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ATP content obtained by luciferin-luciferase luminometry with commercially available reagents provided rapid estimates of Ureaplasma urealyticum populations. Each cell contained about 4.7 X 10(-18) mol of ATP. We could detect 10(4) CCU50 (color change unit50) per 100 microliters. We correlated urease activity with growth and confirmed the differential response of ureaplasma strains to Mn2+.

Ethical and legal traditions recognize prenatal duties to avoid harm to offspring. However, applying the harm principle to pregnancy requires a careful balancing of a baby's welfare with a pregnant woman's interest in liberty and bodily integrity. In the case of maternal PKU the mother can prevent harm to her baby by returning to the admittedly unpleasant diet that prevented her from being retarded. Informing, counseling, and access to medical care should be the primary policy. Seizures and forced treatment cannot be justified in this case, and only rarely in other situations.

1. Water-holding capacity (WHC) of dietary fibre is usually considered as the amount of water held but the manner in which water is held by the fibre matrix may be more relevant in understanding the role of fibre in nutrition. 2. A method used to determine WHC under physiological conditions has been adapted to determine how strongly water is held by fibre. Solutions of compounds, such as polyethylene glycol, of known osmotic potential are used to generate a suction pressure across a dialysis membrane containing a fibre sample. The WHC at each suction pressure can then be determined. 3. The method can be applied to water-soluble and water-insoluble sources of fibre. Fibre sources studied included potato fibre concentrate, bran and gum arabic. 4. Results are comparable to other similar systems of WHC measurement for gels and suggest that vegetable fibre has water-holding properties more akin to a true gel than bran. Bran has very poor water-holding properties. 5. Differences in WHC between fibre sources are more apparent if WHC is considered as fibre concentration (g fibre/g water). 6. Differences in the water-holding properties could be important in determining fibre activity in the gut.

Our understanding of the pathogenic potential of Ureaplasma urealyticum awaits further characterization of the species. This review adds recently published findings to the previously established properties of this myocoplasma.

Both aluminum toxicity and a relative deficiency of parathyroid hormone have been implicated in the development of osteomalacia in dialysis patients. To study the effect of intraperitoneal (IP) aluminum injections on bone histology and parathyroid hormone and to determine if chronic renal failure accentuates aluminum toxicity, rats were divided into five groups: normals (N); low dose aluminum (LDA), 0.1 mg IP aluminum daily; high dose aluminum (HDA), 1.0 mg IP aluminum daily; chronic renal failure (CRF); and chronic renal failure plus high dose aluminum (CRF-HDA). At the conclusion of the study, there were no differences between N and LDA rats. Between the other groups, marked differences were observed. Compared to N rats, the relative osteoid volume (P less than 0.02) and the osteoid seam width (P less than 0.001) were increased in HDA, CRF, and CRF-HDA rats. Percent resorption and osteoclasts/mm2 were increased in CRF rats (P less than 0.02) and decreased in HDA rats (P less than 0.05). Compared to N rats, the amino terminal parathyroid hormone was decreased in HDA rats (P less than 0.02) despite the presence of hypocalcemia. These data suggest that (1) aluminum toxicity produces osteomalacia; (2) a relative parathyroid hormone deficiency may be a contributory factor; (3) chronic renal failure increases the severity of aluminum-induced osteomalacia; and (4) chronic renal failure alone does not result in osteomalacia.

Five laboratory-adapted strains of Ureaplasma urealyticum showed comparable colony counts when incubated in eight gaseous environments including air, in different concentrations of carbon dioxide, and under anaerobiosis. For primary isolation on genital mycoplasma agar 95% N2-5% CO2 gave 100% correlation with growth in bromothymol blue broth, whereas certain strains failed to grow on agar incubated in air, the TABCO2 system (Lab-Tek Division, Miles Laboratories, Ltd., Rexdale, Canada), 100% CO2, or under anaerobiosis.

A complex association between alcohol consumption and sexual behaviour has long since been established. During 1985 a survey of 335 young adults was conducted in South East Scotland. Information was elicited about sexual behaviour, alcohol and other psychoactive drug use. The results indicate that amongst both males and females, age of first sexual intercourse was positively associated with age of first alcohol use, as well as with current use of tobacco and illicit drugs. Respondents who had consumed alcohol immediately prior to first sexual intercourse were markedly less likely than others to have used condoms or other forms of contraception. It is concluded that the use of alcohol and other drugs has clear relevance to unprotected sexual activities and the spread of HIV infection. Future health education should give due weight to this connection.

Ureaplasma strains isolated from man, nonhuman primates, and canine, feline and avian hosts had less demanding nutritional requirements than did strains obtained from bovine and ovine sources. One millimolar Mn+2 inhibited the growth of most of the ureaplasmas examined, but had a stimulatory effect for at least one strain. The response to Mn+2 appeared to be a characteristic of the individual isolate, rather than of the host from which it was isolated. While two strains of U. urealyticum isolated from man were able to degrade human IgA into two fragments, 13 strains from seven animal species were not.

Tetrahymena pyriformis W with nutrients, ca. 22 x 10 cells, decreased the concentration of aflatoxin B(1) 58% in 24 hr and 67% in 48 hr. An unknown, bright-blue fluorescent substance was produced, with intensity about one-half that of the unchanged B(1), with an R(f) of 0.52 compared with 0.59 for B(1) and 0.55 for B(2) on a thin-layer chromatography plate, and with an ultraviolet spectrum showing maxima of 253, 261, and 328 mmu. In a separate assay, the cells with nutrients did not degrade pure G(1). Starved, washed cells, ca. 11 x 10, decreased the concentration of B(1) 50% in 10 hr, 70% in 22 hr, and 75% in 30 hr, producing the same unknown component. Ethyl alcohol, 1.96% (v/v), decreased cell populations and size, but the cells remained actively motile in broth plus the alcohol for 96 hr. In 72 hr, neither toxin (ca. 2 ppm) in combination with ethyl alcohol had more inhibitory effect on cell numbers, with or without nutrients, than was produced by alcohol alone. Aflatoxin B(1) had no observed effect on the viability of the starved cells for 30 hr or on the nourished cells for 72 hr. There was no noticeable effect of G(1) on the starved cells in 30 hr or on the nourished cells in 48 hr. After 72 hr with G(1) plus nutrients, many of the cells were round with blisters, nonmotile, and apparently dead or dying.