[Lorentz Eldjarn--a catalyst for chemistry in Norwegian medicine].

Lorentz Eldjarn, MD (born 1920) was professor of clinical biochemistry at the University of Oslo. He modernised clinical chemistry both nationally and internationally. He introduced both quality control and mass spectrometry in clinical chemistry.

Sulfur-substituted and alpha-methylated fatty acids as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor activators.

FA with varying chain lengths and an alpha-methyl group and/or a sulfur in the beta-position were tested as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)alpha, -delta(beta), and -gamma ligands by transient transfection in COS-1 cells using chimeric receptor expression plasmids, containing cDNAs encoding the ligand-binding domain of PPARalpha, -delta, and -gamma. For PPARalpha, an increasing activation was found with increasing chain length of the sulfur-substituted FA up to C14-S acetic acid (tetradecylthioacetic acid = TTA). The derivatives were poor, and nonsignificant, activators of PPARdelta.