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On four occasions, four horses with heaves and four horses with small airway inflammatory diseases inhaled 0.9% saline based aerosol mixtures with or without lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Prior to the first saline and LPS inhalation, horses were untreated, while three and a half days prior to the third and forth inhalation horses had received 0.8 microg/kg clenbuterol intravenously twice daily. The messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin (IL)-1beta, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and interferon- gamma (IFN- gamma) was investigated by RT-PCR, all of which were expressed in the white blood cells of samples collected. Inhalation of LPS only changed the cytokine expression profile of IL-10, IL-4 and TNF-alpha mRNA which were higher after challenge with LPS. However in those horses that were treated with clenbuterol the LPS-induced IL-10 mRNA expression was shown to be suppressed. Further changes in IL-4 and TNF-alpha were not significant. Thus the results of this study indicated that clenbuterol can modulate the expression of IL-10 mRNA in peripheral white blood cells in those horses with small airway diseases that have been exposed to LPS.

Blood, serum and urine concentrations (24 hour samples) of cadmium, lead, magnesium, calcium, zinc, copper and iron were determined by means of atomic absorption spectrophotometry in 54 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (CMP). These data were compared with the values in 17 healthy controls. CMP patients showed higher blood cadmium concentrations (+173%, p less than 0.001), higher serum calcium concentrations (+4%, p less than 0.01) and lower serum magnesium levels (-11%, p less than 0.01). In urine samples CMP patients had higher cadmium levels and lower concentrations of calcium (-43%, p less than 0.05) and magnesium (-36%, p less than 0.05). Correlations with clinical data revealed no definite reason for the abnormal laboratory findings in CMP patients. In individual cases, however, the high cadmium concentrations could be of aetiological importance.

The effect of daily administration of 1200 IU vitamin D3 was compared with the response to a single oral dose of 200,000 IU in 21 young infants by determination of the plasma 25-OHCC levels. After about one week the mean value recorded in group 1 was 27 +/- 13 ng/ml; the corresponding value in group 2 was 127 +/- 78.4 ng/ml. At the second control examination about one month subsequently, the mean values were 61 +/- 26.2 ng/ml and 104 +/- 69.0 ng/ml respectively. The wide range of values found in the single-dose group clearly demonstrates the advantage of daily vitamin D administration for routine prophylaxis against rickets in infancy.

Serum 25-OH-D3 levels were determined in 78 children aged 6 weeks to 15 years, in March 1977 and March 1978 in Vienna. The total number of probands was divided into age groups, each comprising a range of 3 years. The average value with 1 SD. found over the whole age range was 48.3 +/- 25.75 nmol/l (i.e. 19.4 +/- 10.34 ng/ml). Somewhat higher levels were found in the age groups 3 to 6 and 6 to 9 years, with a slight decrease in the later age groups, but no significant differences were detected. The obtained values seem to represent the "normal" 25-OH-D3 serum levels of our population in the above-mentioned age range.