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Biomedical subjects

P M Farrell

Publications and source records attributed to P M Farrell.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1977

Maternal betamethasone and fetal growth and development in the monkey.

Bethamethasone was administered to pregnant rhesus monkeys of 134 to 150 days' gestation. At operative delivery, umbilical venous plasma cortisol concentrations were significantly lower in the treated group than in the control group, indicating that the agent crossed the placenta. In the treated group, accelerated differentiation was present in several fetal organs including lung, liver, kidney, and adrenal gland. Brain histologic changes suggestive of neuronal injury were found in some instances. There were no differences in the weights of these fetal organs except for liver. It was markedly increased in steroid-treated fetuses and this was accompanied by a fourfold rise in total hepatic glycogen content. These observations suggest that in the subhuman fetal primate, the differentiation of fetal organs in addition to lung is enhanced by short-term corticosteroid treatment while growth is not affected.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

The occurrence and effects of human vitamin E deficiency. A study in patients with cystic fibrosis.

The role of vitamin E in human nutrition was studied by investigation of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and associated pancreatic insufficiency. Vitamin E status was assessed by measurement of the plasma concentration of the principal circulating isomer, alpha-tocopherol. Results of such determinations in 52 CF patients with pancreatogenic steatorrhea revealed that all were deficient in the vitamin. The extent of decreased plasma tocopherol varied markedly but correlated with indices of intestinal malabsorption, such as the serum carotene concentration and percentage of dietary fat absorbed. Supplementation with 5-10 times the recommended daily allowance of vitamin E in a water-miscible form increased the plasma alpha-tocopherol concentrations to normal in all 19 CF patients so evaluated. Studies on the effects of vitamin E deficiency focused on possible hematologic alterations. An improved technique was developed to measure erythrocyte hemolysis in vitro in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. While erythrocyte suspensions from control subjects demonstrated resistance to hemolysis during a 3-h incubation, all samples from tocopherol-deficient CF patients showed abnormal oxidant susceptibility, evidenced by greater than 5% hemoglobin release. The degree of peroxide-induced hemolysis was related to the plasma alpha-tocopherol concentration in an inverse, sigmoidal manner. The possibility of in vivo hemolysis was assessed by measuring the survival of (51)Cr-labeled erythrocytes in 19 vitamin-E deficient patients. A moderate but statistically significant decrease in the mean (51)Cr erythrocyte half-life value was found in this group. Measurement of erythrocyte survival before and after supplementation of 6 patients with vitamin E demonstrated that the shortened erythrocyte lifespan could be corrected to normal with this treatment. Other hematologic indices in deficient subjects, however, were normal and did not change upon supplementation with vitamin E. It is concluded that CF is invariably associated with vitamin E deficiency, provided that the patient in question has pancreatic achylia and is not taking supplementary doses of tocopherol. Concomitant hematologic effects consistent with mild hemolysis, but not anemia, occur and may be reversed with vitamin E therapy. Patients with CF should be given daily doses of a water-miscible form of vitamin E to correct the deficiency.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Lung phosphatidylcholine synthesis and cholinephosphotransferase activity in anencephalic rat fetuses with corticosteroid deficiency.

Adrenocortical insufficiency was produced in rat fetuses by surgical decapitation. These animals show low plasma corticosterone levels compared to littermate controls. Lung slices from anencephalic fetuses were found to have reduced incorporation of [14C]choline into phosphatidylcholine, hence diminished choline pathway activity; this abnoramlity was present at 21 days of gestation but not at term. Cholinephosphotransferase (CPT), the terminal catalyst of the choline pathway, also showed diminished activity in lungs of anencephalic fetuses, with a mean of 120 pmol/min/mg protein compared to a control value of 190. Dexamethasone treatment of these animals for 6-12 hr led to enhanced choline incorporation rates. Corticosteroid administration also restored CPT activity and even elevated the enzyme to a mean level (340 pmol/min/mg protein) greater than that found in normal fetuses at 21-22 days of gestation. The early pulmonary biochemical effects of dexamethasone in this model were not accompanied by recognizable ultrastructural changes.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗
PubMed1977

The influence of antenatal corticosteroids on hypoglycemia in newborn rats with intrauterine growth retardation.

This study examines the effect of maternally injected glucocorticoid on the pattern of hypoglycemia exhibited by rat pups with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). The majority of surgical procedures designed to produce small-for-gestational age (SGA) newborns for biochemical studies were carried out on days 18 and 19 of gestation because of favorable vields of pups with IUGR at those operative days. At birth, normal controls showed a mean +/- SE plasma glucose value of 63 +/- 2 mg/dl; mean glucose for the group with IUGR was significantly lower at 43 +/- 2 mg/dl. There was a further decrease in the plasma glucose concentration of pups with IUGR at 2-4 hr of age, whereas values in the control littermates did not fall during this interval. Through the first 2 hr of neonatal life, 46% of the pups with IUGR exhibited plasma glucose values less than 40 mg/dl, whereas only 18% of the control littermates manifiested hypoglycemia. During the 2-4-hr interval, the incidence of hypoglycemia in animals with IUGR increased to 91%; however, the incidence in control remained at 18% from 2-4 hr and fell to 4% at 4-6 hr of age. At birth, the pups with IUGR had a lower mean liver weight compared to their control littermates, but glycogen concentration of liver was similar to the control mean +/- SE of 25.7 +/- 1.8 (IUGR = 22.2 +/- 1.3 mg/g wet weight). Total hepatic glycogen stores, however, were markedly lower in dysmature rat pups (IUGR = 2.96 +/- 0.17 mg; control = 7.23 +/- 0.43 mg). Concentrations of plasma glucose at birth of individual control and IUGR animals were found to correlate significantly (r = 0.64, p less than 0.001) with total liver glycogen content. The decline in plasma glucose values in pups with IUGR was not present in animals whose dams received glucocorticoid injection 24 and 48 hr before delivery. At 4-6 hr of age, for instance, the mean plasma glucose concentration in the corticoid-treated IUGR group (70.1 +/- 6.9 mg/dl) approximated that of the control group. Instead on the 91% incidence of hypoglycemia noted in the nontreated dysmature pups, an incidence of 55% was found at 2-4 hr of age in offspring of mothers given glucocorticoid. At 4-6 hr, the treated group showed an incidence of 18% compared to a 67% figure in the nontreated IUGR animals. The concentration of liver glycogen in these animals also differed in that the treated IUGR pups showed significantly higher values (26.9 +/- 1.7 mg/g wet weight, mean +/- SE) than nontreated progeny. It is concluded that antenatally administered corticosteroid influence the development of neonatal hypoglycemia in the dysmature rat pup and that the major effect is not at birth, but during the 2-4-hr period of neonatal life.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Fetal lung lecithin metabolism and the amniotic fluid L/S ratio in rhesus monkey gestations.

The amniotic fluid lecithin/sphingomyelin (L/S) ratio in normal rhesus monkey pregnancies exhibits a distribution through the latter half of gestation similar to that seen in human pregnancies. Changes in the synthesis and concentration of lecithin in the fetal lung, measured both in vitro and in vivo, are paralleled by changes in the amniotic fluid L/S ratio. Both the amniotic fluid L/S ratio and fetal lung lecithin concentration increase significantly (p less than 0.001) in the final 10 per cent of rhesus monkey gestation, and there is a significant correlation (p less than 0.001) between these two indices of fetal lung lecithin metabolism. Moreover, the onset of these late gestational changes is temporally related to increased activity of the major pathway of de novo lung lecithin synthesis and to the ability of the preterm rhesus newborn infants to remain free of respiratory symptoms after delivery by cesarean section. We conclude that the amniotic fluid L/S ratio is a valid indicator of fetal pulmonary phospholipid metabolism and, therefore, an accurate index of biochemical pulmonary maturity.

Amniotic Fluid↗
PubMed1976

Vitamin E.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Lung lecithin biosynthesis in the nonhuman primate fetus: determination of the primary pathway in vivo.

The two pathways for de novo lecithin (phosphatidylcholine) biosynthesis, choline incorporation (1) and phosphatidylethanolamine methylation (II), were examined simultaneously in lung and other tissues of Rhesus monkey fetuses. Cannulation of interplacental fetal vessels permitted studies on the intrauterine fetus without disruption of fetal-placental-maternal-amniotic fluid anatomic integrity. In contrast to observations with indirect techniques in the same species, direct measurement of the incorporation of isotopic precursors (3H-choline and 14C-ethanolamine) into lecithin indicated that pathway I predominates by 100-fold over PE methylation in pulmonary lecithin synthesis. Fetal liver, brain, and kidney also showed 10--70-gold greater choline incorporation that methylation activity. Measurement of lung phosphatidylcholine production via the two pathways in acidemic fetuses (umbilical venous pH less than 7.20) demonstrated marked inhibition of pathway I, but not II. It is concluded that the choline pathway is the major mechanism of lung lecithin synthesis in fetal primates and that this pathway is pH sensitive in vivo.

Acid-Base Equilibrium↗
PubMed1976

Determination and characterization of ciliary ATPase in the presence of serum from cystic fibrosis patients.

The purpose of this investigation was twofold: (1) to identify and characterize the enzymatic ATP hydrolysis system of epithelial cilia, and (2) to develop a quantitative, biochemical test for the ciliotoxic cystic fibrosis (CF) factor based on inhibition of ATP utilization by ciliary preparations. Our rationale for selecting this system for CF factor analysis relates to the tight and essential mechanochemical coupling of functioning cilia. Using rabbit tracheal epithelium as the source, a high molecular weight (greater than 200,000) ATPase was identified, partially purified, and extensively characterized. The properties of this protein were similar to those observed in previous studies of others with flagellar and ciliary dynein (the motility-associated ATPase) isolated from microorganisms. Analysis of the pH profile revealed a broad range of high enzymatic activity between 6.5 and 9. Studies with potential cation activators showed that the enzyme is activated equally by either Ca2+ or Mg2+ in equimolar concentrations. No activation occurred in the presence of Zn2+, Na+, H+, or Na+ plus K+ and the effect of Mg2+ or Ca2+ was not inhibited by Na+, K+, or Na+ plus K+. The enzyme hydrolyzed Mg2+-containing solutions of UTP, CTP, and ADP at 51-54% the rate of ATP dephosphorylation, whereas Mg-deoxy-ATP was hydrolyzed 79% as effectively as ATP. Using a newly devised, analytical technique with [gamma-32P]ATP as the substrate, the ATP hydrolysis of various ciliary preparations from rabbit trachea and oyster gill (including motile suspensions) was monitored in the presence of sera from CF homo- and heterozygotes. Reproducible rates of ATP dephosphorylation averaging 27 nmol/min/mg protein were demonstrable with homogenates of ciliated epithelium. None of the test systems evaluated, however, were capable of demonstrating CF-related differences in ATPase activity or ATP utilization. Although these attemps have been unsuccessful thus far, the approach described in this report provides an example of an objective, quantitative, biochemical assessment of ciliary function.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗
PubMed1976

Cortisol-dihydrotachysterol antagonism in a patient with hypoparathyroidism and adrenal insufficiency: apparent inhibition of bone resorption.

This report describes a case of chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis with associated hypoparathyroidism and acutely developed adrenocortical insufficiency. The latter was heralded by hypercalcemia. Upon the institution of cortisol therapy, while still under the effects of a vitamin D analog dihydrotachysterol (DHT), the patient exhibited severe hypocalcemia and tetany. Since calcium intake was minimal during this period of presumed corticosteroid-DHT antagonism, it is suggested that the cortisol disturbed calcium homeostasis by in inhibiting bone calcium resorption.

Adrenal Insufficiency↗