Differences in Primary Cellular Factors Influencing the Metabolism and Distribution of 3,5,3′-L-Triiodothyronine and L-Thyroxine

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The Interaction of 2,3-Diphosphoglycerate with Various Human Hemoglobins

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Abnormal serum growth hormone response to exercise in juvenile diabetics

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Groups of male nonobese juvenile diabetics with recent onset, short term (1-8 yr), and long-term (12-30 yr) diabetes as well as comparable nondiabetic controls were studied during exercise experiments. The chosen exercise load, 450 kg/min for 20 min never induced changes in serum growth hormone in our nondiabetic control subjects.

Authors

Aage Prange Hansen

Lipid droplets in atherosclerotic fatty streaks of human aorta

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Preparations of lipid droplets and droplet-free tissue residue (cytoplasm + membranes + nuclei) were obtained by homogenization and centrifugal separation from intimal fatty streak lesions of aortic atherosclerosis of 21 adults who had died suddenly. Neutral lipids and phospholipids were analyzed by quantitative thin-layer chromatography and cholesteryl ester fatty acids by gas-liquid chromatography. Optical properties of droplets were evaluated by differential counting and sizing procedures with the polarizing microscope. The droplets occurred in mixtures of two forms distinguished by their optical properties, anisotropic (i.e. liquid crystals) and isotropic (true liquids). Both forms had average diameters of about 1.8 μ, with a range of 0.5-5μ. The proportions of the two forms varied with temperature as individual droplets changed their form; anisotropic forms averaged 83.7% at °C and 37.8% at 37°C, with isotropic forms being 16.3 and 62.2% respectively. The proportions of anisotropic forms at 22°C decreased with age. These forms were not separated for chemical analysis. The droplets contained about half the lipid in the lesions. The composition of the lipids of the droplet mixture was remarkably uniform and strikingly different from that of the droplet-free residue, respectively: cholesteryl esters 94.9% vs. 38.7%, free cholesterol 1.7% vs. 18.6%, total phospholipids 1.0% vs. 38.6%, and triglycerides 2.4% vs. 4.0%. The proportions of individual phospholipids, with the exception of lysolecithin, were also different between the preparations. In the droplets only the proportions of lecithin correlated positively with the proportion of anisotropic forms (at 22°C). Droplet cholesteryl esters were particularly rich in oleic acid and when compared to residue esters had more palmitoleic (+0.7%), oleic (+12.3%), and eicosatrienoic (+2.4%) and less palmitic (-2.2%), linoleic (-12.4%), and arachidonic (-1.6%) acids. The proportions of most individual fatty acids of droplets and residue correlated positively. The lipids of the residue closely resemble those reported for the normal intima.

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P. Dieter Lang, William Insull Jr.

Utilization of long-chain free fatty acids by human platelets

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There was a rapid net uptake of free fatty acid (FFA) by human platelets when long-chain FFA, bound to human serum albumin, were incubated with platelet suspensions. Results from experiments in which both palmitate and albumin were labeled indicated that the fatty acid dissociated from the protein during uptake. Much of the FFA taken up by the platelet in short-term incubations remained in unesterified form, i.e., it was recovered as platelet FFA. As the incubation continued, increasing amounts of FFA were oxidized to CO2 and incorporated into platelet lipid esters, particularly lecithin. Essentially all of the fatty acid that was incorporated into the platelet FFA fraction was released rapidly from the cells when they were exposed to a medium containing FFA-free albumin. The magnitude of uptake into the platelet FFA fraction was similiar at 0° and 37°C. Likewise, the rate and magnitude of FFA release from the platelet were similar at 0° and 37°C. Therefore, it is likely that both FFA uptake and FFA release occur by energy-independent mechanisms. The major effect of increasing the FFA concentration of the incubation medium was increased fatty acid uptake into the platelet FFA fraction. Similar results occurred when platelets were incubated in human plasma containing increasing amounts of added palmitate. At a given extracellular FFA concentration, considerably more of the saturated fatty acids, palmitate and stearate, were taken up as platelet FFA than either oleate or linoleate.

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Arthur A. Spector, John C. Hoak, Emory D. Warner, Glenna L. Fry

Variations in human urinary O-hydroxylysyl glycoside levels and their relationship to collagen metabolism

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Two O-hydroxylysyl glycosides, Hyl-Gal-Glc and Hyl-Gal, have been isolated from normal human urine and shown to be identical to two glycosides isolated from alkaline hydrolysates of collagen. A relatively sample and reproducible analytical procedure has been devised to measure the levels of these glycosides in human urine. By the use of this procedure it was shown that a normal diet has only a small effect on 24-hr urinary excretion levels of these glycosides indicating an endogenous origin. Urinary glycoside levels appear to be highest in children, roughly paralleling collagen turnover as indicated by urinary hydroxyproline levels. Collagen turnover equivalents calculated from urinary hydroxylysyl glycoside levels were found to be significantly larger than collagen turnover equivalents calculated from urinary hydroxyproline levels. This suggests that urinary glycosides are more quantitative indicators of collagen metabolism than urinary hydroxyproline.

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Jere P. Segrest, Leon W. Cunningham

Effects of chronic potassium deficiency on plasma renin activity

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Serial determinations of plasma renin activity, sodium balance, urinary potassium excretion rate, and plasma sodium and potassium concentration were done in five dogs during dietary-induced potassium depletion and repletion. Duration of depletion for the different animals ranged from 5 to 7 wk.

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Peter H. Abbrecht, Arthur J. Vander

Factors affecting the response to insulin in the normal subhuman pregnant primate

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The concentrations of plasma glucose, free fatty acids, insulin, growth hormone, and placental prolactin in subhuman primate fetal and maternal plasma were examined following intravascular administration of insulin and glucagon to the fetus and mother. The neonatal plasma responses to these same stimuli were also examined.

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Ronald A. Chez, Daniel H. Mintz, Edgar O. Horger III, Donald L. Hutchinson

Leukocytic function in hypogammaglobulinemia

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The phagocytic, bactericidal, and metabolic capabilities of circulating blood leukocytes from three adults (two males, one female) with hypogammaglobulinemia and recurrent pneumonia, chronic sinusitis, and intestinal giardiasis were studied. These functions were found to be normal when leukocytes from the patients were incubated in media containing normal human serum. Phagocytosis of Staphylococcus albus and polystyrene balls by both patient and normal leukocytes was diminished when the cells were incubated in hypogammaglobulinemic plasma. A similar defect in opsonization by patient plasma was also noted for pneumococci, Escherichia coli and variably with Staphylococcus aureus. Both patient and normal sera had equivalent levels of heat-labile S. albus opsonins; normal serum, however, contained heat-stable S. albus-specific absorbable opsonins in significantly greater quantities to account for its superior opsonic capacity. The addition of commercial gamma globulin or purified IgG to hypogammaglobulinemic sera restored full S. albus opsonic activity. The relevancy of these observations to the impaired host defenses in these patients will be discussed.

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Ira D. Mickenberg, Richard K. Root, Sheldon M. Wolff

Effects of increasing left ventricular filling pressure in patients with acute myocardial infarction

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Left ventricular performance in 19 patients with acute myocardial infarction has been evaluated by measuring left ventricular response in terms of cardiac output, stroke volume, work, and power to progressive elevation of filling pressure accomplished by progressive expansion of blood volume with rapid infusion of low molecular weight dextran. Such infusion can elevate the cardiac output, stroke volume, work, and power and thus delineate the function of the left ventricle by Frank-Starling function curves. Left ventricular filling pressure in the range of 20-24 mm Hg was associated with the peak of the curves and when the filling pressure exceeded this range, the curves became flattened or decreased. An increase in cardiac output could be maintained for 4 or more hr. Patients with a flattened function curve had a high mortality in the ensuing 8 wk. The function curve showed improvement in myocardial function during the early convalescence. When left ventricular filling pressure is monitored directly or as pulmonary artery end-diastolic pressure, low molecular weight dextran provides a method for assessment of left ventricular function.

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Richard O. Russell Jr., Charles E. Rackley, Jaoquin Pombo, David Hunt, Constantine Potanin, Harold T. Dodge

Chromate transport in human leukocytes

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Chromium is a trace metal of importance in human physiology and, in addition, as 51-chromate, has been extensively used as a label in the study of blood cell pool sizes and intravascular kinetics. The transport characteristics of 51-chromate were investigated in normal human leukocytes. Chromate uptake is unidirectional over a 1 hr incubation with extracellular chromate concentrations up to 200 μmoles/liter. Under these conditions, intracellular 51-chromium is in a form in which it is nonexchangeable. Influx is temperature sensitive with a Q10 of approximately 2 and may be energy dependent since a variety of metabolic poisons strongly inhibit uptake. The unidirectional influx of chromate follows Michaelis-Menten kinetics; the maximum velocity is 52 mμmoles/g dry weight of cells per min and the chromate concentration at which influx velocity is half maximal is 87 μmoles/liter. This transport mechanism is highly specific for chromate; other divalent tetrahedral anions only slightly inhibit influx at concentrations up to 10 times that of chromate. Metavanadate, however, competitively inhibits chromate influx at equimolar concentrations. Exposure of cells to unlabeled chromate leads to inhibition of subsequent influx of 51-chromate. It is suggested that this is due to a primary inhibitory effect of chromate on cellular energy metabolism.

Authors

David L. Lilien, Jerry L. Spivak, I. David Goldman

Pancreozymin bioassay in man based on pancreatic enzyme secretion: potency of specific amino acids and other digestive products

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The ability of products of digestion to stimulate pancreozymin secretion in man was investigated using a bioassay procedure, based on duodenal perfusion, which quantified the total outputs of pancreatic enzymes evoked by intraduodenal stimuli under steady-state conditions. Patterns of response resulting from physiologic intraduodenal concentrations of test material were basal output (with isotonic saline), washout of enzymes (with dextrose, micellar fatty acid, and amino acids), and sustained output of enzymes (with amino acids and micellar fatty acid). The sustained secretion of pancreatic enzymes found during the 2nd hr of perfusion and subsequently was characteristic of pancreozymin-induced secretion. The enzyme output in response to a mixture of essential and nonessential amino acids was significantly higher than that evoked by micellar fatty acid and was comparable with that resulting from the maximally tolerated dose of pancreozymin given by vein.

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Vay L. W. Go, Alan F. Hofmann, W. H. J. Summerskill

The role of interferon in the protective effect of a synthetic double-stranded polyribonucleotide against intranasal vesicular stomatitis virus challenge in mice

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Intravenous injection of polyinosinic acid/polycytidylic acid [(poly rI)·(poly rC)] offered significant protection against intranasal challenge of young mice with vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). Optimal protection was obtained when a single dose was administered 2 hr before virus challenge, but repeated doses were effective when started as late as 3 days after virus challenge. The therapeutic ratio or ratio of maximum tolerated dose to minimum effective dose for a single intravenous injection of (poly rI)·(poly rC) 2 hr before virus inoculation was ≥8 mg/kg:0.004 mg/kg or ≥200.

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Erik De Clerco, Marc R. Nuwer, Thomas C. Merigan

Factor V anticoagulants: clinical, biochemical, and immunological observations

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A patient who had received multiple transfusions for complications of acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis developed a potent factor V anticoagulant with bleeding due to defective hemostasis. Despite its potency, the anticoagulant disappeared within 15 days of its first manifestation. A second patient with adenocarcinoma of the colon developed an anticoagulant to factor V postoperatively after a single blood transfusion. The anticoagulants appeared to react stoichiometrically with factor V in normal plasma in vitro. They had the physicochemical properties of immunoglobulins, and their activity was neutralized by antihuman immunoglobulin antiserum. One anticoagulant appeared to be slightly more active against homologous than against autologous factor V, but it also inhibited heterologous factor V. Both anticoagulants progressively inactivated intrinsic prothrombin activator formed from normal reagents in the incubation mixture of the thromboplastin generation test, thus confirming that factor V is required for the effective action of the intrinsic prothrombin activator. Since the anticoagulants were immunoglobulins whose activity was consumed in their reaction with factor V, consumption of anticoagulant activity was used to detect factor V antigenic material in test materials. Human serum without factor V clotting activity was found to consume anticoagulant activity, i.e., to contain inactive factor V antigenic material. Plasma from two patients with hereditary factor V deficiency (parahemophilia) failed to consume significant anticoagulant activity. Thus, the lack of factor V activity in these patients represents a deficiency of factor V molecules rather than the synthesis of a defective molecule with impaired clotting activity.

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Donald I. Feinstein, Samuel I. Rapaport, William G. McGehee, Mary Jane Patch

Immunologic responses of graft recipients to antilymphocyte globulin: effect of prior treatment with aggregate-free gamma globulin

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The immunologic response of graft recipients to antilymphocyte globulin has been studied. The clearance from the serum of 125I-labeled antilymphocyte globulin was studied in 15 graft recipients previously treated with antilymphocyte globulin and in 4 control patients not previously treated with antilymphocyte globulin. The mean serum half-life of antilymphocyte globulin was 7.2 days in control patients, 3.8 days in 13 renal graft recipients, and 22 hr in 2 heart graft recipients. All but one of the antilymphocyte globulin-treated patients had rapid clearance. Patients treated with equine antilymphocyte globulin had rapid clearance of rabbit and goat antilymphocyte globulin as well as horse antilymphocyte globulin. All patients with rapid clearance of antilymphocyte globulin had circulating antibodies to xenogeneic gamma globulin. Two patients with rapid clearance of antilymphocyte globulin had circulating complexes of antilymphocyte globulin.

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Marc E. Weksler, Geoffrey Bull, Gabriel H. Schwartz, Kurt H. Stenzel, Albert L. Rubin

Guanethidine and related agents: III. Antagonism by drugs which inhibit the norepinephrine pump in man

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Antagonism of the antihypertensive action of guanethidine by the tricyclic antidepressants, desipramine and protriptyline, has been demonstrated in controlled studies. These antidepressants also prevent the effect of the related ring-substituted guanidinium adrenergic neuron blockers, bethanidine and debrisoquin. That the rise in blood pressure when desipramine is added to guanethidine therapy is not due simply to a pressor action of the two drugs in combination was demonstrated by the lack of an increase in blood pressure when guanethidine was added to desipramine therapy.

Authors

Jerry R. Mitchell, John H. Cavanaugh, Luis Arias, John A. Oates