The Effect of Meditation on Comprehension of Statements About One-Self and Others: A Pilot ERP and Behavioral Study.

The main goal of this study was to examine the effect of long-term meditation practice on behavioral indicators and ERP peak characteristics during an error-recognition task, where participants were presented with emotionally negative (evoking anxiety or aggression) written sentences describing self-related or non-self-related emotional state and personality traits. In total, 200 sentences written in Russian with varying emotional coloring were presented during the task, with half of the sentences containing a grammatical error that the participants were asked to identify. The EEG was recorded in age-matched control individuals ( = 17) and two groups of Samatha meditators with relatively short- (3-5 years' experience, = 18) and long-term (10-30 years' experience, = 18) practice experience.

Glucocorticoids stimulate cholesteryl ester formation in human smooth muscle cells.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone (Dex) on cholesterol esterification in cultured human smooth muscle cells (SMC). In labeled SMC, Dex stimulated the esterification of [3H]cholesterol in a dose-dependent manner. This effect was specific for glucocorticoid hormones and could be inhibited by cycloheximide (3 ng/mL), actinomycin D (10(-5) mol/L), and the specific glucocorticoid antagonist RU 486 (10(-8) mol/L).

Comparative study of the activity and composition of HDL3 in Russian and American men.

Previous studies conducted within the framework of the Lipid Research Clinics Program showed a strong inverse correlation between high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in American male populations, whereas in Russian populations such a correlation was less pronounced. It was assumed that HDL was less protective of CHD in Russian than in American males. This study compared the functional activity and lipid composition of HDL3 isolated from the blood plasma of men with low, normal, and high HDL-C levels from Moscow (Russia) and Seattle (United States) populations.

[Insulin and C-peptide secretion after physical exertion in men with newly manifested stenocardia and chronic ischemic heart disease].

Variation in insulin and C peptide levels was examined in patients with angina of new onset and chronic coronary heart disease. Insulin secretion was increased in all coronary patients, as compared to the controls, and hormonal response to additional stress was abnormal in postmyocardial infarction patients. It is demonstrated that insulin secretion is already changed at early stages of coronary disease, and the pattern of change is presented.

[Treatment of patients with gastric polyps].

Examined were 104 patients after endoscopic removal of gastric polyps. In regular treatment of concomitant achylic gastritis, the activity of gastric juice normalized in 11 (17.4%) patients, the incidence of detection of alkaline phosphatase in it reduced 6-fold, thermostable fraction--27-fold, no polyp recurrences were revealed.

[Relation of the levels of thyroid hormones and cortisol and the degree of systolic arterial pressure in 11- and 12-year-old boys].

An epidemiologic evaluation of relationships between arterial BP changes, and thyroid and adrenocortical hormones was carried out in eleven- and twelve-year-old boys. Different patterns of correlation were demonstrated between plasma thyrotropic hormone, thyroid hormones and cortisol levels, on one hand, and systolic BP variation, on the other. There was a correlation between thyroid hormones and cortisol in these groups.

[Heterogeneity of cardiac glucocorticoid receptors].

The work presents the main results obtained in the investigation of properties and distribution of the glucocorticoid cardiac receptors as well as mutual conversions of different forms of the glucocorticoid-receptor complexes. The receptors have been found in hearts of various kinds of animals. The glucocorticoid receptor activity is distributed approximately evenly in the myocardium of the left and right ventricles and auricles.

[Calcium and the permissive effect of glucocorticoids: the role of glucocorticoids in an adrenaline-induced increase in the rate of calcium absorption by the ventricular tissue of the rat heart].

It was demonstrated in rat experiments that the ability of the myocardial ventricles to increase 45Ca absorption after the injection of adrenaline was disturbed on the 3rd--5th day following adrenalectomy. The decrease in sensitivity to adrenaline occurred in two phases and was delayed essentially after a fall in the concentration of glucocorticoids in circulation. Chronic in vivo injection of hydrocortisone (2.

Corticosteroidal regulation of the glucocorticoid-binding capacity of rat heart cytoplasmic fraction.

The effects were studied of variations in blood corticosteroid levels on the glucocorticoid-binding capacities of two types of complex-forming substances, whose presence in the myocardium had been established in previous studies. The hormone binding was assessed by the method of adsorption of free forms of steroids on activated dextrancoated charcoal with application of Scatchard's analysis. The binding capacity was tested both in the presence of endogenous steroids and in cytoplasmic fraction made free of the hormones.

[Binding of glucocorticoids by a transcortin-like protein in the cytoplasmic fraction of rat myocardium].

Myocardial cytosol of adult adrenalectomized rats bound specifically 3H-corticosterone and 3H-hydrocortisone and did not bind the synthetic 9alpha-fluoroglucocorticoid (dexamethasone) in vitro at 0-4 degrees. The specific binding of dexamethasone was not also found in the cytosol of neonatal rats. Heating of myocardial cytosol of adrenalectomized rats within 10 min at 60 degrees led to the complete loss of the glucocorticoid-binding activity.