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PubMed1995

Suppression of normal and neoplastic human T cells with unconjugated monoclonal antibodies in SCID mouse chimeras.

The aim of this study was to establish a preclinical in vivo model to evaluate the suppressive effect of unconjugated anti-human T (CD3, 5, 7)-cell monoclonal antibodies (mAb) of mouse IgG2a or rat IgG2b isotype. Therefore, severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice were transplanted with human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of healthy donors (hu-PBL-SCID) or with neoplastic T cells of the human T-ALL cell line Jurkat. In preselected hu-PBL-SCID mice with substantial T cell chimerism single antibody injection caused prompt suppression of circulating human T lymphocytes within 2 days followed by occasional T cell recovery during the following weeks. Furthermore, antibody-mediated T cell suppression was measured by prolonged survival of SCID mice that had been injected with Jurkat cells preadapted to cause 100% mortality within 40 days. Injection of preadapted Jurkat cells caused fatal metastasis in lymphoid as well as non-lymphoid organs. The progression of leukemic cells was successfully suppressed when cells and anti-T cell mAb were given i.p. In contrast to control mice, tumor mortality of antibody-treated animals was delayed or completely suppressed. We conclude that SCID mice with reproducible human T cell chimerism are a relevant animal model to test the suppressive effect of anti-human T cell mAb in preclinical studies.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Fiber architecture of the extensors of the hindlimb in semiterrestrial and arboreal guenons.

Fiber architecture of the extensor musculature of the knee and ankle is examined in two African gueon species--the semiterrestrial Cercopithecus aethiops, and the arboreal C. ascanius. Using histologic and microscopic techniques to measure lengths of sarcomeres, the original lengths of muscle fasciculi and angles of pinnation in quadriceps femoris and triceps surae are reconstructed from direct measurements on cadavers. Calculations of reduced physiological cross-sectional area, mass/predicted effective tetanic tension, maximum excursion, and tendon length/fasciculus+tendon lengths are correlated to preferred locomotor modalities in the wild. For both species, greater morphological differences occur among the bellies of quadriceps femoris--rectus femoris, vastus intermedius, v. lateralis, and v. medialis--than among the bellies of triceps surae--gastrocnemius lateralis, g. medialis, plantaris, and soleus. With regard to quadriceps femoris, few differences occur between species. Interspecific differences in the triceps surae indicate (1) redirection of muscle force to accommodate arboreality in which the substrate is less than body width; (2) muscles more suited for velocity in the semiterrestrial vervets; and (3) muscles used more isotonically in vervets and more isometrically in red-tailed monkeys. The inherent flexibility of muscles may be preadaptive to a primary species shift in locomotor modality until the bony morphology is able to adapt through natural selection.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

The origin of platyrrhines: An evaluation of the Antarctic scenario and the floating island model.

This paper evaluates whether 1) protoplatyrrhines could have migrated to South America via Antarctica, and 2) the floating island model is a plausible transoceanic mode of dispersal for land vertebrates like protoplatyrrhines. Results show that Eocene Antarctica and Australia supported large and dense forests, and that the Antarctic fauna was comprised of many species of vertebrates, including placental and marsupial land mammals. However, no primate remains have ever been reported from these continents. Antarctica and South America were connected until the Middle Eocene (i.e., after the oldest Asian anthropoids), but two major water barriers existed between Antarctica and Asia since the Early Eocene. The Eocene and Oligocene water gap separating Africa and Antarctica was excessively large. Thus, all scenarios involving an Antarctic route have been rejected. The African scenario is difficult to falsify because only one water barrier existed, both paleowinds and paleocurrents were favorable, and Paleogene African anthropoids show phylogenetic affinities to platyrrhines. I tested whether a journey on a hypothetical floating island over the Paleogene Atlantic Ocean exceeds the survival limit of a genetically viable group of animals such as protoplatyrrhines. Studies of water deprivation suggest that they could have been able, with a body weight averaging 1 kg, to survive without water for at least 13 days. I have used the present Atlantic Ocean as a model for the velocity of Paleogene paleowinds and paleocurrents. Considering winds as the key accelerating force of floating islands, the Paleogene Atlantic water barrier could have been crossed, in the most conservative scenario, in 8 days at 50 Mya, 11 days at 40 Mya, and 15 days at 30 Mya. In order to survive a transoceanic journey, however, protoplatyrrhines had to be preadapted to strong seasonal variations in water availability in their original (African) environment. Once on the sea, their brains would have physiologically interpreted the rarity of water as the beginning of the dry season, and the group would have switched its diet to alternative foods, i.e., everything available on the floating island.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Evolution of forelimb movement patterns for prey manipulation in anurans.

Unlike other amphibians, frogs often use their forelimbs to capture and transport prey. In the present study, high-speed videography was used to observe forelimb use during feeding in a diverse group of anurans in order to determine the evolution of forelimb movement patterns among anuran taxa. Data were gathered from 488 individuals representing 104 species, 55 genera, and 16 families. Five distinct behavior patterns were identified: scooping entails using the back of the hand to push prey into the mouth; wiping involves the use of the palm of the hand to push prey, protruding laterally from the mouth, toward the midline; during prey stretching, one end of the prey is held in a stationary position by the hands while the other end is pulled upward by the jaws; in grasping, the palms face the midline or the substrate as the fingers are wrapped around the prey; grasping with wrist rotation is similar to grasping, but the wrists rotate inward as the hands grasp the prey so that the palms face the mouth. The distribution of these behavior patterns was mapped onto the most recent phylogenetic hypothesis for anurans. Maximum parsimony analyses suggest that scooping and wiping are primitive and have been retained by many frog lineages. Wiping was not observed in the pipids, which are the only anurans that lack tongues and use hydraulic transport. Prey stretching appears to have evolved several times in unrelated taxa. Grasping and grasping with wrist rotation appear to have evolved only in arboreal groups, suggesting that the ability to climb is a preadaptation for the ability to grasp prey. Several species were observed using grasping motions in place of the tongue to capture prey.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Colonial origin for Emetazoa: major morphological transitions and the origin of bilaterian complexity.

A new hypothesis for the evolution of Bilateria is presented. It is based on a reinterpretation of the morphological characters shared by protostomes and deuterostomes, which, when taken together with developmental processes shared by the two lineages, lead to the inescapable conclusion that the last common ancestor of Bilateria was complex. It possessed a head, a segmented trunk, and a tail. The segmented trunk was further divided into two sections. A dorsal brain innervated one or more sensory cells, which included photoreceptors. "Appendages" or outgrowths were present. The bilaterian ancestor also possessed serially repeated "segments" that were expressed ontogenetically as blocks of mesoderm or somites with adjoining fields of ectoderm or neuroectoderm. It displayed serially repeated gonads (gonocoels), each with a gonoduct and gonopore to the exterior, and serially repeated "coeloms" with connections to both the gut and the exterior (gill slits and pores). Podocytes, some of which were serially repeated in the trunk, formed sites of ultrafiltration. In addition, the bilaterian ancestor had unsegmented coeloms and a contractile blood vessel or "heart" formed by coelomic myoepithelial cells. These cells and their underlying basement membrane confine the hemocoelic fluid, or blood, in the connective tissue compartment. A possible scenario to account for this particular suite of characters is one in which a colony of organisms with a cnidarian grade of organization became individuated into a new entity with a bilaterian grade of organization. The transformation postulated encompassed three major transitions in the evolution of animals. These transitions included the origins of Metazoa, Eumetazoa, and Bilateria and involved the successive development of poriferan, cnidarian, and bilaterian grades of organization. Two models are presented for the sponge-to-cnidarian transition. In both models the loss of a flow-through pattern of water circulation in poriferans and the establishment of a single opening and epithelia sensu stricto in cnidarians are considered crucial events. In the model offered for the cnidarian-to-bilaterian transition, the last common ancestor of Eumetazoa is considered to have had a colonial, cnidarian-grade of organization. The ancestral cnidarian body plan would have been similar to that exhibited by pennatulacean anthozoans. It is postulated that a colonial organization could have provided a preadaptive framework for the evolution of the complex and modularized body plan of the triploblastic ancestor of Bilateria. Thus, one can explore the possibility that problematica such as ctenophores, the Ediacaran biota, archaeocyaths, and Yunnanozoon reflect the fact that complexity originated early and involved the evolution of a macroscopic compartmented ancestor. Bilaterian complexity can be understood in terms of Beklemishev "cycles" of duplication and colony individuation. Two such cycles appear to have transpired in the early evolution of Metazoa. The first gave rise to a multicellular organism with a sponge grade of organization and the second to the modularized ancestor of Bilateria. The latter episode may have been favored by the ecological conditions in the late Proterozoic. Whatever its cause, the individuation of a cnidarian-grade colony furnishes a possible explanation for the rapid diversification of bilaterians in the late Vendian and Cambrian. The creation of a complex yet versatile prototype, which could be rapidly modified by selection into a profusion of body plans, is postulated to have affected the timing, mode, and extent of the "Cambrian explosion." During the radiations, selective loss or simplification may have been as creative a force as innovation. Finally, colony individuation may have been a unique historical event that imprinted the development of bilaterians as the zootype and phylotypic stage. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Biomechanical analysis of vertical climbing in the spider monkey and the Japanese macaque.

Climbing is one of the most important components of primate locomotor modes. We previously reported that the kinesiological characteristics of vertical climbing by the spider monkey and Japanese macaque are clearly different, based on their kinetics and kinematics. In this study, a more detailed analysis using inverse dynamics was conducted to estimate the biomechanical characteristics of vertical climbing in the spider monkey and Japanese macaque. One of the main findings was the difference in forelimb use by the two species. The results of a joint moment analysis and estimates of muscular force indicate that the spider monkey uses its forelimbs to keep the body close to the substrate, rather than to generate propulsion. The forelimb of the Japanese macaque, on the other hand, likely contributes more to propulsion. This supports the idea that "forelimb-hindlimb differentiation" is promoted in the spider monkey. The estimated muscular force also suggests that the spider monkey type of climbing could develop the hindlimb extensor muscles, which are important in bipedal posture and walking. As a result, we conclude that the spider monkey type of climbing could be functionally preadaptive for human bipedalism. This type of climbing would develop the hip and knee extensor muscles, and result in more extended lower limb joints, a more erect trunk posture, and more functionally differentiated fore- and hindlimbs, all of which are important characteristics of human bipedalism.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Ultrastructural features of mitochondria-rich cells in stenohaline freshwater and seawater fishes.

In order to elucidate the functional significance of accessory cells in freshwater fishes, such as the rainbow trout, which displays a poor adaptability to seawater life, a search for such cells was performed in two stenohaline freshwater fishes: the loach and the gudgeon. Accessory cells were never encountered in these species; but, in contrast, two types of chloride cells were observed consistently that strikingly resembled the alpha- and beta-cells previously described in the guppy, a freshwater-adapted euryhaline fish. The alpha-cell, a pale and elongated chloride cell, was located at the base of the secondary lamellae in close contact with the arterioarterial pillar capillary. Darker, ovoid chloride cells resembling the beta-cell were found exclusively in the interlamellar region of the primary epithelium facing the central venous sinous. The latter cells frequently formed multicellular complexes linked together by deep, narrow, apical junctions. In another experiment, a stenohaline seawater fish, the turbot, was adapted to diluted 5% saltwater and to fresh water. In seawater, the gill epithelium contained only one type of chloride cell, always associated with accessory cells. Due to numerous cytoplasmic interdigitations between the accessory cells and the apical portion of the chloride cell, there was a noticeable increase in the length of the shallow apical junction, sealing off the intercellular space between the two cell types. In 5% saltwater, there was a decrease in the number of these interdigitations and a concomitant decrease in the length of the shallow apical junction. In fresh water, chloride cells were partially or completely separated from the outside medium by modified accessory cells. It is thus concluded that accessory cells are found exclusively in fish living in seawater or preadapted to seawater and that they probably are involved in the formation and modulation of paracellular pathways for ionic excretion. In contrast, the respective roles of the two types of chloride cells observed in freshwater fishes are still to be determined.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1980

An electromyographic study of the pectoralis major in atelines and Hylobates, with special reference to the evolution of a pars clavicularis.

Among primates there is striking variation in the extent of the origin of pectoralis major from the clavicle. A significant clavicular attachment (pars clavicularis) occurs only in Alouatta, Lagothrix, Hylobates, Pan (troglodytes, paniscus and gorilla), and Homo. Interpreting this trait in nonhuman primates as an adaptation to frequent use of a mobile forelimb in climbing and suspension is contraindicated by the absence of a clavicular origin in Ateles and Pongo. We have undertaken a telemetered electromyographic study to determine any special role of the most cranial part of the pectoralis major in comparison to its caudal part, and to the deltoid, during vertical climbing, pronograde quadrupedalism, and armswinging in Ateles, Lagothrix, Alouatta, and Hylobates. The results show that the cranial pectoralis major possesses a role not shared by the caudal fibers: initiation of the recovery phase of the locomotor cycle. When ability to execute rapid or powerful recovery of the adducted forelimb is required in an animal with a shoulder joint lying on a plane cranial to that of the manubrium, the movement will be facilitated if the origin of the pectoralis major is extended onto the clavicle. Such is the case in nonhuman primates possessing this trait. The absence of a clavicular origin in Ateles and Pongo may be related to diminished selective pressures to perfect locomotor modes such as pronograde quadrupedalism, armswinging, or climbing thick vertical trunks, that demand rapid or powerful recovery of the adducted forelimb. If the arboreal ancestor of humans had evolved a clavicular origin of pectoralis major, this animal would be preadapted for certain uses of the forelimb in its bipedal descendant.

Alouatta↗
PubMed1986

Insect and meat eating among infant and adult baboons (Papio cynocephalus) of Mikumi National Park, Tanzania.

It has been suggested that baboon predation upon vertebrates may tend to peak in the dry season because insect food is then less available, and that males obtain animal nutrients primarily from vertebrates whereas other troop members obtain them primarily from invertebrates. The development of meat and insect eating by 22 male and 24 female infants studied for 25 months was compared with that of 18 male and 46 female adults studied for 37 months. Systematic sampling allowed quantitative comparisons between meat and insect eating, infants and adults, and males and females. Infants ate no meat, but their insect eating began early and increased steadily during the first year of life. In comparison with insect foods, meat was a minor ingredient of the adult's diet. Insect eating occurred less during dry than during rainy months, but meat eating was spread across the year. Reliable sex differences in insect eating did not occur. The findings were related to theories offered to explain the attractiveness of animal foods to primates and to the suggestion that a sex difference in predatory inclinations of hominid ancestors may have been a preadaptation underlying the eventual emergence of male hunting and female gathering.

Aging↗
PubMed1999

Biological functions of carotenoids--diversity and evolution.

Carotenoids first emerged in archaebacteria as lipids reinforcing cell membranes. To serve this function their long molecules have extremely rigid backbone due to the linear chain of usually 10 to 11 conjugated C=C bonds in transconfiguration--the length corresponding the thickness of hydrophobic zone of membrane which they penetrate as "molecular rivets". Carotenoids retain their membrane-reinforcing function in some fungi and animals. The general structure of carotenoid molecule, originally having evolved for mechanical functions in membranes, possess a number of other properties that were later used for independent functions. The most striking fact is that these properties proved to fit some new functions to perfection. The polyene chain of 9-11 double bonds absorbs light precisely in the gap of chlorophyll absorption--function as accessory light-harvesting pigments in all plants; Unique arrangement of electronic levels owing to the by polyene chain structure makes carotenoids the only natural compounds capable of excitation energy transfer both (i) from carotenoid excited state to chlorophyll in the light-harvesting complex and (ii) from triplet chlorophyll or singlet oxygen to carotenoid in photosynthetic reaction centers--protection of RC from photodamage. The linear system of conjugated C=C bonds provides high reducing potential of carotenoid molecules making them potent antioxidants in lipid formations. Still, there is a lack of evidence of the chemical antioxidant function of carotenoids, especially in higher organisms; most data demonstrate an antioxidant ability rather than a function. Carotenoids have many other independent biological functions, including: specific coloration patterns in plants and animals, screening from excessive light and spectral filtering, defense of egg proteins from proteases in some invertebrates; the direct carotenoid derivative--retinal--acts as visual pigment in all animals and as chromophore in bacteriorhodopsin photosynthesis, retinoic acid in animals and abscisic acid in plants serve as hormones. All these functions utilize various properties (mechanical, electronic, stereospecific) of a single structure evolved in bacteria for a single membrane-reinforcing function, thus demonstrating an example of pure evolutionary preadaptation. One of the practical conclusions that can be reached by reviewing uniquely diverse properties and functions of carotenoids is that, when considering possible mechanisms of their effects in organisms (e.g., anticarcinogenic action), all their functional traits should be taken into account.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Prevention and elimination of heart arrhythmias by adaptation to intermittent high altitude hypoxia.

It was shown that adaptation to intermittent hypoxia in altitude chamber prevented the poststress fall of the electrical threshold of heart fibrillation. In acute ischemia, the number of fibrillation episodes and the death rate of preadapted animals were 2-3 fold lower than in controls. The adaptation to hypoxia resulted in a significant increase in concentration of opioid peptide beta-endorphin in adrenal glands while stress-induced changes in beta-endorphin in brain structures of adapted animals were much less pronounced. In animals with postinfarction cardiosclerosis, the course of hypoxic actions resulted in restoration of the decreased heart fibrillation threshold, reduced the heart ectopic activity which had developed on the background of vagal bradycardia, and eliminated depression of the heart contractile function. Simultaneously, the adaptation induced a decrease of the postinfarction scar by one-third and an increase of vascularization of the myocardial zone adjacent to the scar.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1991

Human vestibular function and weightlessness.

This article presents the concept of a spatial orientation/motion perceptual system, the contributions of the vestibular receptors to this system, and apparatus and training procedures and observations to allow astronauts to preadapt to weightlessness. The author also discusses perceptual reactions to prolonged weightlessness.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1994

Preflight adaptation training for spatial orientation and space motion sickness.

Two part-task preflight adaptation trainers (PATs) are being developed at the NASA Johnson Space Center to preadapt astronauts to novel sensory stimulus conditions similar to those present in microgravity to facilitate adaptation to microgravity and readaptation to Earth. This activity is a major component of a general effort to develop countermeasures aimed at minimizing sensory and sensorimotor disturbances and Space Motion Sickness (SMS) associated with adaptation to microgravity and readaptation to Earth. Design principles for the development of the two trainers are discussed, along with a detailed description of both devices. In addition, a summary of four ground-based investigations using one of the trainers to determine the extent to which various novel sensory stimulus conditions produce changes in compensatory eye movement responses, postural equilibrium, motion sickness symptoms, and electrogastric responses are presented. Finally, a brief description of the general concept of dual-adapted states that underly the development of the PATs, and ongoing and future operational and basic research activities is presented.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1986

Metamorphosis of the American eel, Anguilla rostrata LeSeur: I. Changes in metabolism of skeletal muscle.

Unequivocal demarcation between immature, nonmigratory yellow eels and migratory silver eels of greater sexual maturity is possible by measuring eye diameter and retinal capillary length, which undergo a 1.5- and 2.3-fold increase during metamorphosis, respectively. Anatomical arrangement of trunk musculature is similar in the two groups except for an increased depth of slow muscle in silver eel. Histochemical analysis reveals a progressive increase in numbers of "displaced" fast fibres within slow muscle of the lateral line triangle in maturing eels, although these are unlikely to affect recruitment pattern of muscle fibre types. Previous studies have suggested greater involvement of fast muscle in locomotion of migratory eels. In contrast, estimates of enzyme activity in fast muscle suggest an inadequate aerobic capacity to fuel sustained activity. Myoglobin content is extremely low, around 0.4 nM g wet wt-1. Prolonged anaerobic metabolism is also discounted as a migratory strategy. Increased energy provision for migration is apparently derived from increased capacity for both aerobic carbohydrate metabolism and mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation within slow muscle of silver eels. Activity of hexokinase (HK) shows a 1.6-fold increase (to 0.51 microM g wet wt-1) and carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) a 3.1-fold increase (to 0.22 microM g wet wt-1 min-1), suggesting a maximal flux through these pathways of 18 and 14 ATP equivalents, respectively. However, the fatty acyl transferase system of skeletal muscle mitochondria displays up to threefold greater activity with palmitoleoyl CoA (C16:1) as substrate than with the usual palmitoyl CoA (C16:0). Slow muscle of silver eel is therefore capable of deriving aerobic energy from free fatty acids and carbohydrate in the ratio 2.3:1. Differences in aerobic enzyme activities are not paralleled by myoglobin content of slow muscle, being 15 and 16 nM g wet wt-1 for yellow and silver eel, respectively. Structural reorganization of muscle fibres during metamorphosis, however, results in a twofold elevation of cytoplasmic myoglobin concentration in silver eel. It would appear that dramatic differences in metabolic capacity between life history stages of eel is required to overcome locomotory inefficiency of yellow eels and to "preadapt" silver eels for migratory activity. This increased locomotory capacity may be amplified by a subsequent training response.

Aging↗
PubMed2007

The homology and phylogeny of chondrichthyan tooth enameloid.

A systematic SEM survey of tooth microstructure in (primarily) fossil taxa spanning chondrichthyan phylogeny demonstrates the presence of a superficial cap of single crystallite enameloid (SCE) on the teeth of several basal elasmobranchs, as well as on the tooth plates of Helodus (a basal holocephalan). This suggests that the epithelial-mesenchymal interactions required for the development of enameloid during odontogenesis are plesiomorphic in chondrichthyans, and most likely in toothed gnathostomes, and provides phylogenetic support for the homology of chondrichthyan and actinopterygian enameloid. Along the neoselachian stem, we see a crownward progression, possibly modulated by heterochrony, from a monolayer of SCE lacking microstructural differentiation to the complex triple-layered tooth enameloid fabric of neoselachians. Finally, the occurrence of fully-differentiated neoselachian enameloid microstructure (including compression-resistant tangle fibered enameloid and bending-resistant parallel fibered enameloid) in Chlamydoselachus anguineus, a basal Squalean with teeth that are functionally "cladodont," is evidence that triple-layered enameloid microstructure was a preadaption to the cutting and gouging function of many neoselachian teeth, and thus may have played an integral role in the Mesozoic radiation of the neoselachian crown group.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Shake-flask test for determination of biodegradation rates of (14)C-labeled chemicals at low concentrations in surface water systems.

A simple shake-flask surface water biodegradability die away test with (14)C-labeled chemicals added to microgram per liter concentrations (usually 1-100 microg/L) is described and evaluated. The aim was to provide information on biodegradation behavior and kinetic rates at environmental (low) concentrations in surface water systems. The basic principle of measurement was to determine evolved CO(2) indirectly from measurements of total organic activity in subsamples after stripping off their content of CO(2). Used with surface water alone the test simulates a pelagic environment and amended with sediments (0.1-1 dry weight/L) the test is intended to simulate a water environment with suspended solids (e.g., resuspended sediments). A protocol of the test used with the (14)C technique or with specific chemical analysis was recently developed by the International Organization for Standardization. Practical experience with the method is presented for a set of reference substances. These substances could be ranked in five groups of decreasing biodegradability: aniline>p-nitrophenol, 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid>4-chloroaniline>maleic hydrazide, pentachlorophenol>atrazine. It was found that degradation rates and lag periods varied considerably among sampling sites and sometimes also among samples from the same site. No significant correlation could be established between degradation rates and microbial biomass estimates. Even small portions of added sediments greatly enhanced biodegradation of the absorbable compound pentachlorophenol, probably by providing sites for microbial attachment. Repeated tests indicated consistent degradation behavior for the readily degradable substances, whereas degradation sometimes stopped or failed with the more recalcitrant substances. A preadaptation step involving regular reinoculation with freshly collected surface water could, however, overcome the problems of false-negative results.

2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid↗
PubMed1993

Leishmania mexicana: induction of metacyclogenesis by cultivation of promastigotes at acidic pH.

Cultivation of recently transformed Leishmania mexicana promastigotes at pH 5.5 in Schneider's Drosophila medium supplemented with 20% fetal calf serum produced a homogeneous stationary phase population morphologically similar to metacyclic forms. The cultured forms developed functional characteristics consistent with being metacyclic: they were resistant to complement-mediated lysis, possessed a discernable surface membrane coat in transmission electron micrographs, and were highly infective to peritoneal macrophages in vitro. In contrast, growth of promastigotes at pH 7.0 produced morphologically mixed populations of stationary phase promastigotes, but including a subpopulation with metacyclic-like morphology. These results provide a method for culturing pure populations of L. mexicana metacyclics and provide evidence that metacyclics are biochemically preadapted for survival at acidic pH as amastigotes in macrophage phagolysosomes.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Absence of a tiGH effect on adaptability to brackish water in tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible role of growth hormone in the adaptation of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) to brackish water and to analyze its interactions with prolactin in this process. Plasma levels of growth hormone do not change upon transfer to brackish water. Treatment of intact tilapia in fresh water with growth hormone prior to transfer did not enable the fish to preadapt to brackish water: the duration of the hydromineral imbalance after transfer was the same in treated animals and controls. The major osmoregulatory role of prolactin in fresh water led us to test the hypothesis that prolactin might antagonize the effect of growth hormone on adaptation to brackish water. Growth-hormone-treated hypophysectomized animals, however, exhibited no increased osmoregulatory capacity as compared to hypophysectomized controls, confirming the absence of a growth-hormone-related osmoregulatory effect. When prolactin and growth hormone were coinjected, growth hormone also proved unable to oppose the Na+ retaining effect of prolactin, in both brackish and fresh water. Surprisingly, hypophysectomized animals adapt better to brackish water than do sham-operated animals. This result is discussed in light of the effects of prolactin and cortisol on osmoregulation in brackish water and we suggest that an important event which allows O. niloticus to adapt to hyperosmotic environment is the reduction of plasma PRL upon transfer to brackish water.

Adaptation, Physiological↗