Effects of endotoxin on zinc metabolism in human volunteers.

After stress or trauma, the serum zinc concentration decreases. This study evaluated possible mechanisms for hypozincemia with the use of a human endotoxemia model. Two doses of endotoxin [lipopolysaccharide (LPS)] were administered on consecutive mornings to 12 healthy volunteers, and each subject was also studied after saline injection.

Helicobacter pylori is a risk factor for hepatic encephalopathy in acute alcoholic hepatitis: the ammonia hypothesis revisited. The Veterans Administration Cooperative Study Group No. 275.

Objective: To determine whether infection with Helicobacter pylori is a risk factor for portosystemic encephalopathy in patients with acute, moderate or severe alcoholic hepatitis.

Design: Prospective, multicenter cohort study.

Setting: Eight Veterans Affairs Hospitals.

Effect of linoleic acid infusion on blood pressure in normotensive and hypertensive rats.

High dietary intake of linoleic acid lowers arterial pressure, and, in vitro, linoleic acid inhibits the enzymatic activity of renin. The purpose of the present study was 1) to evaluate the effect of intravenous infusion of linoleic acid on blood pressure in normotensive and hypertensive Sprague-Dawley rats and 2) to determine whether the hypotensive response to linoleic acid infusion is caused by inhibition of circulating renin. Blood pressure was decreased (P less than 0.

Inhibition of renin by plasma linoleic acid.

The authors have demonstrated previously that human plasma contains an inhibitor(s) of the enzymatic activity of renin. The purpose of this study is to identify the circulating renin inhibitor. Plasma initially was fractionated with preparative sephacryl S-300 chromatography.

Identification of renin inhibitors in normal and uremic plasma.

The enzymatic activity of renin is increased in plasma of patients with renal failure, possibly because of the deficiency of a renin inhibitor. Our study was undertaken to identify renin inhibitors and to compare their activities in plasma of 10 normal humans and 10 patients with renal failure. In vitro, both human renal renin and purified mouse submaxillary renin were inhibited by intact plasma and by a high molecular weight (greater than 65,000 daltons) and a lower molecular weight (55,000 daltons) plasma fraction (HMF and LMF, respectively) obtained by Sephadex chromatography.