USE OF ATRACURIUM OR VECURONIUM TO PROLONG THE ACTION OF TUBOCURARINE

Forty patients received tubocurarine in a dose greater thanED₉₀. When neuromuscular function had recovered to amplitudeof the first contraction of the train-of-four equals 10% ofcontrol, a small increment of atracurium or vecuronium was administered,repeating the same increment at each subsequent recovery to10%. The intensity and duration of the neuromuscular block followingthe first increment was always greater than that of subsequentincrements. The duration and intensity of the block was progressivelyreduced with subsequent increments until the responses to furtherincrements were unchanged. These final means at steady statewere: group 1 (atracurium 1.1 mg) 6.4 (0.3) min; group 2 (atracurium2.0 mg) 8.2 (0.9) min; group 3 (vecuronium 0.25 mg) 5.8 (0.4)min; group 4 (vecuronium 0.5 mg) 13.2 (0.4) min.     

The effects of aminosalicylic acid derivatives on nitric oxide in a cell-free system

Aims and Methods: To determine the effect of aminosalicylic acid derivatives on the concentration of nitric oxide produced in a cell-free system, by the use of a sensitive and specific polarographic meter. Results: The aminosalicylic acid derivatives 3-ASA (IC₅₀ 100 μm ), 4-ASA (IC₅₀ 350 μm ) and 5-ASA (IC₅₀ 5 μm ) all decreased the nitric oxide signal. These drugs had a similar inhibitory effect on the formation in vitro of nitrite from sodium nitroprusside (IC₅₀ 200 μm , 500 μm and 100 μm , respectively). Sulphasalazine (31.1 ± 5% decrease in signal at 1 mm ) was less effective than 5-ASA, but sulphapyridine, N-acetyl 5-ASA, indomethacin and hydrocortisone produced no decrease in nitric oxide signal at all. Conclusions: Nitric oxide binding may be part of the mechanism by which ASA derivatives exert their therapeutic effect, and this work suggests that it may be an important factor in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis.     

Distribution of HLA alleles in Portugal and Cabo Verde. Relationships with the slave trade route

HLA-A, -B , and -DR frequencies were analysed in populations from Portugal and the Madeira and Cabo Verde Archipelagos, aiming to characterize their genetic composition. Portuguese settlers colonized both Archipelagos in the 15th and 16th centuries. Madeira received many sub-Saharan slaves to work in the sugar plantations, and Cabo Verde served as a pivotal market in the Atlantic slave trade and was populated by individuals coming from the Senegambia region of the West African coast. The population of Madeira shows the highest genetic diversity and the presence of alleles and haplotypes usually linked to sub-Saharan populations, the haplotypes accounting for 3.5% of the total. Cabo Verde presents typical markers acknowledged to be of European or Ibero-Mediterranean origin, thus revealing the admixture of European settlers with Sub-Saharan slaves. Altogether the number of European haplotypes reaches 15% of the total. The Portuguese population shows a perceivable and significant heterogeneity both in allele and haplotype frequencies, unveiling a differential input of peoples from different origins. A PCA of the populations studied, plus other relevant ones, clearly shows gene heterogeneity in mainland Portugal as well as the differences and relationships between these populations and Madeira and Cabo Verde.     

Regulation of sterol synthesis in human intestinal mucosa

Abstract. The effect of dietary factors and experimental manipulations designed to perturb the entero-hepatic circulation on the rate of sterol synthesis were studied in freshly isolated human jejunal mucosa from normal subjects.
Fasting significantly reduced the rate of sterol synthesis from [¹⁴C] acetate in jejunal mucosa obtained from normolipaemic obese subjects. A high cholesterol diet had no consistent effect on the synthesis in normal subjects. Administration of cholestyramine resulted in a marked rise in the incorporation of [¹⁴C] acetate into sterols, while the administration of chenodeoxycholic acid did not significantly reduce basal sterol synthesis in normal subjects.
These results demonstrate that in man the rate of sterol synthesis in intestinal mucosa is altered in response to physiological variables. Although these findings indicate that sterol synthesis in this tissue is subject to regulation, no difference was observed in basal sterol synthesis between normal subjects and patients heterozygous for familial hypercholesterolaemia.