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Biomedical subjects

M R Prasad

Publications and source records attributed to M R Prasad.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Ultrastructure of the clear cell lining the epididymal lumen of the rat.

2 types of clear cells can be distinguished in the rat epididymis. The Type I clear cell occurs in the middle segment and it is distinguished by a centrally located nucleus and the presence of lipid droplets. The Type II clear cell occurs in the terminal segment; it has a basally situated nucleus and does not have lipid droplets. Ultrastructural studies indicate that the clear cells carry out a dual function of absorbing substances from the epididymal lumen by pinocytosis and secreting products into it by merocriny. both these functions are not carried out simultaneously by a particular clear cell but at different times. The Type I clear cell appears to secrete a glycolipoprotein while the Type II clear cell seems to secrete glycoproteins.

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Regulation of rat hepatic stearoyl coenzyme A desaturase. The roles of insulin and carbohydrate.

The rat hepatic stearoyl-CoA desaturation decreased by 3.7-fold in streptozotocin-induced diabetes. Insulin treatment of diabetic rats increased the enzyme activity by 7-fold. In marked contrast to glucose administration, fructose feeding in diabetic rats resulted in 20-fold stimulation of stearoyl-CoA desaturation, although both carbohydrates stimulated stearoyl-CoA desaturation in normal rats. Measurement of the microsomal electron transfer components showed no significant changes in the NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase activity or in the concentration of cytochrome b5. However, the activity of the terminal desaturase changed in a parallel fashion as the amount of terminal desaturase reflect changes in the overall desaturation. Supplementation of various microsomes with the saturating amount of purified terminal desaturase resulted in the formation of similar amounts of catalytically active complex and increased the stearoyl-CoA desaturation to the same level suggesting that the changes in the amount of terminal desaturase reflect changes in the overall desaturation. The results support the suggestion that both insulin and the intermediates of carbohydrate metabolism are involved in the regulation of terminal desaturase.

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Morphogenesis of the fetal membranes of an American mole, Scalopus aquaticus.

Scalopus membranes are characterized by: Superficial nidation; antimesometrial orientation of the embryonic disc; amniogenesis by folding; an extensive but transitory choriovitelline placenta; a large yolk sac with late and incomplete inversion; large persistent allantoic vesicle; a very broad, thin, villous, epitheliochorial chorioallantoic placenta of annular shape interrupted mesometrially, dotted with numerous areolae, and bordered by a nonvillous sparsely vascular chorioallantoic membrane connected with the persistent bilaminar omphalopleure by a very narrow rim of chorion. There is no decidua. Electron microscopy shows that at 8 mm, CR, (limb bud embryo) the uterine epithelium of the interhemal membrane may be 0.5 micron or less in thickness, but that it shows no signs of degeneration. Trophoblastic microvilli often penetrate the epithelium to within 0.2 micron of its base. At this time there is active secretion by the uterine glands, and cellular hypertrophy and cytolysis of the epithelium at the gland mouths, with active phagocytosis by the areolar cytotrophoblast. The occurrence of absorptive areolae in an insectivore emphasizes the probable primitiveness of this widely distributed placental mechanism. In spite of similarities of the yolk sac to that of rabbits and rodents, the bilaminar omphalopleure produces no invasive trophoblastic giant cells. The definitive membranes of Parascalops breweri and Scapanus latimanus are like those of Scalopus. The placentae of Talpa europaea, Condylura cristata, and Neurotrichus gibbsii are discoid and relatively much smaller, thicker and more complex in internal structure. There is some reason to believe that the fetal membrane systems of moles and shrews (Soricoidea) are more like those of the ancestral mammalian stock than are those of any other recent eutherians.

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Stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase activity in Novikoff hepatoma.

The activities of microsomal stearoyl-CoA desaturation, NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase, NADH-cytochrome c reductase, and the content of cytochrome b5 were similar in livers of normal and host rats. On the other hand, stearoyl-CoA desaturation activity was absent in Novikoff hepatoma. The activities of NADH-cytochrome b5 and NADH-cytochrome c reductases in the hepatoma microsomes were 4.8% and 2.2%, respectively, of those in normal liver. Furthermore, in hepatoma microsomes, cytochrome b5 was absent. An active stearoyl-CoA desaturation was reconstituted only on addition of both cytochrome b5 and the terminal desaturase enzyme to the hepatoma microsomes. These results indicated that a complete absence of cytochrome b5 and terminal desaturase is responsible for the lack of stearoyl-CoA desaturation in Novikoff hepatoma microsomes.

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