Alkaloids from the leaves of Strychnos wallichiana

The leaves of Strychnos wallichiana Steud. ex. DC. from Bangladesh contain icajine and novacine as their major alkaloids. Smaller amounts of strychnine, brucine, pseudostrychnine, pseudobrucine, N-methyl-sec.-pseudo-β-colubrine, 14-hydroxyicajine, strychnine N-oxide, and brucine N-oxide are also present. The new bases 14 hydroxynovacine and icajine N-oxide have been isolated.     

Comparative Effect of Oxygen and Nitrate on Protoporphyrin and Heme Synthesis from Δ-Amino Levulinic Acid in Bacterial Cultures

Pseudomonas aeruginosa and P. denitrificans accumulate more protoheme and considerably more protoporphyrin during anaerobic growth under denitrifying conditions than during aerobic growth. In Escherichia coli, the small accumulation of protoporphyrin and protoheme which occurs during anaerobic growth is slightly stimulated by nitrate and markedly stimulated by oxygen.     

Presence of sex steroid receptors in normal breast of human females.

Receptors for estradiol, progesterone and dihydrotestosterone have been demonstrated in normal growing breasts of young females below 25 years.     

Differential susceptibilities of spinal cord neurons to retinoic acid-induced survival and differentiation

In a previous study, we demonstrated trophic effects of vitamin A and its active metabolite, retinoic acid (RA), on perinatal rat spinal cord neurons and astrocytes in vitro. We now report that RA increases the survival of cholinergic neurons without affecting that of GABAergic neurons. These results were supported by measured levels of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) activities, key enzymes of acetylcholine and gamma-aminobutyric acid metabolism, respectively, which showed RA-induced increases in AChE and ChAT levels but no elevations of GAD activity. In contrast to these phenotype-specific effects, most neurons showed RA-induced increases in neuritic outgrowth, density, and silver impregnation. Taken together, these results demonstrate neurotransmitter-specific and generalized effects of RA on developing CNS neurons.