Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R Gross

Publications and source records attributed to R Gross.

At least 307 records · Page 17Linked to original sources

[Paradoxical hyperglucagonemia after oral administration of glucose in diabetic dogs. Impact of the cholinergic nervous system].

Alloxan diabetic dogs with insulin deficiency showed a transient but significant rise in glucagon levels after oral glucose load (1 g/kg). Pretreatment with atropine sulfate (0.2 mg/kg intravenously) totally suppressed this increase. So, the transient paradoxical rise of glucagon level observed in diabetic dogs after glucose intake is under cholinergic control.

Administration, Oral↗

Free fatty acids and pancreatic function in the duck.

The isolated perfused duck pancreas was used to study the effect of free fatty acids (FFA) on pancreatic function in vitro and to determine whether the FFA-glucagon negative feedback mechanism resulted from a direct inhibitory effect of FFA on the pancreatic A cell. Oleate, 2 mmol/l, increased the output rates of pancreatic somatostatin, glucagon and insulin. As there is poor morphological evidence in the duck for somatostatin to act as a paracrine intra-islet modulator, we reproduced in the pancreatico-duodenal artery, the rise in somatostatin level obtained in the pancreatic effluent after oleate. In these conditions the rises in glucagon and insulin secretions after oleate treatment were, respectively, reversed and suppressed, thereby reproducing observations previously made in vivo. Consequently, we may assume that the negative FFA-glucagon feedback mechanism that operates in vivo for physiological FFA variations does not result from a direct effect of FFA on the A cell, but may rather be mediated by an increase in pancreatic somatostatin secretion.

Animals↗

Glucagon and somatostatin secretion from the perfused splenic bulb of duck pancreas.

Glucagon, somatostatin and insulin secretions were evaluated in a new type of perfusion preparation: the naturally A and D cell rich splenic bulb of duck pancreas. Stable basal levels were observed with 11 mM glucose, corresponding to normoglycaemia, and all secretions were stimulated by 1 mM 3-isobutyl-1-methyl-xanthine and by 10 mM arginine, demonstrating the technique's validity. In the absence of aminoacids in the perfusion medium, A cell blindness to glucose was corrected by physiological levels of insulin (2 ng/ml); insulinodependency of A cells, and unresponsiveness of D cells to glucose, probably not ruled by insulin, were observed. However, in the presence of aminoacids, glucagon was inhibited and somatostatin secretion stimulated by glucose (33 mM), independently of insulin (2 ng/ml). Aminoacids greatly influenced pancreatic hormone release.

1-Methyl-3-isobutylxanthine↗

Defective erythroid progenitor differentiation system in congenital hypoplastic (Diamond-Blackfan) anemia.

To explore the etiology of congenital hypoplastic or Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) we investigated in vitro erythropoiesis in nine patients. Of the nine, seven were clinically responsive to prednisone. Four were infants evaluated at the time of diagnosis. Six were never or were only minimally transfused. Those for whom prednisone had been prescribed had discontinued the drug a minimum of five months prior to study. The bone marrows of these nine patients were compared with those of hematologically normal individuals and with those of four patients with transient erythroblastopenia of childhood (TEC) whose erythroid aplasia was as severe as that of the patients with DBA. Using the plasma clot semisolid culture technique to enumerate erythroid progenitors and to evaluate the growth characteristics of the colonies to which they give rise, we concluded that at the onset of DBA: (a) erythroid progenitor frequency does not correlate with the degree of anemia and erythroblastopenia; (b) erythroid progenitor differentiation may in some cases be abnormally insensitive to crude preparations of erythropoietin; and (c) progenitor erythropoietin insensitivity in vitro does not necessarily indicate prednisone insensitivity in vivo. Thus, DBA does not appear to be solely the result of deficient formation of erythroid progenitors but is, in addition, a disorder that is due to defective progenitor differentiation in vivo.

Adult↗

Effects of alpha-adrenoceptor agonists and antagonists on insulin secreting cells and pancreatic blood vessels: comparative study.

The effects of alpha-adrenergic drugs were studied on glucose-induced insulin secretion and effluent flow rate on the same preparation: the isolated perfused rat pancreas. An alpha 1-adrenoceptor agonist, phenylephrine 0.05 microM slightly decreased insulin secretion (-25%); this inhibition was counteracted by an alpha 2-adrenoceptor antagonist, yohimbine 0.6 microM. Phenylephrine evoked a fall in liquid flow rate (-13%) which was reversed by an alpha 1-adrenoceptor antagonist, prazosin 6 microM, but not by yohimbine. An alpha 2-adrenoceptor agonist, clonidine 0.01 and 0.05 microM decreased insulin secretion (-80%). This inhibition was reversed by yohimbine 0.6 and 6 microM respectively. Only the concentration of 0.05 microM clonidine evoked a fall (-25%) in liquid flow rate; this fall was counteracted by yohimbine 0.6 microM. In conclusion our results show that adrenergic inhibition of insulin secretion is mediated only by alpha 2-receptors whereas both types of adrenoceptors are implicated in the vasoconstrictor effect. The insulin inhibitory effect of adrenoceptor agonists is not related to vasoconstriction.

Adrenergic alpha-Agonists↗

Identification of the genes and their polypeptide products responsible for aerobactin synthesis by pColV plasmids.

Iron acquisition via aerobactin enhances the virulence of Escherichia coli. Genes that specify functions for aerobactin synthesis and iron(III)-aerobactin transport have been identified on several ColV plasmids. Previously, we cloned the locus for aerobactin synthesis from pColV-K311 and assigned to three loci termed aerA, aerB, and aerC the functions for hydroxylation of lysine, acetylation of the 6-amino group of 6-hydroxy-lysine and coupling of N-acetyl-N-hydroxy-lysine with citrate, respectively (Gross et al. 1984). In this paper we show that aerA and aerB determine polypeptides with molecular weights of 50,000 and 35,000, respectively. We identified a fourth gene designated aerD that codes for a polypeptide with a molecular weight of 60,000, and which is required for the linkage of one residue of N-acetyl-N-hydroxy-lysine to citrate. The aerC gene product completes aerobactin synthesis by coupling the second N-acetyl-N-hydroxy-lysine to the monoacylated derivative citrate. The order of the genes in the operon was found to be aerD-aerB-aerC-aerA.

Base Sequence↗

The positive inotropic dihydropyridine Bay K 8644 does not affect calcium sensitivity or calcium release of skinned cardiac fibres.

BAY K 8644 is a positive inotropic dihydropyridine which concentration-dependently increased contractile force in guinea-pig atria at 10 to 1000 nmol/l. In chemically skinned cardiac fibres from guinea-pig hearts the substance did not change the tension induced by calcium. Also BAY K 8644 did not release calcium from intracellular myocardial stores like caffeine since it failed to evoke a contractile response in saponin-treated, calcium-loaded cardiac muscle. Thus, the drug exerts its effects neither by sensitizing the contractile apparatus to calcium nor by a caffeine-like action.

3-Pyridinecarboxylic acid, 1,4-dihydro-2,6-dimethy↗