Depressed in vivo myocardial reactivity to dobutamine in streptozotocin diabetic rats: influence of exercise training.

To assess the effects of chronic diabetes on in vivo myocardial reactivity to beta 1 adrenergic receptor stimulation and to evaluate the therapeutic effect of exercise training in preventing the cardiac abnormalities induced by diabetes four groups of rats were studied: sedentary control, trained control, sedentary diabetic, and trained diabetic. Trained rats were adapted to treadmill running before the induction of diabetes with streptozotocin 55 mg.kg-1 iv. The duration, speed, and grade of exercise were then progressively increased during eight weeks of training until the rats could run for 90 min at 18 m/min, 5% grade. A training effect was confirmed by an increase in plantaris muscle cytochrome oxidase activity. In vivo cardiac contractile performance was assessed by intracardiac catheterisation. Heart rate, left intraventricular peak systolic pressure, and positive and negative dP/dt were measured under basal conditions and after the intravenous administration of dobutamine 10(-10) to 5 x 10(-7) mol.kg-1 body weight. Under basal conditions, there were no differences among the four groups in left intraventricular peak systolic pressure, positive dP/dt, and heart rate, but negative dP/dt was lower in both diabetic groups. The response to dobutamine of the sedentary diabetic group, as reflected in the measured cardiodynamic variables, was significantly attenuated compared with that of the sedentary control group. Exercise training tended to improve cardiac function towards the level detected in the sedentary controls; however, the differences between sedentary and trained diabetic groups were not statistically significant. Exercise training also did not significantly alter the response of the control group to dobutamine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Human ocular mucus. Scanning electron microscopic study.

Twenty biopsy specimens of the human conjunctival epithelial surface with its associated mucus from normal subjects and contact lens wearers with biomicroscopic evidence of excess mucus were studied by scanning electron microscopy. Mucus existed in strands, sheets, and granules; each morphologic type of mucus was observed in all samples. No qualitative difference in morphologic features of mucus was found between normal subjects and those with excess mucus. Mucous forms observed by scanning electron microscopy closely resembled structures previously shown by biomicroscopic and light microscopic techniques, providing evidence that careful scanning electron microscopic preparation of biopsy specimens containing mucus may not greatly alter in situ morphologic characteristics of mucus.

Improved postischemic recovery of cardiac pump function in exercised trained diabetic rats.

This study examined whether exercise training of diabetic rats (streptozocin, 55 mg/kg) would affect the ability of perfused hearts to recover pump function after 75 min of ischemia and 30 min of reperfusion. All hearts were perfused with buffer containing the diabetic plasma concentrations of glucose and free fatty acids. Four groups were studied: sedentary control, trained control, sedentary diabetic, and trained diabetic. Trained control and diabetic rats were exercised on a treadmill at 5% grade, 21 m/min, 90 min/day, 6 days/wk for 8 wk. Sedentary diabetics had significantly lower body weight and elevated plasma glucose, triacylglycerol, and cholesterol relative to both control groups. Hearts from this group exhibited depressed postischemic recovery of pump function during reperfusion. In contrast, trained diabetic rats exhibited significantly lower plasma levels of triacylglycerol and cholesterol relative to sedentary diabetics. The postischemic recovery of cardiac pump function was improved in hearts from trained diabetic rats relative to sedentary diabetics. Exercise training had no effect on control rats. These results suggest that exercise training produces an antihyperlipidemic effect in diabetic rats and improves the tolerance of the diabetic heart to ischemia.

Effects of eye rubbing on the conjunctiva as a model of ocular inflammation.

We assessed the effects of eye rubbing on the histologic characteristics and inflammatory cell infiltrate of the conjunctiva. The upper eyelids of 20 adult rats were rubbed during a five-minute period, and then the animals were killed immediately, or at four, eight, or 24 hours after trauma. One eye of each animal was rubbed; the unrubbed contralateral eye served as a control. Counts of mast cells, degranulated mast cells, and inflammatory cells (neutrophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes, plasma cells, and macrophages) were recorded from conjunctival samples from the upper eyelid. Immediately after eye rubbing the conjunctival epithelium was histologically disrupted and 50% of the mast cells showed evidence of degranulation. At four hours after trauma the increase in the number of neutrophils was more than 2,300%. Neutrophils were in the margins in the conjunctival vessels, had migrated into the substantia propria, and were aligned subjacent to the epithelial basement membrane; large numbers of neutrophils populated the epithelium. The four-hour stage was the most dramatic phase of inflammation that occurred from the eye rubbing. At 24 hours there was a significant increase in the number of macrophages. The numbers of lymphocytes, plasma cells, and eosinophils were not significantly changed throughout the study. Our findings demonstrate that eye rubbing histologically disrupts the epithelium and induces significant alteration in the inflammatory cell infiltrate of the conjunctiva. These changes may influence the course of ocular disease.

Myocardial adaptation to endurance exercise training in diabetic rats.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether exercise training would prevent the progressive functional decline in pump function of hearts from diabetic rats. Four groups were studied: sedentary control, trained control, sedentary diabetic, and trained diabetic. Trained rats were adapted to the treadmill prior to induction of diabetes in half of the group streptozotocin injected (50 mg/kg). Thereafter the duration, speed, and grade were then progressively increased until the trained rats could run for 60 min at 27 m/min, 5% grade (wk 8). Cardiac output and work were measured in isolated working hearts perfused at various left atrial filling pressures and with buffer containing the concentrations of glucose and fatty acids found in vivo. Sedentary diabetic rats had lowered body weight, elevated plasma glucose, triacylglycerol, and cholesterol. Exercise training of diabetic rats lowered plasma triacylglycerol levels. Training increased plantaris muscle cytochrome oxidase activity significantly in both the trained control and trained diabetic groups. Cardiac pump function was impaired in hearts from the sedentary diabetic rats perfused with either normal or diabetic substrate conditions, but the impairment was larger under diabetic conditions. Training of diabetic rats prevented this depression. Myocardial carnitine content was decreased in hearts from sedentary diabetic rats. Exercise training increased carnitine content in both control and diabetic rats. This training protocol did not affect cardiac pump function of the trained control group. These results suggest that exercise training may limit the myocardial contractile dysfunction associated with diabetes mellitus.

Effects of vanadate on in vivo myocardial reactivity to norepinephrine in diabetic rats.

Myocardial contractile function is often depressed in patients with diabetes mellitus. Vanadate is an essential trace element that has purportedly an insulin-like action and has been suggested as a therapeutic agent for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. The purpose of the present study was to compare the prophylactic efficacy of oral vanadate therapy (0.8 mg of sodium orthovanadate per milliliter drinking water) to that of insulin treatment (5 units/day s.c.) in terms of its ability to reduce or prevent the progressive cardiodepression that occurs in untreated diabetes mellitus. Diabetes was induced in male rats by i.v. streptozotocin injection (50 mg/kg). Diabetes rats were assigned randomly to one of three regimens for 8 weeks: untreated, insulin-treated or vanadate-treated. Noninjected rats served as controls. In vivo myocardial contractile function was measured under basal conditions and after i.v. norepinephrine infusions in ketamine-xylazine-anesthetized rats using a miniature catheter-tip pressure transducer inserted in the right carotid artery and advanced into the left ventricle. Vanadate and insulin treatment resulted in comparable increases in body weight and reductions in plasma glucose, which were improved relative to untreated diabetics. These findings suggest that vanadium may possess an insulin-like action. Basal in vivo myocardial contractile performance was depressed significantly in untreated diabetic rats as compared to control and insulin-treated diabetic rats. The contractile performance of vanadate-treated diabetic rats was in between untreated diabetic and control groups. In vivo myocardial reactivity to norepinephrine based on assessments of left intraventricular developed pressure, positive and negative dP/dt and delta dP/dt was depressed significantly in untreated diabetic rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Pericentriolar processes of photoreceptor cell basal bodies in the mammalian retina.

Pericentriolar processes (arm-like fibers) of the migrating centrioles (diplosome) in differentiating retinal photoreceptor cells were examined in six mammalian species (hamster, vole, rat, rabbit, ferret, cat). These processes emanate in a radial fashion from one end of the centrioles comprising the photoreceptor diplosome. The pericentriolar processes of the basal body are first observed as the diplosome migrates toward the apical plasmalemma, suggesting that centrioles are committed early-on to developing such processes. One pericentriolar process arises from each set of microtubular triplets comprising the centriole and are apicoexternally oriented at an angle of between 30 and 60 degrees with the centriolar axis. Prior to the arrival of one of the centrioles at the apical plasmalemma these processes connect with an electron-dense portion of a centriole-associated vacuole. The diplosome migrates to the apical plasmalemma where one centriole (the presumptive basal body) orients perpendicularly to the apical plasmalemma. The centriole-associated vacuole appears to fuse with the plasmalemma. The pericentriolar processes appear to attach to this fusion site on the plasmalemma which is a region of the membrane characterized by increased electron density (the basilar plate). Invagination of the apical membrane, which occurs at this same site, is accompanied by a lengthening of the microtubules forming a cilium and is observed as an outpouching of the plasmalemma within the aforementioned invagination. The associated vacuole apparently becomes continuous with the apical plasmalemma. These pericentriolar processes appear to be functionally involved in ciliogenesis and offer structural stability between the basal body, the plasmalemma and indirectly the cilium.

Impaired in vivo myocardial reactivity to norepinephrine in diabetic rats.

The effects of long-term diabetes with and without insulin treatment on in vivo myocardial contractile activity were studied under basal conditions and as a function of intravenously infused norepinephrine. Diabetes was induced by iv injection of streptozotocin (50 mg/kg). Insulin-treated diabetic rats received 5 units per day of isophane insulin suspension. The duration of the study was 8 weeks. In vivo myocardial contractility measurements were performed in ketamine-xylazine-anesthetized rats using a miniature catheter-tip pressure transducer advanced through the right carotid artery into the left ventricle. Peak positive dP/dt and intraventricular developed pressure were comparable among the groups when measured under basal conditions; however, the magnitude of the response to variable doses of norepinephrine (6 X 10(-12) to 6 X 10(-8) mole/kg body wt) were significantly diminished in diabetic rats, but the sensitivity was unchanged. Negative dP/dt was decreased under basal conditions and in response to norepinephrine in diabetic rats. Insulin treatment to diabetic rats prevented these changes, but heart rate was elevated. These results demonstrate that the in vivo cardiovascular reactivity of diabetic rats to norepinephrine is significantly attenuated.