Growth hormone and cortisol in serum and saliva.

Salivary diagnosis is a developing area in clinical chemistry and dentistry. Cortisol analyses from saliva have been used in pediatric practice and as doping tests. Growth hormone (hGH), also a stress hormone, has not been analyzed from saliva. We studied the serum and saliva of 51 healthy subjects. The samples were taken at 8:00 in the morning after 12 h fasting. Cortisol concentrations were analyzed using RIA. An immunoradiometric assay was applied for analyzing serum and salivary hGH. The validity of this method developed in our laboratory was found to be good. The results showed correlation of salivary cortisol with that of serum (r = 0.47, P < 0.001). Salivary hGH concentrations were 1000-fold lower than the respective values in serum, but a clear correlation was found between salivary and serum hGH levels (r = 0.59, P < 0.001).

Distribution of L-tryptophan in normal and glucose - loaded mice.

L-tryptophan is an essential amino acid in food, but is also widely used as a drug on the basis of several physiological actions. Lately, tryptophan's uses as a drug and as a food supplement have been discontinued in several countries due to its severe side-effects.In the present study, the distribution of tryptophan in mice was studied with special attention on the target organs, where the drug has been shown to have pathological or physiological effects.The results showed that several organs took up tryptophan and that glucose loading increased the accumulation. An interesting finding was that the highest concentration of tryptophan was found in the pancreas. The hypophysis and adrenal glands were also sites of accumulation. Within the brain the highest accumulation was found in the cerebrum. High concentrations were also seen in the gastrointestinal tract and bone marrow.The connection between the accumulation of tryptophan and its normal and pathophysiological effects is discussed.

Effect of 1-week fasting on some blood values in man.

Fifty-eight voluntary and healthy subjects (mean age 42.3 +/- 11.2 years) participated in 7-day supervised fasting trial during which only fruit and berry juices, tea and water were consumed. Venous blood was drawn before and after 1-week fasting and 3 months after the termination of the trial. The subjects' body weight and blood pressure values were also recorded. The results showed a statistically significant decrease in blood thrombocyte counts after 1-week fasting (p < 0.05), while a significant increase was observed in serum beta-hydroxybutyrate and alanine aminotransferase activities (p < 0.001). All other blood values, including glucose and creatinine, remained stable throughout the trial.

The severity of obstructive sleep apnoea is associated with insulin resistance.

Oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) were performed on eighteen patients with suspected obstructive sleep apnoea who also completed a whole-night polygraphic recording with oximetry. Insulin resistance indices (IRI) were calculated as the product of areas under glucose and insulin curves. In the resulting multiple regression analysis the dependent variable was IRI and the independent variables were age, body mass index (BMI) and the number of nocturnal hypoxic episodes with over 4% desaturation per hour (ODI4). ODI4 was between 4.6 and 70 (median 22.3); IRI ranged from 2.20 to 33.55 (median 7.50). In the regression model the coefficient of determination (R2) for IRI was 0.441 (F-ratio = 3.681, P = 0.038). The strongest determinant of IRI was ODI4 and the regression coefficient of BMI was not significantly different from zero even when possible outliers were excluded. It was found that insulin resistance is related to the severity of sleep anoea. This may be due to a hypoxia-induced hormonal stress reaction which decreases tissue insulin sensitivity. Since upper body obesity is associated with both insulin resistance and sleep apnoea, the distribution of fat should be taken into account in future studies.

Plasma insulin, tryptophan and serotonin levels during the glucose tolerance test among habitually violent and impulsive offenders.

Insulin activity in plasma and the concentrations of tryptophan and serotonin were measured during the glucose tolerance test (GTT) in habitually violent and impulsive male offenders and in psychiatric personnel as controls. Insulin was enhanced in the intermittent explosive disorder; at the same time the concentration of plasma tryptophan and the ratio of tryptophan to large neutral amino acids were on a high level and tryptophan even increased in many cases during GTT. Serotonin values did not differ. Many offenders with enhanced insulin secretion displayed abnormal neuroglycopenic symptoms during GTT.

Measurement of ionized calcium with five types of instruments. An external quality assessment.

An external quality assessment for ionized calcium determinations was carried out in 24 laboratories in Northern Europe. Both protein-free and protein-containing test materials were included in the study. The average within-laboratory variation (CV) for all test materials was 3.1, 1.7, 1.2, 1.8 and 1.3% for the AVL 980 (AVL, Graz, Austria), the Microlyte (Kone, Espoo, Finland), the Nova 2 (Nova Biomedical, Newton, Ma USA), the Orion SS-20 (Orion, Cambridge, Mass., USA), and the ICA1 (Radiometer, Copenhagen, Denmark) respectively. The corresponding interlaboratory CV was 3.1, 2.9, 3.1 and 2.4%. The variation between types of instruments was even larger and caused differences of up to 33%. The results indicate a need for well-defined protein-containing control material.

Role of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) in oral glucose intolerance.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the metabolic base of psychoneurological symptoms, most notably tiredness and loss of concentration ability, appearing after carbohydrate-rich meals and during oral glucose tolerance tests. Such metabolic changes may be the cause of many accidents attributed to the "human factor". Oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) were performed in healthy volunteers, divided into symptomatic (n = 21) and symptom-free (n = 15) groups. Since the symptoms arising during OGTT simulate those in alcohol intoxication, a method for clinical examination of alcohol intoxication was used to separate symptom-free from symptomatic subjects. Comparison of blood glucose concentrations during OGTT revealed the symptomatic group to have higher concentrations in blood samples taken 15 min (p less than 0.05), 30 min (p less than 0.01), 45, 60 and 90 min (p less than 0.05) after intake of glucose than those having no symptoms. The symptoms began when the glucose concentration was at maximum, some 38 min (mean value) following the ingestion of glucose. The symptomatic subjects demonstrated a normal assimilation rate of glucose (mean 1.7 %/min) as tested with intravenous glucose tolerance tests and the differences in blood glucose concentrations between the groups is concluded to depend on the rate of absorption of glucose from the intestinal tract. The enterochromaffine cells of the intestinal tract are the site of biosynthesis, storage and release of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) (serotonin). In whole blood practically all of the 5-HT is of thrombocytic origin. Thrombocytes are thought to be peripheral models of 5-HT neurons in regard to 5-HT uptake, storage release and metabolism. Thrombocytes have a mechanism for 5-HT uptake analogous to the reuptake mechanism for 5-HT in the serotonergic nerve terminals. The whole blood 5-HT changes parallel changes in the 5-HT concentrations of the neurons. In this work 5-HT concentrations were measured during OGTT in whole blood to ascertain the possible relation between 5-HT changes and glucose absorption. For this purpose a reliable, fluorometric method for 5-HT was developed with the following improvements: In whole EDTA-blood the oxidation of 5-HT was prevented with ascorbic acid. The oxidation of hemoglobin iron to ferri-iron was prevented with carbon monoxide, because 5-HT, being a phenol, will otherwise form a complex with ferri-iron. Proteins were precipitated with perchloric acid and the supernatant neutralized before purification of 5-HT by cation exchange.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Use of hypnosis in studies of the effect of stress on cardiovascular function and hormones.

In an attempt to separate the somatic and mental components of stress, groups of young male volunteers underwent running exercises and sauna baths, and roughly one year later had the same experiences recalled under hypnosis. In addition, experiments involving mental stress in the form of mental arithmetic were performed. A variety of physiological and biochemical parameters was measured on each occasion. Results for cardiovascular responses, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone, cortisol, testosterone, androstenedione, prolactin and growth hormone are reported. It is concluded that the mental component of combined mental and somatic stress may be separated from the somatic component by hypnotic suggestion. The response during hypnotic suggestion of the stress is usually of less but sometimes of the same magnitude as that obtained during the actual stress. Occasionally the response goes in the opposite direction during hypnotic suggestion as compared to the real situation. The individual responses vary considerably between individuals. The hormones most sensitive to mental stress are growth hormone, androstenedione, cortisol, renin and angiotensin II. In the present study, mental stress had a depressing effect, if any, on plasma prolactin. Hypnosis in itself has no effect on plasma hormones in unstressed subjects compared to the normal diurnal variations.