Urothelium-derived prostanoids enhance contractility of urinary bladder smooth muscle and stimulate bladder afferent nerve activity in the mouse.

The transitional epithelial cells (urothelium) that line the lumen of the urinary bladder form a barrier between potentially harmful pathogens, toxins, and other bladder contents and the inner layers of the bladder wall. The urothelium, however, is not simply a passive barrier, as it can produce signaling factors, such as ATP, nitric oxide, prostaglandins, and other prostanoids, that can modulate bladder function. We investigated whether substances produced by the urothelium could directly modulate the contractility of the underlying urinary bladder smooth muscle.

Limited Metabolomic Overlap between Commensal Bacteria and Marine Sponge Holobionts Revealed by Large Scale Culturing and Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics: An Undergraduate Laboratory Pedagogical Effort at Georgia Tech.

Sponges are the richest source of bioactive organic small molecules, referred to as natural products, in the marine environment. It is well established that laboratory culturing-resistant symbiotic bacteria residing within the eukaryotic sponge host matrix often synthesize the natural products that are detected in the sponge tissue extracts. However, the contributions of the culturing-amenable commensal bacteria that are also associated with the sponge host to the overall metabolome of the sponge holobiont are not well defined.

Modeling the Economic Feasibility of Large-Scale Net-Zero Water Management: A Case Study.

  While municipal direct potable water reuse (DPR) has been recommended for consideration by the U.S. National Research Council, it is unclear how to size new closed-loop DPR plants, termed "net-zero water (NZW) plants", to minimize cost and energy demand assuming upgradient water distribution.

The Institute of Medicine and its quality of healthcare in America reports.

The Institute of Medicine was founded in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences to address the concerns of medicine and healthcare. Many members of the Institute and at least two of its former presidents are also members of the Association. For those unfamiliar with the Institute's history and purpose, I will provide a brief overview.

Hepatitis C: implications for the general physician.

Approximately 4 million people in the United States are affected with chronic hepatitis C--20%-25% of whom will develop cirrhosis. Determination of the stage of disease and extent of cirrhosis requires liver biopsy. In cirrhotic patients, regular screening for hepatocellular carcinoma is indicated.

Fluoxetine treatment of depression caused by interferon-alpha.

Interferon-alpha is the only approved and effective treatment for hepatitis C. Psychiatric side effects are common and have frequently required a decrease in dose or discontinuation of therapy. We here report a case of interferon-alpha-induced depression in a 40-yr-old man with hepatitis C successfully treated with the antidepressant fluoxetine, which allowed completion of interferon treatment.

Simple modifications of the current curriculum to enhance educational experience.

Changes in medical practice and in the financing of hospital care have resulted in a narrowing spectrum of adult medical illness among hospitalized patients. Residency training based primarily in the hospital underemphasizes many diseases and disorders that are treated exclusively at ambulatory sites. Curriculum modifications should allow for increased training time for residents in the ambulatory care setting.

Methylprednisolone therapy in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis. A randomized multicenter trial.

Study Objective: To determine the efficacy of a corticosteroid in reducing the short-term mortality of patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis.

Design: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled multicenter trial.

Setting: Four university teaching hospitals.

Liver structure and function in print workers exposed to toluene.

An unresolved controversy is whether exposure to organic solvents in the workplace causes hepatotoxicity. From a medical surveillance study of 289 printing factory employees who were exposed primarily to toluene, we identified eight workers who had persistently abnormal serum transaminase and/or alkaline phosphatase values. The eight men were generally healthy and gave no history of taking medications or of drinking ethanol to excess.

Hepatic triacylglycerol lipase activities after induction of diabetes and administration of insulin or glucagon.

Triacylglycerol lipase activities of homogenates and subcellular fractions of rat liver were measured under optimal conditions at pH 7.5 using emulsified tri[1-14C]oleoylglycerol as substrate. Twenty-four hr after administration of streptozotocin, hepatic alkaline lipase activity was 39% of normal, and this lower level of activity was observed at 72 hr and 7 days, after streptozotocin injection.

Studies on the incorporation of sn-[1,3-14C]glycerol 3-phosphate into glycerolipids by intestinal mucosa.

Intestinal mucosal microsomes from several animal species (non-fasted) were used to study the formation of glycerolipids from sn-[1,3-14C]glycerol 3-phosphate and palmitoyl-CoA. Rates of glycerolipid biosynthesis were species dependent, since mouse and rat were quite low compared to hamster, guinea pig and man. Under the usual incubation conditions, guinea pig intestinal microsomes formed primarily phosphatidic acid (85-90%).

The effect of acute and chronic ethanol intake on hepatic glycerolipid biosynthesis in the hamster.

The effect of acute and chronic ethanol intake on hepatic glycerolipid biosynthesis in the hamster was studied by in vivo and in vitro techniques. The results were compared with those from control hamsters receiving isocaloric amounts of glucose. Both chronic and acute ethanol intake elevated serum and hepatic triglyceride concentrations and induced a rapid rise in the capacity of neutral glycerolipid formation from sn[1,3-14C]glycerol-3-phosphate by hamster liver homogenate and microsomal fractions.

Effects of hormones on changes in cytochrome P-450, prolyl hydroxylase, and glycerol phosphate acyltransferase in primary monolayer cultures of parenchymal cells from adult rat liver.

Previous studies have shown that isolation and primary culture of rat hepatocytes in a standard, chemically defined medium is associated with selective changes in microsomal function. These changes were found to be selectively sensitive to addition of hormones to the culture medium. The concentration of cytochrome P-450 declined dramatically during the first 24 hours of incubation.

Hepatic lipid metabolism. Age-related changes in triglyceride metabolism.

Age-related changes in hepatic triglyceride formation have been described in developing rats. Triglyceride formation was measured in vitro in the presence of [14C]glycerol-3-phosphate, palmitate, ATP, CoA, and Mg2+ by using liver homogenates and microsomal fractions derived from various age groups of animals. Triglyceride formation was most active in one-day-old rats and then decrease with age.

Treatment of alcoholic hepatitis with encephalopathy. Comparison of prednisolone with caloric supplements.

A previous report from this institution demonstrated significant improvement of caloric intake and survival in patients with alcoholic hepatitis and hepatic encephalopathy given prednisolone when compared with placebo. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of prednisolone with a regimen of 1600 calories per day without prednisolone. Fourteen patients with alcoholic hepatitis and encephalopathy were studied.