Galvanic current in the conservative treatment of acute pancreatitis

Experiments were conducted on 42 adult dogs with a model of acute pancreatitis to study the degree of antibiotic storage in the pancreatic tissue in different variants of intralesional+ electrophoresis. Optimum concentration of the antibiotic was produced in transverse galvanization of the zone of the pancreas. Clinical observations over 63 patients with various forms of acute pancreatitis bear evidence that the method raises the efficacy of nonoperative treatment in the oedematous stage of the process and reduces the duration of treatment.     

Chronic Cocaine Injections Attenuate Behavioral Response of κ-Opioid Receptors to U-50,488H Agonist

Chronic injections of cocaine (20 mg/kg daily for 10 days) increase activity and decrease anxiety in male C57Bl/6j mice in comparison with animals chronically injected with normal saline. U-50,488H (κ-opioid receptor agonist; 2.5 mg/kg) produced an anxiolytic effect in animals preinjected with normal saline and had no effect in animals chronically injected with cocaine. Presumably, chronic activation of dopaminergic systems caused by cocaine injections is paralleled by desensitization of k-opioid receptor system. __________ Translated from Byulleten' Eksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 140, No. 9, pp. 305–307, September, 2005     

Neuronal connection of the cortex and reconstruction of the visual space

The distributions of retrograde labeled cells in fields 17 and 18 and the fields 17/18 transitional zone were studied in both hemispheres of cats after microiontophoretic administration of horseradish peroxidase into individual cortical columns in fields 17, 18, 19, and 21a. The clustered organization of the internal connections of the cortical fields, the asymmetrical locations of labeled callosal cells relative to the injected columns, and the defined distribution of labeled cells in layers A of the lateral geniculate body suggested that eye-specific neuronal connections support binding of the visual hemifields separately for each eye. Application of marker to columns in fields 19 or 21a demonstrated disparate inputs from fields 17 and 18 and the fields 17/18 transitional zone. It is suggested that these connections may support the extraction of loci and stereoscopic boundaries located in the central sectors of the visual space.Translated from Rossiiskii Fiziologicheskii Zhurnal imeni I. M. Sechenova, Vol. 89, No. 10, pp. 1281–1290, October, 2003.     

Changes in mitotic activity of the corneal epithelium of albino rats cooled at different times of day

The effect of moderate hypothermia on mitotic activity of the corneal epithelium of albino rats was studied. The animals were cooled to 28°C by a contact method for 1 h. Cooling was carried out in the early morning (6 a.m.), at noon, and in the evening (6 p.m.). The response of the epithelium to cooling was found to depend on the time of day. The most marked inhibition of mitotic activity (by 14 times) occurred in the afternoon, 3 h after cooling at noon. A tendency toward restoration of normal cell division was observed 6 and 12 h later. The number of mitoses was reduced 3 h after cooling in the evening, but no changes in mitotic activity were discovered 6 and 12 h later. No changes were found 3 and 6 h after cooling in the morning, but 12 h later cell division was inhibited.Central Scientific-Research Laboratory, Khabarovsk Medical Institute. Laboratory of Cytology, Institute of Human Morphology, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR A. P. Avtsyn.) Translated from Byulleten' Eksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 82, No. 11, pp. 1371–1373, November, 1976.     

Dietary polyamines promote the growth of azoxymethane-induced aberrant crypt foci in rat colon

We have examined whether dietary polyamines influence the formation and initial growth of azoxymethane (AOM)-induced aberrant crypt foci (ACF) in rat colon. Effects of a combination of dietary polyamines at three dose levels (putrescine: 50, 280, 740 nmol/g; spermidine: 10, 261, 763 nmol/g; spermine: 1, 31, 91 nmol/g) in the polyamine-poor AIN-76A diet were studied in animals in two different experimental situations: animals treated with AOM alone and animals treated with AOM + difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), a specific inhibitor of endogenous polyamine synthesis. In both experimental situations, dietary polyamines enhanced the growth of ACF, expressed as the number of large ACF (foci with three or more aberrant crypts, ACF > or = 3), whereas the formation of ACF, expressed as the number of ACF, was apparently not altered. In animals treated with AOM alone, maximal growth enhancing effect on ACF was nearly obtained with the median level of dietary polyamine. In rats fed a low polyamine diet, basic AIN-76A, DFMO reduced the growth of AOM-induced ACF by 83%. This inhibitory effect of DFMO was counteracted by dietary polyamines in a dose- dependent manner, and it was abolished at the highest level of polyamines. In conclusion, it was demonstrated that dietary polyamines are able to enhance the growth of AOM-induced ACF. Further, dietary polyamines reversed the DFMO-caused inhibition of ACF growth, probably by compensating for the DFMO-reduced endogenous polyamine synthesis.      

Adult stem cells and other cancer residents. Part II

In this review, we have attempted to generalize recent data on adult stem cells as the most likely cells, according to the current dominant paradigm, in which a predisposition to malignant degeneration occurs or, in other words, where cancer is initiated.