Plasma antioxidant capacity in dogs with naturally occurring heart diseases.

The aim of the study was to compare the plasma levels of antioxidants by measuring total antioxidant activity (TAS) and ferric reducing ability of the plasma (FRAP) in healthy dogs and in those that are suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) or from mitral endocardiosis (ME). Dogs with echocardiographically diagnosed ME (10 dogs) as well as DCM (23 dogs) were sampled. Of dogs with DCM, eight having DCM with sinus rhythm (SR) were included in the DCM-SR group and 15 having DCM with atrial fibrillation (AF) in the DCM-AF group. Total antioxidant levels measured by TAS assay differed neither significantly between the cardiac patients and the control group nor between the heart disease groups. Ferric reducing ability of the plasma in animals with cardiac disease was significantly higher than in the control animals, and the difference was also significant in between the two DCM groups. However, the differences between the antioxidant levels of the DCM and ME groups did not reach significance in none of the antioxidant (TAS and FRAP) tests. Summarizing the results of this study it can be concluded that there is an increased antioxidant reactivity detected by the FRAP, but not by the TAS assay in the blood of dogs with naturally occurring cardiac disorders. The magnitude of this increase seems to be more affected rather by the severity of the cardiac insufficiency and/or by the heart rate or rhythm disorder than by the underlying heart disease itself.

Effect of (+)-cyanidanol-3 on receptor activity of lymphocytes and hepatocytes and on hepatocyte-lymphocyte conjugation in alcoholic liver disease.

The recirculation of lymphocytes and cell-mediated immunity show profound alterations in alcoholic liver disease. The use of cianidanol corrects a lot of these disturbances, in that: a) it can modify the receptor avidity of hepatocytes, b) it reduces the cell-mediated immune reactivity against liver specific protein antigen, diminishing the auto-immune reactions in alcoholic liver disease, c) it has no effect upon the conjugation process between the hepatocytes as target cells and cytotoxic effector cells, d) it decreases, however, the number of hepatocytes damaged after the conjugation process, and e) as a potent free-radical scavenger, it inhibits the cytotoxic effect of natural killer cells and monocytes, and in the same manner prevents the alteration of the hepatocyte membrane.

Investigations on blood and cerebrospinal fluid lymphocytes in patients suffering from tick-borne encephalitis.

This paper deals with the immuno-pathological characteristics of tick-borne encephalitis. With the appearance of neurological signs, there is a strong T cell reaction in th peripheral blood. The following seven days are characterized by the appearance of specific cell-mediated reaction in the peripheral blood; in the cell-mediated reaction in the peripheral blood; in the cerebrospinal fluid, an increasing number of B cells and specific antibodies can be detected. After a week, the percent positivity of cell-mediated immune reactions is higher and there is a T cell dominance in the cerebrospinal fluid. Intact cellular immunity against specific antigen is required for the management of this disease. There are major differences in the results obtained from patients suffering from meningitis alone and those suffering from meningoencephalitis.