[Intracellular gaseous messengers, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide participate in apoptosis regulation].

In this paper, participation of gases, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide, in cell apoptosis regulation has been analyzed according to the literature data and our own findings. Different mechanisms of nitric oxide influence on apoptotic reaction including modulation of transcription factors activity and increase in mitochondrion membrane permeabilisation are described. Brief description of the generation and signal transduction pathways of carbon monoxide is presented. Pro- and antiapoptotic mechanisms of hydrogen sulfide influence on cell fate are analyzed.

[The functional properties and oxidative modification of plasma and neutrophil proteins in community-acquired pneumonia].

The functional properties of neutrophils (the activity of myeloperoxidase and the production of hydroxyl radical) were studied in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) predominantly with the alveolar and interstitial types of lung parenchymal infiltration. Protein oxidative modification was estimated from the content of protein carbonyl derivatives in neutrophilic leukocytes and plasma and from the plasma concentration of bityrosine and oxidized tryptophan in patients with CAP. The production of hydroxyl radical and the activity of myeloperoxidase in the neutrophils of patients with CAP were increased and did not depend on the type of lung tissue infiltration. The development of oxidative stress in CAP was accompanied by the substantiation activation of protein oxidative modification processes in the neutrophilic leukocytes and plasma.

[The role of nitric oxide synthesis induction and inhibition in regulation of blood neutrophil cell death during oxidative disbalance].

Modeling oxidative stress in vitro with 5mM H2O2 has demonstrated a protective role of nitric oxide on realization of constitutional blood neutrophil cell death. The NO-synthase inductor L-arginine and the inhibitor of nitric oxide synthesis, L-NAME, influenced on the amount of annexin-positive cells, the content of Bax protein, reactive oxygen species, cyclic nucleotides, and calcium homeostasis in neutrophils under conditions realizing programmed death during oxidative stress in vitro and under acute inflammation. During oxidative stress L-arginine normalized the increased intracellular Ca2+ level and the cAMP/cGMP ratio due to increase of cGMP level, stabilized metabolism and prolonged neutrophil life. During acute inflammation NO induction was insufficient for limitation of Ca2+ release into cytosol and for onset of the apoptotic effect; blockade of NO synthesis deteriorated this situation by activating neutrophil apoptosis due to the sharp increase in Ca2+ content and reduction of cyclic nucleotides in cytosol. The protective effect of NO on neutrophil cell death during oxidative dysbalance is not associated with regulation of apoptotic protein Bax.

[Extrahospital pneumonias: the clinico-scintigraphic characterization and oxidative balance of cells].

Ventilation-perfusion pulmonary scintigraphy was carried out in 30 patients with a verified diagnosis of extra-hospital pneumonia (EHP) and 10 healthy subjects; ventilation-perfusion ratio (V/Q), apex-basis ventilation and perfusion gradient, and the condition of alveolar-capillary permeability (ACP) were analyzed. Clinical symptoms during the debut of EHP were more pronounced in patients with an alveolar type of pulmonary infiltrate (PI) vs. patients with interstitial one: they had pulmonary infiltration syndrome, pleural pain, tachypnoe, tachycardia, a fever of higher than 38 degrees C, and leucocytosis more often. During the acute period of EHP, elevated lipid peroxidation in the erythrocyte membrane as well as a decrease in the content of reduced glutathione and the activity of superoxide dismutase and catalase in erythrocytes did not depend on the type of PI. In EHP, independently of PI type, the study revealed an increase in V/Q of higher than 1.0 on the side of lesion and bilateral (including the healthy side) increase in ACP for radioactive aerosol.

[Changes in erythrocyte superoxide dismutase and catalase activity in premature newborns with intraventricular haemorrhages].

Superoxide dismutase and catalase activities have been studied in peripherical blood erythrocytes of 49 premature newborns at 28-37 weeks gestation. Superoxide dismutase and catalase activities were lower in patients with bacterial infection of meninges. The standard therapy did not restore superoxide dismutase and catalase activities by the end of the neonatal period.

[Impaired oxidative metabolism in acute inflammatory diseases].

The specific features of lipid peroxidation (LPO) and the activity of enzymatic antioxidants in the plasma and red blood cells of patients with acute appendicitis, phlegmons, and abscesses located in the soft tissues of the shin, hip, buttocks, shoulder, and forearm were comprehensively evaluated. In these diseases, the signs of evolving oxidative stress were revealed irrespective of the site of an acute inflammatory focus. Excess accumulation of LPO products was recorded with the inhibition of antioxidative defense components, including erythrocytic glutathione-dependent enzymes. The manifestations of antioxidant deficiency were accompanied by a reciprocal increase in the concentration of the antioxidative protein ceruloplasmin and increased with more severe inflammation. The signs of imbalance in the prooxidant/antioxidant defense system slightly normalized at discharge during clinical convalescence.

[The effect of antitumor polychemotherapy on the structural, metabolic, and functional status of erythrocytes in patients with head and neck tumors]. / Vliianie protivoopukholevoi polikhimoterapii na strukturno-metabolicheskii status i funktsional'noe sostoianie eritrotsitov u bol'nykh s opukholiami golovy i shei.

The structure, metabolic status, and functional properties of erythrocytes in patients with stage III-IV head and neck tumors in the course of antineoplastic cytostatic chemotherapy (platidiam, 5-fluorouracil, methotrexate) were studied. In the course of this treatment, disorders of the morphology and functional state of erythrocytes (reduced dry mass, decreased content of sulfohydryl grups and lipoproteins, increased number of transformed cells and the cells with violated ultrastructure, enhanced reversible aggregation of erythrocytes) were retained or became more pronounced.

[Erythrocyte in pathology: speculations at the electron microscope]. / éritrotsit pri patologii: razmyshleniia u élektronnogo mikroskopa.

The article summarizes the results of several years of research devoted to the surface architectonics and ultrastructure of erythrocyte in patients with pathology of different genesis. Diversity of changes in the shape of red blood cells, their surface and ultrastructure obtained by scanning and transmission microscopy is presented. The question is discussed on the non-specific character of erythrocyte transformation, disorganization of surface architectonics and ultrastructure of red blood cells in different pathological processes. The existence of typical morphological changes of erythrocyte in different pathological processes is suggested, considering it to be an evolutionary form of adaptation.

[Protein composition of erythrocyte membranes in patients with stomach, colon and rectal cancer]. / Belkovyi sostav membran éritrotsitov u bol'nykh rakom zheludka, tolstoi i priamoi kishki.

Examinations of the protein composition of erythrocyte membrane in patients with cancer of the stomach, large intestine and rectum by using the method of disc-electrophoresis in polyacrylamide gel revealed the changing contents of protein fractions, which consisted in a lower share of high-molecular polypeptides with, simultaneously, higher quantity of low-molecular peptides. A comparison of the studied parameters of the protein spectrum of erythrocyte membrane as observed in patients with cancer of the stomach, on the one hand, and in patients with tumors of the large intestine and rectum, on the other hand, led to defining the reliable difference only for the content of the fraction-5 proteins.

[The surface architectonics, functional characteristics, and metabolism in peripheral blood lymphocytes in acute herpes virus infection]. / Poverkhnostnaia arkhitektonika, funktsional'nye osobennosti i metabolizm limfotsitov perifericheskoi krovi pri khronicheskoi gerpesvirusnoi infektsii.

Twenty-five patients (males--11, females--14; aged 18 to 45) with chronic herpes virus infection relapsing at the time of clinical tests were examined, including investigations of the surface architectonics, the ability to blast-transformation and the metabolic status of peripheral-blood lymphocytes. Chronic herpes virus infection was found to be concurrent with changes of the percentage ratio of lymphocytes with the surface micro-patterns of different types, with a more intense activity of the immunity T-chain and with a changed nature of the intracellular metabolism of lymphocyte cells.

[Specific features of erythrocyte membranes and metabolism in patients with lung cancer]. / Osobennosti sostoianiia membran i metabolisma éritrotsitov u bol'nykh rakom lëgkogo.

A study of erythrocyte metabolism and membrane status has identified the structurally and metabolically deranged mature erythrocytes, both in anemic and anemia-free patients with stage III-IV lung cancer. Anemia incidence in non-small-cell lung cancer was significantly higher than in the small-cell lung cancer group.

[Chronic bronchitis: participation of red cells in the pathologic process]. / Khronicheskii bronkhit: uchastie éritrotsitov v patologicheskom protzesse.

To study characteristics of structural-metabolic status and function of erythrocytes in patients with chronic bronchitis (CB), the examination was made of 53 CB patients (39 male and 14 female). A complex study of morphofunctional state of peripheral erythron included investigation of protein and lipid composition, microviscosity of the lipid phase of erythrocyte membrane, surface architectonics, ultrastructure, reversible aggregation of red cells, concentrations of sulfhydric groups, lipoproteins and dry cell mass in erythrocytes. CB patients were found to have prominent defects in membrane structure and metabolism of mature red cells (reduced dry mass and concentration of sulfhydric groups and lipoproteins, abnormal protein composition and lipid membrane spectrum, increased viscosity of membrane lipid bilayer), alterations of surface architectonics, shape, ultrastructure of erythrocytes. Disorders in structural-metabolic status of erythrocytes in CB patients affected their functional features, the ability for reversible aggregation, in particular. Functional disturbances of erythrocytes in CB patients aggravate the course of the disease and need correction with membrane-stabilizing and membrane-repairing drugs.

[Erythrocyte ultrastructure in norm and pathology: morphological phenomena and clinical correlations]. / Ul'trastruktura éritrotsitov v norme i pri patologii: morfologicheskie fenomeny, klinicheskie aspekty.

Using transmission electron microscopy, erythrocyte ultrastructure in norm and pathology was described. Among the morphological phenomena, most common were local and extensive erythrocyte plasmalemmal defects in the form of its loosening, thinning, consolidation and thickening, rupture, fragmentation, exfoliation from stroma with the formation of cavities. Plasmalemmal destruction may be accompanied with the formation of micro- and macroexovesicles, some of which lose the connection with the erythrocyte. Morphological signs of erythrocyte stromal disorganization included irregular distribution of hemoglobin granules with the formation of the regions of increased and decreased electron density, loosening of the internal structure up to the formation of cavities, as well as endovesicles, partially containing small or large osmiophilic particles. It was shown that in pathological processes of different genesis (malignant tumors, chronic bronchitis, burn trauma, schizophrenia) ultrastructural changes of erythrocytes have typical character.

[Characteristics of reversible aggregation of peripheral blood erythrocytes in children with acute pneumonia]. / Pokazateli obratimoi agregatsii éritrotsitov perifericheskoi krovi u detei s ostroi pnevmoniei.

Acute pneumonia in children is associated with increase of the red blood cell aggregation characteristics. Pronounced changes in reversible aggregation of erythrocytes did not completely normalize after therapy and were the most pronounced in patients with complicated course of the disease, which necessitates intensifying the traditional methods for monitoring the efficiency of treatment and correction of traditional treatment protocols.

[Composition of erythrocyte membrane lipids and their biophysical parameters in children with insulin-dependent diabetes during therapy]. / Sostav lipidov membran éritrotsitov i ikh biofizicheskie kharakteristiki u detei s insulinzavisimym sakharnym diabetom v protsesse terapii.

Chronic secondary hyperglycemia in children with insulin insufficiency is characterized by quantitative and qualitative changes in membrane lipid spectrum and increased microviscosity of deep layers of peripheral blood erythrocyte membrane lipid bilayer. Traditional combined therapy does not normalize these parameters, which can lead to vascular complications in children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

[Reversible aggregation and the surface architectonics of the peripheral blood erythrocytes in lung cancer patients before and during the carrying out of antitumor polychemotherapy]. / Obratimaia agregatsiia i poverkhnostnaia arkhitektonika éritrotsitov perifericheskoi krovi u bol'nykh rakom legkogo do i v khode provedeniia protivoopukholevoi polikhimioterapii.

In study of the parameters characterizing the minimal--U0(B) and maximal--UD(B) mechanical stability of aggregates, half period of red cell spontaneous aggregation--tau (in mm), photometric signal amplitude characterizing the number of red cells taking part in aggregation--A (in mm), and in calculating the aggregation index 1a and the integral coefficient of aggregation K intensification of reversible aggregation of the peripheral red blood cells was revealed in patients with lung cancer, which grew against the background of increase in the number of modified red blood cells during application of antitumor polychemotherapy.

[The immunoregulatory properties of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor-beta in mice opposite-reacting to antigen]. / Issledovanie immunoreguliatornykh svoistv rekombinantnogo faktora nekroza opukholi beta cheloveka u oppozitnoreagiruiushchikh na antigen myshei.

The effect of 10(3)-10(5) E/20 g doses of the recombinant factor of human beta tumor necrosis (rFNT-beta) on formation of the immune response and macrophage functional activity was studied in CBA and C57Bl/6 mice that differ in genetically determined level of the immune response to an antigen (sheep erythrocytes). The rFNT-beta was found to cause a modulating effect on the cell and humoral links of the immune response. The effect of the agent depended on the dose and the genotype of the experimental animals. It is suggested that the interlinear differences in the intensity of the humoral immune response in rFNT-beta administration may be connected with the different sensitivity to the agent of the peritoneal macrophages of mice of the used lines.