900

vigorous treatment with cardiac massage, intermittent positive-pressure ventilation, intravenous hydrocortisone, and adrenaline, the patient could not be resuscitated. Necropsy findings were compatible with a severe anaphylactoid reaction. Dextran hypersensitivity reactions, ranging from mild urticaria to fatal anaphylaxis, have been reported previously, 1-6 and the estimated incidence is one reaction per 22 852 bottles.3 Our experience highlights the risk involved in using dextran even in a patient with no history of allergy. It is necessary, therefore, to consider carefully the value of dextran compared with other methods of preventing postoperative thrombosis. Department of Obstetrics and Gynæcology, University Hospital of South Manchester, Manchester M20 8LR

P. DONALD WILSON ALAN D. G. BROWN

ANTIFERTILITY EFFECT IN MICE OF MEDICINAL PLANT OF FAMILY ACANTHACEÆ

VASCULAR PERMEABILITY FACTOR AND NEPHROTIC SYNDROME

SIR The mechanisms which cause the abnormal permeaof the glomeruli in steroid-responsive nephrotic syndrome are not understood. Sensitisation of circulating lymphocytes to fetal kidney antigens and their cytotoxicity for renal tubular epithelial cells have been described, suggesting a role for cell-mediated immunity.I.2 However, lymphocytes cannot be identified histologically in the kidney during relapse, though T cells might produce lymphokines at a distal site that are responsible for the proteinuria. Lagrue and his colleagues3,4 reported increased in-vitro production of a factor which enhances guineapig skin capillary permeability by peripheralblood lymphocytes from patients with the nephrotic syndrome, including those with minimal histological changes. Injection of supernatants from stimulated cell culture containing such a

bility

factor into the renal artery of a rat caused immediate proteinuria. Couser et al. studied the effect on capillary and glo-

SIR,-We have examined the antifertility effect in mice of a

commonly

used

plant

in

Bangladesh belonging to the family

Acanthaceae, genus Andrographis Wall. The plant is about 2

VASCULAR PERMEABILITY FACTORS FROM LYMPHOCYTES IN NEPHROTIC SYNDROME

ft (60 cm) high having 2-3 in (5-7.5 cm) long leaves. It gives small red flowers, usually at the end of rainy season and continues to do so until the beginning of winter, ending with small fruits. This plant is widely used in India and Bangladesh for

snakebite, malaria, dysentery, diarrhoea, hepatic dysfunction, and in the prevention of fertility in man. All parts of this plant are

used and no unpleasant effects have been reported.

Young white mice, Swiss strain, aged 6 weeks or more and weighing approximately 23 g, from the animal colony of the Cholera Research Laboratory, Dacca, were used. Four male and eight female mice were caged separately before puberty. Each group of male and female mice received normal mouse chow supplemented with the powdered material of sun-dried stem of the plant in the proportion of 40 mg per mouse per day for 14 days. The control group (8 females and 4 males in separate cages) received normal mouse chow alone. All the groups received water ad libitum. After 14 days the males and females of the control group were kept in one cage and the males and females under experiment were kept in another cage for mating. The diet supplemented with the powdered plant which they were receiving before mating was continued for a further period of 3 weeks to the experimental group. After this period the males of each group were separated and the females were individually caged. Both males and females were put on normal mouse chow after separation. None of the females of the group that received normal chow supplemented with the powdered stem showed evidence of pregnancy after the first mating. However, all 8 females of the control group became pregnant and gave birth to offspring of usual litter size. The mating was repeated five times. On every occasion the experimental mouse fed only once with the powdered stem remained sterile whereas those of the control group became pregnant and gave birth to normal offspring. The experiment is continuing. No untoward effect was observed in any mouse of the group fed with the experimental diet. Further experiments are being conducted to find out the active ingredient of the plant and its mechanism of action as well as pharmacological, toxicological, and clinical properties on other laboratory animals with special reference to its con-

mouse

traceptive activity. Medical Research Council, Institute of Public Health, Mohakhali, Dacca 12, Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Drug Testing Laboratory, Institute of Public Health, Dacca

M. SHAMSUZZOHA M. SHAMSUR RAHMAN M. MOHIUDDIN AHMED A. K. M. AMINUL ISLAM

1. Bailey, G., and others J. Am. med. Ass. 1967, 200, 889. 2. Brisman, R., Park, L., Haller, J. A., Jr. ibid. 1968, 204, 824. 3. Fanous, L. H., Gray, A., Felmingham, J. Br. med. J. 1977, ii, 1189. 4. Fothergill, R., Heaney, G. A. ibid. 1976, ii, 1502. 5. Michelson, E. New Engl. J. Med. 1968, 278, 552. 6. Ring, J., Messmer, K. Lancet, 1977, i, 466.

merular permeability of factors released by the T cells of a patient with Hodgkin’s disease and minimal-change nephrotic syndrome and observed no difference in this system between the patients and controls, or patients with the nephrotic syndrome due to membranous nephropathy. We have studied the effect on skin capillary permeability of factors released by the lymphocytes of six children with steroid-responsive nephrotic syndrome during relapse and of six healthy controls. The proportion of T cells, enumerated by the E-rosette test, were the same in the patients and controls (patients 37%±9% S.D.; controls 63%±9%). Heparinised blood was passed through a glass-wool column to remove adherent cells, and the eluate was diluted with a 3% gelatin solution and allowed to sediment. The washed lymphocyte-rich supernatant was cultured at a concentration of 106 cells/ml with and without concanavalin A (5 µg/ml) for 24 h in serum-free medium. The cell-free supernatants were assessed for vascular permeability factor3 by injection of 0.1 ml intradermally into the freshly shaven abdominal skin of guineapigs immediately followed by intravenous injection, 0.5 ml/100 g body weight, of a 1°/ solution of Evans’ blue and measurement of the area of blueing. Male Hartley strain guineapigs weighing 350±50 g were used in all experiments and supernatants were tested in two different animals. A vascular permeability factor was demonstrable in the supernatants of both stimulated and unstimulated cell cultures, but we failed to demonstrate a significant difference between the patient and control groups (table), and thus cannot confirm Lagrue’s results. Institute of Child

Health, University of London, London WC1N 1EH

R. S. TROMPETER T. M. BARRATT L. LAYWARD

1. Mallick, N. P., Williams, R. J., McFarlane, H., Orr, W. M., Taylor, G., Williams, G. Lancet, 1972, i, 507. 2. Eyres, K., Mallick, N. P., Taylor, G. ibid. 1976, i, 1158. 3. Lagrue, G., Xheneumont, S., Branellec, A., Hirbec, G., Weil, B. Biomedi-

cine, 1975, 23, 57. Lagrue, G., Xheneumont, S., Branellec, A., Weil, B. Lancet, 1975, i, 271 5. Couser, W., Badger, A., Cooperbrand, S., Stilmant, M., Jemanovich, N.,

4.

Aurora, S., Doner, D., Schmitt, G. ibid. 1977, i, 912.

Antifertility effect in mice of medicinal plant of family Acanthaceae.

900 vigorous treatment with cardiac massage, intermittent positive-pressure ventilation, intravenous hydrocortisone, and adrenaline, the patient coul...
155KB Sizes 0 Downloads 0 Views