William G. Shafer

Effect of dilantin sodium on growth of human fibroblast-like cell cultures.

Summary Addition of sodium diphenyl-hydantoinate (Dilantin Sodium) to tissue culture of human fibroblast-like cells resulted in stimulation of their proliferation. A similar but more limited stimulation to proliferation occurred with HeLa cells but there was no detectable effect on cells isolated from rat fibrosarcoma.

Experimental Dental Caries VIII. Effect of Thyroid - Testosterone Administration on Dental Caries in Rat.∗

Summary Activity of the thyroid gland appears to be related to incidence of dental caries in the rat. These conclusions are based upon experimental observations that administration of desiccated thyroid reduces dental caries and thiouracil increases it. This cario-genic effect might be related to subsequent function of salivary glands, since it has been shown that when desiccated thyroid and testosterone were administered together it increases to a greater degree the anti-cariogenic effect of desiccated thyroid. This fact is in keeping with the observation that testosterone increases activity of the thyroid gland and that the thyroid gland is related to the function of the submaxillary gland.

Tissue culture characteristics of the bw1081 mouse salivary gland tumor. I. Preliminary investigation of nutrient medium components.

The BW1081 mouse salivary gland tumor is a neoplasm that arose spontaneously in a BALB/c mouse in the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, during 1949. It has been described by that laboratory as a myoepithelial cell carcinoma and has been carried there through successive transplantation in this animal since that year. Their description of the tumor states that the transplanted neoplasm is palpable within 7 days and kills the host within 35-65 days. Beck1 reported the growth characteristics and host responses to this tumor in 1959 and noted several interesting features. One of the characteristic reactions of the host was a marked neutrophilic leukemoid response, most pronounced about 30 days following transplantation, similar to that reported by Bateman. Beck observed white blood cell counts as high as 740,000 cells/mm3, accompanied by extramedullary myelopoiesis and myeloid infiltration in various organs, including the kidneys, adrenals, lungs, and salivary glands. The microscopic appearance of the tumor growing in vivo is one of a highly anaplastic pleomorphic neoplasm. The cells vary in appearance from elongated, spindleshaped cells with fusiform nuclei to ovoid cells with round, vesicular nuclei. PASpositive granules are present in the cytoplasm of occasional cells. The cells are densely packed in the tumor mass and often show cord, whorl, and palisade arrangements, sometimes divided into compartments by connective tissue trabeculae. However, trichrome stain reveals little or no collagen between individual cells and very little reticulum with silver stain. Mitotic figures are prevalent and large areas of central necrosis are common (Fig. 1). Beck concluded that this neoplasm appears similar to other myoepitheliomas of mouse salivary gland origin which have been reported, such as those of Lippincott, Edwards, Grady, and Stewart,3 and has certain features in common with the polyoma virus tumors. The extreme interest in this particular group of neoplasms and the need for more nearly complete understanding of their nature prompted the present study dealing with the tissue culture characteristics of the BW1081 mouse salivary gland tumor.