Generation of blood anticoagulant and fibrinolytic activity after intravenous administration of protein C-a in rats

Protein C--vitamin K-dependent protein of the blood coagulation system possessing anticoagulant and fibrinolytic activities was under investigation. Activated partial thromboplastin time was shown to prolong to 214 +/- 8.9% from the first minute after intravenous administration of 0.51 mg per rat bovine protein Ca. After 5 minutes the activity of plasminogen activators increased to 339 +/- 52.8%. Both effects gradually diminished and came back to the starting level within 60-90 minutes. The factor V activity reduced two-fold and didn't return to basal level. We propose that protein Ca reveals its enzymatic activity within first minutes after administration and is blocked then with its inhibitor.     

Skeletal growth and aging parameters due to heredity at different stages of ontogeny

Two hundred and twenty twins of Ukrainian ethnic group have been examined (89 monozygotic (MZ) and 131 dizygotic (DZ) pairs) during peripubertal (42 MZ and 69 DZ) and mature (47 MZ and 69 DZ) age periods. Of them: 94 are male pairs (31 MZ and 62 DZ) and 126 female (58 MZ and 68 DZ) pairs. The program including 16 anthropometric, 48 osteometric and 8 osteoscopic signs has been performed according to the recommendations suggested by D. G. Rokhlin (1936), V. V. Bunak (1941) and B. A. Nikityuk (1968). The hereditary influence on the longitudinal anthropometric signs decreases in mature age with a simultaneous increase of these influences on weight parameters and transversal dimensions of the trunk. Transition from the peripubertal to the mature age is characterised by a decrease of genetic effects on highly-hereditable osteometric signs and an increasing effect of heredity on the skeletal ageing signs. The degree of hereditarily-dependent skeletal ageing is higher in the I mature than in the II mature age, and in the female it is higher than in the male group.     

The generation of active microbicidal forms of oxygen by leukocytes transiting the vascular bed of the lungs

In experiments on dogs using the chemiluminescent method and nitroblue-tetrazole reaction the authors found out that leucocytes while passing through the pulmonary vessels bed, in contrast to the spleen increase the generation of active microbicidal forms of oxygen. Due to this fact we suppose that the lungs may take part in the formation of free radical status and phagocytic antiinfectious defence of the organism.     

Morphometric characteristics of hepatocyte mitochondria during internal administration of boron-containing water

The changes of hepatic mitochondrial cells were studied in white male rats during internal application of boron-containing waters, having 250 mg/l concentration of boron, but different ionic-salt basis. Mitochondrial hepatocytes and hepatic boron content relationships were established. It was shown that during boron accumulation in liver (15 applications) decreasing of mitochondrial size occurred, independently, of the type of boron-containing waters. During stable boron level and particularly during its excretion from organism (24 applications, 6 days aftereffect), increase of size of mitochondria and their ellipticity, change of configuration, that depend on the type of applied waters was shown.     

Structure of the Escherichia coli 0104 polysaccharide and its identity with the capsular K9 polysaccharide

Spontaneous mutants of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viciae strain C1204b were selected for their ability to tolerate 0.2 M NaCl, a growth-inhibiting level of salt for the parental strain. Transposon-mediated salt-sensitive mutants of strain C1204b were screened for their inability to grow in 0.08 M NaCl. Quantitation of the free-amino acid pools in the mutants grown in NaCl revealed a dramatic increase in glutamine, serine, glutamate and proline, and to a lesser extent alanine and glycine in the salt-tolerant mutants in comparison with the parental strain exposed to NaCl; but only glutamate and proline increased in the salt-sensitive mutants under NaCl stress. Extracellular polysaccharide levels were quantitated for the salt-tolerant mutants and determined to be approximately two-fold higher than for the parental strain. Although the mutations that occurred in the NaCl-tolerant and NaCl-sensitive strains did not interfere with nodule formation, no nitrogenase activity could be observed in the NaCl tolerant mutants as evaluated by acetylene reduction.     

Fatty acyl moieties: improving Pro-rich peptide uptake inside HeLa cells.

In the field of drug delivery there has been a continuous study of powerful delivery systems to aid non permeable drugs in reaching their intracellular target. Among the systems explored are cell penetrating peptides (CPPs), which first garnered interest a decade ago when the interesting translocation properties of the pioneer CPPs Tat and Antp were described. A new family of CPPs has recently been described as non cytotoxic Pro-rich vectors with favorable profiles for internalization in HeLa cells. Fatty acyl moieties that can tune a peptide's interaction with the lipophilic environment of a cell membrane have been incorporated into the Pro-rich sequence. Improvements in cellular uptake of peptides modified with fatty acyl groups, as studied by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry, as well as the results obtained by the interaction of these peptides with a model dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) membrane and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), illustrate the importance of the fatty acyl moieties for efficient internalization.