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Biomedical subjects

P A Griffiths

Publications and source records attributed to P A Griffiths.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Plasma acid hydrolases in normal adults and children, and in patients with some lysosomal storage diseases.

Optimal assay conditions are described for plasma alpha-galactosidase, beta-glactosidase, beta-glucuronidase, alpha-mannosidase, alpha-glucosidase, N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase, alpha-fucosidase, N-acetyl-alpha-glucosaminidase, acid phosphatase and arylsulphatase A. The levels of these activities in normal adults and children, and the stabilities of the activities on storage at -20 degrees C or 4 degrees C, are reported. The levels of these enzymic activities in plasma from patients with Fabry, Pompe, Sanfilippo A, Sanfilippo B, Tay Sachs and Hunter diseases, GM1-gangliosidosis and metachromatic leucodystrophy are described, and the possibility of using plasma hydrolase activities in the diagnosis of these conditions is discussed.

Acid Phosphatase↗

Staging breast cancer: role of bone scanning.

Bone scans using technetium-99m phosphate complexes and a rectilinear scanner were carried out on 192 women with primary operable breast cancer four to six weeks after operation. The lymph node status of all these patients was assessed histologically from triple node biopsy specimens. Only nine patients had positive scans, although 94 patients had histological evidence that the tumour had already spread beyond the confines of the breast. Bone scanning, although accurate as a prognostic guide, is helpful only in a very few cases, and serves mainly to confirm prognostic information obtained more simply and less extensively by histological examination of lymph node biopsy specimens.

Bone Neoplasms↗

A quantitative study of pinocytosis and lysosome function in experimentally induced lysosomal storage.

The highly pinocytic epithelial cells of the visceral yolk sac from 17.5-day rat conceptuses were used as a model in which to induce engorgement of the vacuolar system by direct accumulation of substances that are not hydrolysed by lysosomal enzymes. The ultra-structural appearances of these cells in pregnant animals that 24-48h before had received intraperitoneal injections of Triton WR-1339, polyvinylpyrrolidone, dextran or sucrose revealed gross abnormalities that were confined to the vacuolar system; in comparison with normal tissue the number, and in some cases the size, of vacuoles was increased, leading to close packing within the apical cytoplasm and distortion of the normal rounded shape. By culturing yolk sacs in vitro, rates of ingestion of 125I-labelled polyvinylpyrrolidone and of 125I-labelled bovine serum albumin were determined, together with the rate of digestion of the labelled protein. The rates of exocytosis of 125I-labelled polyvinylpyrrolidone and of lysosomal enzymes were also determined. No significant differences between normal and highly vacuolated tissues were found. Apparently marked vacuolation of these cells by these agents is without significant effect on pinocytosis, exocytosis or intralysosomal proteolysis.

Acetylglucosaminidase↗