Clinical science and molecular medicine最新文献

1. Enterocytes, isolated from the proximal jejunum and distal ileum of normal and prednisolone-treated rats, were homogenized and fractionated by isopycnic centrifugation on sucrose density gradients. The distributions of marker enzymes for the principal subcellular organelles, RNA and protein were determined and related to the activities per enterocyte. 2. In enterocytes fromthe jejunum and ileum of prednisolone-treated animals the activities of particulate brush-border enzymes and of both soluble and mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase were increased compared with those of the control system. The equilibrium density of the brush borders was enhanced in the prednisolone-treated jejunum. The modal densities of the other organelles were unaltered by prednisolone administration. 3. There was a large increase in the total RNA content of enterocytes from the jejunum and ileum of prednisolone-treated animals. This was predominantly associated with a distinct particulate component, indicative of a proliferation of the rough endoplasmic reticulum and consistent with an enhanced rate of protein synthesis. 4. Studies of latent brush-border enzyme activities, the mechanical fragility of isolated brush borders and electron microscopy suggest that steroid administration results in no marked alterations in the gross conformation of the brush-border membrane or in the orientation of the enzymes within the membrane.

1. We have studied the extensibility of circumferential strips of main pulmonary artery and large pulmonary veins obtained at post mortem from patients of all ages, dying from conditions other than heart and lung disease. 2. The vessel strips were submitted to increasing loads in a tension balance. The pulmonary arteries were found to be readily extensible. This extensibility became less with increasing age. The pulmonary veins were virtually inextensible at all ages. 3. It is postulated that the large extraparenchymal pulmonary veins have a capacitative role in supplying blood from the lungs to the left atrium. This may be accomplished by their collapsible nature, as they have little capability of distension.

1. In a series of patients with sickle-cell anaemia, serum phosphate and magnesium concentrations were elevated. Serum calcium concentrations were normal. Urinary excretion of calcium was decreased. 2. The maximum tubular reabsorption of phosphate per litre of glomerular filtrate (TmP/GFR) was significantly increased in these patients. 3. The increase in phosphate reabsorption explains the elevated serum phosphate observed in these patients.

1. Pulmonary and systemic haemodynamics during repeated exercise were studied in 28 patients with chronic lung disease of various etiology, 16 of whom suffered from chronic bronchitis. They performed a moderate exercise repeated after a 20 min rest period. Ventilatory variables, blood gas tensions, cardiac output and vascular pressures (right ventricular end-diastolic, pulmonary arterial, wedge and systemic arterial) were measured at rest, during exercise and again at rest and during the same exercise. 2. Ventilation and blood gas tensions were similar during the two rest and exercise periods; there was, however, a slightly significant difference in oxygen consumption and hydrogen ion concentration between the first and the second exercise period. Pulmonary arterial and wedge pressures were lower during the second rest and exercise, right ventricular filling pressure was lower at rest, and systemic arterial pressure during the second exercise. Cardiac output and pulmonary vascular resistance were unchanged. 3. Changes in systemic arterial pressure were significantly different in a group of patients with arterial oxygen desaturation or perfusion defects, compared with those patients without such impairment.

1. To study the validity of a CO2-rebreathing method at rest and during graded exercise, cardiac output was measured simultaneously on 59 occasions in 16 subjects with normal pulmonary function with the CO2-rebreathing method and the direct Fick method for oxygen. The correlation coefficient between the results of both methods was significantly higher during exercise than at rest. 2. No systematic difference was shown between (a-v)CO2 content difference determined on whole blood and end-tidal gas, which justified the exclusion of a correction factor for blood to alveolar gas PCO2 gradients. 3. In the calculation of cardiac output by the direct Fick method for CO2 and by CO2 rebreathing, a standard CO2 dissociation curve was preferred to a synthetic CO2 dissociation curve, constructed by allowance for changes in haemoglobin concentration, pH and oxygen saturation. The latter curve tended to increase values for cardiac output and induced a large dispersion around the line of identity, when compared with simultaneous cardiac output estimates by the direct Fick method for oxygen.

1. The effect of feeding with a diet containing 0.2% (w/w) hexachlorobenzene on hepatic and urinary porphyrins and hepatic cytochrome P-450 was studied at various time intervals in female Wistar rats. 2. Hexachlorobenzene administration for 45 days resulted in the development of porphyria in rats, which biochemically closely resembles symptomatic porphyria in humans, with elevation of urinary uroporphyrin excretion, hepatic uroporphyrin content, and hepatic cytochrome P-450 content, in addition to appearance of porphyrins of the isocoproporphyrin (P1) series in the faeces. 3. Spectral studies of the induced hepatic cytochrone P-450 at 45 days with carbon monoxide and ethyl isocyanide as ligands indicated the presence of a greater admixture of a haemoprotein distinct from cytochrome P-450. 4. Study in vitro of the kinetics of two reactions, namely aminopyrine N-demethylation and 3,4-benzpyrene hydroxylation, catalysed by the hepatic microsomal cytochrom P-450-dependent enzyme system, suggested that hexachlorobenzene induced a form of cytochrome P-450-dependent enzyme system, suggested that hexachlorobenzene induced a form of cytochrome P-450 with different catalytic properties from those of forms induced by either phenobarbital or 3-methylcholanthrene.

1. Acute renal failure was induced in female Sprague-Dawley rats by the subcutaneous injection of glycerol. 2. Four groups of rats were studied; all animals received a glycerol challenge. Group A (control) were sham-operated only, group B received an infusion of sodium chloride solution (150 mmol/l; saline) for 24 h, group C received an infusion containing prostaglandin E2 (PGE2, 1.7 micronmol/l) in saline and group D a solution containing PGE2 (3.4 micronmol/l) in saline. 3. All rats were killed 48 h after glycerol challenge. The degree of renal impairment was assessed by serum creatinine concentration, which did not differ in sham-operated animals and the group receiving saline alone. The group of rats receiving the lower dose dose of PGE2 has a significantly lower mean serum creatinine concentration than the saline-infused control rats (P less than 0.0025). Creatinine concentration was further lowered by the higher dose of PGE2 but there was not a significant difference in the number of rats showing severe tubular necrosis histologically. 4. The study demonstrates that intravenous infusion of prostaglandin E2 has a protective influence on glycerol-induced renal failure in the rat; the protection afforded may be due to the vasodilator effect of PGE2 and/or an effect on glomerular permeability.

1. The effect on respiration of a single dose of propranolol has been studied in normal subjects. 2. The degree of beta-adrenoreceptor blockade was assessed in terms of the impaired heart-rate response to progressive exercise and the plasma propranolol concentration. 3. No effect of propranolol was demonstrated on either the ventilatory response to rebreathing CO2 in hyperoxia, or the response to progressive isocapnic hypoxia. Simple indices of maximal expiratory flow (FEV 1.0% and PEFR) were also unchanged. 4. The absence of any effect of propranolol on the chemical control of breathing in man is discussed in relation to the conflicting literature.

1. Rats were fed with the elemental diet Vivonex for 1 or 3 months and their jejunal histology was compared with that of an equal number of rats fed on a normal diet. 2. After 1 month of Vivonex feeding a significant reduction in the ratio of crypt height: villus height (CH:VH) was found in the Vivonex-fed rats (n = 4) compared with the control rats (n = 4) (P less than 0.05). 3. After 3 months the CH:VH ratio was also reduced in the Vivonex-fed rats (n = 18) compared with control rats (n = 18) (P less than 0.002). Villus height was significantly increased (P less than 0.002) and crypt height decreased (P less than 0.05). 4. Jejunal protein content, alkaline phosphatase and disaccharidase activity were also determined in 12 control and 12 Vivonex-fed rats from the 3 months study. 5. Alkaline phosphatase activity was increased from a control value of 201 +/- 8 to 243 +/- 15 munits/cm in the Vivonex-fed rats (n = 12) (P less than 0.05) but no significant changes in lactase, sucrase or maltase activites were found. The observed decrease in the CH:VH ratio suggested an improved survival of the mature enterocyte population during elemental diet feeding.