Endogenous β-adrenoreceptor blocker

Certain dilutions of human and animal serum and human liquor, urine, saliva, and amniotic fluid produce β-adrenoblocking effect, i.e., decrease the ability of epinephrine to inhibit spontaneous contractions of rat uterine myometrium. It is concluded that biological fluids contain endogenous β-adrenoblocker. Translated fromByulleten' Eksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 123, No. 3, pp. 248–252, March, 1997     

Estimation of vitamin E in plant oils by microcalorimetry

Microcalorimetric studies were performed to estimate the content of vitamin E (tocopherols) in natural plant oils. The approach used was a kinetic method of estimating vitamin E and was based on the ability of tocopherols to inhibit a liquid-phase free-radical oxidation reaction. A model reaction consisting of the initiation of cumene (isopropylbenzene) oxidation showed that fatty oils inhibit the free-radical reaction with an induction period proportional to the content of tocopherols in oils. Tocopherol contents measured here were in good agreement with values reported in the literature. Experimental curves were used to calculate oxidation inhibition rate constants; all the oils tested (cameline seed, wintercress, rapeseed, and cedar) had essentially identical values, at k ₇ = (1.4–6.8) × 10⁴ mol/liter · sec. __________ Translated from Khimiko-Farmatsevticheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 41, No. 6, pp. 49–52, June, 2007.     

The role of intracardiac hemodynamic parameters in prognosis of cardiac failure in myocardial infarction patients

Two-dimensional echocardiography was used to study intracardiac hemodynamics (end systolic, end diastolic volumes and left atrial ejection fraction; end systolic, end diastolic volumes and left ventricular fraction; mean pressure in the pulmonary artery; myocardial mass of the left ventricle) in 49 patients 2, 10 and 30 days after onset of macrofocal myocardial infarction (MI). It was found that patients with and without cardiac failure after one year of the diseases significantly differed by volume and function of the left ventricle and atrium registered since MI day 2. Probability of cardiac failure in the postinfarction period may be estimated since the disease day 2 by an increase in the end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes and left ventricular ejection fraction. A restrictive type of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction is one of the early prognostic criteria of cardiac failure in postinfarction period.     

SOFFCO, Montpellier 31 mai–2 juin 2012

Index

SOFFCO, Montpellier 31 mai–2 juin 2012 Index des auteurs     

Immune disorders in congenital hydronephrosis complicated by obstructive pyelonephritis

Congenital hydronephrotic transformation complicated by obstructive pyelonephritis with intact renal function in children exhibited association with some antigens of the major histocompatibility system and their combinations, changes in immunity and nonspecific resistance. Marked and stable shifts in immune reactivity give grounds for inclusion of immunomodulating drugs in combined treatment of the above patients.     

Sequence Similarities and Evolutionary Relationships of Influenza Virus A Hemagglutinins

This study brings the analysis of amino acid sequences of hemagglutinin (HA) from the influenza virus A that can infect a wide variety of birds and mammals. 191 sequences belonging to all known 15 HA subtypes were compared. The emphasis was given on functional sites (receptor-binding cavity with its right and left edges) and degree of their conservation in each subtype. Three evolutionary trees of 15 avian HA representatives were constructed: one tree based on the alignment of the entire HA sequences and two trees based on the alignment of HA1 and HA2 chains, respectively. The results have shown that, despite low degree of sequence similarity among the 191 sequences of HA1 subunit, the active site is well conserved, and that there are only marginal differences in the clustering of the individual HA subtypes between the two subunit trees. In this respect, the subtype H9 seems to be the most fluctuating example. The proposals of the probable avian HAs that could be the closest relatives to human (mammalian) HAs were also provided for several HA subtypes.