Over the past 20 yr, 40 controlled studies have been described concerning the effects of L-tryptophan on human sleepiness and/or sleep. The weight of evidence indicates that L-tryptophan in doses of 1 g or more produces an increase in rated subjective sleepiness and a decrease in sleep latency (time to sleep). There are less firm data suggesting that L-tryptophan may have additional effects such as decrease in total wakefulness and/or increase in sleep time. Best results (in terms of positive effects on sleep or sleepiness) have been found in subjects with mild insomnia, or in normal subjects reporting a longer-than-average sleep latency. Mixed or negative results occur in entirely normal subjects--who are not appropriate subjects since there is "no room for improvement". Mixed results are also reported in severe insomniacs and in patients with serious medical or psychiatric illness.

Dietary Proteins↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Sleep requirement: long sleepers, short sleepers, variable sleepers, and insomniacs.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A signal sequence receptor in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane.

Protein translocation across the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane is triggered at several stages by information contained in the signal sequence. Initially, the signal sequence of a nascent secretory protein upon emergence from the ribosome is recognized by a polypeptide of relative molecular mass 54,000 (Mr54K) which is part of the signal recognition particle (SRP). Binding of SRP may induce a site-specific elongation arrest of translation in vitro. Attachment of the arrested translation complex to the ER membrane is mediated by the SRP-receptor (docking protein) and is accompanied by displacement of the SRP from both the ribosome and the signal sequence. We have investigated the fate of the signal sequence following the disengagement of SRP and its receptor by a crosslinking approach. We report here that the signal sequence of nascent preprolactin, after its release from the SRP, interacts with a newly discovered component, a signal sequence receptor (SSR), which is an integral, glycosylated protein of the rough ER membrane (Mr approximately 35K).

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Studies of the correlation of morphological and biochemical parameters in human ejaculate in various andrological diagnoses; 2nd report: biochemical parameters.

In this report the authors present the results about biochemical analyses in human ejaculate. The following parameters were determined ATP, ADP, pyruvate, lactate, alpha-ketoglutarate, fructose, myokinase, phosphoglucoseisomerase, phosphoglycerate-kinase, ATPase, acid phosphatase. It was found a relationship between age and fructose content, this was equally for pyruvate, whilst the converse was observed for lactate. No age dependend relationship was observed for the other substrates. For ATP and ADP distinctly higher values can be demonstrated in normozoospermia. A special study of the extent to which the encyme activities in sperm plasma are associated with the respective pH values measured shows that pH values above 7.2 correlate with distinctly lower activities for acid phosphatase, PGI and MK.

Adenosine Diphosphate↗