The authors have tested the effectiveness of ACTH 1-17, administered in a single dose of 100 micrograms intramuscularly at 07(00) for 10 consecutive days, in 10 male patients suffering from chronic obstructive bronchitis with different ventilatory impairment. The subjects performed every 4 h (02(00), 06(00), 10(00), 14(00), 18(00), 22(00] for 14 consecutive days (3 days of wash-out and 10 days of treatment) spirometric tests with recording of 8 ventilatory parameters and of oral temperature. The day before and after treatment plasma cortisol levels were also determined 6 times a day. After the period of treatment 4 subjects improved, 4 remained stationary and 2 worsened as concerns the ventilatory functions, while 7 perceived a better general condition. The normal circadian synchronization of the respiratory function of the group, with acrophase in the afternoon, was maintained and the temperature rhythm was not influenced. The circadian rhythm of plasma cortisol showed a significant mesor reduction after treatment with a slight advance in acrophase indicating a partial inhibition of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal axis. The success of treatment was independent of the severity of the ventilatory impairment and the subjects showed different patterns of response both quantitatively (probably related to the dosage) and temporally (immediate or delayed). Hyperpigmentation of the skin owing to the intrinsic melanotropic activity of the peptide occurred in 2 subjects. As a side effect, weight increase was apparent in 3 subjects.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Endothelial modulation of resting and stimulated vascular tone in the pig capsular testicular artery.

We have investigated the wall tension characteristics and the role of endothelium on vascular tone, at rest and under K+ depolarization, in isolated rings from the pig capsular testicular artery. The active tension reached a maximum that was significantly lower in vessels without endothelium, whereas the passive tension and the Ca2+-dependent myogenic tone were not significantly affected by endothelium removal. Both NG-nitro-l-arginine (L-NOARG, 10(-4) M) and methylene blue (10(-5) M), increased the basal resting tension (BRT) in vessels with endothelium, while indomethacin (10(-6) M) decreased BRT in vessels both with and without endothelium. Either removal of endothelium or treatment with indomethacin (10(-6) M), quinacrine (10(-5) M) or ibuprofen (10(-5) M), significantly depressed the K+ concentration response curve, while dazoxiben (10(-5) M) and SQ 30,741 (10(-5) M) had no effect. L-NOARG (10(-6) M) potentiated the contractile response to K+ in vessels with endothelium, whereas L-NOARG (10(-4) M) was ineffective in vessels devoid of endothelium. These results suggest that a predominating NO release from endothelium, together with a cyclooxygenase-derived vasoconstrictor, modulate vascular tone at rest. In contrast, predominant endothelial release of a cyclooxygenase-derived contractile factor, but different from TXA2, PGH2 or superoxide anions, is induced by K+ depolarization and leads to vasoconstriction.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The PRIST-2 development environment: architecture and implementation.

The PRIST-2 system has been designed as an interactive and high-productivity tool for the rapid prototyping and development of medical applications. Three major issues were addressed in this research project which derived from the evolution of a previous 4th generation software package, called PRIST (patient record information system tool): a high transportability on different hardware and operating systems, a conversational and interactive user-interface and user-independence Relational Data Base Management System (RDBMS). Although we developed PRIST-2 on the top of the ORACLE RDBMS, it does not depend on SQL commercial products because the ORACLE features have been directly used only for SQL relational data base management. The application design methodology implemented in the system architecture allows an interactive and formal description of the application constraints in terms of the semantic data model rather than in terms of the data structure. The translation of the conceptual constraints into SQL tables is performed by several pre-defined routines. In the PC based release (MS/DOS, OS/2, Xenix operating systems), the Graphic-User Interface (GUI) has been developed using Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit. The UNIX release will use a GUI developed on top of the X-Windows environment.

Computer Graphics↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The development in infant rats of kassinin's potent and selective control of cell-dehydration thirst.

In infant rats, kassinin exerts its antidipsogenic effect in the very early stages of neonatal life (2nd-3rd day). The inhibition of cell-dehydration drinking appears in rats of 2 days, and attains adult levels in pups of 9 days. Instead, the thirsts induced by suckling deprivation or by intracerebroventricular angiotensin II are inhibited by kassinin precociously (3rd day), but are unaffected by it in rats of 12-15 days. Kassinin also inhibits milk intake very early (3rd day) and this effect also disappears at 12 days of age. The pattern of ontogenetic results described here may be that of a brain kassinin-like tachykinin that, in the course of the development of the neural structures on which it acts, gains potent and selective control of cell-dehydration thirst.

Angiotensin II↗