[The systemic disorder of connective tissue metabolism and hypoplasia of the nephron elements in hereditary nephritis in children]. / Sistemnoe narushenie metabolizma soedinitel'noi tkani i gipoplaziia élementov nefrona pri nasledstvennom nefrite u detei.

Clinical biochemistry and morphological methods were employed to examine 25 children aged 3 to 15 years with hereditary nephritis. Measurements were made of morphological alterations in renal biopsy specimens, excretion with urine of connective tissue metabolites (hydroxyproline, hydroxylysine glycosides, glycosaminoglycans), the level of the same metabolites and characteristic features of the cellular growth of skin fibroblasts in culture. The early stages of nephritis development were marked by hypoplasia of nephron elements, followed by dystrophy and destruction of its ultrastructural elements including collagen of the glomerular basal membranes. The status of the skin fibroblast cell culture corresponded with the changes seen in renal cells of mesenchymal origin. The conclusion is made that in children with hereditary nephritis, nephron cells and skin fibroblasts reflect systemic metabolic defect of the connective tissue.

[Dynamics of the renal excretion of glycosaminoglycans as affected by thyroid therapy of hypothyroidism]. / Dinamika pochechnoi ékskretsii glikozaminoglikanov pod vliianiem tireoidnoi terapii pri gipotireoze.

The state of renal excretion of glycosaminoglycans (GAG) was investigated in 15 patients with hypothyrosis of various degree of gravity before and during thyroid therapy. A raised level of GAG excretion with urine reflecting excessive GAG tissue accumulation was revealed. A degree of elevation was unrelated to a gravity of disease and grew with a period of disease. Thyroid therapy considerably increased GAG renal excretion, particularly in patients with a longer period of disease. A GAG level in daily urine can be used as an additional diagnostic criterion in hypothyrosis and the time course of GAG can serve for assessment of therapeutic efficacy.

[Intracellular distribution of creatine kinase isoenzymes in the brains and hearts of rats at different stages of postnatal development]. / Vnutrikletochnoe raspredelenie izofermentov kreatinkinazy v golovnom mozge i serdtse krys na razlichnykh stadiiakh postnatal'nogo razvitiia

The total activity and range of the creatine kinase (CK) isozymes have been studied in the homogenate and subcellular fractions (nuclei, mitochondria, cytoplasm) of the rat brain and heart during postnatal ontogenesis. The total activity of CK in the brain and heart of newborn rats was found to be 4 and 2 times less, resp., than in those of adults. The age patterns were established in the activity of cytoplasmic (CK-1, CK-2 and CK-3) and mitochondrial (CK-4) isozymes. During the whole postnatal development the rat brain contains only one cytoplasmic isozyme, CK-1. In the heart of newborn rats, as compared with adults, the content of CK-1 and CK-2 is much higher and that of CK-3 lower. On the 12-15th day of life the range of the CK isozymes approaches that characteristic of adult animals. The activity of CK-4 was found in the brain on the 5-7th day of life and in the heart on 12-15th day. In the range of the CK isozymes in the adult brain the content of mitochondrial CK amounts to 19.3% and in the heart to 16.5%. The data obtained complement the literary ones suggesting the low level of energy-forming processes in the brain and heart cells at the early stages of the rat postnatal development.