[Stimulating effect of water-soluble fraction from brown algae Fucus vesiculosus extract on cell proliferation in tissue culture of young and old rats.]

The influence of water-soluble fraction F-55 of brown algae extract Fucus vesiculosus on the development of organotypic tissue culture of different genesis, originating from three germ leaves in young and old rats was studied. The preparation F-55 has a stimulating effect on the processes of cell proliferation in the tissues of ecto-, ento- and mesodermal genesis (cerebral cortex, myocardium, spleen and liver), by regulating the processes of cell proliferation and apoptosis. The revealed strengthening of regeneration processes in explants from both young and old rats under the influence of F-55 preparation in the range of ultra-low concentrations of 10-100 ng/ml can serve as a basis for the creation of new medicinal cytoprotective substances that allow to enhance cell regeneration in various tissues in pathological conditions, including those associated with age.

[Effect of excretion-secretion products of some fouling species on the biochemical parameters of blue mussel Mytilus edulis L. (Mollusca: Bivalvia) in the White Sea].

The effect of excretion-secretion products (ESP) of five abundant fouling invertebrate species (bivalve mollusks Hiatella arctica and Mytilus edulis, solitary ascidia Styela rustica, sponge Halichondria panicea, and sea starAsterias rubens, inhabiting the White Sea) on the biochemical status of blue mussel M. edulis was assessed by the dynamics of lysosomal enzymes activity (nucleases, glycoside hydrolases, and cathepsins). ESP of conspecific species had no effect on the metabolism of the mollusks of this species. ESP of A. rubens, S. rustica, and H. panicea activated the same enzymes. First, acid RNase and glycoside hydrolases activity increased, but in different ways. The metabolites of H. arctica affected the activity of proteometabolism enzymes.

[Fouling: terminology and definitions].

Current classification of principal ecological groups of hydrobionts is an eclectic one as it confuses two fundamentals, one dealing with organismic ecomorphology and another with water body's topology. This leads to difficulties in determination of interrelations between benthos and fouling communities. The littoral fouling communities cannot be considered as an independent ecological group of the same rank as plankton or benthos because it lacks a unique species composition. The fouling is always a derivate of the benthos, so it could be defined as a community formed by benthic organisms during succession on a solid substrate more or less remote from the water body's bottom. All peculiarities of the fouling communities distinguishing them from similar benthic communities are determined by topology and other properties of the substrate, by relatively short period of the latter's exposition and by hydrological conditions under which the fouling is developing. There is continual transitions between benthic and fouling communities both in space (along gradients of abiotic environmental factors) and in time (along successional series). Such a continuum becomes most frequently broken due to both significant remoteness of the substrate, on which a fouling develops, from the bottom and permanent extreme factors disturbing or retarding fouling communities development. Thus, littoral foulings are just benthos being formed under specific conditions. At the same time, oceanic foulings are connected both evolutionary and ecologically with littoral foulings and benthos.

[Modulatory role of lipids and their fatty acids in adaptation of the White Sea mussels Mytilus edulis L. to environmental salinity changes].

Role of lipids and fatty acids (FA) in littorial and sublittorial White Sea mussels Mytilus edulis L. was studied at various stages of reproductive in the phenotypic adaptation (acclimation) to changes of the sea water salinity. The obtained data indicate differences in the mussel lipid and fatty acid spectra, which are connected both with their location (littoral and sublittoral) and with the spawning period stage (3b--release of gametes and 3c--resorption of residual sex products). Lipids and FA of both mussel groups respond to the salinity changes to the greater degree at the 3b than at the 3c stage. In the littorial mussels at the stages 3b and 3c there were revealed differently directed changes in the content of membrane lipid--cholesterol--and in the cholesterol : phospholipids ratio. In the sublittorial mussels that are less adapted to extreme action of abiotic factors, more significant changes were found in the lipid and FA compositions.