Atrophy and hypertrophy signalling in the diaphragm of patients with COPD.

We investigated whether atrophy and hypertrophy signalling were altered in the diaphragm of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. We studied diaphragm fibre dimensions and proportion, expression of markers of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB pathways, muscle regulatory factors and myostatin in diaphragm biopsies from 19 patients with severe COPD and 13 patients without COPD. Type I proportion was significantly increased in the diaphragm of COPD patients while type II proportion was decreased.

Detection of viral and bacterial protein in endomyocardial biopsies of patients with inflammatory heart muscle disease?

The development of highly sensitive molecular biological methods such as in-situ hybridization and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) made it possible to detect viral/bacterial nucleic acid in human endomyocardial biopsies. However, only a few investigations addressed the problem of latent persistence of viral and bacterial genome and the detection of the corresponding proteins, which could have important consequences for the clinical course of the disease. The purpose of this study was to determine whether protein of various viruses (adenovirus, enterovirus, cytomegalovirus, influenza A and B virus, herpes simplex virus 1 and 2) and bacteria (chlamydia pneumonia) can be detected in endomyocardial biopsies of patients with myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy with and without inflammation by use of an immunofluorescence assay and to compare the frequency of its detection with the results of PCR, immunohistology and serology.

Prevalence of viral genome in endomyocardial biopsies from patients with inflammatory heart muscle disease.

In the report of the 1995 World Health Federation/International Society and Federation of Cardiology (WHF/ISFC) Task Force on the Definition and Classification of Cardiomyopathies, the definition of heart muscle diseases was updated. Idiopathic, autoimmune, and infectious forms of inflammatory cardiomyopathy are now recognized in this definition. Enteroviruses, adenoviruses and cytomegaloviruses are considered as main etiopathological factors in the pathogenesis of inflammatory heart disease.

[Cell death in inflammatory heart muscle diseases--apoptosis or necrosis?].

Cell death can be induced by 2 different mechanisms: necrosis and apoptosis. Necrosis, on the one hand, is usually caused by unphysiological stress factors such as hyperthermia or hypoxia, apoptosis, on the other hand, is part of the normal organ development and controls for example immune responses. Morphologically, necrosis is characterized by swelling of cells and their organelles leading to the disruption of the cell membrane, which in turn causes an inflammatory reaction in the surrounding tissue.

Cytomegalovirus-associated heart muscle disease.

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) can persist in many organs after primary infection. Not only is it suspected to cause morbidity during reactivation in patients under immunosuppression, but it may also induce long-term latency by chronic disease, e.g.

Detection of cytomegalovirus genome by in situ hybridization in paraffin embedded endomyocardial biopsy specimens of viral myocarditis.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) genes were detected by in situ hybridization in 25 Chinese patients with viral myocarditis (VMC). The positive hybridization signals were found in cardiomyocytes (6 cases, 24%), capillary endothelial cells (4 cases, 16%) and interstitial cells (7 cases, 28%). The difference between VMC and control group (16 cases died of brain trauma and 10 cases of congenital heart diseases was statistically significant.

Cytomegalovirus associated inflammatory heart muscle disease.

Cytomegaloviruses(CMV) belong to a group of cardiotropic DNA-viruses with well-documented but sporadic cardiac involvement. By in situ hybridization with a biotinylated cDNA probe CMV-DNA was analysed in 2 different series of patients(1982-1988; 1989-1991) in the endomyocardial biopsy specimens of 35 patients with active myocarditis as defined by the Dallas criteria, and of 35 patients with acute perimyocarditis (pericardial effusion and cardiomegaly or segmental wall motion abnormality and/or an endomyocardial biopsy positive for active myocarditis) were analysed. 51% of patients with active myocarditis, 65% positive findings were observed in patients with perimyocarditis when all positive signals in the myocardium were taken into account.

Does CMV infection play a role in myocarditis? New aspects from in-situ hybridization.

Endomyocardial biopsies of 20 patients with active myocarditis, 15 with post-myocarditis and 22 with acute perimyocarditis were assayed for cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA by in-situ hybridization with a biotinylated DNA-probe. Positive probes were found in 10% of the cases with acute myocarditis and in 7% of those with post-myocarditis; no CMV-positive patients were found in acute peri-myocarditis. The results were compared to anti-CMV antibodies from patients sera detected by ELISA technique.

Determination of the enantiomers of alpha-amino acids and alpha-amino acid amides by high-performance liquid chromatography with a chiral mobile phase.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method for the enantiomeric analysis of a mixture of an alpha-amino acid and the corresponding acid amide is described. Reversed-phase chromatography with copper(II) acetate and N,N-di-n-propyl-L-alanine in the mobile phase are used for the separation. For Val and Val-NH2, several parameters affecting retention and enantioselectivity were investigated.

Inhibition of intestinal diamine oxidase by detergents: a problem for drug formulations with water insoluble agents applied by the intravenous route?

One hundred and twenty four water-insoluble drugs were included in a study for their action on diamine oxidase (DAO) after solubilization with 61 detergents. 16 detergents were themselves not water-soluble and were not further investigated. A further 3 detergents affected the extraction procedure and 7 of the remaining 42 detergents themselves inhibited the activity of canine intestinal DAO in vitro.

Inhibition of human and canine diamine oxidase by drugs used in an intensive care unit: relevance for clinical side effects?

Three hundred and forty-one drugs, commonly used in intensive care units (ICU), were chosen for an investigation of possible activation or inhibition of the histamine metabolizing enzyme diamine oxidase (DAO). After examination of 164 substances, using both canine and human DAO in an in vitro screening test, 61 agents inhibited DAO activity to various degrees. Of these, 44 inhibited the enzyme from both species, 4 inhibited the canine enzyme only and 13 the human DAO only.

Gastric histamine methyltransferase: different methylation rates for enantiomers of side-chain methylated histamine analogues using a highly purified enzyme preparation.

The inhibitor/activator and substrate properties of enantiomers of two methylated histamines (MH) were investigated using a histamine methyltransferase preparation which was purified 1207-fold from pig fundic mucosa by ultracentrifugation, ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and preparative electrofocusing. In 1-100 microM concentrations, S-alpha-MH and R-alpha-MH were acceptor substrates as good as histamine itself. When substrate concentrations were increased to 1 mM these substances were methylated to an even greater extent than histamine, since they did not exert substrate inhibition on HMT.

Histamine content, diamine oxidase activity and histamine methyltransferase activity in human tissues: fact or fictions?

To understand the role of histamine in the aetiology and pathogenesis of human diseases reliable data are urgently needed for the histamine content and for the activities of histamine-forming and -inactivating enzymes in human tissues. In order to make a substantial progress toward this aim a tissue-sampling programme during surgical interventions was carefully conceived and conducted. From March 1982 until January 1983 106 tissue specimens were taken from 56 patients who underwent surgery.

Assay and identification of histamine in human gastric aspirate by a fluorometric--fluoroenzymatic technique. Its application in patients with chronic duodenal ulcer.

Histamine assays can be unreliable in individual subjects or samples even though the particular method is in general working very well. Therefore the specificity and accuracy of histamine determination in the gastric aspirate of individual duodenal ulcer patients was thoroughly examined and shown to be satisfactory. Pitfalls of the fluorometric assay were investigated.

[Histamine level and histamine metabolism of the human liver in biliary tract diseases].

In a control group (n = 12) the histamine content of the liver was 1.42 microgram/g tissue and the activity of the histamine-degradating enzyme, HMT, 421.5 pmol/(min .