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Mercuric chloride (HgCl2) was administered parenterally to outbred Swiss ICR mice of both sexes and to inbred A/J male mice. In repeated experiments both male and female ICR mice developed anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) giving a distinctive nucleolar fluorescence pattern in response to HgCl2 treatment. Within 1 week after the start of treatment, many of the mice had serum ANA of the IgG class directed against nucleolar antigen(s). Maximum ANA induction was reached by week 4. Inbred A/J male mice were resistant to the induction of ANA by HgCl2.

Treatment of rats with cefazolin in vivo significantly suppressed activity of alanine and aspartate aminotransferases in serum and in the liver, brain, kidney, and heart. Simultaneous administration of pyridoxal further reduced enzyme activity except in the liver, where there was no change. Pyridoxal 5'-phosphate partly reversed the decreased enzyme activity in the serum, liver, and kidney, but did not return it to the amount observed in the control animals; enzyme activity remained suppressed in the brain and heart. The effect of cefazolin was dose related, but there was no sex-related difference. In contrast to its action on am-notransferase activity, cefazolin elicited no effect on alkaline phosphatase (pyridoxal-5'-phosphate hydrolase) in serum or on pyruvate carboxylase in the liver, heart, and kidney. Cefazolin exposed to the hepatic microsomal mixed-function oxidase system in vitro was partly converted into metabolites that inhibited serum alanine aminotransferase activity in vitro. The latter inhibition was reversed by the addition of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate.

The cardiotoxic effects of hydralazine and prenalterol, given alone and in combination, were assessed in rats and rabbits. Acute myocardial necrosis was induced by a single administration of each drug alone in rats. However, the incidence and severity of lesions were markedly enhanced when both drugs were given in combination. Rats that received the same treatment for 10 consecutive days showed minimal or no acute necrosis, demonstrating the development of a resistance to further cardiotoxic effects of the drugs. Rabbits showed only minimal lesions when either drug was used alone and no enhancement of lesions when they were given in combination. From these data, it is concluded that the possibility of a cardiotoxic interaction exists when these drugs are used in combination and that the heavy rat (500-600 g) is a more sensitive model than the rabbit for studies of this nature.