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Biomedical subjects

M Berman

Publications and source records attributed to M Berman.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

Transport of plasma free fatty acids and triglycerides in man: a theoretical analysis.

Three different multicompartmental models of free fatty acid (FFA) and very low density lipoprotein triglyceride fatty acid (VLDL-TGFA) transport in man are formulated from plasma FFA and VLDL-TGFA tracee and tracer data collected over a 24 hr interval after the injection of palmitate-(14)C. All modeling and data fitting were performed on a digital computer using the SAAM program. Structural differences in the three models relate to the position of the slowly turning over compartment required to generate the late portion of the plasma VLDL-TGFA tracer data. The positions of this slow compartment are along the hepatic pathway from FFA to VLDL-TGFA (model A) or in the distribution system of VLDL-TGFA (model B) or in the distribution system of FFA (model C). Although all three models are equally consistent with our experimental data and are supported by observations of others, each reveals inconsistency with some data obtained from the literature. Consequently, a combination model of FFA-TGFA transport, incorporating properties of models A, B, and C would be more consistent with all available data. Experiments that would help to determine the quantitative significance of each of the slow compartments in the combination model are suggested. Several other models suggesting recycling of plasma VLDL-TGFA through the plasma FFA pool, kinetic heterogencity of the plasma VLDL-TGFA pool, and contamination of plasma VLDL-TGFA radioactivity with low density lipoprotein (LDL) TGFA radioactivity were tested. The first model does not explain the late portion of the plasma VLDL-TGFA tracer data. The second and third models, while consistent with our tracee and tracer data, have steady-state implications with respect to the extent of kinetic heterogeneity and size of the LDL-TGFA contaminant that make them unlikely. Assumptions underlying other investigator's models of FFA and TGFA transport in man are reviewed within the logical framework of our models. Quantitative differences among the various models are shown by evaluating all of the models with respect to a common set of plasma FFA and VLDL-TGFA data.

Carbon Isotopes

Dietary perturbation of calcium metabolism in normal man: compartmental analysis.

The effect of dietary calcium intake on calcium metabolism was studied in eight normal volunteers by multicompartmental analysis of radiocalcium and balance data. In paired studies of six normal subjects on normal and high or low calcium intakes, necessary and sufficient criteria were used to determine changes in calcium metabolic parameters produced by alterations in dietary calcium. These changes involved gastrointestinal calcium absorption rate, renal and endogenous fecal rate constants, and bone resorption rate. Bone accretion rate and compartment sizes need not change between the paired studies. The changes of parameters involving kidney, gut, and bone were in a direction to support calcium homeostasis and were compatible with the pattern of changes produced by parathyroid hormone. However, the source of the stimulus for hormone secretion was not apparent since plasma calcium concentrations showed no significant difference between paired studies. The implications of these findings relative to control of hormone secretion, calcium regulatory mechanisms, and metabolic bone disease are discussed.

Bone Resorption

Kinetic studies of plasma free fatty acid and triglyceride metabolism in man.

Plasma transport of free fatty acids (FFA) and triglyceride fatty acids (TGFA) was studied in seven subjects with normal lipid metabolism, one case of total lipodystrophy, and one case of familial hyperlipemia (Type V). Studies were carried out after intravenous injection of radioactive FFA, of lipoproteins previously labeled in vitro in the triglyceride moiety, or both. Computer techniques were used to evaluate a series of multicompartmental models, and a general model is proposed that yields optimum fitting of experimental data for both FFA and TGFA. The results show that as much as 20-30% of FFA leaving the plasma compartment in normal subjects is transported to an exchanging extravascular pool and quickly reenters the plasma pool as FFA. The rate of irreversible delivery of FFA from plasma to tissues averaged 358 muEq/min in normals. The lipodystrophy patient, despite the virtual absence of adipose tissue (confirmed at autopsy), had a plasma FFA concentration and a total FFA transport, both more than twice normal. Total TGFA transport ranged from 25 to 81 muEq/min in four normal controls. The rate constant for TGFA turnover in the patient with Type V hyperlipemia was so small that total transport could not be quantified from the data available; the TGFA half-life was over 500 min. In two normal subjects given injections of autologous lipoproteins labeled in vitro with triolein-(14)C and simultaneously given oleic acid-(3)H, it was shown that the time course for the disappearance of the TGFA in the in vitro labeled samples conformed almost exactly to that of the physiologically labeled lipoprotein TGFA synthesized from injected FFA (as evidenced by the simultaneous fitting of both sets of data using the same multicompartmental model and the same rate constants). Radioactivity appeared in the plasma FFA fraction at a significant rate after injection of plasma labeled in vitro with TGFA. It was estimated that as much as 50% of the total TGFA transported underwent rapid and rather direct conversion to FFA in the two normal subjects studied this way. The kinetic data suggest that such conversion of TGFA to FFA was not preceded by any extensive dilution, such as would result from complete mixing with tissue triglyceride stores.

Adolescent

Study of calcium absorption in man: a kinetic analysis and physiologic model.

A physical model of calcium absorption was developed from analysis of data obtained on 23 subjects, including 13 patients having a variety of abnormalities of calcium metabolism. The model was tested and found consistent in all subjects studied. This technique provides a quantitative description of the rate of entry of oral dose of (47)Ca into the circulation as a function of time by analysis of serum or forearm radioactivity in response to intravenous and oral administration of (47)Ca. The kinetics of the absorption process as proposed by the model are characterized by an initial delay phase of 15-20 min, by a maximal rate of absorption at 40-60 min after ingestion, and by 95% completion of the absorption within 2(1/2) hr. Partial identification of the physiological counterparts of the model was possible by introduction of the isotope at various levels of the gut. Although the region of the duodenum was found to have the greatest rate of absorption per unit length in normal subjects, it was least responsive to stimulation by parathyroid hormone and suppression by calcium loading. Furthermore, the response of the gut to parathyroid hormone was delayed, whereas the suppression of absorption by intravenous or oral calcium loading was rapid and dramatic. The implications of these observations are discussed.

Calcium