The effect of partial portacaval transposition on the canine liver

The influence of nonhepatic splanchnic venous blood on dog liver morphology and biochemical content was investigated by performing partial portacaval transposition, anastomosing the supra-adrenal inferior vena cava to either the right or left branch of the main portal vein. In the resulting preparation, nonhepatic splanchnic venous blood supplies one portion of the liver and systemic venous blood perfuses the remaining fraction,. Seven dogs were studied for 70 to 94 days, 3 with right and 4 with left transposition. No clinical abnormalities were noted. Transient enzyme elevations were seen early after operation but reverted to normal. The most striking feature was the gross and microscopic atrophy and deglycogenation which occurred in the part of the liver receiving systemic venous blood. Blood flow studies were performed in 8 additional dogs with an electromagnetic square wave flowmeter. Flow was measured in both right and left portal vein branches before and 1 to 4 hours after partial transposition to either the right (4 dogs) or left (4 dogs) main branch. Flow rates were increased in 11 instances and remained essentially the same in 5. In 2 more dogs, a jugular venous autograft was placed between the abdominal aorta and the right or left main portal vein branch. Atrophy and deglycogenation in the portion receiving arterial blood was comparable to that described above in liver fractions perfused with systemic venous blood. The evidence from these and earlier experiments that splanchnic venous blood contains a hepatotrophic substance is discussed. © 1967

Comments on a class of orthogonality relations relevant to fluid-structure interaction

Copyright @ 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V

Residual erythropoiesis protects against myocardial hemosiderosis in transfusion-dependent thalassemia by lowering labile plasma iron via transient generation of apotransferrin

Cardiosiderosis is a leading cause of mortality in transfusion-dependent thalassemias. Plasma non-transferrin-bound iron and its redox-active component, labile plasma iron, are key sources of iron loading in cardiosiderosis. Risk factors were identified in 73 patients with or without cardiosiderosis. Soluble transferrin receptor-1 levels were significantly lower in patients with cardiosiderosis (odds ratio 21). This risk increased when transfusion-iron loading rates exceeded the erythroid transferrin uptake rate (derived from soluble transferrin receptor-1) by >0.21mg/kg/d (odds ratio 48). Labile plasma iron was >3-fold higher where this uptake rate threshold was exceeded, but non-transferrin-bound iron and transferrin saturation were comparable. Cardiosiderosis risk was also decreased in patients with low liver iron, ferritin and labile plasma iron, or high bilirubin, reticulocyte counts or hepcidin. We hypothesized that high erythroid transferrin uptake rate decreases cardiosiderosis through increased erythroid re-generation of apotransferrin. To test this, iron uptake and intracellular reactive oxygen species were examined in HL-1 cardiomyocytes under conditions modelling transferrin effects on non-transferrin-bound iron speciation with ferric citrate. Intracellular iron and reactive oxygen species increased with ferric citrate concentrations especially where iron-to-citrate ratios exceeded 1:100, i.e. conditions favoring kinetically labile monoferric rather than oligomer species. Excess iron-binding equivalents of apotransferrin inhibited iron uptake, decreased intracellular reactive oxygen species and labile plasma iron, under conditions favoring monoferric species. In conclusion, high transferrin iron utilisation, relative to the transfusion-iron load rate, decreases the cardiosiderotic risk. A putative mechanism is the transient re-generation of apotransferrin by an active erythron, rapidly binding labile plasma iron-detectable ferric monocitrate species

Enhancement of 5-aminolaevulinic acid-induced photodynamic therapy in normal rat colon using hydroxypyridinone iron-chelating agents.

© Cancer Research Campaign 1998Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version.Currently, the clinical use of 5-aminolaevulinic acid (ALA)-induced protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) for photodynamic therapy (PDT) is limited by the maximum tolerated oral ALA dose (60 mg kg(-1)). This study investigates whether hydroxypyridinone iron-chelating agents can be used to enhance the tissue levels of PPIX, without increasing the administered dose of ALA. Quantitative charge-coupled device (CCD) fluorescence microscopy was employed to study PPIX fluorescence pharmacokinetics in the colon of normal Wistar rats. The iron chelator, CP94, when administered with ALA was found to produce double the PPIX fluorescence in the colonic mucosa, compared with the same dose of ALA given alone and to be more effective than the other iron chelator studied, CP20. Microspectrofluorimetric studies demonstrated that PPIX was the predominant porphyrin species present. PDT studies conducted on the colonic mucosa showed that the simultaneous administration of 100 mg kg(-1) CP94 i.v. and 50 mg kg(-1) ALA i.v. produced an area of necrosis three times larger than similar parameters without the iron-chelating agent with the same light dose. It is possible, therefore, to increase the amount of necrosis produced by ALA-induced PDT substantially, without increasing the administered dose of ALA, through the simultaneous administration of the iron-chelating agent, CP94.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.DUSA Pharmaceutical

Cooperative Carbon Dioxide Adsorption in Alcoholamine- and Alkoxyalkylamine-Functionalized Metal-Organic Frameworks.

A series of structurally diverse alcoholamine- and alkoxyalkylamine-functionalized variants of the metal-organic framework Mg2 (dobpdc) are shown to adsorb CO2 selectively via cooperative chain-forming mechanisms. Solid-state NMR spectra and optimized structures obtained from van der Waals-corrected density functional theory calculations indicate that the adsorption profiles can be attributed to the formation of carbamic acid or ammonium carbamate chains that are stabilized by hydrogen bonding interactions within the framework pores. These findings significantly expand the scope of chemical functionalities that can be utilized to design cooperative CO2 adsorbents, providing further means of optimizing these powerful materials for energy-efficient CO2 separations

The Relationship Between HR Practices and Firm Performance: Examining Causal Order

Significant research attention has been devoted to examining the relationship between HR practices and firm performance, and the research support has assumed HR as the causal variable. Using data from 45 business units (with 62 data points), this study examines how measures of HR practices correlate with past, concurrent, and future operational performance measures. The results indicate that correlations with performance measures at all three times are both high and invariant, and that controlling for past or concurrent performance virtually eliminates the correlation of HR with future performance. Implications are discussed