High-density lipoprotein remodeling affects the osmotic properties of plasma in goldfish under critical salinity.

To investigate the stress response and physiological adaptations of goldfish (Carassius auratus) to critical salinity (CS) waters, we analyzed high-density lipoprotein (HDL) stoichiometry, stress markers (cortisol, glucose), and plasma osmotic properties (Na+ , osmolality, water content) using ichthyology, biochemistry, and proteomics approaches. After 21 days of exposure to CS, plasma concentrations of cortisol, glucose, and Na+ increased, indicating stress. Total plasma osmolality (Osmtotal ) and osmolality generated by inorganic (Osminorg ) and organic osmolytes (Osmorg ) also increased, the latter by ~2%. We associated the increase of Osmorg with (1) increased metabolite concentration (glucose), (2) dissociation of HDL particles resulting in increased HDL number per unit plasma volume (~1.5-2-fold) and (3) increased HDL osmotic activity. HDL remodeling may be the reason for the redistribution of bound and free water in plasma, which may contribute to water retention in plasma and, at the same time, to hemodynamic disturbances under CS conditions. The study's findings suggest that HDL remodeling is an important mechanism for maintaining osmotic homeostasis in fish, which is consistent with current capillary exchange models in vertebrates.

[Evaluation of choriocapillaris with high-speed spectral-domain optical coherence tomography angiography and image averaging]. / Otsenka statusa khoriokapillyarisa s pomoshch'yu vysokoskorostnoi spektral'noi opticheskoi kogerentnoi tomografii s funktsiei angiografii i tekhnologii usredneniya izobrazhenii.

PURPOSE: To study the capabilities of high-speed spectral-domain optical coherence tomography angiography (SD-OCTA) with image averaging in the evaluation of choriocapillaries in healthy individuals and patients with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: All participants underwent OCTA examination on the SOLIX tomograph (Optovue, USA) using quadruplicate 3×3 mm scan with image averaging. Image analysis was performed in 9-µm custom slab with Phansalkar auto local threshold algorithm and calculation of flow voids larger than 5000 µm2 and 10 000 µm2. The optimal slab depth was determined in healthy eyes by consecutive analysis of the slabs with a 3-µm shift from zero position to 33 µm below Bruch's membrane. RESULTS: The study included 18 eyes of 18 healthy volunteers (40.4±6.0 years old) and 18 fellow eyes of 18 unilateral CSC patients (37.4±10.7 years old). The slab 12 µm below the Bruch's membrane showed the minimal number of flow voids (23.1±7.0 of >5000 µm2 voids per scan) and was chosen for further analysis. The number of flow voids of >5000 µm2 in healthy paired eyes of CSC patients was statistically significantly higher than in the eyes of healthy individuals (32.7±10.7 and 25.3±8.1 voids/scan, respectively; p=0.022). The number of flow voids of >10000 µm2 was also statistically significantly higher in CSC eyes compared to healthy eyes (5.6±3.3 and 3.5±1.9 voids/scan, respectively; p=0.045). There was no statistically significant difference in total area of the voids between the eyes of healthy individuals and CSC patients (96406.1±3924.5 µm2 and 95395.7 ± 3615.1 µm2, respectively; p=0.42). CONCLUSION: The optimal settings for choriocapillaris imaging on the SOLIX tomograph include 9-µm slab 9 to 18 µm below the Bruch's membrane. Using a 9-µm slab 12 µm below the Bruch's membrane, a substantial difference was found in choriocapillaris perfusion between eyes of healthy individuals and CSC patients.

[About the formation of property to age in the course of evolution of systems and about the role of this property.]

Natural selection contributes to the survival of those organisms, those communities of social insects, those human societies and those multi-species systems, in which efficiency to use environmental resources is higher than that of others. Therefore, in the course of evolution, the efficiency of use them by the listed systems increased. This increase was due to the specialization of the elements forming these systems. But their far-reaching specialization led to the fact that the listed systems acquired the property of aging. This property increased the adaptability of higher-ranking systems, part of which they were.

[Is it possible to rejuvenate the aging global civilization?]

Society is not only social system but also biological system. Growing complexity of biological systems will inevitably lead to the loss of their potential immortality and to the appeared attribute of aging. The aging of the present-day civilization is evidenced by the problems having accumulated. The answer to the question concerning the possibility to prevent collapse depends on the answer to the more general question - whether supra-organismal system that due to the growth of the structure complexity has acquired the property to age without losing achieved complexity can return to ancestral potential immortality. A positive response is given to this question. Supra-organismal systems having been freed from the necessity to age exist. Those are communities of social insects. Some of them were mortal initially but in the course of evolution have lost attribute of aging. Therefore, complex supra-organismal systems, including present-day civilization, can return to ancestral potential immortality not losing the achieved structural complexity. The main obstacle to rejuvenating civilization is not the nature of things but the human mentality.

Hemorheological and antioxidant effects of Ascovertin in patients with sclerosis of cerebral arteries.

The clinical trials on 31 patients with arteriosclerosis and I-II stage discirculatory encephalopathy to assess an ability of Ascovertin to limit hemorheology abnormalities were carried out. In patients with discirculatory encephalopathy was a distinct increase in blood viscosity which was induced by disturbances of cell rheological factors: increase in aggregation of erythrocytes and decrease in their deformability were observed in comparison with indices in the group of healthy volunteers. No difference in plasma viscosity and fibrinogen was found. The treatment with Ascovertin in patients with discirculatory encephalopathy improved their attention, memory, mental performance, normalized sleep, releaved headache, decreased fatiquebility, led to the decrease in blood viscosity values, the reduction of pathological erythrocyte hyper aggregation and the improvement of erythrocyte deformability. We partly connect this clinical effect and hemorheology activity of Ascovertin with its antioxidant property--there was found impressive lipid peroxidation suppression. No significant changes in hemorheological and lipid peroxidation indices were observed in patients without Ascovertin.

Correction of the high blood viscosity syndrome by a mixture of Diquertin and Ascorbic Acid in vitro and in vivo.

Diquertin was shown to diminish blood viscosity, to decrease the aggregation of erythrocytes, and to increase their deformability using a model of the high blood viscosity syndrome in vitro. A mixture of Diquertin with Ascorbic Acid was more effective in improving rheological indicators of blood, then either Diquertin or Tanakan. On a model of chronic brain ischemia, which is accompanied by significant deterioration of the rheological properties of blood, it was shown that a therapy with a mixture of Diquertin and Ascorbic Acid decreases the expression of the high blood viscosity syndrome.

Correction of haemorheological disturbances in myocardial infarction by diquertin and ascorbic acid.

In a model of the high blood viscosity syndrome, developed after myocardial infarction in rats, it was observed that a therapy of a combination of diquertin (20 mg/kg) and ascorbic acid (50 mg/kg) for a -period of 6 days, resulted in an improvement of haemorheological indices. The decrease in blood -viscosity was primarily due to an improved deformability of erythrocytes, and to some extent, due to a decrease in the content of plasma fibrinogen and erythrocyte aggregation.