Ascitic fluid adenosine deaminase insensitivity in detecting tuberculous peritonitis in the United States.

Tuberculous peritonitis, although common in Third World countries, remains an uncommon cause of ascites in the United States. Ascitic fluid adenosine deaminase (ADA) activity has been proposed as a useful diagnostic test. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the clinical utility of ascitic fluid ADA activity in diagnosing tuberculous peritonitis in a U.

Serum catalase as marker of graft-vs-host disease in allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipients: pilot study.

We evaluated the efficacies of serum catalase (CAT), 5'-nucleotidase (5'NT), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) as diagnostic markers of acute graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) in 28 allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipients by comparing their abilities to discriminate between GVHD-related and non-GVHD-related complications. Mean peak serum CAT concentrations for patients with GVHD-related complications (n = 17) were about fivefold higher than concentrations in patients with non-GVHD-related complications (n = 25; P = 0.003), whereas the mean peak concentrations of serum 5'NT and TNF were not substantially different.

Effect of food intake on the activity of liver enzymes in partially hepatectomized rats treated with tumor necrosis factor.

After partial hepatectomy (PHx), there are significant changes in the activity of a number of enzymes in the regenerating rat liver. Administration of low doses of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor-alpha (rHu-TNF) to normal rats induces similar changes in some of the enzymes but not in others. Because certain observations suggest that TNF may play a dominant role in liver regeneration, we speculated that the discrepancies in enzyme activities may be due to the decrease in food intake caused by PHx.

Hepatic mitochondrial enzyme activity and serum amino acid composition in rats treated with tumor necrosis factor.

The biochemical integrity of hepatocellular mitochondria was investigated in rats treated with small doses of human recombinant tumor necrosis factor-alpha (Hur-TNF;50-100 micrograms/kg/d injected intraperitoneally for 5 d) by measuring the activities of three mitochondrial enzymes, glutamate dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase. The activity of glutamate dehydrogenase (a mitochondrial matrix enzyme) was 20% to 34% lower than that of control rats (P = 0.02 to 0.

Ultradian-infradian variation of cardiac creatine phosphokinase (CPK) activity in male Holtzman rats.

Reference standards were sought for use in the search of any indications of myocardial damage by an alteration of the time structure, or chronome, of creatine phosphokinase (CPK) "MB" isoenzyme activity in the heart of the male Holtzman rat. 144 rats were kept on 6 lighting regimens staggered by 4 hours, 24 rats per chamber. On 8 consecutive days, hearts from 3 animals from each chamber were harvested and weighed.

Tumor necrosis factor induces enzymatic changes in liver comparable to those in extrahepatic cancer.

Human recombinant tumor necrosis factor was administered to rats in small doses to determine whether it causes changes in the activity of liver enzymes similar to those observed in cancer growing extrahepatically. Intraperitoneal injection of increasing doses of tumor necrosis factor (20-100 micrograms/kg/day for 5 days) resulted in a 20-50% decrease in hepatic alanine aminotransferase (P < or = 0.05), a 10-20% decrease in aspartate aminotransferase (P < or = 0.

Homogeneous trinder-coupled assay for the determination of glucose-6-phosphatase activity in tissue extracts.

We describe an automated, homogeneous, glucose oxidase-coupled method for the determination of glucose-6-phosphatase activity in tissue extracts. The method is based on measurement of the rate of glucose formation by the Trinder reaction, in which the end product is a quinoneimine dye which absorbs maximally at 505 nm and has a molar extinction coefficient of 5700. The incubation mixture contains 20 microL of tissue extract, 25 microL of 0.

Determination of serum catalase activity on a centrifugal analyzer by an NADP/NADPH coupled enzyme reaction system.

We developed a simple, kinetic method for the determination of catalase activity in which i) the enzyme catalyzes the peroxidation of ethanol by hydrogen peroxide to acetaldehyde and water, and ii) the acetaldehyde so formed is rapidly oxidized to acetic acid and NADPH by the addition of an excess of NADP+ and aldehyde dehydrogenase. The rate of NADPH production was monitored at 340 nm in a COBAS centrifugal analyzer. The reaction was linear to 800 U/L or a delta A of 0.

Effect of tumor necrosis factor on enzymes of gluconeogenesis in the rat.

The effect of human recombinant tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha on enzymes of gluconeogenesis in the rat was investigated by determining the activity of glucose 6-phosphatase, fructose 1,6-diphosphatase (FDP), and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in the liver and kidney of fed and fasted rats. The activity of transaldolase in the pentose phosphate pathway was also measured. Starvation of rats for 24 hr resulted in a 1.

Tumor necrosis factor/cachectin decreases catalase activity of rat liver.

Tumor bearing hosts and animals treated with endotoxin commonly show a decrease in the catalase activity of the liver and kidney. Since tumor necrosis factor (TNF)/cachectin may play a significant role in these conditions, we investigated its effects on the catalatic and peroxidatic activity of catalase in the liver and kidney of the rat. The activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and lactate dehydrogenase were measured simultaneously to monitor the pentose phosphate and glycolytic pathways, respectively.

Serum 5'nucleotidase and alkaline phosphatase--highly predictive liver function tests for the diagnosis of graft-versus-host disease in bone marrow transplant recipients.

The diagnostic efficacy of five serum liver function tests (aspartate and alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, 5' nucleotidase, and bilirubin) was investigated in 95 bone marrow transplant recipients in whom acute graft-vs-host disease was graded by the Seattle criteria. The patient population included a control group of 22 autologous transplant recipients (group I), 33 patients with no GVHD (group II), 21 patients with grades 1 and 2 GVHD (group III), 12 patients with grade 3 GVHD (group IV), and 7 patients with grade 4 GVHD (group V). Student t test analysis of the analytes among the five groups of patients showed that 5' nucleotidase and alkaline phosphatase were the best discriminants among all the possible combinations of group pairs.

Simple ultraviolet spectrophotometric method for the determination of serum guanase activity.

We describe a simple, kinetic method for the determination of serum guanase activity that involves enzymatic coupling to xanthine oxidase and measurement of the rate of uric acid formation by spectrophotometric monitoring of the absorption at 300 nm. At this wavelength, the absorption of uric acid is about 80% of its maximal absorption at 293 nm, but the difference in molar extinction coefficient between guanine and uric acid is similar (9,000 at 293 nm vs 8,400 at 300 nm). There are three advantages to the use of the higher wavelength: first, the absorption of serum proteins is only one third of the absorption at 293 nm resulting in a significant reduction in noise level.

Conjugated hyperbilirubinemia and renal function in bone marrow transplant recipients.

Although it has long been recognized that hyperbilirubinemia is enhanced in patients with impaired renal function, a clear correlation between the levels of bilirubin and creatinine in serum has never been established. We have studied this relationship in 13 bone marrow transplant recipients who had episodes of combined conjugated hyperbilirubinemia and renal impairment. Most of the patients had graft-vs-host disease and various degrees of hepatic cholestasis as evidenced by histologic examination results and abnormal liver function tests.

Estrogen and progesterone receptors in human breast cancer. Correlation with histologic subtype and degree of differentiation.

Microscopic review of 490 consecutive human breast biopsy and mastectomy specimens were correlated with estrogen and progesterone receptor content of the tissue, by subtype and degree of differentiation. Of the 4 grades of differentiation, the less differentiated Grade III and IV tumors showed significantly lower levels of estrogen and progesterone receptors in infiltrating ductal and lobular carcinoma (P less than 0.001).

Cold potassium cardioplegia versus topical hypothermia and intermittent aortic occlusion for myocardial protection during coronary artery surgery: a randomized clinical study.

The effect of two different myocardial preservation techniques on perioperative myocardial necrosis during coronary artery bypass surgery was assessed by serial myocardial creatine kinase determinations in 100 consecutive patients operated on by the same surgeon. Topical hypothermia with cold potassium cardioplegia was used randomly in 50 patients (group 1), and topical hypothermia with local interruption of the coronary circulation was used in the other 50 patients (group 2). Myocardial creatine kinase was measured by column chromatography every 6 hours for 36 hours after surgery.

Do immature T cells accumulate in advanced age?

The hypothesis that decreased T cell function in the elderly involves an increased number of less differentiated T cells was examined. Three markers known to change during thymocyte development were analyzed; ratio of adenosine deaminase (ADA) to purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP), lactate dehydrogenase (LD) H/M subunit ratios and the T cell associated antigens, T3, T4, T8 and T10. Cells tested were from 10 old (greater than 75 years) and 10 young (less than 35 years) persons with equal numbers of males and females in each group.

Chromatographic behavior of immunoglobulin-bound creatine kinase on DEAE-Sephadex A-50.

We investigated the chromatographic behavior of CK isoenzymes and immunoglobulin-bound macro-CK by discontinuous gradient elution from DEAE-Sephadex A-50 at pH 7 and 8. In four of five patients with macro-CK, the macro-CK was eluted with the MB buffer at pH 8, but a significant portion of the complex was eluted with the MM buffer at pH 7, in a region between CK-MM and CK-MB. In the fifth patient, the macro-CK was eluted with the MB buffer at both pH values.

Separation of CK isoenzymes on DEAE-sephadex A-50 at neutral pH.

The MM, MB and BB isoenzymes of human creatine kinase (CK) were separated by elution from micro-columns of DEAE-Sephadex A-50 with Tris buffer containing increasing concentrations of NaCl at pH 7.0, instead of pH 8.0 as has commonly been used.

Evidence for a less differentiated subpopulation of lymphocytes in people of advanced age.

The ratio of the lactate dehydrogenase subunits, H/M, is shifted toward lower values in thymocytes, and in high-density T cells in normal peripheral blood. The results presented here indicate that the T cells, but not B cells or monocytes, of donors greater than 75 years' old have a significantly reduced H/M ratio relative to young adults. This reduced H/M ratio appears to be correlated with a diminished percentage of OKT3 positive cells in the old donors.

Phorbol ester-induced differentiation of a non-T, non-B leukemic cell line: model for human lymphoid progenitor cell development.

The phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) was tested for its ability to induce phenotypic changes in the human non-T,. non-B ALL cell line REH. Cells were cultured with nanogram concentrations of TPA for up to 48 hr, and were analyzed by indirect immunofluorescence with a panel of monoclonal antibodies and an antibody to the enzyme terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT).

Postsynthetic variants of creatine kinase MM.

MYocardial CK-MM has been found to undergo postsynthetic modification after AMI. Studies by isoelectric focusing of normal heart extracts, serial serum samples from patients with AMI, normal sera, and sera from patients with DMD revealed the presence of four variants, designated MM-I, MM-II, MM-III and MM-IV, at pH values 6.90, 6.

Changes in lactic dehydrogenase isoenzyme pattern in muscle of tumor-bearing mice.

The lactic dehydrogenase isoenzyme distribution shifts gradually toward the isoenzyme pattern of the tumor in mouse muscles located distally from a transplanted mammary carcinoma.