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Biomedical subjects

A Montes

Publications and source records attributed to A Montes.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Colony-stimulating activity in the serum of patients with hemopoietic malignancies after intensive chemotherapy/radiotherapy: its augmentation by GM-CSF in vivo and interleukin 4 in vitro.

Colony-stimulating activity (CSA) in the serum of patients with hematological malignancies increased substantially after intensive therapy with cyclophosphamide/busulfan, cyclophosphamide/total body irradiation, or melphalan/total body irradiation. This was not dependent on patients receiving allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) or autologous bone marrow rescue (ABMR). In 44 of 62 patients CSA was maximum approximately 7 days after chemotherapy/radiotherapy, whereas in 18 of 62 patients CSA was maximum between 9 and 20 days after therapy and decreased thereafter. The time course of CSA was not dependent on disease and was not affected by recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) given as a continuous infusion for 14 days after therapy; however, serum from patients receiving rhGM-CSF produced significantly more colonies from donor bone marrow than serum from patients who did not receive the cytokine (p = 0.013). Despite the early peak in CSA in the majority of patients, there was no correlation between the time at which CSA was maximum and the return of patients' neutrophils to 500/microliters. Recombinant human interleukin 4 (IL-4) increased the number of granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming unit colonies, principally granulocyte colony-forming unit colonies, from normal bone marrow exposed to patients' serum after intensive therapy and antibody to GM-CSF reduced colony numbers. The results suggest that after intensive therapy granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) as well as GM-CSF is released into the serum and, in addition to acting directly with G-CSF, IL-4 may stimulate mononuclear cells to produce and/or release G-CSF.

Bone Marrow Cells↗
PubMed1991

Cholesterol exchange between human serum isolated lipoproteins. Effect of protein concentration.

The in vitro transfer of radiolabelled unesterified cholesterol from human low- and very low- to high-density lipoproteins in the presence of either lipoprotein deficient serum or bovine serum albumin has been studied. The rate of transfer was faster from LDL (t1/2 = 44 min) than from VLDL (55 min). The presence of 2% protein had no effect on the transfer. However, 10% albumin or lipoprotein deficient serum reduced t1/2 by 35%, which indicates no specific effect of a plasma protein on the rate of transfer of unesterified cholesterol.

Biological Transport↗
PubMed1991

Comparison of interleukin-6 levels in the bone marrow of multiple myeloma patients with disease severity and clonogenicity in vitro.

Fifteen of 25 bone marrow aspirates from 23 patients who presented or had been treated for multiple myeloma at the Royal Marsden Hospital produced myeloma colonies (MY-CFUc) in vitro. There was no correlation between disease severity and the level of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in bone marrow plasma nor was there any evidence that the level of IL-6 was higher in bone marrow aspirates from patients whose tumour produced MY-CFUc in vitro compared with those who did not. The mean level of IL-6 in the whole group of patients was 0.41 ng/ml (range 0.1-0.66 ng/ml), a value similar to that found in plasma from normal donor bone marrow, 0.42 ng/ml (range 0.14-0.62 ng/ml). Separation of peripheral blood cells from serum 24 h after collection, compared with 2 h after collection, resulted in a substantial increase of IL-6 in the serum. The results suggest that levels of IL-6 in bone marrow plasma is not a monitor of disease severity in multiple myeloma (MM) and that the collection and separation of blood and/or bone marrow samples into the cellular and aqueous components should be performed using standardized conditions to minimize inter-sample variation resulting from the release of IL-6 from the cellular components.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols↗
PubMed1990

Free cholesterol transfer from human lower-density lipoproteins (d less than 1.063) to lipoprotein-deficient serum and high-density lipoproteins.

The in vitro transfer of free cholesterol (FC) between human serum lipoproteins in the absence of lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) activity has been examined. The results show that the amount of FC that the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and lipoprotein-deficient serum (LDS) fractions were able to capture from low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL) was proportional to the amount of FC present in d less than 1.063 lipoproteins. The presence of HDL increased this transfer markedly. These results indicate that, in the absence of LCAT activity, FC can transfer from lower-density lipoproteins to higher-density serum fractions, and this transfer might increase under hypercholesterolemic conditions. The possible importance of this phenomena in regard to the exchange of FC between serum lipoproteins and tissue cells is discussed.

Chemical Precipitation↗
PubMed1990

Evidence that multiple myeloma may be regulated by homeostatic control mechanisms: correlation of changes in the number of clonogenic myeloma cells in vitro with clinical response.

Myeloma colonies (MY-CFUc) could be grown in vitro for 6 months (median time) after a group of 12 myeloma patients had reached complete remission (CR). In a second group of 25 patients MY-CFUc increased in 17/25 and GM-CFUc in 20/25 patients after cyclophosphamide even though 24/25 patients had a partial response to VAMP and one was in CR. These data suggest that cell killing by cyclophosphamide stimulates residual tumour cells into proliferation and adds further support to the idea that myeloma is under some degree of homeostatic control which may be analogous to that in normal bone marrow. Although lymphoplasmacytoid myeloma cells may be more drug resistant than plasmacytoid myeloma cells in vitro, it was not possible to conclude that the emergence of lymphoplasmacytoid cells at relapse was indicative of resistance to further treatment.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols↗
PubMed1990

Colony stimulating activity in the serum of patients with multiple myeloma is enhanced by interleukin 3: a possible role for interleukin 3 after high dose melphalan and autologous bone marrow transplantation for multiple myeloma.

Sera from 36/37 multiple myeloma patients and 19/21 sera from patients with other solid or liquid tumours had granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating activity (CSA) towards normal human donor bone marrow whereas 1/16 sera from normal donors had this activity. Unlike human rhGM-CSF and GM-CSF from 5637 (human bladder cell line) conditioned medium which is heat stable, CSA from serum is heat labile (56 degrees C/30 min). In multiple myeloma patients, CSA was detectable more than 2 years after treatment with 'high dose melphalan. Although multiple myeloma patients, at relapse, have sufficient CSA in their serum to produce maximal stimulation of GM-CFUc from normal donor bone marrow in vitro, their own GM population responds poorly. The results suggest that the failure of patients own bone marrow to respond to endogenous CSA may be due to damage to the stem cells of the marrow or the failure of precursor cells to respond to CSA. Addition of rhIL-3 to myelomatous serum increased the number of GM-CFUc from both normal and myelomatous bone marrow but did not stimulate the growth of MY-CFUc significantly. The results suggest that rhIL-3 may assist bone marrow recovery in multiple myeloma patients after intensive chemotherapy.

Bone Marrow↗
PubMed1988

Differential precipitation of isolated human plasma lipoproteins with heparin and manganese chloride.

We studied the precipitation of isolated lipoproteins with heparin and MnCl2. Lipoproteins were isolated from human plasma by preparative ultracentrifugation and their free cholesterol was labeled. Each lipoprotein fraction was then precipitated at various pHs, with or without bovine serum albumin (60 g/L) present. Under no set of conditions was one class of lipoproteins completely separated from the other two. Specifically, under standard conditions for precipitation of serum lipoproteins (pH 7.4 and protein 60 g/L), 12% of the very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and 8% of the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) remained in the supernatant liquid, and 30% of the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) was precipitated. These results indicate that, under these conditions, so-called HDL cholesterol may be a mixture of VLDL, LDL, and HDL, although the sum of the amount of these three fractions remaining in the supernate is fortuitously very close to the value for HDL cholesterol isolated by ultracentrifugation.

Chemical Precipitation↗
PubMed1987

Estrogen binding in rat liver during pregnancy.

Estrogen binding in the liver of pregnant rats has been studied. When the results are expressed in pmol/mg of protein there is a marked decrease in relation to control rats on 12th or 21st days of gestation. In spite of the liver weight increase on day 21, however, the binding capacity for estrogens in the whole liver is still lower than in controls. It is suggested that the changes in rat liver estrogen receptors in late gestation cannot explain the action of estrogens on triglyceride rich lipoprotein synthesis and the consequent hypertriglyceridemia of late gestation.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Apparent inhibition of cholesteryl esters exchange by high density lipoproteins.

The kinetics of the exchange of Cholesteryl esters between low density lipoproteins (LDL) and high density lipoproteins (HDL) stimulated by lipoprotein depleted plasma has been studied in vitro. The results indicate that the exchange is inhibited with the increase of HDL present in the assay, although the limiting factor is not the absolute concentration of HDL, since in a simultaneous LDL increase, the exchange augments proportionally to the total cholesteryl esters pool. Implications regarding overall metabolism of body cholesterol are discussed.

Cholesterol Esters↗
PubMed1983

The effects of oral contraceptives on respiration.

The effect synthetic progestins found in current oral contraceptives may exert on respiratory function has not been thoroughly investigated. This study monitored potential changes in respiratory parameters 3 and 6 months subsequent to beginning administration. Static and timed spirometric maneuvers showed significant increases in only tidal volume (P = 0.01). Ventilatory response to treadmill exercise monitored the oxygen uptake, CO2 elimination (VCO2), minute ventilation (VE), and respiratory exchange ratio at each of four workloads. An analysis of the covariance (ANCOVA) for the slopes revealed no significant variation between test periods. The ANCOVA for the means showed increases in VE and VCO2. These results suggest a stimulatory role for synthetic progestins, although ventilatory performance in response to moderate exercise does not appear compromised.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

[Plasma cortisol response after stimulation with ACTH in postmature newborns (author's transl)].

Authors have studied, in three series of newborns-I) normal term: II) small for date, and III) postmature-, the basal levels of plasmatic cortisol and after stimulation with ACTH. Blood samples were obtained at the 48 hours and 10 days of life, respectively. There are not significative differences in the three groups neither in the basal levels of plasmatic cortisol nor after stimulation (p greater than 0.05). These results show no correlation between postmaturity and fetal adrenal primary or secondary hypocorticism.

Adrenal Insufficiency↗
PubMed1978

Cholesteryl ester exchange protein in human plasma isolation and characterization.

A protein catalyzing the exchange of cholesteryl esters among the lipoproteins was found in human plasma. A rapid method for assaying this activity was developed based on the transfer of radioactive cholesteryl esters from low density lipoprotein with MnCl2 in the presence of phosphate. Fractionation of plasma through a combination of ammonium sulfate precipitation, ultracentrifugation at p = 1.25, and chromatography on Phenyl-Sepharose, CM-cellulose, and concanavalin A-Sepharose, yielded a preparation purified 3500-fold compared to the starting plasma. The exchange protein was found to be a glycoprotein with an isoelectric point of 5 and apparent molecular weight of 80 000. On the basis of these properties and its immunological characteristics the exchange protein was judged to be distinct from any of the known apolipoproteins. This protein could also be separated from plasma phosphatidylcholine cholesterol acyl-transferase on DEAE-cellulose. The exchange protein did not appear to influence cholesterol esterification in lipoproteins by phosphatidylcholine cholesterol acyl-transferase, and the latter had no effect on the transfer of low density lipoprotein cholesteryl esters to high density lipoprotein. The exchange protein did not esterify cholesterol or hydrolyze cholesteryl esters in lipoproteins.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Effects of thyroidectomy and thyroxine on plasma growth hormone and insulin levels in rats.

Plasma growth hormone and insulin levels were measured in normal, thyroidectomized (TX), and TX rats treated with 1-thyroxine (1-T4) or rat-growth hormone (r-GH). Although normal growth was observed 5 days after surgery, a decrease of circulating levels of GH was evidenced as early as 5 days after the operation. However, the plasma insulin levels were not affected by the 5th, 10th and 15th day of thyroidectomy. With a more prolonged thyroid hormone deprivation, the plasma insulin levels of TX rats remained lower than those of age-paired controls. Treatment of hypothyroid rats with 0.05 micron 1-T4 for 10 days induced growth and an increase in circulating GH levels, but had no effect on the low levels of plasma insulin of TX rats. Treatment of TX animals with 0.10 or 0.20 micron 1-T4, or 100 micron r-GH during 10 days caused plasma insulin levels to shift toward the values of their weight-paired controls. However, treatment of hypophysectomized (HX) rats with 0.20 micron T4 during 8 days did not change the circulating levels of plasma insulin. It is suggested that thyroid hormone deprivation results in a decrease of circulating levels of insulin secondary to a deficiency in growth hormone secretion. In addition, normal GH secretion appears to be required for normal pancreatic insulin secretion to occur.

Animals↗