Skeletal muscle lipoprotein-lipase activity in insulin-dependent diabetic patients with and without albuminuria.

In patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), albuminuria reflects widespread vascular dysfunction. Albuminuria has been associated to defects of heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) within the extracellular matrix. Our hypothesis is that loss of HSPG in vascular walls reduces the HSPG-bound lipoprotein-lipase activity (LPLA), thereby causing elevated levels of plasma triglyceride (TG) seen in IDDM patients with albuminuria.

Estimation of pulmonary diffusion resistance and shunt in an oxygen status model.

A compartment model of the transport of oxygen from the alveoli to the tissues is described. In patients with both pulmonary shunt and alveolar resistance to diffusion of oxygen, the model is used to simulate their response to variations in the inspired oxygen fraction. These simulation results are compared to the responses from a patient with respiratory malfunction, indicating that the method can identify patients where not only a pulmonary shunt but also a high alveolar resistance to diffusion of oxygen is clinically significant.

Nicotinamide prevents interleukin-1 effects on accumulated insulin release and nitric oxide production in rat islets of Langerhans.

Nicotinamide (NA) prevents macrophage- and interleukin-1 (IL-1)-mediated beta-cell damage in vitro as well as diabetes development in animal models of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). IL-1 beta-mediated inhibition of insulin release and damage to beta-cells are associated with intracellular production of nitric oxide (NO) radicals. Therefore, we studied whether NA prevented IL-1 beta-induced islet NO production, measured as nitrite release from isolated rat islets, and, if so, whether this action was associated with prevention of IL-1 beta-mediated inhibition of insulin release.

Repetitive exposure of pancreatic islets to interleukin-1 beta. An in vitro model of pre-diabetes?

The slowly progressing loss of glucose tolerance over years before clinical onset of Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus may be due to repetitive immunological attacks on the pancreatic beta-cell mass. Accordingly, we studied the effects of repetitive exposure of isolated rat pancreatic islets to the beta-cytotoxic immune-mediator interleukin-1 beta. Islets were exposed thrice to 60 U/ml of recombinant interleukin-1 beta for 24 hr.

The whole-mount method as a technique for measuring experimental changes in airway goblet cell number.

The whole-mount staining method for mucous membranes was introduced as an experimental technique for measuring goblet cell density and for estimating the degree of goblet cell hyperplasia in the trachea of experimental animals. By this technique it was demonstrated that a single intratracheal instillation of lysed extract from human neutrophilic granulocytes in rats after 3 weeks caused a three-fold increase in the density of tracheal goblet cells as compared to control animals receiving saline. The increase is of 3-6 times greater magnitude than previously reported in similar experiments where the number of goblet cells was calculated from cross sections in a traditional manner.