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VOLUME 20, NUMBER 14
APRIL 6. 1973
DURHAM. NORTH CAROLINA
i^uke Scientist Reports
On Vitamin E Effects
Urban dwellers choking on smog and
auto exhaust fumes may have found an
ally to help fortify their lungs—vitamin
E.
A Duke researcher has turned up
evidence that a vitamin E-rich diet can
help protect the lungs from the effects
of noxious air pollutants such as ozone
and nitrogen dioxide.
The findings offer a possible answer
to the prevention of emphysema and
other chronic lung diseases which are
environmentally triggered.
Dr. Daniel B. Menzel found that rats
deprived of vitamin E in their diets for
four weeks survived for only eight days
when placed in an atmosphere with a
concentration of one part per million of
ozone or nitrogen dioxide. Rats given a
vitamin E-supplemented diet for four
weeks lived twice as long, 18 days, in
the same concentration of pollutants.
Menzel is an associate professor of
pharmacology and an associate professor
in the Division of Environmental
Medicine. He discussed his findings last
week at a symposium for Continuing
Medical Education for Pharmacists and
Pharmacologists at Ohio State
University.
The air pollutants ozone and nitrogen
dioxide are strong oxidizing agents
found in urban air. One part per million
is the level that can be found during the
peak pollution concentration hour of
each day in Los Angeles and other
cities.
The pollutants cause lung damage
through oxidation, the same chemical
process which causes rubber to become
brittle and cracked or causes butter to
become rancid. Unsaturated fatty acids,
a major constituent of all biological
membranes, including the lungs, are
subject to oxidation, too.
In Menzel's experiments, ozone and
nitrogeh dioxide caused oxidation of the
lung tissue, bringing on edema and
hemorrhaging in the lungs of the rats.
Menzel has also recently discovered
that the causal agent in ozone
intoxication appears to be a chemical
produced by the reaction of ozone with
unsaturated fatty acids in the lungs. This
chemical can be made and purified
chemically, and when injected into
animals' it produces the same effects as
ozone inhalation.
Menzel said that although no one
knows exactly how vitamin E works, the
best unifying theory for its known
effects is that it acts as an antioxidant.
He said not much is known either about
the biochemistry of the lungs and the
causes of emphysema and other lung
diseases in humans.
"We believe there is a genetic
component to the disease," he said.
"The body doesn't produce protective
serum antiproteases as it's supposed to.
The trigger for the disease is probably
(Continued on page 3)
LIBRARY CORNERSTONE CEREMONY—The rain held and the ceremony to unveil
the cornerstone for the Seeley G. Mudd Building, the medical center's new library,
went on as scheduled last Friday. Participants in the ceremony, from left to right,
were. Dr. William G. Aniyan, vice president for health affairs; Duke President Terry
Sanford; Mrs. Mary Semans, a university trustee and a longtime friend and supporter
of the medical library; and Robert D. Fisher, chairman of the Seeley G. Mudd Fund of
Los Angeles, which contributed $1.5 million toward construction of the $5.3 million
library. The building is scheduled to be completed in two years. (Photo by Jimmy
Wallace)
wr I
--
NEW LOOK AT SCHOOL OF NURSING—Snow covered the ground when the
photographer shot this picture of Mrs. Susan Southard Lebo, a junior in the School of
Nursing from Atlantic City, with the new addition to Hanes House in the background.
The new building was dedicated at special ceremonies yesterday. Next week's
Intercom will contain coverage of the dedication and pictures of the new facility.
(Photo by Jimmy Wallace)
Faculty Shifts Announced
Four appointments and three
promotions at the medical center have
been announced by University Provost
Frederic N. Cleaveland.
Additional faculty responsibilities for
a physician and the dean of nursing also
were announced.
Dr. LuVern H. Kunze has been
appointed professor of hearing and
speech pathology. Kunze, received his
B.A. degree from Dakota Wesleyan
University in 1950, his M.A. degree from
Colorado State College in 1954 and Ph.D.
degree from the University of Iowa in
1962.
Prior to his appointment at Duke,
Kunze was an associate professor at the
University of Washington and director of
the Communication Disorders Research
and Training Program at the university's
Child Development and Mental
Retardation Center.
Appointed assistant professor of
pediatrics and associate in physiology, Dr.
Page A. W. Anderson received his B.A.
degree in 1960 from the University of
California in Berkeley and M.D. degree in
1963 from Duke.
Before joining the Duke-staff in 1970
as a fellow in pediatric cardiology, he
served as a resident at the Children's
Hospital in Los Angeles, Calif.
Dr. Lillian R. Blackmon has been
named assistant professor of pediatrics.
She received her medical school training
at the University of Arkansas School of
Medicine in Little Rock and was chief
resident in pediatrics at the Children's
Hospital of Northern California in
Oakland.
Prior to her appointment at Duke, Dr.
Blackmon was an assistant professor of
pediatrics at the Medical College of
Georgia in Augusta.
Marvin A. Schilder of Deerfield, III., is
a newly appointed assistant professor of
community health sciences. He received
his B.S. degree in industrial management
from Bernard M. Baruch School of
Business and Public Administration in
1964 and thereafter worked at the IBM
Corporation, Federal Systems Division, in
Gaithersburg, Md.
Prior to his appointment at Duke,
Schilder has been an associate executive
director of the Illinois Regional Medical
Program in Chicago.
Three physicians who have received
promotions are Dr. Herbert F. Crovitz,
promoted to professor of medical
psychology in the Department of
Psychiatry; Dr. James R. Urbaniak,
promoted to associate professor of
orthopaedic surgery; and Dr. John D.
Hamilton, promoted to assistant
professor of medicine.
Crovitz of Providence, R.I., received
his A.B. and M.A. degrees from Clark
University in Massachusetts. Upon
obtaining his Ph.D. degree from Duke in
1960, he worked as a postdoctoral trainee
in physiological psychology at the
Durham VA Hospital and was a visiting
professor at North Carolina College.
He joined the Duke staff in 1961 as a
lecturer in the Department of
Psychology,
As a 1962 graduate of Duke's Medical
School, Urbaniak won the senior medical
student literary award for a basic research
paper. He served both his surgical
internship and orthopaedic residency at
Duke.
Along with his recent promotion,
Urbaniak holds the titles of chief of
orthopaedic surgery at the Durham VA
Hospital and chief of Duke's Upper
Extremity Amputee Clinic.
A native of Longmont, Colo.,
(Continued on page 3)