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Biomedical subjects

B Zawirska

Publications and source records attributed to B Zawirska.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

The function and morphology of the liver in porphyria cutanea tarda.

The aminopyrine breath test, postprandial serum bile acids, and routine liver tests were assessed as indicators of liver dysfunction in 38 patients with porphyria cutanea tarda. In 17 patients needle biopsy specimens of the liver were obtained. Bile acids were increased in almost all the patients studied (97%) but impairment of aminopyrine demethylation was found in only 45%. More than 50% of cases had elevated activities of serum alanine aminopeptidase, leucine aminopeptidase, gammaglutamyl transpeptidase (GGTP), and alanine aminotransferase (ALAT). All liver biopsy specimens showed fluorescence characteristic of porphyrins. Histologic examination of biopsy material revealed cellular lesions in all cases, the most common pathological findings being fatty degeneration of varying degree and iron accumulation. The most frequent electronmicroscopic changes in the liver were fat droplets, granules containing bile material, and siderosomes in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes. However, there was no evident relationship between morphological and functional liver changes.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Abnormalities in liver function and morphology and impaired aminopyrine metabolism in hereditary hepatic porphyrias.

The aminopyrine breath test and measurement of postprandial serum bile acids were performed in 67 patients with well-documented hereditary hepatic porphyria. Elevated postprandial serum bile acids levels were found in 75% and the aminopyrine breath test was abnormal in 42% of the patients studied. These function tests exhibited a statistically significant correlation with the excretion of porphyrin precursors in patients with acute intermittent porphyria. Furthermore, all 12 patients with acute intermittent porphyria who had a liver biopsy because of abnormalities in the aminopyrine breath test or postprandial serum bile acids measurement, or both, were found to have diffuse, moderately severe, but nonspecific ultrastructural changes of hepatocytes, indicative of significant subcellular damage. While a direct relationship between functional and morphologic abnormalities is speculative, it is possible that the defective heme biosynthesis, perhaps related to the reduced aminopyrine demethylation, could form the basis for the ultrastructural hepatic changes in porphyria. This, in turn, could be the cause of the elevated postprandial serum bile acids levels.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

The particular traits of carcinogenesis induced in Wistar rats by aflatoxin B1. IV. Porphyrins and the activity of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase in Wistar rats bearing transplantable hepatoma.

In inbred Wistar rats bearing transplantable hepatoma induced by aflatoxin B1 tissue porphyrins and the level of the serum gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGTP) were studied. A liver reaction in carriers of transplants was ascertained, that was expressed especially by an increase in porphyrins, mainly the protoporphyrin fraction, and by morphological changes. The content of porphyrins in lung metastases was higher than in hepatomas and livers. The level of serum GGTP was higher in females up to the 40th passage, and up to the 90th passage higher in males. Hormonal conditioning of the early AFB1-hepatoma passages is supported by a lower level of serum GGTP in females and higher in males, and the liver and tumor porphyrins in animals previously castrated in comparison with uncastrated rats. Comparative data of the quantity and quality of porphyrins in different rat tissues with primary and transplantable AFB1-hepatomas demonstrate that systemic metabolic disorders of porphyrins are greater in rats with primary than in the case of transplantable tumors.

Aflatoxin B1↗
PubMed1981

The particular traits of carcinogenesis induced in Wistar rats by aflatoxin B1. III. Porphyrins and the activity of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase in primary hepatomas and in their tissue of origin.

Inbred Wistar rats were fed aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) during a period of 15 weeks. Some of the rats were sacrificed successively at different time intervals, and the remaining animals died a natural death. Beginning with the day of AFB1 treatment termination multifocal hepatomas appeared on the 265th day in males and on the 296th day in females. The progress of AFB1 carcinogenesis was accompanied by an ever increasing disorder of porphyrin metabolism. The content of the porphyrin fractions in primary hepatomas was greater than in the tissue of origin. Serum and hepatic GGTP activity increased with the advancement of hepatocarcinogenesis and paralleled the increase of tumor weight. The GGTP activity in hepatoma reached values exceeding those in their host liver.

Aflatoxin B1↗
PubMed1981

Cytophotometric and cytogenetic characteristics of primary hepatomas induced in Wistar rats by aflatoxin B1.

Karyograms of the primary hepatomas induced in Wistar rats by aflatoxin b1 exhibited hypodiploid chromosome sets, and destruction of the chromosomes. Cytophotometric investigations showed a decrease of DNA content in the neoplastic cells, even to about 40% of DNA content in the normal hepatocytes in rats. In the neoplastic destruction of the chromatin material in these hepatomas breaks and deletion of the chromatids predominate.

Aflatoxin B1↗
PubMed1981

Catabolism of desialylated glycoproteins during carcinogenesis and inflammation in rats.

Experiments were performed on rats injected with a malignant hepatoma (evoked by aflatoxin B1) or with inflammation induced by turpentine injection. On the 4th or 8th day after the injection, the following determinations were made: concentration of seromucoid, haptoglobin, sialic acid and fucose in blood serum; binding of asialo-glycoproteins by liver extracts; elimination of asialo-[125I]haptoglobin and asialo-[125I]orosomucoid from circulation. It was found that hepatoma and inflammation affected neither the activity of liver receptors for asialo-glycoproteins, nor the rate of asialo-glycoprotein elimination from circulation.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Comparative porphyrin content in tumors with contiguous non-neoplastic tissues.

The porphyrin content in primary human carcinomas, their metastases and the contiguous non-neoplastic tissues were compared. The level of porphyrins in primary internal organ tumors was greater, and in endocrine gland tumors lesser, than in their contiguous non-neoplastic tissues. Neoplastic metastases to the liver contained less porphyrin than the host tissue. Metastases both to the liver and to the kidney were characterized by higher pyrrole pigment content than that in the primary tumors.

Endocrine System Diseases↗