Morphological characteristics of cultured fresh and thawed pericardium cells

The need for selection of the optimal material for the manufacturing of cardio-patches can be resolved by the use of cryostored autologous pericardial tissue. This short communication is a concise fragment of a large-scale research and demonstrates only the efficiency of cell culturing before and after pericardial preservation in the low temperature conditions.     

Calcium-dependent isolation of the 36-kilodalton substrate of pp60src-kinase. Fractionation of the phosphorylated and unphosphorylated species

In this paper, we present a new and simple purification of the 36-kDa protein, a major substrate of both viral and growth factor-receptor associated tyrosine protein kinases, and its complex from normal and Schmidt-Ruppin strain Rous sarcoma virus-transformed chicken embryo fibroblasts that employs a DEAE-Sephacel column and introduces the calcium-dependent adsorption of 36-kDa protein. The use of EGTA step gradients differentially elutes the 36-kDa molecules from the DEAE-Sephacel column. An average total yield of the 36-kDa protein in all fractions approached 80% and represented 0.78% of the [35S] methionine-labeled cellular protein. A purity of 95-99% was obtained with a yield of 60% in the central elution fractions from normal or Rous sarcoma virus-transformed chicken embryo fibroblasts. Furthermore, 2 mM EGTA elutes poorly phosphorylated molecules while heavily phosphorylated 36-kDa protein requires 4 or 6 M EGTA; a small residual fraction is released at 8-10 mM EGTA. If the EGTA step gradients were neutralized with Ca2+ ion, elution of the 36-kDa protein is inhibited. The complex of the 36-kDa protein and the 6-10-kDa protein may not be dependent on the phosphorylation as the associated 6-10-kDa peptide is seen in all fractions containing the 36-kDa protein. Tyrosine phosphorylation of the 36-kDa protein is increased 2-3-fold following a short term incubation of whole cells with micromolar vanadate. The elution pattern (but not intensity) of the 36-kDa protein obtained from lysates of vanadate-treated cells was identical to untreated cell lysates. The additional phosphorylation appears to result from a recruitment of unphosphorylated 36-kDa protein as the position (but not intensity) of the phosphorylated tryptic peptides is unchanged. We conclude that the function of the 36-kDa protein may be calcium ion-dependent and may be influenced by the phosphorylation state of the protein.     

Microbial transformation of steroids

A systematic study of transformation reactions of Actinomycetes with respect to the progesterone molecule was undertaken. The results obtained, i.e. the types of transformation reactions in different actinomycete species, were evaluated from the point of view of taxonomy. The actinomycetes tested were divided according to the transformation types into three groups: (1) a group of species transforming progesterone in the 16α-position; (2) a group of species transforming progesterone in the β-position; (3) a group of species in which no capacity to transform progesterone into another steroid derivative was established. From the point of view of Actinomycete classification the transformation reactions on the steroid molecule fulfil all the requirements of taxonomic features of Actinomycetes. They appear to be specific properties, independent of strictly cultivation conditions and common to all the strains of individual actinomycete species tested.     

A physiological analogy of the niche for projecting the potential distribution of plants

Aim  To develop a physiologically based model of the plant niche for use in species distribution modelling. Location  Europe. Methods  We link the Thornley transport resistance (TTR) model with functions which describe how the TTR’s model parameters are influenced by abiotic environmental factors. The TTR model considers how carbon and nutrient uptake, and the allocation of these assimilates, influence growth. We use indirect statistical methods to estimate the model parameters from a high resolution data set on tree distribution for 22 European tree species. Results  We infer, from distribution data and abiotic forcing data, the physiological niche dimensions of 22 European tree species. We found that the model fits were reasonable (AUC: 0.79–0.964). The projected distributions were characterized by a false positive rate of 0.19 and a false negative rate 0.12. The fitted models are used to generate projections of the environmental factors that limit the range boundaries of the study species. Main conclusions  We show that physiological models can be used to derive physiological niche dimensions from species distribution data. Future work should focus on including prior information on physiological rates into the parameter estimation process. Application of the TTR model to species distribution modelling suggests new avenues for establishing explicit links between distribution and physiology, and for generating hypotheses about how ecophysiological processes influence the distribution of plants.     

Biomechanical rationale of coronary artery bypass grafting of multivessel disease

The biomechanical model of human coronary arteries was modified for improving the quality of diagnosis and surgical treatment for coronary heart disease. The problem of hemodynamics in the left coronary artery with multivessel bed disease – 45% stenosis of the anterior descending branch and 75% stenosis of the circumflex branch – was particularly considered. Numerical simulation of the coronary arterial bypass of the main trunk was carried out to estimate the functional condition of the coronary arteries after restoring myocardial blood supply by surgery.     

Restoration of morphological and functional integrity in the regenerating eye of the giant African land snail Achatina fulica

To determine whether vision returns to its original state following eye removal in Achatina fulica, light and electron microscope examinations, electrophysiological recordings and behavioural tests were carried out on the regenerating snails. Reparative morphogenesis can result in the restoration of the peripheral sense organ even in the absence of complete regrowth of the tentacle, but it can also lead to the formation of aberrant regenerates. We found that anatomically and ultrastructurally the eyes of the ‘most normal’ regenerates were basically the same as the original eyes. Under normal conditions each eye is composed of a principal and an accessory eye, both sharing a common cornea. The only difference between regenerated and native eyes is the smaller size of the former, as a result of a reduced number of retinal cells. Electroretinographic responses revealed that the molecular mechanism of phototransduction is restored, in principle, but that flicker fusion frequency in the regenerated eye is significantly lower than in the normal eye. The directional movement to a visual stimulus (a black stripe of 45° width) had not completely recovered even 6 months after amputation. This suggests that the central projections of the optic nerve had not become fully re‐established at the time of testing.