Physical work capacity and effect of endurance training in visually handicapped boys and young male adults

Summary The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between several physical fitness parameters and eyesight divided into 3 grades in visually handicapped boys and young male adults, and to investigate the effect of mild exercise training on physical and psychic symptoms as well as cardiorespiratory fitness. Four subjects were totally blind (TB), 6 were semi-blind (SB) and 27 had amblyopia (AM). Physical fitness tests consisted of maximal oxygen uptake (V _{O 2max}), maximal pedalling speed and power, maximal stepping rate, and isometric knee extention strength. Compared with AM and SB groups, the TB group was inferior in all physical fitness parameters. Especially,V _{O 2max} in TB (26 ml · kg^–1 · min^–1) was about 56% of that in agematched Japanese sighted subjects and was significantly low compared with the AM and SB groups. Both muscle strength and maximal pedalling power corresponded to about 50% that of the age-matched sighted group. Six SB and 4 TB students (¯x=17.7 years) were trained for 6 weeks on a bicycle ergometer at an intensity of 50%V _{O 2max}. Training was undertaken for 3 days per week and maintained for 60 min per session. After training, physical and psychic symptoms determined by the Cornell Medical Index improved significantly. These results indicate that low physical work capacity in visually handicapped boys and young male adults is due to the lack of physical activity, and that mild endurance training is effective in improving physical and psychic symptoms as well as cardiorespiratory fitness.     

Effect of a new inhibitor of lipid peroxidation on kidney function after ischaemia-reperfusion. A study on rat and rabbit kidneys

Lipid peroxidation of mitochondrial and cell membrane structures is the final step in the oxygen radical-induced damage observed at reperfusion of kidneys after ischaemia. We compared the ability of an indeno-indol compound (code name H290/51) with that of α-tocopherol to inhibit lipid peroxidation in reoxygenated isolated rat renal tissue in vitro measured as production of TBARS (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances). H290/51 was 100 times more efficient than α-tocopherol. Treatment of rats in vivo with H290/51 in a dosage giving a plasma concentration of 500 nmol L^-1 inhibited TBARS production measured in vitro by 80%. Treatment of rabbits with H290/51 almost completely inhibited radical production at reperfusion after 60 min of ischaemia measured with spin trap technique using OXANOH (2-ethyl-3-hydroxy-2,4,4-trimethyloxazolidine) as a spin trap. Furthermore, such pretreatment significantly improved kidney function and survival of rabbits subjected to 60 min of ischaemia to the left kidney and contralateral nephrectomy. These studies stress the importance of inhibiting lipid peroxidation to prevent the ischaemia-reperfusion damage and furthermore suggest a role for treatment with antioxidants like H290/51 in clinical practice, e.g. at reconstructive renal surgery and transplantation.     

Priming effect of RANTES on eosinophil oxidative metabolism

Background RANTES has been shown to possess chemotactic activity for eosinophils, which have also been considered to play a role in allergic inflammation through reactive oxygen species. Thus, in this study, we examined the effect of RANTES on radical oxygen products from eosinophils.
Methods Purified eosinophils by CD16-negative selection or an eosinophilic cell line (EoL-1) were incubated with or without RANTES (2.5 x 10⁻⁶). To the mixture of eosinophils and luminol, calcium ionophore (A23187) or opsonized zymosan (OZ) was added, and radical oxygen products were determined by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence for 600 s.
Results Eosinophil-mediated radical oxygen products of untreated eosinophils produced with A23187 gave a peak value of 14.09 + 2.40 (mean±SE, n = 12) relative light units (RLU) and an integrated value of 3232.20 + 513.09 RLU. However, with treatment with RANTES, a peak value of 18.66 + 2.40 RLU and an integrated value of 5301.05 ±561.02 RLU were obtained. Eosinophil oxidative metabolism-induced A23187 or OZ was apparently augmented by the preincubation with RANTES. In addition, the radical oxygen products of EoL-1 showed similar results.
Conclusions Thus, we concluded that RANTES may play an important role the pathogenesis of allergic inflammation through its involvement in eosinophil activation, as evidenced by oxygen products, as well as in selective eosinophil infiltration as selective eosinophil chemoattractant.     

Flavor preferences,food intake,and weight gain in baboons (Papio sp.)

To evaluate the influence of flavor on ad lib consumption and on associated changes in body weight, female baboons, 7–15 years of age, served in two experiments with seven monkey chows which were identical except for flavor: lemon, orange, apple, sugar, fruit punch, chocolate, and unflavored. In the first experiment, two groups of animals (n=7 and 4) received five of the seven flavors, presented in daily pair-wise combinations. Analysis of quantities consumed demonstrated marked and consistent flavor preferences in individual baboons. Although specific preference varied between animals, total amounts consumed of the various flavors differed significantly, with rank ordering clearly evident. Overall food intake and body weights increased significantly over baseline values obtained with a standard, unflavored chow. In the second experiment, three baboons received chow of a preferred flavor for nine weeks. Amounts consumed and body weights increased significantly over baseline. These results indicate that flavored chows may be useful for producing a nonhuman primate behavioral model of obesity and for inducing animals to eat otherwise unpalatable diets.     

Physical fitness of blind and sighted children

Summary Twenty-seven children (age 7–17 years) with varying degrees of blindness but with no other known disorder were assessed for physical fitness. Twenty-seven randomly selected children with normal eyesight were also assessed. Maximum oxygen uptake ( ) was measured directly during a progressive exercise test on a treadmill. There was a significant and substantial reduction in in totally blind children (mean ± standard deviation 35.0±7.5 ml · min^–1 · kg^–1) compared with normal children (45.9±6.6 ml · min^–1 · kg^–1). Partially sighted children had a significant but smaller reduction in . Fitness assessed by a step-test was significantly reduced in the visually impaired children, and skin-fold thickness was also significantly greater in totally blind children.The level of habitual physical activity for each child, as assessed by a questionnaire, correlated with (r=0.53,p<0.0001). Blind children were significantly less active than normal children, and the difference between mean for blind and normal children became non-significant when their different activity levels were taken into account. It is concluded that totally blind children are less fit than other children at least partly because of their lower level of habitual activity.     

Reducing the time of sperm-oocyte interaction in human in-vitro fertilization improves the implantation rate

Human oocyte development was evaluated after a reduced timeexposure to spermatozoa in vitro. A total of 119 patients wereassigned to two study groups in a randomized prospective studyin which each patient‘s oocytes were exposed to spermatozoafor either 1 h (group 1 – 58 patients) or the standard16 h incubation period (group 2 – 61 patients). The fertilizationrate obtained in group 1 was higher than in group 2 (285/393,73%, and 272/410, 66% respectively), suggesting that the spermatozoa-oocyteinteraction occurs within 1 h. This was confirmed in a studyin vitro using fluorescently labelled spermatozoa and normaloocyte-cumulus complexes. Spermatozoa enter the cumulus complexwithin 15 min, traverse the cumulus layer within 3 h, and firstappear in the oocyte cortex at 4 h post-insemination. The incidenceof polyspermy was higher in oocytes exposed to spermatozoa for16 h (3%) than for 1 h (1%). There was no difference in thecleavage rate or morphological characteristics of embryos fromboth study groups. However, when evaluating the timing of embryodevelopment, group 1 generated a significantly higher percentageof four to five cell embryos when compared to group 2 (55 versus39%; P < 0.001), documented at 40 h post-insemination. Theimplantation and pregnancy rates for group 1 were 11 and 28%,while the corresponding rates for group 2 were 8 and 15%. Thissuggests that a reduced exposure of oocyte to spermatozoa favoursembryo viability, possibly due to a decrease in potential damagefrom sperm metabolic waste products.     

Does the amount of exercising muscle alter the aerobic demand of dynamic exercise?

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if the aerobic demand for production of specified power outputs is altered by distribution of work between the arms and legs compared with when all the work is performed by the legs. Because of the important exercise training implications, a secondary purpose of this study was to determine if the exercising muscle mass affects the cardiorespiratory demands at specified rating of perceived exertion (RPE) levels and blood lactate concentrations. Nine healthy adults completed leg cycling and combined arm and leg exercise on an Airdyne using a discontinuous protocol. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that oxygen uptake for the combined arm and leg exercise averaged 0.04 l·min⁻¹ greater (p<0.05) than for leg cycling at the same external power outputs. However, RPE levels at specified power outputs were lower (p<0.05) with combined arm and leg exercise than leg cycling. At specified RPE levels and blood lactate concentrations, oxygen uptake and heart rate values were higher (p<0.05) for combined arm and leg exercise than leg cycling. From these findings we conclude that: (1) the addition of arm exercise to leg cycling results in a reduction in RPE, but a minimal increase in oxygen consumption to perform a given power output, and (2) if training intensity is established by RPE or blood lactate concentration, use of a muscle mass larger than that used in leg cycling should allow a greater cardiorespiratory training effect.     

Relationship between muscle fatigue and oxygen uptake during cycle ergometer exercise with different ramp slope increments

Summary The surface electromyogram (EMG) from active muscle and oxygen uptake ( ) were studied simultaneously to examine changes of motor unit (MU) activity during exercise tests with different ramp increments. Six male subjects performed four exhausting cycle exercises with different ramp slopes of 10, 20, 30 and 40 W · min^–1 on different days. The EMG signals taken from the vastus lateralis muscle were stored on a digital data recorder and converted to obtain the integrated EMG (iEMG). The was measured, with 20-s intervals, by the mixing chamber method. A non-linear increase in iEMG against work load was observed for each exercise in all subjects. The break point of the linear relationship of iEMG was determined by the crossing point of the two regression lines (iEMG_bp). Significant differences were obtained in the exercise intensities corresponding to maximal oxygen uptake ( ) and the iEMG_bp between 10 and 30, and 10 and 40 W · min –1 ramp exercises (P < 0.05). However, no significant differences were obtained in and corresponding to the iEMG_bp during the four ramp exercises. With respect to the relationship between and exercise intensity during the ramp increments, the -exercise intensity slope showed significant differences only for the upper half (i.e. above iEMG_bp). These results demonstrated that the and at which a nonlinear increase in iEMG was observed were not varied by the change of ramp slopes but by the exercise intensity corresponding to and the iEMG_bp was varied by the change of ramp slopes. In addition, the significant differences in the exercise intensity slopes for the upper half of the tests would suggest that the recruitment patterns of MU and/or muscle metabolic state might be considerably altered depending upon the ramp slope increments.