Intraaortic administration of protamine: Method for heparin neutralization after cardiopulmonary bypass

In neutralizing heparin with intravenous protamine sulfate, hypotension may be prevented by administering the drug intraarterially. Forty patients underwent cardiac surgery with extracorporeal circulation in our hospital; each received a rapid injection of nondiluted protamine sulfate in the aortic root to reverse the effects of heparin. To maintain the blood volume at a constant level, volume expanders and inotropic drugs were avoided. The intraaortic injections ranged in duration from 0.2 min to 2.8 min, with a mean of 1.1 min. The mean systolic pressure only dropped from 92 mm Hg (SD +/- 21) before protamine injection to 85 mm Hg (SD +/- 23) after injection (p < 0.0001). In seven patients (18%), no hypotension was evident; in the remaining patients, the systolic pressure returned to preinjection values within a mean of 2.2 min. Coagulation was observed within 3 to 4 min (mean = 2.2 min) after the initiation of injection. This study indicates that intraaortic administration of protamine is a rapid and safe technique for heparin reversal after cardiopulmonary bypass.     

Potassium Chloride as Stomatal Osmoticum in Allium cepa L., a Species Devoid of Starch in Guard Cells

K⁺ and Cl⁻ contents of guard cells and of ordinary epidermal cells were determined in epidermal samples of Allium cepa L. by electron probe microanalysis; malate contents of the same samples were determined by enzymic oxidation. KCl was, in general, the major osmoticum in guard cells, irrespective of whether stomata had opened on leaves or in epidermal strips floating on solutions. The solute requirement varied between 50 and 110 femtomoles KCl per micrometer increase in aperture per pair of guard cells. Stomata did not open on solutions of K iminodiacetate, presumably because its anion could not be taken up. Stomata opened if KCl or KBr was provided. Taken together, the results indicate that the absence of starch from guard cells deprived them of the ability to produce malate in amounts of osmotic consequence and that the presence of absorbable Cl⁻ (or Br⁻) was necessary for stomatal opening.     

Development of Enzymes Involved in Photosynthetic Carbon Assimilation in Greening Seedlings of Maize (Zea mays)

Upon illumination of dark-grown maize seedlings (5 days old) with incandescent light, there occurred a nearly simultaneous increase, after a certain lag period, in the activities of enzymes engaged in the C₄ pathway and the Calvin-Benson cycle. The light-induced biosynthesis of chlorophyll (a and b) precedes the increase in enzyme activities and proceeds without lag phase. A diphasic feature in the elevation of enzyme activities as a function of the intensities of light provided was observed; the increase in enzyme activities was enhanced by light intensities greater than 10³ ergs per square centimeter per second in comparison with light of lower intensities. Under light intensities greater than 10³ ergs per square centimeter per second, the simultaneous addition of levulinic acid, which inhibited chlorophyll formation, markedly reduced the increase of enzyme activities. However, neither the diphasic light effect nor the inhibitory effect of levulinic acid was observed with ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase. The enzyme activities in the dark-grown maize seedlings were enhanced by a brief irradiation with the red light and the red light effect was reversed by the following far red light treatment. The red light-induced increase in the enzyme activities did not accompany chlorophyll synthesis, and was completely inhibited by cycloheximide, indicating that enzyme synthesis rather than activation might be involved. Light may play a dual role in enzyme induction; one is as an energy source through the photosystems at high intensities and the other is presumably as a signal mediated by phytochrome at low intensities.     

油橄榄下胚轴诱导完整植株

油橄榄离体茎培养出根已有报道,但无诱导完整植株的试验结果。我们以油橄榄下胚轴、子叶、胚根、嫩茎、茎尖和叶片等作为外植体进行了试验,除从茎尖诱导发生小植株外(待发表),在下胚轴上也已诱导出完整植株。从甘蓝下胚轴诱导发生小植株已有报道,本文就油橄榄下胚轴诱导完整植株作简要报道。油橄榄(Olea europaea L.)种子经消毒处理后,通过无菌培养得到无菌苗。在幼苗下胚轴伸长到2—3厘米时,在无菌条件下切除茎尖、子叶     

黄海表层沉积物的孢粉、藻类组合

黄海是位于我国大陆与朝鲜半岛之间的一个陆架浅海。其表层沉积的孢粉、藻类分布可分为四个孢粉区:1.蒿—藜—禾本科孢粉区;2.松—栎—草本花粉—刺球藻孢粉区;3.松—椭球藻—栎—蕨属—凤尾蕨孢粉区;4.松—栎—凤尾蕨—椭球藻孢粉区。通过整个海区表层沉积的孢粉、藻类研究,着重探讨了:表层沉积孢粉组合和陆缘植被的关系;再沉积孢粉化石与海盆物质来源;刺球藻、椭球藻的分布与水深的关系;硅藻分布与深度、水团的关系;红树植物花粉与海流。     

一种具有加工潜力的水果—印度枳

印度枳(Aegle marmelos(L.)Correa)属芸香科(Rutaceae),是印度的一种土产水果,生长在整个印度半岛,和斯里兰卡、巴基斯坦、孟加拉、缅甸、泰国等东南亚大多数国家。印度枳是一种相当耐寒的亚热带落叶果树,在各种土壤、气候条件下(沼泽土——干旱土)都能生长良好,并能耐碱性土,气温低至-7℃也不致受冻害。在印度,这种果树尚未有生产性栽培,因此种植范围不广,目前主要是野生或种在     

Post-partum release of prostaglandin F(2alpha) and uterine involution in the cow

Peripheral plasma levels of the main blood plasma metabolite of PGF(2alpha) (15-keto-13,14-dihydro-PGF(2alpha)) and progesterone were investigated during the immediate, post-partum period in 59 normally calving cows. Uterine involution was monitored by weekly rectal palpations. The levels of the prostaglandin metabolite were high at parturition and remained thereafter elevated for periods varying up to 7-23 days. Uterine involution was completed during periods ranging from 16-53 days. According to the clinical findings, the animals were divided into three groups. Group A comprises 46 animals which had an uncomplicated, puerperal period. A significant (p<0.001) correlation between the duration of elevated prostaglandin levels and the time for completed uterine involution (Y=29.6 - 1.3 (X - 13.5)) was found for these animals. Group B animals (n=8) had periods of varying length with uterine discharge during the first 30 days post-partum. When compared to group A animals, the animals in group B had comparatively longer periods of prostaglandin release and also longer periods for completion of uterine involution. Group C animals (n=5) at times had palpable, thin-walled, cystlike structures in the ovaries during the first 30 days post-partum. In this group of animals, the periods of high prostaglandin levels, as well as for the completion of uterine involution, were similar to those for the animals in group A. Progesterone levels remained low during the immediate post-partum period and in no case were elevated levels found until the prostaglandin release had ceased.     

Motion of the lengthened zwitterionic head groups of C16-lecithin analogues in aqueous solutions as studied by dielectric relaxation measurements

Phosphatidyl choline analogues with increased phosphate-trimethylammonium distance were synthesized and aqueous solutions of these bilayer forming phospholipids were prepared. Dielectric spectra of the solutions were measured at several temperatures around the crystalline/liquid-crystalline phase transition temperature of the samples. The observed data are treated in terms of a Debye relaxation function and also of a relaxation function based on a theoretical model of the aqueous solutions of multibilayer vesicles. As a noteworthy result, a pronounced cooperativity effect in the diffusive motions of the zwitterionic head groups emerges. The degree of cooperativity depends on the radius of curvature of the multibilayer vesicles and also on the length of the phospholipid zwitterions. The values for the mobility of the trimethylammonium group are of the same order of magnitude as those for the mobility of whole phospholipid molecules in its lateral diffusive motion. Indications for a phase transition at a temperature above the main transition temperature are found with solutions of C_16⁻ lecithin analogues with 9 and 10 methylene groups between the phosphate and the trimethylammonium group.