Prolactin and LH release in response to vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) administration in spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive rats.

UNLABELLED: Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) was injected intravenously at a dose of 10 micrograms in spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats. In order to evaluate the hemodynamic and hormonal effects of this peptide, the mean arterial pressure, heart rate as well as a serum rLH and rPRL levels, the contents of LH-RH in hypothalamus and the content of LH in pituitary tissue were determined. The same procedure was applied in rats receiving placebo. Serum rPRL concentration was measured additionally after combined administration of VIP+dopamine. VIP injection produced a decrease in mean arterial pressure and an increase in heart rate in both spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive rats. Serum rPRL concentration was significantly increased at 10 minutes after injection. The combined therapy (VIP+dopamine) partially inhibited this response. Serum rLH concentration, the content of LH-RH in hypothalamic tissue as well as the content of pituitary LH after VIP injection in spontaneously hypertensive and normotensive rats did not differ from the values obtained for the control group. CONCLUSIONS: 1. VIP injection produced the dramatic hypotensive effects in hypertensive rats; 2. A marked increase in PRL concentration in response to VIP was partially inhibited by dopamine in hypertensive and normotensive rats; 3. VIP injection did not change LH-RH and LH release in both hypertensive and normotensive rats.

[Histology of the central nervous system in rats after intensive chronic ethanol intoxication]. / Obraz histologiczny osrodkowego ukladu nerwowego szczura w intensywnym przewleklym zatruciu etanolem.

The influence of intensive chronic intoxication with ethanol on adult Wistar rats was investigated. The animals received through a stomach pump 5 ml of 40% ethyl alcohol solution daily for three months. Structural lesions of the CNS observed in the light microscope consisted of acute and chronic edematous changes with infiltration of mononuclear cells and presence of lymphocytic-microglial nodules and myelin discoloration. Sclerotization of nerve cells with reactive gliosis was also noted in the CA1 sector of ventral hippocampus. The pattern of changes is comparable with the most frequently observed pathological abnormalities observed in the CNS of humans after alcohol abuse.

Neuropathology of intramural autonomic innervation of mice stomach in chronic ethanol intoxication.

Intramural stomach innervation was investigated in DBA mice after 1 week, 6 weeks and 3 months of intragastric ethanol treatment (1 cm3 daily by plastic tube). The results indicated that the intramural nervous system of the stomach underwent ultrastructural and histological changes in relation to ethanol. Alterations were noticeable after 3 weeks of treatment. They were more strongly pronounced after 6 weeks and were maximally advanced in the group with 3 months of ethanol treatment. Mitochondria seemed to be first affected, especially in the axonal processes and nerve endings (higher density, hypertrophy, inverted pattern of cristae). Dense bodies with double membrane as well as altered fibrocytes and myocytes were noticed after longer periods of intoxication. Ischemic disease of neurons developed after 3 months of ethanol administration, probably against the background of severe mitochondrial damage. Some features suggested reconstruction of the cell population in intramural ganglia.

The effect of experimental hyperlipidemia on the angiogenic activity of rabbit peripheral blood lymphocytes.

Peripheral blood lymphocytes from young rabbits with experimentally evoked hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis express enhanced angiogeneic activity. It seems that angiogenesis-enhancing factor in the sera of cholesterol fed rabbits is not present.