R Aragno, V Bettini, L De Bartolomeis, P Fabro, P Ton, L Munari
{"title":"[Facilitation of the onset of tetanic responses induced by 4-methylesculetol in amphibian isolated neuromuscular preparations].","authors":"R Aragno, V Bettini, L De Bartolomeis, P Fabro, P Ton, L Munari","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous observations have shown that the 4-Methylesculetin (4ME) and the calcium provoke an increased response when the motor somatic and autonomic nerve-endings are stimolated. In the present research, we have studied the influence of the bioflavonoid and of an increased medium [Ca++] on the tetanic responses obtained from the isolated frog \"sciatic nerve-gastrocnemius muscle\" preparation. The 4ME has always facilitated the beginning of a complete tetanic response and has also frequently increased the developed mechanical tension. These effects appeared more evident when the bioflavonoid was employed together with the ascorbic acid. Moreover, an increased medium [Ca++] has induced similar effects. The nifedipine and the flunarizine, well-known Ca++ -antagonists, have constantly reduced or even abolished the facilitating effect induced by the bioflavonoid. On the basis of these results, we could hypothize that these observed facilitating effects are dependent on both an increased Ach-release and an increased muscle mechanical efficiency. Our previous results and also some literature data suggest that these effects could be due to an increased Ca++-passage through the cell membrane of the motor nervendings and of the muscle fibres too.</p>","PeriodicalId":75427,"journal":{"name":"Acta vitaminologica et enzymologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1985-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"14136983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The biochemical and physiological role of vitamins A and E and their interactions.","authors":"A Hanck","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The therapeutic applications of vitamin A and vitamin E are reviewed, with special references to their role in the retinal functions, epithelial differentiation and maintainance, deficiency due to liver diseases and malabsorption, antioxidant activity, membrane protection, and antiatherogenic function. The interference between the two vitamins and their synergism is discussed on the basis of the protective role of tocopherol on retinol. From experimental studies on chicken, a mathematical model linking the optimal plasma value of the two vitamins is obtained.</p>","PeriodicalId":75427,"journal":{"name":"Acta vitaminologica et enzymologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1985-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"15031103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effect of beta-carotene on mutagenic activity of some antineoplastics.","authors":"A Belisario, N Panza, G Pacilio","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mutagenic activity on Salmonella typhimurium strains of some cytostatic drugs in the absence and in the presence of beta-carotene was evaluated. Cyclophosphamide mutagenicity was reduced by the retinoid both in vitro and in vivo. Conversely, its metabolite 4'-hydroxy-cyclophosphamide, which does not require enzymatic transformation to exert genotoxic activity against bacteria, was not affected by the presence of beta-carotene. Moreover, the mutagenic activity of cis-Platinum, Adriamycin and 4'Epiadriamycin, which are typical direct-acting mutagens, was not affected by beta-carotene. Data obtained confirm that beta-carotene is able to prevent mutagenic activity of cyclophosphamide by interfering with its metabolic activation but failed to inhibit the interaction of genotoxic compounds with bacterial DNA.</p>","PeriodicalId":75427,"journal":{"name":"Acta vitaminologica et enzymologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1985-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"15031105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
V Bettini, R Martino, L Munari, F Mayellaro, P Ton
{"title":"Comparative study of mechanical responses of hepatic arteries strips to adrenalin in presence of pyridoxine and pyridoxal-5'-phosphate.","authors":"V Bettini, R Martino, L Munari, F Mayellaro, P Ton","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since it is known that PLP inhibits \"in vitro\" the COMT much more than pyridoxine; the influence of pyridoxine to the response of hepatic arteries isolated to AD has been compared to the influence of PLP to the same arteries. As for as the increase in percent is concerned, the result is that PLP gives rise to a greater answer to AD than pyridoxine. Such effects lacked when pyrogallol, a powerful COMT inhibitor, was present. Taking such results as a basis, it has been concluded that the mechanism of action of pyridoxine and of PLP was metabolic and that it was based on the COMT inhibition, even for the hepatic arteries. It was been also deduced that the higher efficiency of PLP compared to the pyridoxine's was due to its greater capacity to inhibit the COMT.</p>","PeriodicalId":75427,"journal":{"name":"Acta vitaminologica et enzymologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1985-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"14136982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Function of vitamin A in the respiratory tract.","authors":"F Chytil","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Solid old and more recent evidence reviewed here suggests strongly that vitamin A (retinol) functions as a necessary factor for the initiation and maintenance of proper differentiation of tracheal and bronchopulmonary epithelium. Recent examinations of the vitamin A status of children born prematurely may help to design an improved nutritional management of these patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":75427,"journal":{"name":"Acta vitaminologica et enzymologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1985-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"15030106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Studies on the 4-carbon compound needed for the formation of the O-xylene ring of riboflavin.","authors":"K Nakajima","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The 4-carbon compound necessary for the formation of the o-xylene ring of riboflavin, was examined using labeled glucose and diacetyl in resting cells of Eremothecium ashbyii. The specific activity-time curves of riboflavin and lumichrome in the tracer experiments with [U-14C] glucose indicated that the specific activity of riboflavin during the incubation is much higher than that of its photolytic product, lumichrome. It is far above the level expected if the ribityl moiety of an intermediate, 4-ribitylamino-5-amino-2,6-dihydroxy-pyrimidine (RAADP), was to be utilized as the source of the 4-carbon unit on the o-xylene ring of riboflavin. It was further demonstrated that the specific activities of diacetyl and lumichrome at 10.5 h of the incubation and those of crystalline riboflavin and lumichrome at the later stage (20 h) of the incubation were identical respectively. Radioactive diacetyl furthermore proved to be likewise incorporated with a two fold dilution into riboflavin and lumichrome at 17 h of the incubation. The results reveal that it is not the ribityl fragment of RAADP bu the diacetyl that is the 4-carbon unit for the formation of the pyrazine ring of 6,7-dimethyl-8-ribityllumazine, that is, the o-xylene ring of riboflavin in the mold of Eremothecium ashbyii, although we still do not know whether the diketone requiring reaction is enzymatic or non-enzymatic.</p>","PeriodicalId":75427,"journal":{"name":"Acta vitaminologica et enzymologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1985-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"15153204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vitamin A: a key nutrient for the maintenance of epithelial differentiation.","authors":"L M De Luca, D Roop, F L Huang","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Vitamin A deficiency or benzo(a)pyrene instillation into tracheas of Syrian golden hamsters causes squamous metaplasia of tracheobronchial epithelium, normally a mucous secretory tissue. In the present studies, we have employed a tracheal organ culture system and have reproduced the in vivo phenomenon of squamous metaplasia during culturing under vitamin A free conditions as well as after carcinogen treatment. The squamous metaplasia induced by vitamin A deficiency, both in vivo and in vitro, was accompanied by an overall increase in keratin synthesis. Vitamin A deficient tracheas were shown to contain keratins of 50, 48, 46.5 Kd detected with the antibody AE1, and 58, 56 and 52 Kd detected with AE3. These proteins were either absent or present in much less quantity in control tracheas. In deficient tracheas 60 kd keratin was found to be located specifically in squamous suprabasal cells, and 55 and 50 Kd keratin proteins were found in a greatly expanded basal cell compartment. Following carcinogen exposure, the appearance of 60 kd keratin and the enhanced expression of 50 and 55 Kd keratins preceded the squamoid metaplastic response as detected morphologically. Both the keratin changes and the morphological changes were prevented by retinoid treatment.</p>","PeriodicalId":75427,"journal":{"name":"Acta vitaminologica et enzymologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1985-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"13579139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Identification of thiamine diphosphate-binding proteins from rat liver supernatant.","authors":"A I Voskoboyev, I P Chernikevich","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Transketolase (EC 2.2.1.1) was shown to be the sole enzyme protein bound to thiamine diphosphate (ThDP) as coenzyme in the soluble fraction of rat liver. No new ThDP-binding proteins with the molar ratio of ThDP to protein of 1.0 were detected in the rat liver supernatant under the purification and assay conditions employed.</p>","PeriodicalId":75427,"journal":{"name":"Acta vitaminologica et enzymologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1985-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"15149367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"1-Alpha-OH-cholecalciferol (1-alpha-OH-D3) and optimal calcium intake in calcium deficiency osteoporosis mediated by parathyroid activity morphologic and biochemical changes in adult male rats.","authors":"T S Lindholm, O S Nilsson, T C Lindholm","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>By feeding adult male rats a calcium deficient diet for a period of 6 weeks osteoporosis can be induced with respect to significant changes in mass, turnover, chemical composition, and morphology of bone and parathyroid glands. When subsequently treating the osteoporotic rats with a combination of 1-alpha-OH-cholecalciferol (1-alpha-OH-D3) and optimal calcium intake osteoporosis as well as morphologic changes of parathyroids can be almost totally reversed as soon as after 2 weeks and completely after 4 and 6 weeks. Notwithstanding the change to an optimal calcium intake seems to be more important in normalizing the osteoporotic skeleton resulting from calcium deficiency than is the ingestion of 1-alpha-OH-D3, which may per se induce new bone formation.</p>","PeriodicalId":75427,"journal":{"name":"Acta vitaminologica et enzymologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1985-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"15149371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M S Mameesh, H Hathout, M A Safar, A Mahfouz, J M Al-Hassan
{"title":"Maternal plasma proteins, magnesium, zinc and copper concentration at term associated with birth size in Kuwait.","authors":"M S Mameesh, H Hathout, M A Safar, A Mahfouz, J M Al-Hassan","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The study was carried out on Arab women who were admitted for delivery to Al-Sabah Hospital in Kuwait. The concentration of maternal serum proteins and magnesium was not correlated to infant birth size. The zinc and copper concentration in maternal serum at term was positively correlated to infant birthweight, length and head circumference. The results suggested the possibility that the mothers in the present study had a marginal zinc and copper nutriture, which when combined the hemodilution due to pregnancy led to serum levels inadequate to supply the requirement of the fast growing fetus.</p>","PeriodicalId":75427,"journal":{"name":"Acta vitaminologica et enzymologica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1985-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"15202564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}