[Nitric oxide metabolism in the inclusion of N-acetylcysteine into the complex therapy of patients with community-acquired pneumonia].

Thirty-five patients with community-acquired pneumonia were examined. Studies of red blood cells and expired air condensate revealed significant nitric oxide metabolic disturbances in them. In a group of 17 patients, the use of N-acetylcysteine in the complex therapy resulted in the normalization of most parameters that characterized nitric oxide metabolism (nitrates, nitrites, peroxynitrite, NADP-H-diaphorase, and nitrate reductase activity). The positive changes were less significant in the control group receiving mucaltin instead of N-acetylcysteine. The established regularities in the balance change of nitric oxide metabolism in blood and expired air condensate at the height of the disease and positive changes during therapy including N-acetylcysteine suggest that nitric oxide plays an important role in the pathogenesis of community-acquired pneumonia.

[The distribution of aspartate aminotransferase activity in the structures of the visual analyzer in the canine brain during postnatal ontogeny]. / Raspredelenie aspartataminotransferaznoi aktivnosti v strukturakh zritel'nogo analizatora mozga sobak v period postnatal'nogo ontogeneza.

Studies have been made on aspartate aminotransferase activity in light and heavy synaptosomes, membrane and synaptic mitochondria from the visual cortex (field 17), bigeminal bodies, and outer geniculate body. It was shown that the enzymic activity significantly decreases in all the subfractions investigated in puppies beginning from 6 months up to 1 year. In earlier postnatal ontogenesis, the activity increased in all the subfractions, the extent of the increase being dependent on the source of the enzyme.

[The effect of early visual deprivation on the synthesis of glutamic and aspartic acids in mitochondria of central structures of the visual analyzer in the dog]. / Vliianie rannei zritel'noi deprivatsii na sintez glutaminovoi i asparaginovoi kislot v mitokhondriiakh tsentral'nykh struktur zritel'nogo analizatora mozga sobak.

After 45 days visual deprivation synthesis via direct reductive amination and transamination of glutamic and aspartic acids was inhibited in mitochondria of dog visual cortex, colliculi anterioris and corpus geniculatum externus. Under conditions of long-term (90 days) visual deprivation synthesis of glutamic and aspartic acids was less effectively inhibited in mitochondria of the brain areas studied via the reductive amination and transamination, except of the aspartic acid synthesis by means of transamination, the rate of which was maintained at the level similar to the values observed after 45 days of visual deprivation.

[Synthesis of glutaminic and aspartic acids in mitochondria of the visual analyzer of the dog brain during postnatal ontogenesis]. / Sintez glutaminovoi i asparaginovoi kislot v mitokhondriiakh struktur zritel'nogo analizatora mozga sobak v postnatal'nom ontogeneze.

It is revealed that glutaminic acid (GA) synthesis by direct reductive amination proves to be the most rapid in the mitochondria of the outer geniculate body (OGB) from the 1st till the 45th day of the postnatal development, and beginning from the 45th day till the 3-month age in visual cortex (field 17) (VC) and bigeminal bodies (BB). It is stated that GA synthesis by transamination in the mitochondria of VC, OGB, and BB proceeds less intensively than by a direct reductive amination at the early stage of postnatal development, being more rapid during the period from the 12-16th till the 45th day of postnatal development. Unlike GA synthesis in the mitochondria of the studied visual analyzer structures of canine brain AsA synthesis is more rapid in transamination reaction at the early stage of postnatal development. The high level of AsA synthesis was observed on the day when the puppies' eyes began to see clearly. The level of AsA synthesis by reductive amination and transamination in the mitochondria of VC, BB, and OGB at the early stage of postnatal development is lower than that of GA synthesis.