Vitamin D and Myocardial Infarction

A detailed investigation was carried out into the consumption of vitamin D from different sources in patients who had suffered from myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, and degenerative joint diseases. Randomly selected controls of the same ages and sex were drawn from the Central Bureau of Statistics. The consumption was significantly higher in infarction patients. A daily intake of 30 μg may be the critical level. Student''s t test for trend showed increasing probability of myocardial infarction with increasing intake of vitamin D, and more infarction patients than controls had a history of kidney stone. Long-term high consumption of vitamin D may be a precipitating cause of myocardial infarction.     

Properties of a catecholaminergic system in some coelenterates. A histochemical and autoradiographic study

Properties of a catecholaminergic nervous system in a coelenterate nervous system are described. The catecholamine present shows similarities to noradrenalin but it is not identical with noradrenalin. Contrary to known vertebrate catecholaminergic systems, neither a reuptake system nor a degrading system is present in the coelenterate catecholaminergic nervous system.     

Zymosan activated plasma infusion in sheep: Effects of ethanol administration

Zymosan activated plasma infusion induces pulmonary sequestration of neutrophils and the release of TXA₂ into the pulmonary vascular bed causing profound and transient pulmonary hypertension.Since ethanol (ETOH) inhibits several inflammatory functions of neutrophils, including adherence and aggregation, we examined the ability of anesthetic doses of ETOH to alter the hemodynamic and cellular response to the infusion of zymosan activated plasma (ZAP) in vivo. Twenty five ml of autologous ZAP was intravenously infused into five control and seven (ETOH-treated sheep during mechanical ventillation. In control sheep the mean pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) transiently increased from 14.7±1.4 mm Hg (mean±SEM) to a pead of 38+8 mm Hg by three minutes after beginning the infusion of ZAP. Blood leukocyte concentration transiently decreased 19% below the baseline value due to pulmonary sequestration of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). Plasma TXB₂ levels measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA) increased from 0.2 to 5.4 ng/ml six minutes after the initiation of ZAP infusion.In five sheep, intravenous infusion of 200 ml of 96% ETOH yielded very high plasma concentrations (882±101 mg%) and completely inhibited both the rise of PAP and the increase of plasma TXB₂ levels after ZAP infusion. However, blood leukocytes transiently decreased 58% below the baseline value. Lower plasma levels of ETOH (200 and 400 mg%) did not prevent either the increase of PAP or the elevation of plasma TXB₂ after ZAP infusion.