Chromosome heteromorphisms and paternity testing

Most of the blood group systems have now been applied to paternity investigations. In a complicated case, an alleged father not excluded with blood group testing, could be excluded with only chromosome heteromorphisms. Chromosome heteromorphisms are inherited from parents to offspring as simple Mendelian laws. The authors' paternity testing is presented with the help of chromosome heteromorphism analysis.     

Sudden infant death syndrome in Japan

Two autopsied cases are presented, one involving a 5-month-old infant, and a 6-month-old infant both of whom died suddenly and unexpectedly. The incidence of sudden infant death syndrome in Japan is 1.2 per 1,000 babies live births. Among all cases autopsied in the departments of legal or forensic medicine in 78 universities or colleges of Japan, the incidence was 15 (0.5%) per 3,329 in 1984 and 20 (0.6%) per 3,150 in 1985.     

Studies on asphyxia: on the changes of the alveolar walls of rats in the hypoxic state

The morphological changes of the alveolar wall of adult rats in the hypoxic state were studied by light and electron microscopy. The remarkable findings were the appearance of a large amount of lamellar, lattice- and thread-like structures together with a massive homogeneous substance on the surface of the alveoli which seemed to be closely connected with each other and with the surface of the cells lining the alveolus, especially in the 5%-group. The appearance of the above-mentioned structures with the homogeneous substance is considered to be the reaction of lung tissue to the decreased content of oxygen in the inhaled gas.     

Determination of paraquat in raw and formalin-fixed tissues by electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy

ESR method was applied to determine paraquat levels in fresh and formalin-fixed tissues. Paraquat was converted to paraquat radical by adding sodium dithionite to tissue homogenates and detected by ESR. Paraquat levels of more than 0.2 micrograms/ml homogenate could be quantified with 0.1 ml of the homogenate. The use of manganese ions for standardization of paraquat signal enabled much more accurate ESR measurements because this ion was quite stable and its signal did not overlap that of paraquat. Even with tissues fixed in formalin, tissues paraquat levels were measureable after removing formalin from the tissue extract. This fact was verified by studying two cases; the tissues were kept in formalin for 1.5 years in case 1 and for 6.5 years in case 2. In both cases, the paraquat contents in tissues were 0.02-0.08 micrograms/g. In this way ESR is one of the most suitable methods in determining low levels of paraquat in tissues even after they were preserved in formalin for a long time.