Action of pilocarpine on the normal frog heart and in pathology

Experiments on frogs were performed to examine the effect of the M-cholinomimetic pilocarpine on the heart. It was discovered that at concentrations of 10(-15)--10(-5) g/ml pilocarpine exerted only an adverse chronotropic effect on the perfused heart. When applied at a concentration of 10(-4) g/ml the drug produced a negative as well as a positive chronotropic effect. The latter occurred spasmodically (without progressive rise in the heart rate) in association with a slow heart rate. In some experiments such effects were preceded by a certain deceleration of the heart. In experiments with positive chronotropic effects, arrhythmias and sinoatrial dissociation were observed sometimes. Experiments with recording of the electrograms of the sinuses and lower parts showed that such effects were caused not by pacemaker acceleration but by the removal of the blockade of conduction, between the pacemaker and the atria. As far as the pacemaker is concerned, pilocarpine exerted only a negative chronotropic effect.     

Collagen type I fibril packing in vivo and in vitro

Reviewed are works concerning the mechanisms of collagen (type I) fibril packing and the influence of macromolecular structure and physicochemical parameters of the medium on the process.     

Changes in mouse submaxillary glands after injection of isoproterenol in intact and depancreatized animals

The changes in the relative weight, cell area and ultrastructure of the submaxillary glands (SMG) of CBA/C57BL mice and those in the content of immunoreactive insulin-like protein (IRILP) occurring in the organ were studied. The changes were examined on day 6 after isoproterenol (ISP) injection (23 mg/100 g bw) to healthy animals (group I), on day 13 after pancreatectomy and on day 6 after injection of the indicated dose of ISP (group II), and on day 13 after pancreatectomy without ISP injection (group III). Intact animals served as control. In all the three experimental groups, the ratio between the SMG weight and the total weight of animals showed a tendency towards increase. The highest increase was recorded in group II, where the weight of the SMG was 46.1% higher than the control value. In groups II and III, the area of acinar cells increased by 49.1 and 12.5%, respectively. The area of salivary tube granular ducts decreased by 12.6% in group II and slightly increased (by 4.7% much greater than in group III. Electron microscopy demonstrated that secretory activity of the granular duct cells was enhanced in all the three groups and that secretory extrusion occurred via the apocrine (in group II animals via the holocrine as well) cells. The radioimmunoassay data suggest that IRILP content in the SMG of controls and animals entering groups I-III was 685 +/- 50, 1125 +/- 125, 914 +/- 120 and 302 +/- 66 mu units/g weight, respectively. It is concluded that the synthesis and accumulation of IRILP in the SMG after ISP injection are activated and that the formation and extrusion of IRILP after ISP injection to diabetic animals are overtly activated. Presumably ISP injection to diabetic mice facilitates the stimulation of the compensatory function of the SMG as an IRILP-producing organ.     

Heteromorphism of chromosome 1, 9 and 16 homologs in persons living in regions differing in the level of longevity

Regional and age-related peculiarities of chromosomal polymorphism are established as a result of studies in C-band heteromorphism of chromosomes 1, 9 and 16 in the long-lived subjects, their relatives and population groups of the Abkhaz and Ukrainian Republics. Heteromorphism frequencies of chromosomes 1 and 9 homologs are higher in the Abkhaz as compared with the Ukrainian Republic. Age-related differences as to the degree of expression of chromosome 9 C-band heteromorphism are found: in the Abkhaz Province the frequency of variants with a high heteromorphism degree increases with age, while in the Ukrainian one--with a low heteromorphism degree.     

Refractive index and thickness of the outer layer of particles of dispersed perfluorochemical-based blood substitutes

A calculation of the refractive index of particles of a disperse perfluorochemical-based (PFC-based) blood substitute has been made taking into account particular features of the structure of PFC emulsion particles and the equations earlier obtained by one of the authors in the studies on light interaction with optically inhomogeneous 2- and 3-layer spheres. The possibility of averaging by volume the refractive index of 2-layer emulsion particles has been shown. The refractive index of PFC particles has been experimentally determined using independent optical methods, and the thickness of the particle shell formed by a surfactant has been evaluated.     

Effect of MEA on the accumulation of DNA breaks in Bac. stearothermophilus irradiated with gamma and ultraviolet rays and treated with nitrosomethylurea

beta-Mercaptoethylamine (MEA) decreased the accumulation of enzymatic single- and double-strand breaks in DNA of thermophilic bacteria exposed to gamma- and UV-radiation and treated with N-nitroso-N-methylurea. The protective effect of MEA, as registered according to accumulation of single-strand and double-strand breaks in DNA of Bac. stearothermophilus immediately after irradiation and after 30 min postirradiation incubation, was similar.     

Big flies, small repeats: the "Thr-Gly" region of the period gene in Diptera

The region of the clock gene period (per) that encodes a repetitive tract of threonine-glycine (Thr-Gly) pairs has been compared between Dipteran species both within and outside the Drosophilidae. All the non- Drosophilidae sequences in this region are short and present a remarkably stable picture compared to the Drosophilidae, in which the region is much larger and extremely variable, both in size and composition. The accelerated evolution in the repetitive region of the Drosophilidae appears to be mainly due to an expansion of two ancestral repeats, one encoding a Thr-Gly dipeptide and the other a pentapeptide rich in serine, glycine, and asparagine or threonine. In some drosophilids the expansion involves a duplication of the pentapeptide sequence, but in Drosophila pseudoobscura both the dipeptide and the pentapeptide repeats are present in larger numbers. In the nondrosophilids, however, the pentapeptide sequence is represented by one copy and the dipeptide by two copies. These observations fulfill some of the predictions of recent theoretical models that have simulated the evolution of repetitive sequences.