Subjects with moderate to severe COPD did not benefit from treatment with infliximab. Although not statistically significant, more cases of cancer and pneumonia were observed in the infliximab-treated subjects. The impact of infliximab on malignancy risk in patients with COPD needs to be further elucidated.

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The potentiometric behavior of polymethacrylic acid is discussed in terms of a conformational transition. A thermodynamic treatment of this transition is presented. The titration curve of polymethacrylic acid is analyzed in a detailed way and quantitative information regarding the transition is obtained.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of infliximab for the treatment of extrapulmonary sarcoidosis.A prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted, with infliximab at 3 and 5 mg?kg -1 body weight administered over 24 weeks. Extrapulmonary organ severity was determined by a novel severity tool (extrapulmonary physician organ severity tool; ePOST) with an adjustment for the number of organs involved (ePOSTadj). In total, 138 patients enrolled in the trial of infliximab versus placebo for the treatment of chronic corticosteroiddependent pulmonary sarcoidosis. The baseline severity of extrapulmonary organ involvement, as measured by ePOST, was similar across treatment groups. After 24 weeks of drug-therapy study, the change from baseline to week 24 in ePOST was greater for the combined infliximab group compared with the placebo group. After adjustment for the number of extrapulmonary organs involved, the improvement in ePOSTadj observed in the combined infliximab group was also greater than that observed in placebo-treated patients, after 24 weeks of therapy. The improvements in ePOST and ePOSTadj were not maintained during a subsequent 24-week washout period.Infliximab may be beneficial compared with placebo in the treatment of extrapulmonary sarcoidosis in patients already receiving corticosteroids, as assessed by the severity tool described in the present study.

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We study semidilute and concentrated solutions of mononucleosomal DNA at three different NaCl concentrations by static and dynamic light scattering, viscosity, and electron cryomicroscopy. At low enough DNA concentrations the second virial coefficient behaves in the usual manner and can be interpreted by a charged rod model. It is possible to understand the concentration and scattering vector dependence of the scattering with the help of recent theoretical analyses of semidilute solutions of charged rods. Moreover, the mutual friction coefficient is in accord with the theory of hydrodynamic screening. At a certain critical concentration which increases with added salt, the intensity of the equilibrium static scattering increases several 100-fold, indicating the DNA aggregates. The dynamic scattering is in line with the static scattering; a very long decay time seems to be associated with the DNA aggregates. Freeze electron micrographs definitely bear out the existence of DNA globules which appear to form loose aggregates. Precautions have been taken to ensure there are no spurious contaminants to the best of our knowledge. Long-range attractive forces between polyions have been postulated recently within the framework of a semiquantitative theory; these ideas are tested by analyzing the ionic-strength dependence of the third virial coefficient and the onset of aggregation. IntroductionFor some time, double-stranded DNA has been suspected of aggregating under conditions where this is unlikely to occur from a balance between electrostatic and dispersion forces. Mandelkern et a1.l concluded from their rotational relaxation times in solutions of sonicated DNA at low salt that DNA may aggregate into bundles containing seven DNA rods although they neglected to account for ionic friction. In the same year Fulmer et a1.2 measured strong slow decays in the dynamic light scattering by DNA suspensions below M simple salt. Sonicated calf-thymus DNA actually gels without liquid-crystalline order at nondilute concentrations, as has been established rheometrially.^!^ By monitoring the steady-state fluorescence polarization, Hard and Kearns5 deduced that monodisperse DNA must start to aggregate at a DNA concentration of 5 g/L in 1 M NaC1. Nicolai and MandeF thought DNA might be aggregating at low salt and nondilute DNA concentrations because the static scattering started to increase once the DNA solution was allowed to remain quiescent after filtration. Contrastingly, the scattering intensity of a flowing suspension was constant: presumably, the aggregates break up

No abstract

The prediction and experimental confirmation of a previously unsuspected kinetic effect occurng in electrolyte solutions are presented herein. Kinetic polarization deficiency may be described as a reduction, with respect to the pure solvent, in the static permittivity of the solution; the decrement in E0 is shown to be proportional to the product of the dielectric relaxation time of the solvent and the low frequency conductivity of the solution. The kinetic ion-solvent interaction affects the capacitive admittance in two closely related ways: as an ion migrates, the surrounding volume elements of the liquid tend to rotate according to the laws of hydrodynamics, and although dielectric relaxation tends to restore an equilibrium polarization appropriate to the local electric field, this adjustment is not instantaneous; rather it lags behind by the dielectric relaxation time. Conversely, the force that an external field exerts on an ion does not develop its full strength instantly because the ion is driven partly by the external field and partly by the polarization that develops in response to the applied field, the polarization field evolving wit a time constant that is the relaxation time for the orientation of solvent dipoles.We wish to report the theoretical prediction and experimental confirmation of an effect occurring in electrolyte solutions for which we have coined the term "kinetic polarization deficiency." For the purpose at hand the phenomenon may be described as a reduction, with respect to the solvent, in the static permittivity of the solution. Assuming, as we shall, a simple Debye dispersion for the dielectric relaxation of the pure solvent, the decrement in Eo will be shown to be proportional to the product of the relaxation time of the solvent TD and the low frequency conductivity of the solution fo.The theoretical framework is as follows: we regard not only the polarization of the vacuum, but also the intrinsic polarization of molecules and ions as occurring on a much shorter time scale than TD, thereby contributing to the high frequency dielectric constant e. On the other hand, since we are concerned only with ion-solvent interactions, the static and kinetic influences on the ionic atmosphere will also be neglected. The model we adopt is that of a symmetrically charged impenetrable sphere (the ion) moving in a viscous, incompressible, polarizble fluid continuum (the solvent) under the influence of a periodic external field. Of course, no continuum model that includes dielectric relaxation can avoid the following inconsistency: that a finite relaxation time implies finite dimensions for a fluid element.If the ion is fixed with respect to the solvent, the latter supports a static polarization field PD, which is the vector sum of the field of the ion Po, plus the image charge-induced polarization emanating from the conducting planes which, we assume, enclose the system. The specification of the compensating image charges is absolutely necessary inasmuch as this insures the convergence of t...