[Role of vitamin A in chemical carcinogenesis in the mammary gland].

The effect of feeding rats with high doses of vitamin A on the distribution of polycyclic hydrocarbon, 7,12-dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA) and its metabolites in different organs and blood, and also on the metabolic rate in the liver was studied following intravenous injection of the carcinogen. Hypervitaminosis A resulted in a significant decrease of the level of DMBA and its metabolites in all the organs investigated and in the blood. The rate of DMBA metabolism in the liver of the animals rose with the increase of the vitamin A dose.

[Chemiluminescence of plant tissues preserved in aldehydes and exposed to the salts of heavy metals].

It was established that plant tissues killed by various aldehydes in low concentrations, which evoked general enzyme inactivation for a long time retain permeability and lipoprotein bonds in the cell membranes. Such preparations from Elodea Canadensis leaves are used for: Cu, Zn, Pb, Hg toxical effect investigation. It was stated by chemoluminescence methods that these ions induce slow developed oxidative radical chain reaction in lipid cell membranes and break the lipoprotein bonds.

[Change in the metabolism of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene under the influence of vitamin A].

The in vitro metabolism of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene in its incubation with the liver microsomes, the liver and mammary gland homogenates of rats, kept on vitamin A-enriched diet, was studied. Vitamin A inhibited the formation of lipophilic metabolites and increased the generation of water-soluble metabolites. The amount of lipophilic metabolites extracted from the microsomes and the liver and mammary gland homogenates were decreased by a factor of 2.

[Circadian rhythms of ultraweak chemiluminescence of bean roots].

Circadian rhythms of ultra-weak chemoluminescence of bean roots were investigated. It was found that under periodical change of light and darkness and without subsequent illumination a periodical change of spontaneous chemoluminescence of bean roots was observed. (The study of antiradical activity of the substances extracted from the root showed the dependence of this activity on illumination conditions.