The (A.F.P.) in the
presence
sera
of
liver in Bantu mine-workers has been in progress in the Witwatersrand area, South Africa, for the past three years; in this period sera have been collected at monthly intervals from suspected patients referred to a central mine hospital. Many studies have been performed and have partly been reported.5 The sera were tested for the presence of A.F.P. by a standard Ouchterlony immunodiffusion technique4 using an antiserum prepared by injecting rabbits with serum from a fivemonth-old stillborn fcetus and absorbing the rabbit antiserum with pooled normal human serum. 6 Immunoelectrophoresis confirmed the presence of a single antigenic component in the reacting sera tested. Sera from 194 cases, a total of 405 samples, were available for study: 132 of the 194 were proved to have a primary cancer of the liver by biopsy (19 cases) or by post-mortem examination (113 cases); only 1 patient, who was lost to follow-up, had a negative biopsy but was considered to be an obvious case of primary cancer of the liver (see table). The remainder were Tatarinov, Y. S. Fedn Proc. Fedn Am. Socs exp. Biol. (translation supplement), 1966, 25, T344. 5. South African Primary Liver Cancer Research Group. S. Afr. med. J. 1967, 41, 309. 6. Gitlin, D., Boesman, M. J. clin. Invest. 1966, 45, 1826.
4.
ANALYSIS OF NO. OF CASES OF PRIMARY CANCER OF LIVER TESTED
starch-gel electrophoresis at pH 8-6 (triethanolamine buffer) are shown in the accompanying figure. A variety of buffers were examined, with the finding that only limited separation of the components occurred at pH values near neutrality. The least separation (approximately 1 cm.) observed by Dr. Blume and colleagues at pH 6-2 is in keeping with my earlier experience, but the discrimination is less satisfactory than that afforded by the greater separation (4-5 cm.) at the higher pH. The suggestion that the two red"
Antral mucosal extracts had no obvious effect in 3 fasting subiects, as follows:
on
absorption
cell components are " isozymes is questionable in view of my studies1 which suggest that the slow component is a molecular aggregate of the fast component. Division of Genetics, University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, New York, U.S.A.
PHILIP L. TOWNES.
A similar effect had been found earlier in 3 anxmic gastrectomised subjects with a whole-hog-stomach extract (’ Pepsac
given orally.2 NUTRITION AT GREAT HEIGHTS SIR,-Dr. Bender (April 6, p. 759) doubts the results of my studies on South American highland Indians who " behave disobediently towards at least one of the laws of nutrition". My observations show that these " laws " do not have general validity, and that during years or generations of living under extreme nutritional conditions man may adapt his metabolism to the circumstances. Unfortunately, it is impossible to make such long laboratory experiments in man, and there is therefore reason to accept and utilise the experimental conditions which Nature herself has created for man, even if the results differ from the traditional " laws ". Hospital de Ninos, Salta, Argentine.
Support for this work was provided by the research grants mittee of the United Manchester Hospitals, Manchester 13. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, Texas 75235.
com-
L. A. TURNBERG.
ARNE HOEYGAARD.
GASTRIC FACTOR IN IRON ABSORPTION SiR,—Ihave obtained some data in human experiments which tend to support the conclusion of Dr. Murray and Miss Stein (March 23, p. 614) that there is a factor in gastric juice which may enhance iron absorption. Tests were performed in normal volunteers, aged 23-28 years. Iron absorption was measured using [5 9Fe]-ferriccitrate, specific activity 3-15 mC per mg. (Radiochemical Centre, Amersham). 5[1. C 59Fe was dissolved in 100 ml. of water with 100 mg. ascorbic acid. This solution was sipped during the ingestion of a standard meal containing about 5 mg. of iron.2 In other tests, on subjects fasted for 12 hours, 5 {C 59Fe was dissolved in 50 ml. water with 100 mg. ascorbic acid, and 5 mg. inorganic iron as ferrous sulphate. Absorption was estimated from measurements of radioactivity excreted in the stools for 7-10 days. 2 weeks were allowed to elapse between tests on the same subject. Gastric juice produced in response to histamine stimulation was obtained from patients with iron-
deficiency anaemia, immediately cooled, and adjusted to pH 7 with 0-1N sodium hydroxide. After filtration through gauze to remove large particles, the juice was concentrated 8-10 times by suspension inCarbowax 6000 ’ in dialysis sacs at 4°C.3 Specimens of human stomach were obtained at operation from patients subjected to partial gastrectomy for duodenal ulcer. Extracts were made of the mucosa of the body of the stomach and of the antrum in isotonic saline in the cold and the residue removed by filtration. 5 ml. of the extract of mucosa or of the gastric-juice concentrate was given with the iron solution to assess their effect on absorption. Gastric-juice concentrate enhanced the absorption of iron given with food in 3 normal subiects, as follows:
Extracts of the gastric mucosa from the body of the stomach enhanced the absorption of iron in 5 fasting normal subjects, as follows: 2. 3.
The present tests were performed with neutralised solutions, and any effect due to acid, which might be raised in objection to the findings of Dr. Murray and Miss Stein, was therefore eliminated. The results tend to confirm their interpretation that there is an iron-absorption-enhancing factor in the gastric juice of anaemic subjects and also to suggest that this factor might arise in the mucosa of the body of the stomach but not in the antrum.
Turnberg, L. A. Q. Jl Med. 1966, 35, 107. Ishimori, A., Glass, G. B. J. Clin. Chem. 1961, 7,
457.
SERUM-&agr;-FŒTOPROTEIN AND PRIMARY HEPATIC CANCER of embryo-specific x-foetoprotein patients with primary carcinoma of the liver has been reported by Tatarinov4 in four cases. A project on the diagnosis and treatment of primary cancer of the
SiR,—The (A.F.P.) in the
presence
sera
of
liver in Bantu mine-workers has been in progress in the Witwatersrand area, South Africa, for the past three years; in this period sera have been collected at monthly intervals from suspected patients referred to a central mine hospital. Many studies have been performed and have partly been reported.5 The sera were tested for the presence of A.F.P. by a standard Ouchterlony immunodiffusion technique4 using an antiserum prepared by injecting rabbits with serum from a fivemonth-old stillborn fcetus and absorbing the rabbit antiserum with pooled normal human serum. 6 Immunoelectrophoresis confirmed the presence of a single antigenic component in the reacting sera tested. Sera from 194 cases, a total of 405 samples, were available for study: 132 of the 194 were proved to have a primary cancer of the liver by biopsy (19 cases) or by post-mortem examination (113 cases); only 1 patient, who was lost to follow-up, had a negative biopsy but was considered to be an obvious case of primary cancer of the liver (see table). The remainder were Tatarinov, Y. S. Fedn Proc. Fedn Am. Socs exp. Biol. (translation supplement), 1966, 25, T344. 5. South African Primary Liver Cancer Research Group. S. Afr. med. J. 1967, 41, 309. 6. Gitlin, D., Boesman, M. J. clin. Invest. 1966, 45, 1826.
4.
ANALYSIS OF NO. OF CASES OF PRIMARY CANCER OF LIVER TESTED