Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B

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The depth profiles for degree of the lanthanide tetrad effect are presented for three seawater columns from an area in the western Indian Ocean off Madagascar. The features of the depth profiles for the upper layer of this area show a developed local variation. With the exception of this locality, the profiles as a whole exhibit the middle-valley patterns, in common with those in the North Pacific. The depth corresponding to the middle valley and the maximum value for the lanthanide tetrad effect observed in the column have been estimated for the first time from the curve drawn for the lanthanide tetrad effect profile. A comparison is made between Indian and North Pacific Oceans. There are clear differences between these two oceans in both the water depth of the middle valley and the maximum aberration due to the tetrad effect observed in the column. These characteristics are consistent with a picture presented thus far by oceanography researchers. That is, the difference between the two oceans is considered to reflect a distinction between southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere.

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Extracts of the body fluid of Pieris rapae and Pieris brassicae, both common butterflies, are reported to show cytotoxic activity against human gastric carcinoma TMK-1 cells. When TMK-1 cells were treated with an extract from pupae of P. brassicae, the resultant morphological changes in dying cells were similar to those found for pupae of P. rapae. The extract of the former exerted dose-dependent cytotoxicity with the IC₅₀ value against TMK-1 cells at the 1/10⁷ dilution. The cytotoxic substance in the pupae of P. brassicae was found to be heat-labile, precipitated with ammonium sulfate and digested by pronase E and proteinase K. Thus, the anti-cancer principle present in the pupae of P. brassicae is suggested to be a protein, like the pierisin, anti-cancer principle in P. rapae.

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