[The role of disorders in the homeostasis of divalent cations in the pathogenesis and clinical picture of bronchial asthma]. / Rol' narushenii gomeostaza dvukhvalentnykh kationov v patogeneze i klinicheskoi kartine bronkhial'noi astmy.

Mg and Ca concentrations in the serum, red cells, lymphocytes and 24-h urine were examined in 13 preasthma (PA) patients, 26 atopic asthma patients and 23 bacterial asthma (BA) patients. The patients' age ranged from 15 to 65 years. The measurements were made on AAC-508 absorption spectrophotometer (Hitachi, Japan) and Microlyte selective ionometer (Kone, Finland). Lack of Mg and excess of Ca in blood cells and low Mg values in circadian urine were recorded in all the patients irrespective of the disease variant, phase, course, broncho-obstruction. Changes in cell electrolyte composition in asthma and PA patients seem to disturb cAMP metabolism and to enhance lipid peroxidation, thus being responsible for bronchial hyperreactivity. Superactivation of free-radical lipid peroxidation in cellular membranes is suggested to underlie, among other factors, defective intracellular homeostasis of bivalent cations in the above patients.

[Effect of cAMP modifiers on the cytotoxic activity of macrophages]. / Izuchenie vliianiia modifikatorov cAMP na tsitotoksicheskuiu aktivnost' makrofagov.

The effects of various cAMP modifiers on the changes in the intracellular cAMP level and on the coupling of the cAMP system with realization of macrophage cytotoxicity depending on their functional activity were studied. Nonactivated and activated by E. coli polysaccharides peritoneal macrophages of BALB/c mice and macrophage-like cells of J744 mice were incubated in the presence of cAMP modifiers and further assayed for cytolytic and cytostatic activities. Cells of tetraploid strain of Ehrlich carcinoma G10 were used as target cells. Among other modifiers only dibutyryl-cAMP caused a steady increase of the intracellular nucleotide content, whereas methylisobutylxanthine and isoproterenol in combination with methylisobutylxanthine caused only a temporary increase of the cAMP level. Isoproterenol did not induce any appreciable changes in the intracellular cAMP level. All modifiers under study suppressed the cytotoxic activity of macrophages irrespective of the nature of changes in the intracellular cAMP content. It was assumed that cAMP accomplishes a triggering function in the regulation of the cytotoxic activity of macrophages and that the cAMP system is universal in the regulation of cytotoxicity at various functional states of macrophages.