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Biomedical subjects

H Kikuchi

Publications and source records attributed to H Kikuchi.

At least 865 records · Page 48Linked to original sources

Increase of beta-glucuronidase activity in the serum of rats administered organophosphate and carbamate insecticides.

An approximately 50-fold increase in serum beta-glucuronidase activity appeared 2 hours after the administration of such organophosphate insecticides as dichlorvs, diazinon and disulfoton and of a carbamate insecticide, carbaryl. The activities of other acid hydrolases in the serum such as ribonuclease, acid phosphatase, hyaluronidase and N-acetylglucosaminidase did not change significantly after the insecticide treatment. The response was related to the dose level and was evident after a single intraperitoneal dose of diazinon as low as 1.6 mg/kg. This appearence of an increase in beta-glucuronidase was retarded by pretreatment with SKF 525A, an inhibitor of drug metabolizing enzyme. When beta-glucuronidase was elevated by a large dose of diazinon, full response to a second dose of diazinon did not occur until approximately one month after administration of the first dose.

Animals↗

Quantitative analysis of trifluoroacetate in the urine and blood by isotachophoresis.

Trifluoroacetate (TFA), the major metabolite of halothane, was assayed by a newly developed isotachophoretic technique. This technique has several advantages over the presently used methods of analysis. It requires no special preparation of urine or blood samples. The sample volume is small (5--100 microliters) and the analysis time is short (30--90 min per sample). In addition, the method provides an analysis that is both qualitative and quantitative over a wide range of concentrations (from 2 nanomoles in 200 microliters to 200 nanomoles in 5 microliters). In this study, the assay was performed using HCl (0.001 M) in 1 per cent Triton X-100, titrated with beta-alanine to a pH value of 3.6--3.9 as the leading electrolyte and n-caproic acid (0.01 M) as the terminal electrolyte (50--100 muA migration current). Using this technique, daily urinary TFA excretion of seven patients was measured during halothane anesthesia and for 14 days postoperatively. The TFA values were highest on the second postoperative day (317--1,259 mg). The mean values of the urinary TFA excreted during the entire study (2,501 +/- 493 mg, mean +/- SEM) were much higher than those reported previously. The isotachophoretic technique provides a sensitive assay for future research into the biotransformation of halothane.

Biotransformation↗

Effects of halothane on spinal neuronal responses to graded noxious heat stimulation in the cat.

This study was undertaken to examine the dose-response effects of clinical concentrations of halothane on activity of wide-dynamic-range (WDR) neurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord of the decerebrate, spinal cord-transected cat. All cells (n = 40) responded maximally to high-intensity (greater than 45 C) noxious heat stimulation. Following administration of halothane, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 per cent, the mean spontaneous discharge frequency was significantly decreased (P < 0.01) by 44, 74, and 87 per cent, respectively. The mean evoked discharge frequencies were also significantly decreased at all temperatures (46, 48.5 51 C) by all concentrations of halothane. The slope of the regression line relating heat intensity and evoked neuronal discharge frequency was significantly decreased (P < 0.01) with both 1.0 and 1.5 per cent halothane by 46 and 75 per cent, respectively. Since the spinal cord was transected, these results indicate that these effects were the result of a direct action at the level of the spinal cord. The neuronal activity that was suppressed was evoked by stimuli that were exclusively noxious. This substantiates the ability of halothane to modify the transmission of noxious information at the spinal cord level, and thus explains a mechanism by which halothane may induce analgesia.

Animals↗

Purification and subunit structure of a high-molecular-weight phosphoprotein phosphatase (phosphatase II) from rat liver.

1. Phosphatase II is a form of phosphoprotein phosphatase originally found in rat liver extract; it has a molecular weight of 160 000 by gel filtration and is highly active towards phosphorylase alpha. This phosphatase has been purified 1800-fold by using DEAE-cellulos (DE-52), aminohexyl--Sepharose-4B, protamine--Sepharose-4B and Sephadex G-200 chromatography. Throughout the purification steps, the original molecular weight and substrate specificity of phosphatase II were almost perfectly preserved. 2. The product of the final purification step migrated predominantly as a single protein band on non-denaturing gel electrophoresis. Sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electorphoresis revealed that the enzyme contains two types of subunit, alpha and beta, with molecular weights of 35 000 and 69 000, respectively. When treated with 0.2 M 2-mercaptoethanol at -20 degrees C, phosphatase II was dissociated to release the catalytically active alpha subunit. The beta subunit may be catalytically inactive but interacts with the alpha subunit so that phosphatase II becomes much less susceptible than the alpha subunit to inactivation by ATP or pyrophosphate.

Animals↗

Effect of ethanol treatment on high molecular weight phosphoprotein phosphatases of rat liver.

When the crude phosphoprotein phosphatase fraction of rat liver cytosol was treated with 80% aqueous ethanol at room temperature, the activity with phosphorylase alpha as substrate was increased by 110%, but those with glycogen synthase D and phosphohistone were decreased by 53 and 34%, respectively. Chromatography of the ethanol-treated fraction on DE-52 revealed that while phosphoprotein phosphatase IA (Mr=69,000) remained to exist even though it was reduced, phosphatases IB (Mr=-300,00) and II (Mr=160,000) were totally replaced by a new phosphatase form with an approximate molecular weight of 35,000. This low molecular weight form has been designated phosphatase III. When partially purified phosphatases IB and II were separately treated with ethanol, they were converted to phosphatase III. These results suggest that phosphoprotein phosphatases IB and II, but IA, contain phosphatase III as a subunit. Phosphatases IB and II, however, must differ in structure since "IB to III" is accompanied by an increase in phosphorylase phosphatase activity much greater than that for "II to III"

Animals↗