[Acetylation phenotype in patients with periodic disease]. / Fenotip atsetilirovaniia u bol'nykh periodicheskoi bolezn'iu.

Acetylation phenotype distribution (activity of N-acetyltransferase enzyme) was studied in 29 patients with periodical disease (PD), 73 healthy persons (Armenians), and 20 patients (also Armenians) suffering from epithelial coccygeal cysts. The results obtained indicated the prevalence of slow acetylation phenotype (67%) in the entire Armenian population. PD was characterized by slow acetylation type (28 of 29 patients had slow acetylation with a high frequency of very slow inactivators). The other hereditary pathology, also specific for Armenians (epithelial coccygeal cysts), was characterized by another type of acetylation--a rapid one. The role of slow acetylation as a genetic marker of PD was discussed.

Prostaglandins, steroids and reception (an attempt to model the structure of the active centers of adrenoreception).

On the basis of numerous results of investigations on adrenergic systems, an orientational model of the adrenoreceptor (AR) is postulated. Its active center includes low-molecular-weight components--prostaglandins (PGE, PGF), steroids (cortisone, hydrocortisone), S+-adenosylmethionine, Ca, Mg, and Mn ions. Appraisal of the stereospecific characteristics of such a functional unit of AR explains the difference in the nature and magnitude of the effects of interaction of the catecholamines, their agonists and antagonists will the so-called alpha- and beta-AR. Depending on the organ or tissue in which the AR is located, its protein subunits comprise adenylcyclase (beta-AR) or Na,K-ATPase (alpha-AR). An obligatory component of the AR is catechol-O-methyltransferase. The model elaborated describes satisfactorily the molecular mechanisms of action of many pharmacological agents, explains why attempts to isolate and reconstruct the AR have proved fruitless, and gives grounds for rejecting the hypothesis that there exist steroid, prostaglandin, and purinergic receptors, linking the exceptionally high and diverse activity of these biologically active substances with their participation in adrenoreception among other reasons. A conception of the active centers of the AR as low-molecular-weight entities permits the explanation of such phenomena as the desensitization of the AR, the "interconversion" of beta-AR into alpha-AR with a change in the parameters of the medium, and certain components of the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma, etc.

Morphological manifestations of functional changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary neurosecretory system and kidneys of rats after space flight.

Morphological examination of the hypothalamic-pituitary neurosecretory systen and kidneys of rats flown for 22 d and sacrificed 2 and 27 d postflight was carried out. By histological and histochemical methods, indications of increased activities of the hypothalamicpituitary neurosecretory system and the juxtaglomerular apparatus of kidneys were found. The changes were reversible and by the 27th postflight day returned to the normal. It is suggested that the changes in the above systems may be produced not only by flight effects but also by readaptation of animals to 1 g.

[Study of the dynamic distribution of azafen in the organs and tissues by using direct fluorimetry]. / Izuchenie raspredeleniia azafena po organam i tkaniam v dinamike pri pomoshchi neposredstvennoi fliuorimetrii

A quantitative method of direct fluometry of the samples without any preliminary extraction of the preparation, devised by the authors helped demonstrate that after its intravenous administration the cyclic antidepressant azaphen rapidly penetrates via the blood-cerebral, blood-ophthalmic, placental and other blood-histological barrier and is then quickly eliminated from the organism.