What's on the horizon for the black obstetrician and gynecologist in the United States?
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J F Clark.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Heart cells from neonatal rats have been cultured. The ability of 10(-5)M glucagon to stimulate adenylyl cyclase activity, and to increase the cAMP concentration and the beating rate in these cells was followed as a function of time in culture. The cultured cells show no response to 10(-5)M glucagon until 5 weeks. By contrast, the cells do respond to 10(-5)M epinephrine with an increase in beat rate, adenylyl cyclase activity and cAMP levels when freshly prepared or after 1 week in culture. Previous studies on the newborn rat heart, acutely isolated, have also shown that the neonatal rat heart is insensitive to glucagon until 4-5 weeks after birth. We conclude that the cultured neonatal rat heart cells can also mature in the same time frame with respect to a glucagon response.
The ontogenesis of the hepatic glucagon-sensitive adenylate cyclase system has been studied in the rat. With a partially purified liver membrane preparation, fetal adenylate cyclase was less responsive to glucagon than the enzyme from neonatal or adult livers. Similar results were obtained in gently prepared liver homogenates, suggesting that destruction of essential components of the fetal liver membrane did not account for the relative unresponsiveness of the adenylate cyclase enzyme to glucagon. Investigation of other factors that might account for diminished fetal hepatic responsiveness to glucagon indicate (a) minimal glucagon degradation by fetal membranes relative to 8-day or adult tissue; and (b) available adenylate cyclase enzyme, as suggested by a 13-fold increase over basal cyclic AMP formation with NaF in fetal liver membranes. These results indicate that neither enhanced glucagon degradation nor adenylate cyclase enzyme deficiency accounts for the relative insensitivity of the fetal hepatic adenylate cyclase system to glucagon. In early neonatal life, hepatic adenylate cyclase responsiveness to glucagon rapidly developed and was maximal 6 days after birth. These changes were closely paralleled by a fivefold increase in glucagon binding and the kinetically determined Vmax for cyclic AMP formation. These observations suggest that (a) fetal hepatic unresponsiveness to glucagon may be explained by a limited number of glucagon receptor sites; (b) during the neonatal period, the development of glucagon binding is expressed primarily as an increase in adenylate cyclase Vmax; (c) the ontogenesis of hepatic responsiveness to glucagon may be important in the resolution of neonatal hypoglycemia.
The basal adenylate cyclase activity of the rat heart increases with the age of the animal. By itself, 10(-5) M glucagon activates only adenylate cyclase activity from adult rat hearts. In contrast, 10(-5) M glucagon in the presence of 10(-4)M 5'-guanylylimidodiphosphate (GMP-PNP) clearly activates adenylates cyclase activity in the 14-day-old rat heart, with some activation being evident in hearts of 7-day-old animals. GMP-PNP, 10(-4) M, activates adenylate cyclase activity by itself at ages of 14 days and older, but to a far lesser degree than in combination with 10(-5) M glucagon. Activity elicited by NaF increases throughout the neonatal period. The ratio of NaF-stimulated activity to basal activity increases from 6.3 at 2 days to 10.0 in the adult, a change which is not statistically significant. We conclude that a cardiac receptor for glucagon is present early in neonatal period of the rat, but this receptor cannot effect activation of adenylate cyclase and an increase in heart rate, or depletion of glycogen. Even in the presence of 10(-4) GMP-PNP, the response to glucagon by cardiac adenylate cyclase depends on the age of the rat. In heart cells from a 7-day-old rat, the response is barely measurable but the magnitude of the response increases each week.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.