No abstract

We investigated skin biopsies from pemphigus vulgaris (PV) patients by light, fluorescent and electron microscopy in order to study the ultrastructural appearances of epidermis at the pre-acantholytic stage. The biopsies were obtained from uninvolved forearm skin in 10 patients with PV in the acute stage of the disease, from perilesional skin of the same patients as well as from the forearm skin of 10 healthy subjects. Light microscopy showed no pathological changes in clinically uninvolved skin of pemphigus patients. Direct immunofluorescence confirmed the presence of IgG auto-antibodies fixed in intercellular space of the spinous-cell layer of uninvolved skin. Electron microscopy of the uninvolved skin biopsies revealed the following changes: disintegration of desmosomes of spinous cells with their replacement by finger-shaped protrusions of cytoplasm; clarification of the nuclear matrix; widening of the perinuclear slit; an increased number of secondary lysosomes in cells; oedema and swelling of mitochondria with destruction of their cristae. The cells retained their polygonal shape and the intercellular distance did not increase. We conclude that at the pre-acantholytic stage the breakage and dissolution of desmosomes precedes the increase in the intercellular space.

No abstract

Changes in hemodynamics and myocardial contractile capacity following the stimulation of extracardial nerves and administration of various doses of acetylcholine, norepinephrine, propranolol, phentolamin, atropine, serpasil and benzohexonium were studied in albino rats, rabbits and cats of various age. The shifts in cardiac acetylcholine and norepinephrine content and the activity of some enzymes of their catabolism were determined as well. Functional changes were compared with the structural shifts in intramural nervous system. In old animals there was a rise in threshold of voltage, which induced threshold reaction at stimulation of n. vagus and n. sympaticus and there was a change in heart sensitivity to acetycholine and norepinephrine, propranolol, atropine, serpasil and benzohexonium. A relationship was shown between age changes in nervous regulation of heart and transmitter metabolism. The intensity of acetylcholine and norepinephrine synthesis was decreased in old age, the transmitter metabolism in various parts of the heart was not uniformly altered, the sensitivity of epicardial chemoreceptors to nicotine, veratrum, acetylcholine was increased. The reflexes from cardiac mechanoreceptors were diminished.

Experiments were performed on Wistar male rats, starting from the 28th month of age. The effect of dietary sorbent (non coated nitrogen-containing carbon administered as 10 day courses at 1 month intervals in dosage of 10 ml/kg) on lifespan and a number of biological indices were studied. Enterosorption resulted in the increase of mean and maximal lifespan by 43 and 34% respectively. Analysis of the effect of enterosorption on activity of microsomal enzymes, intensity of total RNA and protein biosynthesis, lipid metabolism, formation of free radicals etc. showed that it produced a positive influence on the functional state of the studied systems and increased the organism's adaptive capacities. Enterosorption was found to delay the rate of onset of age-related structural changes in the organs and tissues.