Immediate and delayed effects of hypobaric hypoxia during early postnatal period on the functioning of digestive enzymes.

We studied immediate and delayed effects of hypobaric hypoxic stress experienced by rat pups in the early postnatal period on the digestive system. It was shown that hypoxia leads to remarkable changes in the functioning of the small intestine, as well as liver and kidney, especially in adult animals.

[Digestive enzyme activities in rats kept on standard or surplus breast-feeding and on low-protein diet directly after weaning].

Activities of digestive enzymes (maltase, alkaline phosphatase, amino peptidase M, and glycyl-L-leucine dipeptidase) in small and large intestine, liver, and kidney were studied in rats of different ages kept in normal (8) and low (3) amounts of pups per litter. The low-protein diet for 10 days at once after weaning was found to change the mass of the organs and their digestive enzyme activities in all studied rat groups. The revealed changes were more prominent in rats kept under conditions of breast-overfeeding. In adult animals of this group, distribution of the alkaline phosphatase activity along the small intestine differed from that in control rats. The obtained results seem to confirm the fact that any disturbance of the nutrition quality in early ontogenesis leads to disturbance of the "metabolic programming of enzyme systems" of digestive and non-digestive organs.

[Assessment of the level of homocysteine and the state of haemostasis in patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus in remote terms after reconstructive operations on the aorto-iliac segment].

The authors carried out a comparative analysis of the level of homocysteine and the state of haemostasis in patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus in the remote terms after endured reconstructive operations on the aorto-iliac segment. They examined a total of eighty-eight patients who had endured reconstructive operations on the aorto-iliac segment at various terms. Of these, forty-two patients were found to have a severe course of type 2 diabetes mellitus (59.9% with decompensation) and forty-six subjects without diabetes constituted the group of comparison. The average age of the patients amounted to 61.9 +/- 1.25 years, with all being smokers. The following parameters were assessed: patency of the bypasses and major arteries of the lower limbs (LL), homocysteine (Hey), fibrinolytic activity, fibrinogen, activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), factor XIII, thrombin time, prothrombin index, activity of antithrombin III (AIII), platelet aggregation with ADP, and glycosylated haemoglobin (Hb Aic).

[Effect of weaning terms and protein deficit in the rat pup nutrition on activities of digestive enzymes].

Restriction of protein in nutrition of rat pups weaned at different terms has been found to produce changes in activities of digestive enzymes (maltase, alkaline phosphatase, aminopeptidase M, and glycyl-L-leucine dipeptidase) in the small and large intestine both at once after cessation of nutrition with low-protein diet for 10 days and 4 months later. In adult animals after the earlier or later weaning there are observed not only a decrease or increase of the enzyme activities, but also a different type of distribution of the alkaline phosphatase activity along the small intestine, which is more pronounced in the lately weaned rats. Thus, disturbance of metabolic programming of enzyme systems of the small and large intestine due to a change of quality of nutrition in early ontogenesis depends on terms of weaning of animals.

[Congenital anomalies of the inferior vena cava: diagnosis and medical treatment].

Analyzed herein are the findings obtained following an examination and medical treatment of five 17-to-39-year-old male patients (average age 25.0+/-1.83 years) presenting with congenital abnormalities of the inferior vena cava. The diagnosis was made and the level of aplasia was determined based on the findings of a comprehensive instrumental examination (computed and magnetic resonance tomography of the abdominal cavity, duplex scanning of the veins of the lower extremities, of the pelvis and the retroperitoneal space, as well as on the data of pelvic phlebography, and retrograde cavography). In three of the five patients, the disease appeared to have for the first time manifested itself by a clinical picture of peripheral thrombosis (oedema of the crus and femur), and in the remaining two by an elevated body temperature and shivering, followed by oedema of the both lower limbs. Two patients were found to have aplasia of the infrarenal segment of the inferior vena cava, two subjects had aplasia of the infra-, renal and partially suprarenal portions of the vessel, and one patient suffered from aplasia of virtually the whole vena cava, excepting a small part of the suprahepatic portion, toward which converged the hepatic veins and the superior polar renal vein. With the purpose of early diagnosis of congenital abnormalities of the inferior vena cava, the protocol of examination of patients with venous diseases should include ultrasonographic mapping of the supra-, renal and infrarenal portions of the vena cava, and if agenesis is revealed, the use of computed or magnetic resonance tomography, retrograde cavography is strongly recommended. When the diagnosis of IVC aplasia is confirmed, primary medical treatment should consist in prescribing venotonic agents, elastic compression and in cases of deep veins thrombosis -anticoagulant therapy.

[Hemostasis system disturbances and their correction in patients with pyonecrotic forms of diabetic foot].

Severe hypercoagulation syndrome was diagnosed in patients with various forms of diabetic foot. Pathology at coagulogram parameters reflects systemic metabolic and inflammatory disturbances. Anticoagulant therapy should be combined with correction of glycemia, treatment of infection and critical ischemia. Only this complex therapy can normalize coagulation parameters and reduce the risk of thrombotic complications.

[Effect of peptide Livagen on activity of digestive enzymes in gastrointestinal tract and non-digestive organs in rats of different ages].

It is stated that Livagen (Lys-Glu-Asp-Ala) is a weakly hydrolyzed peptide. Peptide hydrolases of small intestine do not hydrolyze Livagen even to a small extent. Under in vitro conditions Livagen reduces glycil-L-leucinedipeptidase activity in small intestine by 50%. After two weeks of Livagen administration per os in rats the digestive enzymes activity in young animals reduces, while in old animals it increases. It should be mentioned that the activity of enzymes in old rats after Livagen administration in the majority of cases approaches to the level of the activity in young animals of control group.

Synthetic approach to analogues of 19-norsteroids with an acyclic side chain.

Racemic 14 beta-hydroxy-3-methoxy-8 alpha,9 alpha-1,3,5(10)-estratriene-17-one (I), obtained by total synthesis, was converted into a derivative with alkoxycarbonyl-ethylenic side chain, rac-(20E)-21-methoxycarbonyl-19-nor-8 alpha,9 alpha-pregna- 1,3,5(10),20-tetraene-3,14 beta-diol 3-methyl ether (XII) using two Wittig reactions. Analogous derivatives of 5 alpha-androstane were prepared as synthetic models. In the estrane series the stereochemistry of attachement of the side chain in position 17, biological activity of some compounds, and their chromatographic properties were investigated.

[Physiology of the hydrophobic domain]. / Fiziologiia gidrofobnogo domena.

The role of the hydrophobic part in the functioning of some amphipathic enterocyte enzymes has been studied in various animal species (fish, mammals, insects). Kinetic (Km, Vmax, pHopt) and regulatory properties of membrane, detergent and protease forms of carbohydrases, alkaline phosphatase and alanine aminopeptidase were compared. All the species under study showed significant differences among these forms of enzymes. The data obtained demonstrate the important role of the hydrophobic anchor in forming both catalytic and regulatory properties of enzymes.

[The detailed characteristics of the enzyme spectrum of the small intestine in rats in the early postnatal period]. / Detal'naia kharakteristika fermentnogo spektra tonkoi kishki krys v rannem postnatal'nom periode.

The activity of the small intestine's peptide hydrolases is higher in 1-day old rats than in adult rats, whereas levels of activity of alkaline phosphatase and diglycyl glycine peptidase do not differ significantly in these two groups of the rats. Our own data on carbohydrases corroborate other authors' evidence and reveals that activities of lactase, sucrase and maltase are either absent or very low in the first days of life and sharply increase by the third week of postnatal development. Adaptive changes of regulatory properties of lactase and alkaline phosphatase are revealed.

[The effect of stress on the enzyme systems of the enterocyte microvilli in rat pups and the possible mechanism of the transmission of stress effects from dam to progeny]. / Vliianie stressa na fermentnye sistemy mikrovorsinok énterotsitov u krysiat i vozmozhnyi mekhanizm peredachi stressornykh éffektov ot materi k potomstvu.

In suckling rats whose mothers had had an immobilisation stress or been injected HC and T4 at the last day of their pregnancy, the sucrase induction decreased in the small intestine, if the HC was injected on the 10th day of life. The hormone injection to 1-day suckling rats did not affect the induction. These effects seem to be exerted not by the direct permeation of hormone from mother to litter but to be mediated rather by a special factor "stressin". The latter is transferred from mother to litter and decreases the sensitivity of intestinal enzymes to exogenous HC, thus exerting an antistressor effect.

[Hydrolases of the digestive organs during ontogenesis]. / Gidrolazy pishchevaritel'nykh organov v ontogeneze.

A wide variety of enzymes actualizing membrane hydrolysis of nutrients and their distribution in the gastro-intestinal tract were characterized in one-day old and adult rats and rabbits. The comparison of enzymatic activities of various animal species suggests that some enzymes are responsible for the adaptation to milk diet (lactase), others--to definitive nutrition (invertase, maltase). A number of enzymes (peptidase, alkaline phosphatase) do not depend on the type of nutrition. High activity of some hydrolases in the colon has been demonstrated confirming the A. M. Ugolev hypothesis of its digestive functions in the early ontogenesis.

[Radial and proximo-distal distribution of hydrolytic enzymes in the small intestine at rest and during digestion]. / Radial'noe i proksimo-distal'noe raspredelenie gidroliticheskikh fermentov v tonkoi kishke v pokoe i pri pishchevarenii.

Alpha-amylase was present in considerable amount in the chyme in rats both at rest and during digestion, in the latter case its level being increased. Activity of intrinsic intestinal enzymes dominated in the homogenate of the mucosa. Transition from fasting to feeding and digestion increased the level of alkaline phosphatase and dipeptidase activities in the homogenate of the mucosa. The data obtained suggest the final stages of biopolymers' hydrolysis to be localized in various enterocyte structures. The surface mucus, owing to absorbed pancreatic enzymes, binding proteins and other types of physiologically active molecules, is assumed to play the role of a specific molecular filter and take part in the initial stages of digestion.

[The digestive enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract, kidney, liver and spleen in different functional states]. / Pishchevaritel'nye fermenty v zheludochno-kishechnom trakte, pochke, pecheni i selezenke pri razlichnykh funktsional'nykh sostoianiiakh.

A wide range of digestive enzymes with different cellular location (membrane, intracellular, Lysosomal) was determined in gastrointestinal organs (stomach, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, colon) as well as in undigestive organs (liver, kidney, spleen) in normal conditions and in altered functional states (fasting, refeeding). High levels of peptidase activity was noted in undigestive organs and the colon as compared to that in the small intestine. Adaptive responses were (revealed not only for a number of membrane enzymes but also for intracellular ones including those in undigestive organs.

[The enzyme-transport characteristics of the small intestine of rats during aging]. / Fermentativno-transportnye kharakteristiki tonkoi kishki krys pri starenii.

Ageing was shown to be accompanied by changes of the activity levels of the small intestine's carbohydrases, dipeptidases, and alkaline phosphatases. The changes occurred both under normal conditions and after operations on the small intestine. In ageing, the small intestine's capacity for the homeomorphosis decreases irrespective of either increase or decrease in the functional loading. The age involution of the gastrointestinal tract is followed by disturbances not only in hydrolytic processes but in transport those as well: particularly deceleration of glucose accumulation in preparations of the rat intestine mucose. Regulatory properties of some enzymes were changed, too, in old rats.

[The hydrolases of the mucosal, submucosal and muscular layers of the small intestine and their functions]. / Gidrolazy mukoznogo, submukoznogo i myshechnogo sloev tonkoi kishki i ikh funktsii.

Proceeding from the newly obtained evidence on the distribution of digestive enzymes in mucosal, submucosal and muscular layers of the small intestine in rats, a hypothesis has been formulated: in addition to the enterocyte enzyme complex forming the epithelial barrier, there seems to exist a postepithelial barrier formed by the enzymes localized in subepithelial structures. The efficiency of this second barrier was manifested by the study of the peptide hydrolysis and transport using everted intact and de-epithelialized intestinal sacs.

[Digestive enzymes in the epithelial and subepithelial layers of the small intestine in different strains of rats]. / Pishchevaritel'nye fermenty v épitelial'nom i subépitelial'nykh sloiakh tonkoi kishki u krys raznykh linii.

Studies have been made on the activity of various digestive enzymes and their distribution between the mucosal, submucosal and muscle-serosal layers of the small intestine in Wistar and Sprague-Dawley rats. Three groups of the enzymes were found, their activities being maximal either in the mucosal, or in muscular layers, or being evenly distributed between three intestinal layers.

[Regulatory properties of digestive enzymes and the biology of multiple substrate digestive processes]. / Reguliatornye svoistva pishchevaritel'nykh fermentov i biologiia mnogosubstratnykh pishchevaritel'nykh protsessov.

Characteristics of functional organization and autoregulation of natural polysubstrate digestion in various animals are largely defined by regulatory properties of the enzymes ensuring membrane digestion. This has been demonstrated for both the animals which are at different evolutional levels and those specialized for different types of food. The effective organization of the digestive and transport processes in time and space is provided by an interaction of food substances at the stage of membrane digestion.

[The effect of the isolated or group housing of rat pups weaned at different times from the lactating female on the development of a spectrum of digestive enzymes in the small intestine]. / Vliianie izolirovannogo ili gruppovogo soderzhaniia krysiat, v raznye sroki otniatykh ot laktiruiushchei samki, na formirovanie spektra pishchevaritel'nykh fermentov tonkoi kishki.

Studies have been made on the formation of the spectrum of digestive enzymes in the small intestine of weanling rats which were taken from lactating female and given semisynthetic food at the age of 17, 21 and 25 days. It was shown that the rate of general development and maturation of the digestive enzymes depends on the age of animals and the mode of their breeding (isolated or in a group of the same age). These factors significantly affect also the level of the activity and proximo-distal gradient of distribution of the following intestinal enzymes: lactase, sucrase, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminopeptidase, glycyl-L-leucine dipeptidase, as well as the mass of the mucose and protein content of the small intestine.