Gastric distention increases [14C]2-deoxyglucose uptake in the rat nucleus tractus solitarius.

Stomach balloons were inflated with 20 ml of warm water in anesthetized rats who had a left cervical vagotomy. This increased [14C]2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) uptake in the commissural and medial portions of the right nucleus solitarius. This effect was not present in controls which received 2 ml of water in their stomach balloons.

Further characterisation of the inotropic effect of a bufodienolide glycoside--an endogenous ouabain like compound.

A ouabain like compound obtained from toad skin and plasma and identified to be a steroidal bufodienolide glycoside was found to displace ouabain from its binding site and to inhibit Na+-K+ ATPase, and have positive inotropic effects on cardiac muscle. The ionic and rate dependence of this positive inotropy was studied in the frog atrium. The effect was dependent on extracellular potassium, sodium, and calcium concentrations and on the rate of stimulation, which is similar to the properties of cardiac glycosides.

The splanchnic nerve and food intake regulation.

Bilateral section of the greater splanchnic nerve in the rat abolishes the compensatory ingestion for nutrient removed from the stomach that occurs in normal animals. However, such section leaves normal ingestion unaffected. These results suggest that this nerve participates in food intake regulation.

Intragastric injections of partially digested triglyceride suppress feeding in the rat.

The 30 min intake of a 50% corn oil emulsion was measured in 12 hr fasted Sprague-Dawley rats equipped with gastric tubes. When the subjects were given 5 ml intragastric injections of normal saline or of the same oil emulsion they drank by mouth their voluntary intake was unaffected. However, when they were injected with oil emulsion that had been previously ingested by donor subjects, they decreased their feeding significantly.

The role of the stomach in eating.

The paper is concerned with the locus of provenance of satiety signals, what these are generated by, and pathways by which they reach the brain. Satiety signals are generated by the stomach and are of two kinds: distention at high volume and nutrient content. The former, but not the latter, are relayed to the brain via the vagus.

Demonstration of a ouabainlike plasma compound in hypertension prone and hypertension resistant rats.

Material extracted and partially purified from plasma of the Sabra hypertension prone rats was found to be capable of 1) inhibiting the binding of 3H-ouabain to rat brain synaptosomes, 2) inhibiting the activity of rat brain microsomal Na, K activated adenosine triphosphatase, and 3) increasing the contractile force of rat heart muscle. The results demonstrate the presence of a ouabainlike compound in the plasma of these rats. The plasma concentration of this compound in Sabra hypertension prone rats was 698 +/- 199 nmol/ml in ouabain equivalents (SEM; n = 11) versus 2543 +/- 1140 nmol/ml (n = 9) in the Sabra normotensive strain.

An antiemetic is antidotal to the satiety effects of cholecystokinin.

Although cholecystokinin (CCK) has been proposed as a satiety agent, this property has been disputed by some who claim that the compound exerts its 'satiety' effects by inducing aversion. We considered that if CCK-induced reductions in food intake occur through the mechanism of normal satiety, CCK-induced satiety and normal satiety should respond in the same way to a pharmacological challenge. We demonstrate here that the administration of an antiemetic to rats significantly attenuates the food intake reduction caused by exogenously administered CCK but does not increase normal consumption.

Long term prognosis for babies with neonatal liver disease.

A total of 123 patients with neonatal liver disease without extrahepatic bile duct obstruction or arteriohepatic dysplasia have been studied for six to 18 years. Idiopathic neonatal hepatitis, present in 73 babies, carried a high mortality due to liver failure (18%), septicaemia (6%), and associated defects (14%), especially in the first year of life (25%). Progression to chronic liver disease in non-familial idiopathic cases occurred in three of 40 reviewed patients.

[Combined propyphenazone and codeine poisoning in childhood (analysis of 6 patients with Spasmoplus poisoning)].

The case histories are presented of 6 patients with accidental poisoning by Spasmoplus suppositories. The main toxic constituents are codeine and the pyrazolone derivative, propyphenazone. All patients had symptoms of codeine intoxication with somnolence, miosis and oedema, 2 patients had also symptoms of prophyphenazone intoxication with hypotension, coma and convulsions.

Evidence for the presence of 'ouabain like' compound in human cerebrospinal fluid.

Material extracted and partially purified from human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is capable of: a, inhibiting [3H]ouabain binding to rat brain synaptosomes; b, inhibiting the activity of purified pig kidney Na+,K+-ATPase; and c, inhibiting ouabain sensitive induced 86Rb influx to tissue cultured fibroblasts. These results demonstrate the existence of an 'ouabain like' compound (OLC) in human CSF, and are consistent with the hypothesis of the function of this compound as a neuromodulator.

[Clonidine poisoning].

Accidental clonidine poisoning of infants has been more frequently observed during the last years. The early onset of sedation together with miosis, hypotension, bradycardia and sometimes respiratory depression should draw our attention to clonidine poisoning. Treatment of cardiac and circulatory symptoms with atropine sulfate, epinephrine chloride, dopamine hydrochloride and intravenous fluids should start early.

Caloric regulation in the rat: evidence for a calibration mechanism.

Rats were given access to small quantities of a 50% oil/water mixture on each of 7 baseline days. On the eighth day, a 30 min compensation test was conducted during which control rats had access to the 50% oil/water mixture and experimental rats had access to either a more concentrated or a more dilute oil/water mixture. Experimental rats given the more concentrated mixture consumed significantly less than controls, while rats given the dilute mixture consumed significantly more than controls.

Endogenous ouabain-like compound increases heart muscle contractility.

Cardiac glycosides such as digoxin or ouabain have long been known to influence the strength of contraction of cardiac muscle. Although the mechanism of action of these compounds remains unknown, all the proposed modes of action are based on initial binding to specific membrane receptors which are part of the (Na+ + K+)ATPase complex. These receptors, well characterized and defined, suggest the existence of an endogenous substance capable of binding to them, in analogy with endogenous opiates, discovered long after morphine and its receptors.

Pancreatic pseudocyst.

Pancreatic pseudocyst is a relatively rare complication of pancreatitis with a reported incidence of 1 to 5 per cent in patients with pancreatitis. The 5-year experience with pancreatic pseudocyst at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center and Mount Sinai Hospital has been reviewed in an effort to determine optimum diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. Twenty-eight patients were treated for this problem during the period of June 1976 through June 1981 with one death.

Pancreatic polypeptide secretion. A marker for disturbed pancreatic function in cystic fibrosis.

Pancreatic polypeptide, a 36-amino peptide, is released from the pancreas by a variety of stimuli, including intravenous Boots secretin. Studies in a generalized destructive and inflammatory process such as chronic pancreatitis have revealed a markedly diminished response to stimulation. To assess whether pancreatic polypeptide release in response to Boots secretin provides a useful measure of pancreatic destruction in cystic fibrosis, 41 patients with proven cystic fibrosis, aged 14 months-23 years, and seven control subjects, aged 18-24 years were studied.

Variety in the flavor of food enhances eating in the rat: a controlled demonstration.

The effect of variety in the flavor of food on rats' consumption of a meal was examined in two experiments in which the confounding factors of diet composition and palatability could be ruled out. Experiment 1 showed that rats ate more of a four-course meal when each course was flavored differently than when each course was flavored the same; furthermore, this "variety effect" did not appear to depend upon the rats' prior experience with the flavors. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these findings by showing that the enhancement of eating by variety did not depend critically upon the rat's level of food motivation.

Dietary control and the stomach.

Signals for meal termination are traced to the stomach rather than duodenum or mouth when rats eat familiar food. Two types of signal occur, one measuring amount of nutrient independent of volume or dilution, the other gastric distention. The signals concerning the second ascend the vagus.

Termination of DNA synthesis in vitro at apurinic sites but not at ethyl adducts on the template.

The effects of DNA lesions produced by the carcinogenic alkylating agents ethylnitrosourea and diethylsulfate on the extent of DNA synthesis have been studied in a system utilizing circular single-stranded phiX174 DNA as template and a 392-base restriction fragment as primer with E. coli polymerase I (Klenow fragment). Apurinic sites produced by loss of unstable ethylated bases from the template terminate DNA synthesis at the first such site encountered, but ethyl adducts at most, if not all, locations permit readthrough.

Effects of benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide adducts on DNA synthesis in mammalian cells.

The replication of DNA containing anti-benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide (BPDE) adducts was studied in mammalian cells by first treating SV40 virus with BPDE in vitro, then infecting cells with virus containing a known number of adducts in the DNA. Viral transcription products necessary for replication were supplied by co-infection with an untreated virus containing a deletion as a DNA marker. Thus, only replicative effects of BPDE adducts were manifested.