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From: paul@phs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Thalidomide
Message-ID: <2201@phs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Feb-84 10:41:32 EST
Article-I.D.: phs.2201
Posted: Thu Feb 23 10:41:32 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Feb-84 02:44:58 EST
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Re: thalidomide: I dimly recall seeing a PBS-type show on
biological clocks (circadian rhythms) about 8 years ago, in
which it was claimed that the thalidomide problem was in fact
due to a difference between rats and humans that might seem
trivial: Namely, that rats are active at night and humans in
the day. Supposedly, the German company which made thalidomide
tested it on rats with the doses given in the morning, at the
beginning of their rest cycle; virtually all pups were born
normal. However, after the thalidomide tragedy, someone thought
up the idea of giving the drug at night, at the beginning of their
active cycle; the pups were then born with similar disfigurements
to the human case. Unfortunately, humans took thalidomide before
or during their active cycle, hence (perhaps) the problem.
However, I have never seen this in print, nor have I ever met anyone
who has heard of this. Anyone out there have a better memory, or
who has read of this? Reply by mail if you like, but I would suspect
the answer would be of wide interest.
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Paul Dolber @ Duke U Med Ctr (...!duke!phs!paul)