Biochemical changes after a qigong program: lipids, serum enzymes, urea, and creatinine in healthy subjects.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study was to analyze the effects of a qigong training program on blood biochemical parameters. MATERIAL/METHODS: Twenty-nine healthy subjects participated in the study of whom 16 were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 13 to the control. The experimental subjects underwent daily qigong training for one month. Blood samples for the quantification of biochemical parameters (total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, phospholipids, GOT, GPT, GGT, urea, creatinine) were taken before and after the training program. As statistical analysis, ANCOVA was performed. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found showing that the experimental group had lower serum levels of GOT (glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase), GPT (glutamic-pyruvic transaminase), and urea and that there was a trend towards significance in GGT (gamma-glutamyltransferase). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that after practicing qigong for the short period of one month, noteworthy changes in several blood biochemical parameters were induced. While it is tempting to speculate on the relevance and implications of these biochemical variations, further investigation is needed to elucidate the scope of these findings.     

大鼠腹裂模型肠管损伤的研究

目的研究先天性腹裂的肠管受损害情况，探讨该病术后并发症的原因。方法利用大鼠腹裂模型，运用组织学、生化学和免疫组织化学方法，分析腹裂胎鼠肠管的组织结构，DNA和蛋白质，细胞增生和凋亡等方面的改变。结果共获得腹裂胎鼠16只，对照胎鼠21只。与对照组相比，腹裂鼠肠管变短、充血水肿、粘连，肠壁表面纤维覆盖，壁内胶原沉积，DNA总量下降，蛋白质总量基本不变，细胞增生率下降，凋亡率上升。结论腹裂的肠管损伤是多方面的，是术后肠管运动和吸收功能异常的原因，大鼠的腹裂模型是对先天性腹裂的病因、病理等方面研究的合适工具。     

Multiple steroid hormone levels in depressed patients and normal controls before and after exogenous ACTH

Forty depressed patients and 36 age- and sex-matched controls were given 250 μg ACTH_1–24 by bolus. Plasma steroid hormone levels were measured prior to and 60 min after ACTH administration. The depressed patients had significantly greater cortisol (F), 11-deoxycortisol (S), androstenedione (AD), and 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) responses (delta; p<0.05) and a marginally greater 11β-hydroxyandrostenedione (11β-OHAD) response (delta; p=0.091) than the controls. There was no significant difference in the corticosterone (B) response between the two groups.

With the exception of 11β-OHAD, all the steroid hormones were significantly negatively correlated with age in the controls, but only S and AD marginally demonstrated this relationship in the depressed patients. F, S, AD, 17-OHP, and B, but not 11β-OHAD, were significantly positively correlated with each other in the controls, but only F was significantly correlated with AD in the depressed patients. These data suggest that the hypercortisolemia found in some depressed patients involves increased precursor and metabolite levels both at baseline and in response to exogenous ACTH, compared to controls. Furthermore, variability in these precursors is greater in depressed patients, and their relationship to age is lost. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that adrenal products other than cortisol also could be related to affective symptoms.     

Direct measurement of the lambda of the lumped constant of the deoxyglucose method in rat brain: determination of lambda and lumped constant from tissue glucose concentration or equilibrium brain/plasma distribution ratio for methylglucose

Steady-state distribution spaces of 2-[14C]deoxyglucose ([14C]DG), glucose, and 3-O-[14C]methylglucose at various concentrations of glucose in brain and plasma ranging from hypoglycemic to hyperglycemic levels have been determined by direct chemical analyses in the brains of conscious rats. The hexose concentrations were measured chemically in freeze-blown brain extracted with ethanol to avoid the degradation of acid-labile products of [14C]DG back to free [14C]DG that has been found to occur with the more commonly used perchloric acid extraction of brain. Corrections were also made for nonphosphorylatable, labeled products of [14C]DG found in the nonacidic fractions of the brain extracts, which were previously included with the assayed [14C]DG, and for the contribution of the hexose contents in the blood in the brain, which was found to be particularly critical for the determination of the glucose distribution space, especially in hypoglycemic states. From the measured contents of the hexoses in brain and plasma, the relationships of the tissue concentrations and distribution spaces of each of the hexoses and of the lambda (i.e., ratio of tissue distribution space of DG to that of glucose) of the DG method to the tissue glucose concentration were derived. The lambda was then quantitatively related to the measured equilibrium ratio for [14C]methylglucose over the full range of brain and plasma glucose levels. By combining these new data with the values for the lumped constant, the factor that converts the rate of DG phosphorylation to glucose phosphorylation, previously determined in rats over the same range of plasma glucose levels, the phosphorylation coefficient was calculated and the lumped constant graphed as a function of the measured distribution space in brain for [14C]methylglucose.     

Modeling the dependence of hexose distribution volumes in brain on plasma glucose concentration: implications for estimation of the local 2-deoxyglucose lumped constant

The steady-state distribution volumes of glucose, 3-O-methylglucose, and 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) are known to change as the concentration of glucose in plasma ranges from hypo- to hyperglycemic values. Model estimates of the three distribution volumes were compared with distribution volume values experimentally measured in the brains of conscious rats as the concentration of glucose in plasma was varied from 2 to 28 mM. The dependence on plasma glucose concentration of the 2DG lumped constant, the factor that relates the phosphorylation rate of 2DG to the net rate of glucose utilization at unit specific radioactivity in the plasma, had been determined previously in separate series of experiments. The model was extended to incorporate this dependence of the lumped constant. In the model both the transport and the phosphorylation barriers were assumed to be single and saturable. The values of their respective half-saturation concentrations and the ratio of the two maximum velocities for glucose were assumed to be invariant over the entire range of plasma glucose concentration. Good agreement between measured and estimated values for the distribution volumes and the lumped constant was attained over the full range of plasma glucose concentration. The model estimates reflected the progressive transport limitation of the brain glucose content as plasma glucose levels were reduced to hypoglycemic values. The results also indicated that these changes should be evident in the time course of 2DG in brain following administration by bolus or continuous infusion, and thus that indexes of local lumped constant change could be derived from the time course data.     

Rapadilino syndrome

We report on a boy with severe radial hypoplasia, absent thumbs and patellae, short stature, persistent diarrhea, slender nose and normal intelligence as another example of the RAPADILINO syndrome. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Effect of dipyridamole with or without aspirin on urine protein excretion in patients with membranous glomerulonephritis

Summary The antiproteinuric effect of the antiplatelet agent dipyridamole has been assessed after inhibiton of thromboxane B₂ (TxB₂) synthesis in 8 patients with confirmed membranous glomerulonephritis. There were three study periods, each of 30 days, and 45 days apart, namely a washout period, treatment with dipyridamole 300 mg/d, and dipyridamole 225 mg/d plus aspirin 150 mg/d. On Days 1 and 30 of each study period serum and urine creatinine, 24-h excretion of protein, creatinine clearance, platelet aggregometry on whole blood and serum TxB₂ were measured. Treatment with dipyridamole alone or with aspirin produced significant inhibition of platelet aggregation and a fall in 24-h protein excretion; the latter amounted to 54% with dipyridamole alone and 56 % with dipyridamole plus aspirin (NS). Dipyridamole plus aspirin caused an 82 % reduction in serum TxB₂.     

Synthesis of poly[isobutyl (2S,3R)-3-benzyloxyaspartate]

A chiral poly(3-substituted isobutyl D -aspartate) 12 was synthesized by polymerization of the chiral β-lactam 11 derived from D -glyceraldehyde. The new polyamide was characterized by elemental analyses, and infrared, ¹H- and ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies. The molecular weight was estimated as 543 000 and 230 000 on the basis of viscosimetric measurements and gel-permeation chromatography, respectively. Polyamide 12 is soluble in a variety of organic solvents including chloroform.