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Biomedical subjects

D Baldwin

Publications and source records attributed to D Baldwin.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources

Plasma morphine concentrations and analgesic effects of lumbar extradural morphine and heroin.

Patients undergoing lumbar laminectomy were given extradural narcotic, either 5 mg morphine sulphate or 5.5 mg heroin (diamorphine hydrochloride); the extradural catheter had been positioned adjacent to the dura under direct vision. Plasma morphine concentrations measured by specific radioimmunoassay showed that peak concentrations occurred significantly earlier with heroin (4.7 +/- 0.6 min, mean +/- SEM) than with morphine (7.6 +/- 0.9 min) and that peak concentrations were significantly higher after heroin 5-10 min after extradural injection. The fraction of extradural heroin crossing the dura was estimated to be 55% of the fraction of morphine crossing the dura. Postoperative fentanyl requirements using demand analgesia were the same with extradural morphine as with extradural heroin (mean, 6.6 micrograms/hr). Clinically significant slowing of respiratory rate occurred only after extradural heroin (three patients).

Adult↗

Endocrine-metabolic relationships in patients with leprechaunism.

Leprechaunism is a rare, heritable syndrome, associated with multiple dysmorphic and pathologic features, suggestive of an endocrine dysfunction. Few endocrine and metabolic studies have been obtained because of the rarity of the syndrome, and the small size and early demise of these infants. The authors present here the clinical, anatomic, and endocrine-metabolic studies of three patients, with a view toward careful delineation of the syndrome and further characterization of the metabolic defect.The most striking and consistent metabolic derangements present in all of these patients were fasting hypoglycemia (less than 20 mg/dL), postprandial hyperglycemia (more than 250 mg/dL), marked hyperinsulinemia (more than 2000 μU/mL), and severe insulin resistance (less than a 20 percent decrease in blood sugar with 0.3 to 1.0 U/kg of regular insulin IV). Hyperinsulinemia was observed in response to oral feedings and glucose infusion, and after tolbutamide. Insulin secretion was less marked with amino acid infusions. Normal increments in blood glucose occurred following alanine, galactose, and glycerol. Glucagon caused a rise in glucose 4 hours after a meal, but no response was seen after a 12-hour fast. Pituitary, gonadal, and adrenal hormone levels were normal, and there was a normal response pattern to GnRH and TRH. Hyperinsulinemia would appear to be the biochemical hallmark of this disease. Our previous studies were suggestive of a postreceptor defect in insulin action. The present endocrine-metabolic studies are compatible with this hypothesis. Interaction of supraphysiologic concentrations of plasma insulin with growth factor receptors, this may provide a partial explanation for some of the dysmorphic features seen in the disorder.

Adult↗

Respiratory profiles of grain handlers and sedentary workers.

During 1978, grain handlers employed at three large inland grain terminals were studied along with an equal number of office workers matched for sex, age and smoking history. Respiratory symptoms and spirometric abnormalities were no more frequent in 16 grain handlers who were non-smokers than in their controls. However, 20 grain handlers who were smokers complained significantly more (P less than 0.01) of grade 1 dyspnea and had significantly lower ratios of forced expiratory volume in the first second to forced vital capacity (P less than 0.05) than their controls. Only 3% of the grain handlers were sensitive to grain dust, and 18% were found to be atopic but to have good lung function. A family history of asthma or allergic rhinitis was no more frequent in the grain handlers than in the control subjects. We conclude that the combination of cigarette smoking and exposure to grain dust causes a deterioration in lung function.

Alberta↗

Insulin binding, internalization, and receptor regulation in cultured human fibroblasts.

Insulin binding to receptors was studied using monolayers of cultured normal human fibroblasts. Binding was rapid and inversely related to the incubation temperature; prolonged periods of steady-state binding were achieved at all temperatures studied and the amount of degradation of extracellular insulin was minimal. Competition curves demonstrated half-maximal inhibition of 125I-insulin binding at an unlabeled insulin concentration of 125I-insulin binding at an unlabeled insulin concentration of 7 ng/ml. Scatchard plots of the binding data were curvilinear and revealed that fibroblasts contained about 7,000 receptor sites per cell. Bound 125I-insulin dissociated from fibroblasts with a t 1/2 of 10 min at 30 degrees C and 35 min at 16 degrees C. After 60 min dissociation at 30 degrees C, 45% of the dissociated radioactivity consisted of 125I-insulin degradation products, whereas only 8% of the dissociated material was in the form of degraded products after 60 min of dissociation at 16 degrees C. This indicates that fibroblasts possess a temperature-sensitive receptor-mediated process for insulin degradation. Preincubation of the monolayers with insulin led to a hormone-induced loss of insulin receptors. Thus, incubating cells with 25 ng/ml insulin for 6 h at 37 degrees C caused a 50% reduction in subsequently measured 125I-insulin binding. This hormone-induced receptor loss was sensitive to physiologic insulin levels, with approximately 5 ng/ml causing a half-maximal receptor loss. When monolayers were treated with the lysosomotropic agent chloroquine and subsequently incubated with 5 X 10(-11) M 125I-insulin, a 130% increase in cell-associated radioactivity was observed after 120 min at 30 degrees C. In summary, 1) cultured normal human fibroblasts possess insulin receptors that exhibit kinetic properties and specificity identical to that of other insulin target cells; 2) incubation of fibroblasts with physiologic concentrations of insulin causes a marked loss of cell-surface insulin receptors; and 3) receptor-bound 125I-insulin is internalized through an energy-dependent endocytotic pathway and subsequently degraded by a chloroquine-sensitive reaction.

Cells, Cultured↗

Regulation of insulin receptors in cultured human fibroblasts.

The ability of insulin to regulate its own receptor was investigated in cultured human fibroblasts. Physiological insulin concentrations led to a loss of insulin receptors, and this process was dependent on cellular energy and ongoing protein synthesis. The insulin concentration primarily affected the rate of receptor loss rather than the eventual cellular receptor concentration. Studies of receptor regeneration revealed that the absolute rate of insertion of new or recycled receptors into the plasma membrane was constant and independent of the amount of proceeding receptor loss or the time over which receptor loss occurred. These results are compatible with the concept that insulin-induced receptor loss in cultured human fibroblasts is a self-limited process mediated by an endocytotic internalization pathway which is dependent on new protein synthesis. Receptor regeneration is a distinct cellular process dependent on ongoing protein synthesis and does not imply represent the absence of ongoing receptor loss.

Cells, Cultured↗

Simultaneous inhibition of insulin and somatomedin-C binding to cultured IM-9 lymphocytes by naturally occurring antireceptor antibodies.

A 53-y4-old male patient with insulin-resistant diabetes was found to have circulating inhibitors of both insulin and somatomedin-C binding. Serum obtained from the patient at the time of initial presentation inhibited 50% of both 125I-insulin and 125I-SM-C binding to IM-9 lymphocytes at dilutions of 1:150. Spontaneous improvement in the patient's diabetic state was associated with a simultaneous and equal decrease in the serum inhibitory titers for both radioligands. Scatchard analysis indicated that the observed serum-induced decrease in both insulin and SM-C binding was due to decreased receptor affinity, with no alteration in receptor number. The serum inhibitors of both insulin and SM-C binding were precipitated equally by Staph-A and also by 40% ammonium sulfate, suggesting they were immunoglobulins. The observation of naturally occurring autoantibodies against both the insulin and SM-C receptors suggests a structural homology between the two receptors.

Antibodies↗

Diabetes due to secretion of an abnormal insulin.

A 51-year-old, nonobese man with diabetes mellitus had marked hyperinsulinemia (70 to 120 muU per milliliter; 502 to 860 pmol per liter) and fasting hyperglycemia (140 to 170 mg per 100 ml; 7.8 to 9.4 mmol per liter). Plasma proinsulin, glucagon, growth hormone, and cortisol levels were normal; insulin antibodies and insulin-receptor antibodies were not detected. The patient showed relatively normal insulin sensitivity, and insulin receptors on circulating monocytes were within the normal range. Insulin from the patient's serum bound to IM-9 lymphocytes and rat adipocytes approximately 40 per cent as well as insulin standards. Its biologic activity on rat adipocytes averaged 15 per cent of that expected from its immunologic concentration. The impaired biologic activity of this patient's circulating insulin was probably due to a structural abnormality. Subsequent studies of the patient's insulin (fortuitously obtained from his pancreas during a laparotomy for a pancreatic cyst) have confirmed this conclusion. (N Engl J Med 302:129-135, 1980).

Blood Glucose↗

Regulation of insulin receptors: evidence for involvement of an endocytotic internalization pathway.

Cultured human fibroblasts degrade insulin by a receptor-mediated process. When intracellular hormone degradation is inhibited by chloroquine, 125I-labeled insulin internalizes and accumulates intracellularly. In contrast, cultured IM-9 lymphocytes do not degrade receptor-bound insulin or accumulate 125I-labeled insulin in the presence of chloroquine. Insulin-induced receptor loss occurs in both cell types, and chloroquine inhibits this process in fibroblasts but not in IM-9 lymphocytes. Transglutaminase is a membrane-associated enzyme thought to mediate the process of ligand-induced receptor aggregation and internalization; levels of this enzyme were high in fibroblasts but barely detectable in IM-9 lymphocytes. Furthermore, dansylcadaverine--a potent inhibitor of transglutaminase--blocked insulin-induced receptor loss in fibroblasts but was without effect in IM-9 lymphocytes. These results support the concept that insulin receptor regulation is mediated via an endocytotic internalization pathway in human fibroblasts and that the mechanisms of this process differ among cell types.

Cadaverine↗

A structurally abnormal insulin causing human diabetes.

Insulin isolated from the pancreas of a diabetic patient with fasting hyperinsulinaemia showed decreased activity in binding to cell membrane insulin receptors and in stimulating cellular 2-deoxyglucose transport and glucose oxidation. Chemical studies suggest that the isolated hormone is a mixture of normal insulin and an abnormal variant which contains a leucine for phenylalanine substitution at position 24 or 25 of the insulin B-chain.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Characterization of circulating insulin and proinsulin-binding antibodies in autoimmune hypoglycemia.

Five patients with fasting and(or) postprandial hypoglycemia were found to have insulin antibodies in the absence of previously documented immunization. Studies on the equilibrium-binding of insulin to the autoantibodies revealed two classes of binding sites with association constants and binding capacities analogous to those of insulin antibodies from insulin-treated diabetic patients. Similarly, no consistent differences in these parameters were found in both groups of patients with insulins of bovine, porcine, and human origin. Proinsulin (C-segment directed) antibodies capable of binding bovine or porcine proinsulin were present in 10 of 10 and 9 of 10 insulin-treated diabetics serving as controls, respectively, and, when present, provide incontrovertible evidence of exogenous insulin administration. No such antibodies could be detected in the hypoglycemic patients with autoimmune insulin antibodies. The kinetics of dissociation of the insulin-antibody complexes were consistent with the existence of two classes of antibody sites. The corresponding dissociation rate constants were large enough to predict that significant amounts of free hormone may be generated by this mechanism and provide a plausible pathogenesis for the hypoglycemia in these patients.

Adult↗

Metabolic control in diabetic patients. Effect of insulin-secretory reserve (measured by plasma C-peptide levels) and circulating insulin antibodies.

We measured circulating hemoglobin A1 (HbA1) and fasting plasma C-peptide concentrations in 100 diabetic patients. Pancreatic insulin reserve showed a negative correlation with HbA1 concentrations in nonobese, insulin-treated patients but not in obese patients, whether they were treated with insulin, oral agent, or diet alone. Patients with fasting C-peptide concentrations above 0.1 pmol/ml had significantly better metabolic control than did those with lower values. Anti-insulin antibodies were measured in 37 patients. There was no correlation between metabolic control and the affinity constants or binding capacities of these antibodies.

Adult↗