Cardiac biomarkers of disordered eating as a function of diagnostic subtypes.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify cardiac biomarkers of disordered eating as a function of diagnostic subtype as assessed via self-report inventory. METHOD: Mean heart rate (HR), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, mean R wave amplitude (mV), mean T wave amplitude (mV), QTc interval (sec), Tpeak-Tend interval prolongation (sec), QTc interval prolongation (sec), QRS prolongation (sec), and spectral indicators of cardiac dysfunction (LF/HF spectral ratio, HF spectral power) were assessed via electrocardiography among women with no eating disorder symptoms (n = 32), subclinical eating disorder symptoms (n = 92), anorexia nervosa (n = 7), bulimia nervosa (n = 89), binge eating disorder (BED: n = 20), and other specified feeding and eating disorders (OSFED: n = 19). RESULTS: MANOVA results showed statistically significant group differences. Follow-up tests revealed significantly decreased mean R wave amplitude among participants with self-indicated clinical (bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder) and subclinical forms of disordered eating compared to asymptomatic controls. DISCUSSION: Results suggest decreased mean R wave amplitude is a promising cardiac biomarker of disordered eating.

Increase in linolenic Acid is not a prerequisite for development of freezing tolerance in wheat.

Seedlings of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Kharkov) were acclimated at 2 C in the dark in the presence of two inhibitors of linolenic acid synthesis, 4-chloro-5(dimethylamino)-2-phenyl-3(2H)pyridazinone-(BASF 13-338) and 4-chloro-5(dimethylamino)-2-(alpha,alpha,alpha-trifluoro-m-tolyl)- 3(2H)pyridazinone (Sandoz 6706). Although the increase in the proportion of linolenic acid generally observed at low temperature was completely inhibited, the development of freezing tolerance was unaffected. These results demonstrated that an enrichment in linolenic acid is not a prerequisite for low temperature acclimation.

Relative insensitivity of mitochondria in hardened and nonhardened rye coleoptile cells to freezing in situ.

Mitochondria were isolated from excised coleoptiles of hardened and nonhardened winter rye (Secale cereale L. cv. Puma) seedlings which had been frozen extracellularly to different temperatures. No significant differences in the respiratory functions (ADP/O and respiratory control) were observed between mitochondria isolated from nonlethally and lethally frozen cells of both the hardened and nonhardened rye. These results suggest that mitochondria in situ can retain their normal function even after the cell was killed by the dehydrative stresses of extracellular freezing. Presumably, a different level of sensitivity to freezing stresses exists between mitochondrial and other membranous elements in the cell.