[Use of taurine in the treatment of experimental congestive heart failure]. / Ispol'zovanie taurina dlia lecheniia zastoinoi serdechnoi nedostatochnosti v éksperimente.

The therapeutic effects of 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid (taurine) were tested in animals with congestive heart failure (HF) simulated by aortic valve damage. The drug given in a daily dose of 100 mg/kg for a month was shown to reduce mortality rates as compared to controls, to improve the animals' clinical condition, hemodynamic and myocardial contractility parameters. Taurine was found to exert a positive action on the heart response to stresses. The impaired response in the animals restored to heart rate stimulation, catecholamines and calcium loading. The mechanisms of the agent's action are discussed in the present paper. It is suggested that taurine-based taucard will be included into the arsenal of cardiotropic agents after its clinical trials are successfully completed.

[Pathomorphological and morphometric evaluation of a model of aortic insufficiency in rabbits treated with taurine]. / Patomorfologicheskaia i morfometricheskaia otsenka modeli aortal'noi nedostatochnosti u krolikov pri lechenii taurinom.

In 45 experimental rabbits, subjected to trans-carotid aorto-valvulotomy in a month developed a congestive heart failure. When this group of rabbits was compared to the control group of 20 animals, in the course of complete pathomorphologic, histochemical and stereomorphologic analysis the following results were obtained: potassium oroticum did not show any efficacy at all; the efficacy of taurine in a dose of 10 mg/kg was low. Its effect was both direct and indirect acting through the autonomic nervous system.

Association of myocardial glutamate and aspartate pool and functional recovery of postischemic heart.

The effect of low flow ischemia and subsequent reperfusion with 5.5 mM glucose or 5 mM acetate on energy metabolism and catabolism of myocardial glutamate and aspartate was studied in isolated perfused guinea pig hearts. Reperfusion with acetate was followed by low recovery of the cardiac contractile function associated with a great rise in isovolumic end-diastolic pressure. It was combined with more profound losses of tissue adenine nucleotides and the total Cr compared to reperfusion with glucose. The total glutamate and aspartate pool decreased more than two-fold compared to the initial one regardless of substrate. However, glutamate content was reduced by 58 and 38% with acetate and glucose, respectively. The expenditure of both amino acids was caused by alanine formation stimulated by glycolysis/glycogenolysis. The remaining glutamate and aspartate pool in the reperfused hearts positively correlated with adenine nucleotides (r = 0.62), the total creatine (r = 0.65), and the recovery of contractile function (r = 0.64). The results suggest that the glutamate and aspartate pool may be of critical importance for postischemic functional and metabolic recovery of the heart.

[Pathomorphological criteria of anti-atherosclerotic effect of plant saponins in an experiment]. / Patomorfologicheskie kriterii antiateroskleroticheskogo deistviia saponinov rastitel'nogo proiskhozhdeniia v éksperimente.

6-month hypercholesterol diet made it possible to obtain an adequate model of atherosclerosis in inbred rats. The model was characterized by lipoidosis and fibrous plaques which occupied half of the area of the aorta and coronary arteries, as well as secondary fibrosis of other organs. During atherogenesis changes in endothelial and myocyte cells appear, accumulation of acid glycosaminoglycans takes place, lipoidosis and elastofibrosis progress up to collagenization and hyalinosis of the arterial wall. Fibro-myocyte plaques are transformed into fibro-atheromatous plaques. Upon drug therapy with vegetative saponins and furastonolic glycosides fibrous lesions did not regress, but delipidization and translocation of glycosaminoglycans were observed in 30% of the area of the affected arteries, and elastofibrosis and changes in endothelial and myocyte cells were decreased. Long-term therapy with vegetative drugs produced a regression of the experimental atherosclerosis.

[Comparison of echocardiographic and cardiac morphometric data in healthy persons and patients with heart failure of various origins]. / Sopostavlenie dannykh ékhokardiografii i morfometrii serdtsa u zdorovykh lits i bol'nykh s serdechnoi nedostatochnost'iu raznogo proiskhozhdeniia.

The authors discuss the results of morphometric analysis in separate weighing of the heart and the results of echocardiographic examination of healthy subjects and patients who died from cardio-vascular insufficiency. Some indices characterizing the dimensions, volumes, and mass of the various parts of the heart of healthy individuals who died from accidental causes and of patients with left- and right-ventricular insufficiency are presented. It is shown that morphometry allows one not only to determine right- and left-ventricular insufficiency but to distinguish its compensated and decompensated forms. Comparison of the findings of morphometry and echocardiography showed a good correlation in determining the diameter of the aorta, the thickness of the wall of the left and right ventricles, and the mass of the left ventricle. No correlation in determining the volumes of the heart cavities was established on comparing the results of echocardiography with those of autopsy. In some cases a correlation was disclosed in determining the anteroposterior size of the orifice of the mitral valve.

[Immunomorphological transformation of the thyroid gland in autoimmune thyroiditis]. / Immunomorfologicheskaia transformatsiia shchitovidnoi zhelezy pri autoimmunnom tireodite.

In parallel immunochemical, immunohistochemical, and histopathological studies of blood sera and biopsies of the thyroid gland tissue the autoimmune nature of thyroiditis was proved in 11 female patients. The detected antithyroid autoantibody was classified as complement-dependent immunoglobulin. Immunocytochemical data are presented confirming the histiocytic derivation of macrophages and non-epithelial nature of B- and C-cells. Transformation of colloid and cells ans metabollsm of monoclonal immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, IgM) permit the judgement on the duration of autoimmune thyroiditis. The diffuse lymphoid variant is typical of the first 5 years, and focal fibrinolymphoid variant-for later peroids of autoimmune thyroiditis.

[Effect of pyridoxylate on the intensity of changes in the internal organs and skeletal musculature of rats under considerable physical loading]. / Vliianie piridoksilata na vyrazhennost' izmenenii vnutrennoi organov i skeletnoi muskulatury krys pri znachitel'noi fizicheskoi nagruzke.

Under considerable physical load, marked enzymopathy, increased permeability of cellular membranes with the involvement of cellular and subcellular structures develop in the myocardium, skeletal musculature and viscera of rats. Administration of pyridozylate decreases the intensity of damage reactions and normalizes to a certain degree the structure of cellular and subcellular elements of tissues. This indicates the advisability of the employment of the cell respiration regulators under conditions of general and tissue hypoxy and metabolic shifts.

[Experimental autoimmune cardiomyopathies in several generations of animals]. / Eksperimental'nye autoimmunnye kardiomiopatii u neskol'kikh pokolenii zhivotnykh.

In 8 generations of mongrel rats 80 animals were immunized with minimal dozes of a mixture of homologous heart muscle homogenate and Freund's adjuvant (0.3 ml). From generation to generation, the rats demonstrated a reduction of their reproductive capacity and an increase of cardiovascular insufficiency signs. The primary lesion of the myocardium was morphologically characterized by widely spread foci of myocytolysis and hialine degeneration of muscle fibers and by an oedema of the cardiac stroma; at the same a focal-diffuse lymphoid-histiocytic infiltration occurred that should be interpreted as a hypersensitivity reaction of a delayed type. The results of the process consisted in interstitial cardiosclerosis and moderate hypertrophy of the preserved muscle fibers. Other causes excluded, this process can be considered an experimental model of autoimmune cardiomyopathy which inheritance or predisposition must be determined by a transplacental and transmammary transmission of the damaging immune complex (antigen--antibody).

[Myocardial changes in rats after considerable physical exertion and the effect of pyridoxilate on the severity of these changes]. / Izmeneniia miokarda u krys pri znachitel'noi fizicheskoi nagruzke i vliianie piridoksilata na vyrazhennost' etikh izemenii

Under significant physical exercises the myocardium of rats displays distinct enzymopathy, increased permeability of the cell membranes with a considerable dispersion of plasma proteins and damage to the ultrastructures of the myocytes. The employment of pyridoxilate reduces the severity of the damaging reaction, and to some extent normalizes the structure of the cellular and sub-cellular elements of the myocardium. This indicates to the prospects of using the regulators of cellular respiration under total and tissue hypoxia.

[Rheopulmonographic and pathomorphological parallels in congenital heart defects with increased blood circulation in the lungs]. / Reopul'monograficheskie i patomorfologicheskie paralleli pri vrozhdennykh porokakh serdtsa s uvelichennym krovotokom v legkikh

A comparison of clinico-pulmonographic and morphological changes in the lesser circulation of 12 persons who died due to congenital heart failures involving an increased blood flow in the lungs revealed the presence of a correlation between these changes in the phases of compensation and decompensation.