A prospective, randomized study was undertaken in 32 hospitalized patients with urinary tract infections to compare the efficacy of spectinomycin versus gentamicin. Spectinomycin was found to be of equal efficacy if not more efficacious in eradicating Escherichia coli, Klebsiella and Proteus mirabilis in our patient population. No significant side-effects were noted. A review of the literature with emphasis on the use of spectinomycin in infections other than anogenital gonorrhea is made.
Epidermal keratinocytes grow in culture to form a stratified squamous epithelium. These cultures contain a replicating as well as a terminally differentiating population and undergo surface desquamation. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) and cholera toxin are usually employed as growth-promoting agents because they reduce the population doubling time; that is, the period required to increase the total cell number twofold. There are three ways in which this reduction in population doubling time could be achieved: (a) the time for one cell cycle or the cell cycle length may be shortened; (b) the number of cells that withdraw from the cell cycle and terminally differentiate may be reduced; or (c) the number of cells that desquamate into the medium over a set period of time may be reduced. We have explored these possibilities in growing cultures of epidermal keratinocytes using a newly developed double-label assay. This assay gives a measure of both cell length and cell cycle withdrawal. Results show that the growth enhancement induced by EGF and cholera toxin can be attributed primarily to a reduction in cell cycle withdrawal and, to a lesser degree, to a reduction in cell cycle length. EGF and cholera toxin have no significant effect on the rate of desquamation. A linear correlation was noted between cell cycle lengths and withdrawal, suggesting an interconnection between the rate of cell renewal and the likelihood of undergoing terminal differentiation.
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