We proved that our improved egg york agar medium was useful for the semiquantitative estimation of the protease production as well as for the de-tection of protease-producing strains of various bacteria. The results obtained by this method suggested that bacterial extracellular proteases might play an important role in the pathogenicity of opportunistic pathogens.

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We measured the susceptibilities of the normal intestinal bacterial flora as well as opportunistic pathogens to the major broad spectrum antibiotics under anerobic conditions as was in intestine. The results showed that oppor-tunistic pathogens were always more resistant to the commonly used antibiotics at that period than the commensal bacterial flora suggesting that abnormal increases of opportunistic pathogens caused by the uses of broad spectrum antibiotics could trigger the opportunistic infections in the immune deficient patients. Thus, the susceptibilities of the commensal bacteria to all antibiotics should be seriously considered for the adequate chemotherapy.

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Ten dietary samples from each groups of residents in three cadmium- polluted areas and three control areas in Japan were analyzed to assess the daily intake of heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn). The analysis disclosed that the daily Cd and Cu come chiefly from the rice and that the daily Pb and Zn come from the other food source in the everyday diet. Intake of heavy metals in man is highly dependent upon the geographical characteristics of the residing area. The Cd-polluted area residents take two to three times larger amounts of Cd than the control area residents and relatively larger amounts of Pb and Zn, and equal amount of Cu as compared to the control area residents. The daily intake of the four heavy metals in the control group showed similar values to those earlier reported.

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A highly sensitive radioimmunoassay for LH-RF was developed and was used to determine the serum levels of LH-RF of women in normal menstrual cycle, pregnancy from 5 through 40 weeks and throughout 4 different stages of parturition in the same subjects.
Serum concentrations of LH-RF during pregnancy were markedly lower (4.4 ± 1.2 pg/ml), compared to those in menstrual cycle (35.6 ± 3.5 pg/ml). Among the series of 4 stages of parturition, i.e. (1) during labor, (2) im-mediately after delivery, (3) 10 minutes after placenta delivery and (4) 4 days after delivery, the mean values for LH-RF were found to be higher in the samples immediately after delivery (3.7 ± 0.9 pg/ml) and in those 10 minutes after placenta delivery (4.4 ± 0.8 pg/mi). In individual cases, how-ever, three out of 11 women showed peaks of LH-RF level at immediately after delivery and 6 out of 11 showed peaks of LH-RF level in 10 minutes after placenta delivery.
The immunoreactive LH-RF was detected in cord bloods, amniotic fluids, milks and especially large amounts in the placenta by our radioimmunoassay for LH-RF, though it is not known whether they have physiological role and identical to hypothalamic LH-RF.

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