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Attempts were made to obtain intergeneric hybrids between Diplotaxis siifolia, a wild species, and cultivars of Brassica (B. campestris, B. juncea, and B. napus). The crosses showed unilateral incompatibility. When the wild species was used as female parent, pollen germination and pollen tube growth were normal, but hybrid seeds aborted due to post-fertilization barriers. Reciprocal crosses (cultivars as female parent) showed strong pre-fertilization barriers; although pollen grains showed germination, pollen tubes failed to enter the stigma. Hybrids were realized in two of the crosses, D. siifolia x B. juncea and D. siifolia x B. napus, through ovary culture. The hybrids were multiplied in vitro by multiplication of axillary shoots, or somatic embryogenesis. Detailed studies were carried out on the hybrid D. siifolia x B. juncea. F1 hybrids had shrivelled anthers and were pollen sterile. Amphiploids of this hybrid showed 60% pollen fertility and produced seeds upon self-pollination as well as backcross pollination with the pollen of B. juncea.

Normal mammalian lungs, including human fetal lungs, contain significant amounts of a decapeptide which releases arginine-vasopressin from the neurophypophysis and therefore has antidiuretic activity. The rat peptide is: Tyr-Gly-Glu-Pro-Lys-Leu-Asp-Ala-Gly-Val-NH2. The peptide from human fetal lungs has Ala instead of Tyr. It may be a normal regulatory substance and its role in the pathogenesis of the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuresis associated with lung diseases merits investigation. In view of its source and action, the antidiuretic lung peptide may be called Pneumadin.

97 patients with symptoms of early tetanus at the time of admission to hospital were treated with sedation, antibiotics, and human tetanus immune globulin (TIG). After intrathecal TIG 250 IU 3 patients out of 49 got worse but only 1 died while in a closely similar group of 48 patients in whom TIG was administered intramuscularly in dose of 1000 IU, the clinical features of the disease became severer in 15 (31%) and 10 (21%) died. The intrathecal use of TIG was devoid of side effects.

Piperacillin sodium was administered intravenously to dogs, alone or in combination with gentamicin, twice a day (approximately 5 hr apart) for 36-37 days. The pharmacokinetics of neither drug changed in the presence of the other; however, the percentage of the gentamicin dose recovered in the urine decreased significantly when coadministered with piperacillin. The data demonstrate that interaction between the two drugs in urine is feasible.

A new topically active antihypertensive agent, the methyl ester of 15-deoxy-16-hydroxy-16-vinylprostaglandin E2 (1), rapidly hydrolyzes in blood to the carboxylic acid 2, which also has antihypertensive activity. A capillary gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method is described for measuring 2 in human plasma or serum at expected experimental blood levels of 75-1500 pg/mL. The assay is based on selected-ion monitoring of the carboxylate anion formed from negative ion chemical ionization of the trimethylsilylpentafluorobenzyl ester of 2, using a trideuterated analogue of 2 as internal standard. The method has been used to analyze samples from subjects following topical application of 1-2 mg of 1. Sample preparation included isolation from 1 mL of plasma or serum and purification of the ester derivative with C18 cartridges, followed by a two-step trimethylsilylation.

Mitoxantrone (NOVANTRONE), an anthracenedione, is a novel anticancer agent with a wide spectrum of antitumor activity. Its anticancer activity is comparable to that of doxorubicin but with apparently significantly reduced cardiotoxicity. The recommended dosage regimen for the treatment of breast carcinoma is 12-14 mg/m2 given intravenously once every 21 days. Intravenously administered mitoxantrone disappears from the plasma of man and laboratory animals with multiexponential kinetics and with the terminal half-life ranging from 38 h to several days. It is rapidly cleared from the plasma by extensive sequestration into the tissues of the rat, dog, monkey, and man. However, redistribution back into the plasma and elimination from the body are slow processes. In both animals and man it is metabolized to the mono- and dicarboxylic acid derivatives, as well as glucuronide conjugates of these acids. Following intravenous administration, it is unchanged mitoxantrone that binds to most tissues. Rats, dogs, monkeys, and man, all eliminate mitoxantrone and its metabolites slowly by both renal and biliary excretion, with the biliary route predominating.

14C-piperacillin (Pipracil) at a dose level of 1000 mg/kg was administered intravenously or intraperitoneally to pregnant and non-pregnant female rats. Rats were sacrificed at predetermined time intervals, and 14C-piperacillin concentrations determined in serum, amniotic fluid, placenta, and fetus. The piperacillin serum levels in both pregnant and nonpregnant rats following intravenous administration were comparable; however, following intraperitoneal administration, the serum drug levels in the pregnant rats as compared to the nonpregnant rats were lower. The fetal drug levels, however, were higher following intraperitoneal administration than following intravenous administration. The total area under the fetal drug concentration-time curve following intraperitoneal administration was about two times the corresponding area under the curve following intravenous administration. The data indicate that the fetal exposure to piperacillin was greater following intraperitoneal administration.

Piperacillin was administered to normal, healthy volunteers by an intravenous infusion over 30 min at dosage regimens of 12 gm daily (4 gm every 8 hr) and 24 gm daily (6 gm every 6 hr) for 5 consecutive days. Mean peak serum level after 12 gm daily was 244 +/- 24 (SE) microgram/ml and after 24 gm daily, 353 +/- 7 microgram/ml. After infusion the serum level declined monoexponentially in most subjects. On the 12-gm daily dosage mean values were 60 min for half-life (t1/2), 16 1 for volume of distribution, 188 ml/min for body clearance, and 139 ml/min for renal clearance. The same values on day 4 were 47 min, 12 1, 181 ml/min, and 125 ml/min; the volume of distribution was lower than on day 1. On the 24-gm daily dosage regimen, t1/2 was 60 min; volume of distribution, 16 1; body clearance, 183 ml/min; and renal clearance, 101 ml/min on day 1 compared to 68 min, 15 1, 148 ml/min, and 71 ml/min on day 4, the last 2 being significantly lower than on day 1. High renal clearance values were observed at low serum concentrations and vice versa, suggesting saturation of the tubular secretion process at high piperacillin concentrations in serum.

Cefixime (CL 284,635; FK 027) is a new third-generation oral cephalosporin. To study dose-dependent pharmacokinetics of cefixime in dogs, two balanced four-way crossover studies were conducted. In the first study, oral doses of 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg and an intravenous dose of 50 mg/kg cefixime were administered. In the second study, oral doses of 6.25, 12.5, and 25 mg/kg and an intravenous dose of 12.5 mg/kg cefixime were administered to the same dogs. A period of 1 month separated the two studies. When the two intravenous doses were compared (i.e., 12.5 and 50 mg/kg), a twofold increase in clearance and volume of distribution was observed after the higher dose. The oral systemic bioavailability in the dose range 6.25-50 mg/kg was 55%. It decreased to 44% at 100 mg/kg and 27% at 200 mg/kg. The average peak serum concentrations ranged from 15.8 micrograms/ml at 6.25 mg/kg to 119 micrograms/ml at 200 mg/kg. Within this concentration range, the fraction of free drug in serum (unbound to proteins) increased from 7 to 25%. This concentration-dependent protein binding was primarily responsible for changes in total clearance, volume of distribution, and bioavailability of the drug in dogs.

This investigation generated data characterize a specific electron-capture GLC assay reported previously for naltrexone and applied the method to a determination of naltrexone pharmacokinetics. Extraction efficiencies are reported for the assay, and mass spectral evidence indicates that naltrexone forms a triester when derivatized for electron-capture GLC with pentafluoropropionic anhydride and a base catalyst. Plasma level-time data for intravenous naltrexone at two dose levels in monkeys yielded no evidence of dose-dependent kinetics. A two-compartment open pharmacokinetic model was fitted to plasma level-time data for naltrexone in two dogs and yielded a total body clearance of 51-55 ml/min/kg. Urine collected for 0-24 hr contained 36% of the dose as naltrexone conjugates with less than 1% as unchanged naltrexone. Plasma level-time data for intravenous naltrexone in six monkeys yielded an average terminal half-life of 7.8 hr and a total body clearance of 64 ml/min/kg. The total body clearance for naltrexone was greater than the hepatic plasma or blood flow in both dogs and monkeys. This finding, together with the extremely low renal excretion of naltrexone, suggests the existence of elimination mechanisms besides liver metabolism and renal excretion.

The disposition of cefixime, a potent, third generation, orally active cephalosporin, was characterized in the pregnant and lactating rat. After a single iv dose of 17.8 mg/kg 14C-cefixime to day 18 pregnant rats, the half-life for elimination of radioactivity from both maternal serum and placentas was 6.9 hr. Elimination from fetal plasma and tissues was somewhat longer, 12.5 and 13.7 hr, respectively. However, comparison of areas under the curve indicated that exposure of the fetuses to cefixime was far less than that of placentas. Whole body autoradiography showed the greatest radioactivity in maternal liver, kidney, and intestines. In the lactating rat, steady state plasma concentrations of 14C-cefixime were achieved by continuous ip infusion of 2.54 mg/kg/day via Alza osmotic Mini-pumps from days 10 to 14 postpartum. Plasma concentrations of radioactivity in the dams were, on the average, 70 times greater than in their nursing pups throughout the study. After 102 hr of drug infusion, total radioactivity in the body of the pups, including the stomach and intestinal contents, was 1% of the 14C-cefixime estimated to be in the mother's body at steady state. Overall, these data indicate that exposure of the developing rat fetus and nursing pup to cefixime after maternal drug administration is quantitatively small.