Semisynthetic flavocytochromes based on cytochrome P450 2B4: reductase and oxygenase activities

Endurance exercise training induces a rapid increase in the GLUT-4 isoform of the glucose transporter in muscle. In fasted rats, insulin-stimulated muscle glucose transport is increased in proportion to the increase in GLUT-4. There is evidence that high muscle glycogen may decrease insulin-stimulated glucose transport. This study was undertaken to determine whether glycogen supercompensation interferes with the increase in glucose transport associated with an exercise-induced increase in GLUT-4. Rats were trained by means of swimming for 6 h/day for 2 days. Rats fasted overnight after the last exercise bout had an approximately twofold increase in epitrochlearis muscle GLUT-4 and an associated approximately twofold increase in maximally insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity. Epitrochlearis muscles of rats fed rodent chow after exercise were glycogen supercompensated (86.4 +/- 4.8 micromol/g wet wt) and showed no significant increase in maximally insulin-stimulated glucose transport above the sedentary control value despite an approximately twofold increase in GLUT-4. Fasting resulted in higher basal muscle glucose transport rates in both sedentary and trained rats but did not significantly increase maximally insulin-stimulated transport in the sedentary group. We conclude that carbohydrate feeding that results in muscle glycogen supercompensation prevents the increase in maximally insulin-stimulated glucose transport associated with an exercise training-induced increase in muscle GLUT-4.     

Protein and RNA synthesis in larvae of the yellow mealworm beetle (Tenebrio molitor) during cooling and cold acclimatization

Adult patients with symptoms of gastric disease were randomly assigned to two treatment groups (roxatidine group, n = 115; famotidine group, n = 113) or untreated control group (placebo, n = 111). The treatment groups randomly received 75 mg of roxatidine or 20 mg of famotidine at 9 pm, and 12 - 13 h later gastric juice secretion was measured with gastric X-ray films in both groups. Mean gastric juice secretion was significantly lower in the treated groups (roxatidine, 16.1 ml/12 h; famotidine, 19.9 ml/12 h) than in the untreated controls (placebo, 49.5 ml/12 h). Gastric juice suppression by roxatidine and by famotidine, respectively, was 82% and 37% in patients with gastric ulcer; 71% and 39% in patients with duodenal ulcer; 70% and 64% in patients with gastritis; and 68% and 86% in patients with no evidence of disease. It is concluded that roxatidine was more effective than famotidine for gastric juice suppression in patients with peptic ulcer. In patients with no evidence of gastric disease, however, famotidine was more effective than roxatidine.     

Phosphate diabetes in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome

Phosphate depletion is associated with neuromuscular dysfunction due to changes in mitochondrial respiration that result in a defect of intracellular oxidative metabolism. Phosphate diabetes causes phosphate depletion due to abnormal renal re-absorption of phosphate be the proximal renal tubule. Most of the symptoms presented by patients with phosphate diabetes such as myalgia, fatigue and mild depression, are also common in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, but this differential diagnosis has not been considered. We investigated the possible association between chronic fatigue syndrome and phosphate diabetes in 87 patients who fulfilled the criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome. Control subjects were 37 volunteers, who explicitly denied fatigue and chronic illness on a screening questionnaire. Re-absorption of phosphate by the proximal renal tubule, phosphate clearance and renal threshold phosphate concentration were the main outcome measures in both groups. Of the 87 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, nine also fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for phosphate diabetes. In conclusion, we report a previously undefined relationship between chronic fatigue syndrome and phosphate diabetes. Phosphate diabetes should be considered in differential diagnosis with chronic fatigue syndrome; further studies are needed to investigate the incidence of phosphate diabetes in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and the possible beneficial effect of vitamin D and oral phosphate supplements.     

Hereditary febrile seizures: phenotype and evidence for a chromosome 19p locus

Three flagellates of the family Trypanosomatidae were isolated from mango fruits (Mangifera indica) and from the stems of clover (Trifolium glomeratum) and Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus) in southeastern Spain and were adapted to in vitro culture in monophase media. The parasites showed an ultrastructural pattern similar to that of other species of the genus Phytomonas. Mango and clover isolates differed from amaranth isolates in ultrastructural terms. The isolates were characterized by isoenzymatic analysis and by kDNA analysis using five different restriction endonucleases. With eight of the nine enzymatic systems, mango and clover isolates were distinguished from those of amaranth. Nevertheless, with the enzymes malate dehydrogenase and superoxide dismutase, flagellates isolated from clover were differentiated from those isolated from mango. Electrophoretic and restriction-endonuclease analysis of kDNA minicircles showed similar restriction cleavage patterns for the isolates from mango and clover, whereas the patterns of the amaranth isolates differed. The results of the present study confirm that the strains isolated from mango and clover constitute a phylogenetically closely related group of plant trypanosomatids, which is more distantly related to the strain isolated from amaranth. The similarities in the results obtained for isolates from mango and clover foliage, on the one hand, and those obtained from tomato and cherimoya fruits (studied previously), on the other, as well as the geographic proximity of the different plants support the contention that only one strain is involved, albeit one strain that can parasitize different plants. Furthermore, some of the plants appear to act as reservoirs for the parasites. On the other hand, the metabolism studies using [1H]-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy did not reveal that the catabolism of Phytomonas in general follows a pattern common to all the species or isolates. Phytomonas are incapable of completely degrading glucose, excreting a large part of their carbon skeleton into the medium as fermentative metabolites (acetate, ethanol, glycine, glycerol, and succinate).     

Vitamin E as a universal antioxidant and stabilizer of biological membranes

The known literature data concerning the mechanisms of molecular action of vitamin E in biological membrane systems are reviewed. The role of vitamin E, possessing a broad range of biological activities, as a universal stabilizer of biological membranes in normal oxygen metabolism and peroxidation, and also in disorders of normal metabolism resulting in pathological alterations, has been discussed. The participation of vitamin E in redox reactions taking place in lipid media, its interaction with singlet oxygen, free fatty acids and enzyme systems are considered. Physiological effects of vitamin E and its ability to prevent numerous pathologies are also considered. Vitamin E was concluded to be a universal participant of antioxidant defence reactions in biological membranes, since it acts at all stages of membrane oxidative damage.     

Projection dynamics of highly dissipative systems

Chronic GvHR was induced by inoculating parental lymphoid cells into F1 hybrid mouse. Combination of ATL and ATH, which were congenic recombinant strains differing only in H-2I and S region from each other, was chosen to induce class II-GvHR. Selective activation against partner's alloantigen of graft CD4+ T cells was the primary event of the GvHR and then led to concomitant activation of both graft and host cells. Immune dysregulation among these cells made the GvHR-mouse express various chronic diseases including immune complex glomerulonephritis, autoimmune-like lesions of the liver or the salivary gland, tumor-like proliferations of T cells and abnormal extramedullary hematopoiesis. Chronic GvHR was also induced by a preferential but not a selective activation of graft CD4+ T cells. A combination of DBA/2 and C57BL/6, which differ in whole MHC antigens, was an example. When D2 cells, but not B6 cells, were incoulated into the BDF1 mouse, predominant activation of CD4+ cells over CD8+ cells were observed. Contributing factors to this phenomenon were low responsiveness of graft CD8+ T cells to allogeneic class I MHC antigens and anti-parent activity of host CD8+ cells. Thus both graft and host cells participate either actively or passively in the reaction induced in the parent --> F1 experimental system of GvHR/D.     

The antiviral action of recombinant receptorotoxins based on the diphtheria toxin and the human T-lymphocyte CD4-receptor

Lack of uniformity in the classification of oral diseases, and variability of study designs, measurements, methods, and statistical formats, hamper the interpretation, comparison and review of the evidence linking smoking and oral diseases. However, there have been a significant number of controlled studies, allowing definitive conclusions to be drawn. This review of 22 controlled scientific studies from 1983-1992, considers the role of smoking as an aetiological agent in: gingival problems (impaired gingival bleeding, ANUG), periodontal problems (periodontitis, bone loss, tooth loss), and caries.     

Should the presence of coiled blood flow in the left heart ventricle and aorta be taken into consideration when constructing artificial heart valves?]

This study presented the outcome of 92 EOC patients treated by platinum or platinum analogue with cyclophosphamide from January 1, 1993 to December 31, 1995. There were 77 evaluable patients. The follow-up ranged from 4-42 months (median 14 months). The over all 3-year survival was 64 per cent and the median progression-free interval was 16 months for the whole group. There was no significant difference in survival between patients who received cisplatin and those who received carboplatin (P = 0.093). Patients who underwent optimal debulking surgery had significantly longer progression-free interval (P = 0.001) than those who had sub-optimal surgery. Fifty four per cent of patients with clear cell carcinoma died of the disease. Patients who received cisplatin had a drop out rate while on therapy more often (24% vs 5.3%) than that of carboplatin. Toxicities from chemotherapy were moderate but manageable.     

Transient current in amorphous, porous semiconductor-crystalline semiconductor structures

The time-of-flight technique in the weak signal mode (i.e., under conditions of small charge drift in the sample) is used to study the transient photocurrent in amorphous (porous) semiconductor-crystalline semiconductor structures. Amorphous Se-As materials, porous Si, and crystalline Si and CdSe were incorporated in the structures. The carrier drift mobilities in the amorphous and porous layers of the structures were determined. The appearance of a cusp on the curves of the transient current is shown to be caused by acceleration of carriers passing through the interface between the amorphous (porous) layer and the crystal. It is established that the carrier acceleration influences the drift mobility and the dispersion parameters. Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 32, 187–191 (February 1998)