[The origin of neointimal cells in the rat carotid artery after balloon angioplasty]. / Proiskhozhdenie kletok neointimy, obrazovannoi v sonnykh arteriiakh krys, posle ballonnoi angioplastiki.

At present the issue of a possible role of circulating stem cells and precursors in pathological vascular wall remodeling after angioplasty remains unsolved. Therefore the origin of neointimal cells was examined in the rat carotid artery after balloon angioplasty using morphological and immunocytochemical approaches. It is shown that at the early stages (1-7 days) after vessel injury acute inflammatory response arises in the arterial wall recruiting neutrophils, monocytes, macrophages as well as large amounts of low-differentiated blood-derived cells. At the late stages (10-28 days), at the area of injured intima, a new hyperplastic intima (neointima) is formed, which consists of cells carrying specific smooth muscle markers--alpha-actin and smoothelin. The study on cell proliferative behaviour in the injured vessel wall by bromodeoxyuridine showed that in the process of neointima formation blood-born rather than resident cells are involved. Probably, early smooth muscle and endothelial precursor cells penetrate into injured area with blood stream, where they proliferative and differentiate into mature cells.

[Expression of T-cadherin in the rat carotid artery wall after balloon injury and in different rat organs]. / Ekspressiia T-kadgerina v razlichnykh organakh, a takzhe v stenke sonnykh arterii pri ballonnom povrezhdenii u krys.

T-cadherin is an unusual glycosilphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored member of the cadherin family of cell adhesion proteins. In contrast to classical cadherins, tissue distribution of T-cadherin so far remained unknown. We examined tissue distribution of T-cadherin in rats using Western blotting and immunohistochemical method. Our results show that T-cadherin is expressed in all types of muscles (cardiac, striated, and smooth muscles), in brain neurons, and spinal cord, in the vessel endothelium, at the apical pole of intestinal villar epithelium, in the basal layer of skin, and eosophagal epithelium. Blood-derived and lymphoid cells as well as connective tissue were T-cadherin-negative. The highest level of T-cadherin expression was revealed in the cardiovascular system. Although T-cadherin was detected in smooth muscle cells, its role in the intimal thickening and restenosis is not known. We examined T-cadherin expression within 1-28 days after balloon injury of rat left carotid arteries. T-cadherin expression was valued immunohistochemically with semiquantitative method. In uninjured arteries, T-cadherin was expressed in endothelial (vWF-positive) cells, and smooth muscle (alpha-actin-positive) cells (SMCs). After denudation of arterial wall, T-cadherin was present both in the media and neointima. We revealed dynamics of T-cadherin expression in the media of injured artery: an essential increase being registered at the stage of cell migration and proliferation in the media and neointima (1-7 days), followed by its decrease to the baseline level (10-28 days). The high upregulation of T-cadherin expression in the media and neointima during migration and proliferation of vascular cells after vessel injury enables us to suggest the involvement of T-cadherin in vessel remodeling after balloon catheter injury.

[Excretion of bile acids in feces in pathology of the liver and intestines]. / Ekskretsiia zhelchnykh kislot s kalom pri patologii pecheni i kishechnika.

Intestinal excretion of free bile acids (BA), i.e. of cholic, chenodeoxycholic, deoxycholic, lithocholic, and of conjugated BA, i.e. of glycocholic, glycodeoxycholic together with glycochenodeoxycholic, taurocholic, taurodeoxycholic together with taurochenodeoxycholic acids, was examined in patients with viral hepatitides (VH), chronic hepatitis (CH), biliary cirrhosis of the liver (BCL), and acute dysentery (AD), as were the effects of therapy on these acid levels. The findings evidence that fecal levels of free BA are significantly reduced during the acute period of VH, CH, AD, and BCL, whereas the levels of conjugated acids are elevated in all the examinees except the BCL patients, in whom these acids are unchanged. Study of BA excretion in VH patients treated with prednisolone has demonstrated a normalizing effect of this therapy on the spectrum of excreted free BA. Furazolidone and erythromycin therapy resulted in disordered transformation of 'primary' BA into 'secondary' ones and to deconjugation of BA, this being possibly related to these drugs effects on intestinal microflora.