The effect of copper on the embryonic development and hatching of Sepia officinalis L.

The influence of copper on embryonic development and hatching of Sepia offinalis was investigated. Copper exerts a profound effect on both hatching stage and time-to-hatching. At high copper concentrations (50-200 ppb Cu2+), the embryos hatch earlier than the controls but have a lower survival potential. No external morphological malformations were found. Whereas copper does not accumulate in the embryo or in the vitellus, it is absorbed by the envelope and/or the chorion.

Effects of precocious pinealectomy and hemicastration on pituitary and plasma LH levels in immature male rats.

In the immature male rat (7 to 28 days of age) precocious hemicastration provokes a marked compensatory testicular hypertrophy accompanied by a significant increase in pituitary LH content, and a non-significant increase in plasma LH level. In pinealectomized and sham-pinealectomized animals, hemicastration had the same effect with some exceptions at certain ages. Pinealectomy alone causes less evident changes in pituitary LH content than hemicastration. Only a transient effect was found, which was more evident in the hemicastrated rats. Plasma LH was only increased in the pinealectomized hemicastrated rats at days 16 and 18. It is concluded that pinealectomy in immature male rats seems to have only a transient stimulatory effect on pituitary and plasma LH levels, which is more striking in hemicastrated rats. So, hemicastration seems to sensitize the animals to the effect of pinealectomy.

Separation of pineal extracts by gelfiltration. V. Location by paper chromatography of a sheep pineal principle inhibiting hypophyseal gonadotropic activity.

Previously we were able to isolate by simple and mild methods from an aqueous sheep pineal extract an inhibiting principle action on the anterior hypophysis of male rats in vitro. This substance could be located by paper electrophoresis. In the present paper we describe the further purification of this active principle by paper chromatography in two different solvents. In two regions possessing a special fluorescence an inhibiting factor of the gonadotropic activity of the anterior pituitary was found in vitro.

Separation of pineal extracts by gelfiltration. II. Identification and isolation of two indoles from sheep pineal glands.

After separation of aqueous extracts of sheep pineal bodies and sheep cerebral cortex on Sephadex G-25, a high fluorescence peak showing an excitation maximum at 305 leads to 310 nm and a fluorescence maximum at 350 leads to 355 nm was observed in pineal extracts, which could not be detected in cerebral cortex extracts. Separation of this pineal fluorescence peak on Sephadix G-10 with water elution, followed by gradient elution of water and NaOH, gave rise to several highly fluorescent peaks. From one of these it was possible to isolate a substance with Rf-values, using thinlayer chromatographic, fluorescence and mass spectra studies, identical with synthetic 5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid. From another peak a substance, idential with synthetic 5-methoxyindole-3-acetic acid, could be isolated. The results are compared with those obtained in previous studies.