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Tienilic acid--2,3-dichloro-4-(2-thienyl-carbonyl)phenoxyacetic acid--is a new diuretic with uricosuric properties. Nineteen patients with moderate arterial hypertension were treated for 5 consecutive weeks in a randomized fashion in a double-blind study with either tienilic acid or hydrochlorothiazide. Blood pressure was significantly reduced and to the same degree with both drugs. In 7 of the 11 patients receiving tienilic acid the daily dose was increased from 250 to 500 mg after 2 weeks, and in 2 of the 8 patients taking hydrochlorothiazide the daily dose was increased from 50 to 100 mg. Because of the potent uricosuric action of tienilic acid the mean serum urate concentration decreased from 6.3 to 3.3 mg/dL in the patients taking the drug. In contrast, the patients receiving hydrochlorothiazide the mean serum urate concentration increased from 6.1 to 7.8 mg/dL. Moderate hypokalemia of almost identical degree (mean serum potassium values 3.6 and 3.5 mmol/L) and mild metabolic alkalosis were observed in both groups. Tienilic acid had a marked hypocalciuric effect, which was of the same magnitude as the observed with hydrochlorothiazide. During the 5 weeks of treatment no significant change in renal or liver function was observed in either group. There were no hematologic complications and the drug was remarkably well tolerated. Tienilic acid, because of its unique character as a diuretic, hypouricemic and antihypertensive agent, should become the preferred drug for the treatment of arterial hypertension.

In a crossover study bumetanide, 2 to 6 mg/d, was compared with furosemide, 40 to 160 mg/d, in the treatment of 10 patients with the nephrotic syndrome and massive edema. The two drugs, which both act on the loop of Henle, were found to be equally effective. Patients with renal insufficiency responded poorly to both drugs.

Basement membrane thickness was measured in two groups of spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus): one with spontaneous diabetes, the other with streptozotocin-induced diabetes. A statistical analysis of the morphometric results of the two groups showed a significant basement membrane thickening in the group with induced diabetes when compared to the spontaneously diabetic group.

'Immobile' (im) is a recessive lethal mutation discovered in the F3 of a Xenopus (Xenopus laevis laevis) originating from a mesodermal nucleus of a neurula transplanted into an enucleated egg. The im embryos do not contract after mechanical stimulation nor do they present any spontaneous contraction from the neurula stage onwards. Development proceeds normally during the first days after which deformation of the lower jaw and tail are observed. The im tadpoles die when normal controls are at the feeding stage. Nevous and muscular tissues are histologically normal in the mutant tadpoles; at advanced stages, however, an irregularity in the path of the myofibrils is observed which is especially conspicuous in the electron microscope. Cholinesterases and ATPase are present in the mutant muscles. Parabiosis and chimerae experiments have shown that parabionts and grafts behave according to their own genotype. Cultures of presumptive axial systems with or without ectoderm lead to the conclusion that, first of all, the abnormality is situated in the mesodermal cells and secondly that the first muscular contractions in normal Xenopus laevis are of myogenic origin. The banding pattern of the myofibrils is normal as was shown by obtaining contractions of glycerol extracted in myoblasts with ATP. It seems therefore that in this mutation, the abnormality is situated in the membraneous system of the muscular cell, sarcoplasmic reticulum and/or tubular system as is probably the case in the mdg mutation of the mouse.