Search

Rationale: Exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) and arterial blood carboxyhemoglobin concentrations (Hb-CO) increase in inflammatory pulmonary diseases. Objectives: To study whether arterial Hb-CO is useful to monitor disease activity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who had stopped smoking. Methods: We measured arterial Hb-CO, arteriovenous Hb-CO differences, and FEV[1] in 58 patients with COPD and 61 ex-smoking control subjects. Results: Arterial Hb-CO concentrations in patients at stable conditions were higher than those in control subjects (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, the Hb-CO concentrations in patients at the exacerbations (p < 0.0001) were higher than those at the stable conditions. Arterial Hb-CO concentrations in patients at stage III were higher than those in patients at stage II, and the Hb-CO concentrations in patients at stage IV were higher than those in patients at stage III at the stable conditions and exacerbations. Arterial Hb-CO correlated with exhaled CO in patients with COPD at stage II and stage III at the exacerbations. Arterial Hb-CO inversely correlated with the arterial blood partial oxygen pressure and FEV[1]. Arteriovenous Hb-CO differences in patients at the exacerbations did not differ from those in patients at stable conditions and from those in control subjects. Moreover, arterial Hb-CO correlated with serum C-reactive protein values and serum lipid peroxide concentrations. Conclusions: These findings suggest that increased arterial Hb-CO may relate to severity in patients with COPD because of lung and systemic inflammation and production of reactive oxygen species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gossypol inhibited lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) non-competitively in human spermatozoa. The inhibitory effect of gossypol on LDH was cancelled by the addition of human serum albumin, human γ-globulin, bovine serum albumin or human seminal plasma. Seminal plasma was at least 10 times more effective than the other three proteins, when expressed on a per mg protein basis. Attempts were made to purify the active fraction from human seminal plasma. The purification steps included gel filtration, ammoniun sulphate precipitation, centrifugal microconcentration and fast-performance liquid chromatography. A single active protein of M = 16 000 was purified to a final yield of 0.18%. The 16 kd protein was not observed in male blood plasma. The protein was found to be heat-stable and leucine-rich (16% of the molecule), and has been designated ‘gossact’. The inhibitory effect of gossypol on the LDH reaction was completely blocked by the addition of gossact (5 µg/ml); human blood plasma (25 µg/ml) and human serum albumin (200 µg/ml) were far less potent in this assay. In addition, gossact bound 1.4 mol of gossypol/mol of protein with the dissociation constant (K = 3.06 × 10 M. The role of gossact in the protection of LDH from gossypol is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It has been reported that the binding of some antiphospholipid antibodies (APA) to phospholipids requires the presence of β2-glycoprotein I (β2-GPI). Using a new ELISA, in which well coated phospholipids were treated with a constant amount of purified β2-GPI, we tried to detect the presence of APA which binds to phospholipid β2-GPI complex or to phospholipids such as cardiolipin (CA) and phosphatidylserine (PS) in preeclampsia, and to check for clinical abnormalities in antibody positive cases. Serum samples were taken from 43 cases of preeclampsia, including 26 cases of the severe type, and 47 normal pregnant women. Positive rates of anticardiolipin antibody (ACA) by ELISA using CA/β2-GPI complex in mild, severe and total preeclampsia were 200%. 17.4% and 18.4% respectively. No antibody-positive eases were found in normal pregnancies. ACA was detected much more frequently when cardiolipin/β2-GPI complex was used in ELISA compared with ELISA without β2-GPI. Positive rates of antiphosphatidylserine antibody (APSA) in mild, severe and total preeclampsia were 5.9%, 11.5% and 9.3% respectively. APSA was also detected much more frequently when the phosphatidylserine, β2-GPI complex was used in ELISA. The frequency of intrauterine growth retardation (ILIGR) in the ACA-positive subjects w-us higher than that of ACA negatives. We suggest that the ACA and APSA which bind to phospholipid/β2-GPI complex are detectable in preeclampsia, and that these antiphospholipid antibodies are related to fetal growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]